When we talk to others about home schooling we normally get two questions. First, how do our kids learn socialization skills when they aren't spending eight hours a day around twenty to thirty other young adults? I talked about that one back
here.
The second question is why we, as Christians, would want to remove our children from an environment that needs the "salt" as Jesus called us. Something in yesterday's news (more on that below) brought that question to mind, or even more, what our answer has been since day one.
Believers in Christ are all too familiar with the daily struggle to, as Paul puts it, "walk in the Spirit and ... not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." Wrestling against our "flesh," as the Bible often calls our human bent toward sinful behaviors, is a daily task - I want to gossip, I want to complain, I was to stress out instead of pray, I want to get angry, and on and on and on. What does this have to do with homeschooling?
Basically, I find it unreasonable to
expect my children to accomplish something that I am still striving to do and that is to be more of an influence on those around me than they are on me. Let's be honest - children don't encourage one another to do the right thing in deed or word when left alone in a group. After all, as God has called
me to obedience
I have had to remove
myself from many people and situations that make it too difficult to be holy as God has called
me to be (1 Peter 1:14-16).
On the other hand, I've found that with the right moral and ethical foundation and training children can
eventually learn to make great decisions (wise ones). With the right foundations, when faced with wrong things and tough situations they will be equipped to make the right decision to avoid it (Prov. 22:3).
So, the news? California recently passed a law which requires homosexual lifestyles to be taught in all levels of history curiculum. That according to
CNN and
Fox News. So what does a Christian parent trying to raise a person to adulthood do when dealt that hand? The answer to me is obvious. When an institution is doing all it can to teach my children to appreciate and accept a morality that opposes the morality that I am trying to teach them - and I'm giving them twice as many hours a day as I have to do it! - the decision is easy. Regardless of the financial cost, regardless of the cost of person goals, regardless of the time burden. I won't sacrifice my children's hearts and minds on the alter of "life experience."
For those of us not living is California we are in a good position. We can look to the decisions and laws made there as the wind before the storm, like turning of the leaves in the fall. We can choose to change our lifestyles now and make moves to ensure our children aren't indoctrinated with lies.
Steve Maxwell from Titus2 put it this way:
"Dads desiring a godly legacy understand the need to train their children's minds in a Christ-focused, virtuous environment. They will pay their property tax bills (much goes to public and charter schools and state colleges) without the "benefit" of having their children's education funded in order to avoid the godless, promiscuity-promoting, humanistic environment that the state system provides. Families avoiding state-funded education bear the added financial burden to purchase their own curriculum to ensure that God has His place in the knowledge that is shaping their children's minds."
On the 4th of July weekend we traveled to Enid, OK, which is kind of unusual because it's not much different than Altus... still Oklahoma. Enid however is a bit bigger and so they have their own Home Depot, their own Starbucks, and even though we didn't visit it I'm pretty sure they had a Dairy Queen somewhere in town.
