TEACHING YOUR CHILDREN WITH YOUR GRANDCHILDREN IN MIND<\/a><\/h4>\nI am surprised at how many homeschool kids aren\u2019t sure whether or not they are going to educate their own children at home. I\u2019m more surprised that some are sure they won\u2019t. Usually, further examination reveals a complete lack of any theological\/philosophical reflection on the topic. Their parents simply did what was best for them at the moment; not what was best, period.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Hi! I\u2019m one of those terrible horrible very bad no good homeschool graduates who has decided not to homeschool their own children!<\/p>\n
I was homeschooled from kindergarten through high school, but\u00a0my firstborn just finished public kindergarten last week. The horror! She has an awesome teacher and\u00a0made two years of progress in reading in just one school year. She\u2019s ahead in just about every other subject as well. Socially, she\u2019s thriving. She\u2019s a social butterfly and exudes confidence. Her teacher told me recently that she has such a\u00a0high level of self-confidence that she\u00a0isn\u2019t peer dependent at all. But who am I to\u00a0think I have a better grasp of\u00a0what is best for my child than Voddie Baucham?<\/em>\u00a0The nerve!<\/p>\nI guess I as a parent am more interested in looking for the educational method that works best for my child and my family than I am in adhering rigidly and dogmatically to a single educational method regardless of whether it fits me or my child. And I guess, according to Baucham, that makes me a bad person\u2014and a failure<\/em> as a homeschool graduate. Why? Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n\nIn this session, we will examine key theological and philosophical motivations for home education, and how to pass these on to our children. Do your children know why you homeschool? Do you? Do they have a \u2018big picture\u2019 perspective on the impact home education can have on our culture for the sake of the Kingdom? Do they understand what government education has done to the culture at large (or that it has been intentional)? Are they thinking about ways their marriage, educational and career choices will impact the education and discipleship of their children? We will also look at the way our approach to educating our children figures into the scenario, and the kinds of things we need to encourage our children to invest in now so they can invest in their children in the future.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Okay, I\u2019m going to go out on a limb and say that the vast vast majority of homeschool graduates from Christian homes who now have their children in public school got all this<\/em>. I know I did! I fully believed that public schools were horrible and that homeschooling was absolutely essential. I fully intended to homeschool my children. I did not believe there was any other viable option.<\/p>\nThe issue\u00a0here is not a failure on the part of Baucham and others to teach homeschool kids like me the importance of homeschooling our own children. We got that, and then some<\/em>. The issue here is that we grew up to disagree<\/em>. The irony here is that we were told\u00a0that public school kids were sardines who followed the crowds and that we were to be independent\u00a0thinkers. But when we\u00a0grew up to be just that\u2014to form our own opinions about public schools and about homeschooling separate from those of our parents\u2014we became a problem<\/em>.<\/p>\nApparently being an \u201cindependent thinker\u201d and \u201ccharting your own path\u201d means \u201cthinking just like your parents\u201d and \u201creplicating their path.\u201d Apparently as soon as I actually headed out to build my own life and make my own choices I became\u00a0a problem<\/em>. For all that we were told how mature<\/em> we were, the moment we\u00a0made our own decisions independent from our parents we were treated as children who didn\u2019t know any better.<\/p>\nAnd that is perhaps the biggest irony of the Christian homeschooling movement. As\u00a0children we\u00a0were told we were mature independent thinkers<\/em>, but the moment we actually became\u00a0that we were\u00a0treated as children<\/em>. No, there is a greater irony even than that. We were told as children that we were not peer-dependent when in fact we were, and the moment we worked up the self confidence to break that dependency we were treated as though we had just become peer dependent<\/em>.<\/p>\nThe\u00a0hardest thing about putting my daughter in public school was dealing with my mother\u2019s response to this decision. There were tears. There was pain. It hurt.<\/em> I reminded her that my grandparents had disagreed with her decision to homeschool, but that she did what she believed\u00a0was best for her children anyway,\u00a0and not out of spite or as an act of rejection. I told her I was doing the same thing. She told me it wasn\u2019t the same, because\u00a0Jesus.<\/em> Fortunately, she seems to have accepted my decision and doesn\u2019t push it, except to make a pointed hint now and then. (\u201cWe can\u2019t come up that day, Sally has school.\u201d \u201cYou could just take her out and homeschool her, you know.\u201d \u201cHow about\u00a0we come up the next day? Does that work for you too?\u201d)<\/p>\nAnd so, when I read yesterday about Voddie\u2019s keynote, I just felt frustrated. Again<\/em>. Has Voddie thought about asking homeschooled students and homeschool graduates who don\u2019t plan to homeschool why<\/em> they don\u2019t plan to homeschool? I sincerely doubt it, and do you know why? My mother never asked me why I<\/em> had decided to send my daughter to\u00a0public school. It\u2019s like she couldn\u2019t consider that maybe, just maybe, I had done my research and thought through this decision carefully. What mattered was that my decision was wrong<\/em>, because it wasn\u2019t hers<\/em>. The same appears to be true for Voddie, for all of his talk of preparing a strong capable generation of young adults to reform this country morally and politically.<\/p>\nI spent my childhood being treated like an adult. It seems I\u2019ll spend my adulthood being treated like a child. Welcome to the world of a\u00a0homeschool alumna.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And that is perhaps the biggest irony of the Christian homeschooling movement. As children we were told we were mature independent thinkers, but the moment we actually became that we were treated as children. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[407],"class_list":["post-25803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeschool","tag-voddie-baucham"],"yoast_head":"\n
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