For The Children’s Sake: How to Know if You’re Called to Homeschool
With such a bold title as “How To Know If I’m Called To Homeschool”, you might think this is a soapbox post. Rest assured that this is not a rant about homeschool versus public or private school ( because really, who needs another parent war?); but it will be a space in which you find grace to think about that which you are called to.
We as Christian parents are not only called but actually commanded in scripture to teach our children. “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-8). Of utmost importance is that we see in scripture that we are called to school or educate our children in the commands and truths of scripture, that is for their spiritual well being and education. We are even given specific times to do this in the morning, throughout the day and into the evening. The emphasis here is that teaching our children should be as natural as breathing. When we fail to be teachers of our children, we are neglecting not only them but our role as Christian parents. So all parents are called to “school” their children at home in the things of the Lord. When you cradle an infant in your arms, you teach them of love and nurture. When you hold a toddler’s hand, you teach them to walk and to trust in the protection of your steady embrace. When you command a child to “Stop!” as a car comes through the parking lot, you teach him to obey your command in order to protect him from danger. You are a teacher. We see in scripture that this is not a question but rather a crucial role of every responsible, Christian parent.
What about education? Do we separate spiritual education from secular education? If we are to answer these questions, we must first be able to give an answer to what education is. Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, the author of “For The Children’s Sake,” helps us to answer this question by enabling us to see children for who they are.
“Children have often been the chattels of adults. Their worth is constantly expressed in terms of dollars and cents, their education in terms of their being a cog in a machine, to be made fit for the highest paid job possible. What a tragedy. Christians can’t develop a Christian view of education by accepting the usual aims and views of our society and then adding a ‘Christian message’ or interpretation. No, we start from a different basis. We have another world view – another people view!”
We see here that children are persons, uniquely made. If this true, and it is, then each person cannot possibly “fit” into one educational mold. This is why we have thousands of studies on educational learning styles because no one person can be pinned down to a particular style. Education extends to all of life, it cannot be neatly packaged into six or seven hours a day. We as humans are constantly learning. Something I say regularly to my children is, “You can learn anything you want to know!” It is my desire that they will never stop learning and will be life long students. Macaulay reminds us that “The truly educated person has only had many doors of interest opened. He knows that life will not be long enough to follow everything through fully.”
Dear reader, perhaps the question is not really of how one knows if he is called to home-school, but of what education will he set out to offer his child? Scripture calls us to freedom. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1) Oh, we must walk wisely, educating our children at home, yes, and teaching them of the inherent truth of God’s precious words and commands to us, but then we must set out to see that their continued education points them to the truth, beauty, and goodness of the world they abide in.
So then, if you are called to offer your children an education that is home-based than do so with all your might as if it were your full-time paid job. Be the tool in your child’s life that enables them to see and understand how the world works. Give them the tools to excel in their strengths and challenge them to grow in their weaknesses. If you are called to send your child out under the umbrella of other educators, then equally give yourself fully to it, offering your service in their classrooms, guiding them in their homework and being a known presence in their educational institutions to infuse hope and the joy of learning while cheering on those who are influencing and teaching those children God has entrusted to you.
While we are all called to differing forms of furthering education for our children and only after we answer the call to their spiritual education first, we as parents will find ourselves in differing calls. None of these is better than the other, they are just different. In these differences, let us link arms with one another for the children’s sake.
“No parent/home/child/school has an all-round 100 percent wholeness. We all have limitations and problems. But I must never think that it is everything or nothing. If you can’t give them everything, give them something. Let us be challenged to change our homes, our churches, and maybe our schools. We need to study children as they are, as they could be. We need to know truth and the wholeness of life.”
-S. Macaulay