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Thoughts on Homeschooling

Written by Kevin Harper

Thursday, 20 June 2002

Homeschooling is one of those topics that can bring passionate opinions because it's so deeply personal. I'm guessing it's probably because any question related to how each of us raises our children is going to carry with it a highly charged emotional attachment. If it's true for me, it's probably true for others.

So first off, let me just give a quick caveat that we can disagree on policies, techniques, philosophies, and politics, and still have a great deal of love and respect for each other. These are merely opinions I've formed from my experiences (and probably built-in prejudices). There are numerous awesome, dedicated people working in the public schools (including some great teachers in my own family!) who are doing a wonderful job of making life and learning better for a lot of kids. The fact that I prefer to teach my kids at home doesn't take away from that at all!

My point of view, however, starts with the idea that parents have the ultimate choice - and the ultimate responsibility - for their children's education. Children were placed by God into the care of parents, not the state. It's true that some parents are imminently more qualified than others to fulfill the duties of parenting, but all are equally burdened with the responsibility that it entails.

With every responsibility comes the authority necessary to make decisions that will either lead to success or failure (or somewhere in between). That means that I am extremely interested in protecting your authority to send your kids to a group school (public or private), if that's what you deem best, just as I would hope you would be interested in protecting my authority to educate my children in a family setting. We may disagree on which technique is ultimately the best for reaching various objectives in life (i.e., being a good person, being a creative person, being good at math, being an intellectual person, getting into a good college, getting a good job , etc.), but we should be able to agree to allow each other to pursue the approach that best suits our individual philosophies and priorities.

Free from lobbyists

I'm personally confident in my ability to give my own children a great education, but the quality of the education is not the ultimate deciding factor for me. The crux of the matter is a matter of principle. Parents ought to have the liberty to raise their children with all their heart, soul, mind, and conscience with minimal interference from politically motivated groups and policy-makers. Period. Some of the groups and policy-makers that unduly usurp parental authority on a daily basis are:

Textbook publishers, who cave to pressure groups on decisions about content.
State and federal bureaucrats, who enforce politically-motivated policies on local schools.
School districts and school boards, who make textbook buying decisions under pressure from politically-motivated groups.
Teachers unions that force their members to acccept certain ideologies at the expense of their own consciences and better judgment.
Members of Congress, who have constituencies and lobby groups to compromise with to garner support.
Numerous single-issue groups that lobby for controversial environmental, abortion, sex education, and other policies.
Some parent/teacher groups, which can sometimes end up being easy tools for promoting ideological propaganda not approved by most parents.

More Christians in "The System"

I do think Christians who work within the public school system to reform and improve it are doing the Lord's work in their one-on-one ministry toward children. At least they are in a position to be able to do so, if they don't willingly lock their faith in their cars when they arrive at the school parking lot each morning. Christians working "within the system," with honorable intentions of making a difference in society, are increasingly fettered by administrative policies and the courts. Nevertheless, the chance to touch the lives of scores of children each day is an enviable opportunity to bring a slice of the Christian walk to some who may have never seen it portrayed in anything but an unflattering caricature on MTV and in peer groups.

Of course, I have my doubts as to the effectiveness of individual teachers in the "system" to bring about real change. My own personal opinion is that Christians working within the system ought to be extremely careful not to become cheerleaders of the public school lobby and anti-Christian establishments like teachers unions. It will be the spiritual suicide of this nation if we go into this arena of public service willingly tying our ideological hands behind our backs and remaining silent while God is systematically removed from the thoughts and hearts of our nation's children.

Politics and public schools

It's noteworthy to me that a high percentage of public school teachers, (including, but limited to those in the inner cities) send their children to private school. One can't help but conclude that they are making an informed decision based on their intimate knowledge of the influences present in the schools in their neighborhoods. What if these teachers didn't have the choice to send their own children to private school while working in the public school?

I've sometimes speculated, and I know others have as well, that the problems of the public school system would be solved if Washington politicians were forced to send their children to public schools. This, of course, would succeed in focusing public policy debates on the issue, but it would do so at the expense of a parent's personal liberty to educate their children in the manner they believe best - a value which I hold too high to sacrifice for the benefit of public policy debates. If a senator believes his child is getting a destructive education in his particular local public school, I would never promote taking away his right to do something about it. God has put him in charge of his children's entire upbringing, including their secular education. It is his responsibility to carry that out to the best of his ability, faith, and conscience.

Of course, the truth is that too many people believe that every problem has a political solution. I'm confident that the answer to our problems does not lie in Washington, D.C., but with us as individuals. Individually, we are responsible for making decisions that will have the most positive effect on our own families. It is when our families are intact and spiritually thriving that we can have the greatest effect on society.

I won't personally choose to sacrifice my children's spiritual welfare (or their material welfare, for that matter) for the sake of the public policy objective of keeping the public school system afloat. I don't assume Christians parents who send their kids to public school are doing that, either. Each of us has the freedom to choose using our best judgment. I do, however, applaud and encourage all Christians to affect changes in public policy at the local, state, or federal levels that will lead to the greater good for society. That may be done by sitting on school boards, teaching in the public schools, or lobbying for changes at the various levels of government. At the end of each day, though, I'm comfortable knowing that my children will be unaffected by the outcome of the debate.

Even if one were to conclude that the public school system should be abolished--a temptingly principled conclusion--I would still support Christians' involvement in the system until its last breath, if only to do something good for the children still in the system.

Why would anyone want to homeschool?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions posed to homeschooling parents. Most parents, judging from the numbers of children in group schools, have no idea why in the world anyone would choose to do this to themselves. After all, why undertake something that is admittedly difficult and time consuming when you don't have to do it?

Education is already paid for by our tax money, and we're better off leaving our children's education to the professionals, right? Maybe or maybe not, but that's not really my point here. That can be debated vigorously on either side, and I have my opinions, of course.

My point here, though, is that as the parent of my children, I don't want that decision taken out of my hand. I want the authority - and the responsibility that comes with it - to teach my kids, to train them, and to spend a lot of time with them as I mold them into the adults I believe God wants them to be.

So why would anyone want to homeschool? I'll say up front that no two answers from different homeschooling families will be alike. Some do it because they experienced frustrations and challenges in their local school system that were not worth fighting. Some do it because they felt their children could be kept from some of the more destructive influences that can be present in a group school setting. Some do it because they feel like they know their children better than anyone else and can thus educate them better than anyone else. Others believe that being around their kids 24/7 during their formative years will have a profound impact on the quality of the human being when he/she reaches adulthood. I suspect each homeschooling parent is motivated to some extent by each of these reasons for taking on this awesome but rewarding task.

Getting a quality education in the home

If you want your kids to have a great education, there is nothing magic about sending them to public school. Of course, we all want our children to be successful, and success by any standard you choose (SAT scores, moral character, citizenship, wealth, intellect, political achievement, musical accomplishment, scientific discovery, etc.) has been accomplished by homeschooled kids.

Check out this list of accomplished homeschoolers:

Leonardo da Vinci
Claude Monet
John Singleton Copley

Irving Berlin
Felix Mendelssohn
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Fred Terman (Stanford University President)
William Samuel Johnson (Columbia University President)
Frank Vandiver (Texas A&M University President)
John Witherspoon (Princeton University President)

Stonewall Jackson
Douglas MacArthur
George Patton

Alexander Graham Bell
Thomas Edison
Orville Wright
Wilbur Wright

John Quincy Adams
William Henry Harrison
Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln
James Madison
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
John Tyler
George Washington
Woodrow Wilson

George Washington Carver
Albert Einstein
Blaise Pascal
Booker T. Washington

Konrad Adenauer
Winston Churchill
Benjamin Franklin
Patrick Henry
William Penn
Henry Clay

John Jay
John Marshall
John Rutledge
Sandra Day O'Connor

Hans Christian Andersen
Pearl S. Buck
Agatha Christie
Charles Dickens
Bret Harte
C.S. Lewis
Sean O'Casey
George Bernard Shaw
Mark Twain
Mercy Warren
Daniel Webster
Phillis Wheatley

Richard Basset (Governor of Delaware)
William Blount (U.S. Senator)
George Clymer (U.S. Representative)
William Few (U.S. Senator)
Benjamin Franklin (Inventor and Statesman)
William Houston (Lawyer)
William S. Johnson (President of Columbia C.)
William Livingston (Governor of New Jersey)
James Madison - 4th President of the U.S.
George Mason
John Francis Mercer (U.S. Representative)
Charles Pickney III (Governor of S. Carolina)
John Rutledge (Chief Justice U.S. Supreme Court)
Richard D. Spaight (Governor of N. Carolina)
George Washington - 1st President of the U.S.
John Witherspoon (President of Princeton U.)
George Wythe (Justice of Virginia High Court)

Ansel Adams (Photographer)
Clara Barton (Started the Red Cross)
Andrew Carnegie (Industrialist)
Charles Chaplin (Actor)
Sandra Day O'Connor (Supreme Court Justice)
Florence Nightingale (Nurse)
Albert Schweitzer (Physician)

Here are some reasons I think parents can do an awesome job of teaching their kids:

Class size reduction
Talk about class size reduction and teacher/student ratios! How much better can you get than one teacher for one family of kids? There is no substitute for one on one instruction from a teacher.

Parents care more about their own kids
Of course you can find exceptions, and of course there are many excellent professional teachers who care more than a particular kids' parents. Hence the need for great teachers in the public schools. But we shouldn't make rules to handle the exceptions. In general, most parents care more about their own children's success, future, morals, education, and spiritual well-being than a teacher with 30 students (or six groups of 30 students). And most have or could make the time and opportunity around the clock to act upon that natural concern. A professional teacher, even a good one, can only do so much with the limited time and resources available.

Success can be measured by many different criteria
We all have different definitions of success when we talk about the outcome of our children's education. Are we talking about financial success? Business success? Artistic success? Do you want your child to be a writer, inventor, statesman, preacher, or musician? What if a kid under the influence of one system of education would become a great engineer--something fine and noble. And what if that same kid under the influence of another system of education never develops an interest engineering, but does become a great writer and thinker? The outcomes are different, but God can use both outcomes to develop Godly leaders and contributors to society.

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