To Train Up A Child<\/a>, chapter\u00a019<\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019re nearly finished with this review series of Michael and Debi\u2019s book. We have now reached the chapter titled \u201cHomeschool Makes No Fools.\u201d Remember, the Pearls teach that homeschooling is, for all intents and purposes, mandatory<\/em>. Here they explain\u00a0why.<\/p>\n THE SYSTEM<\/b><\/p>\n One judge in Nebraska said that the public educational system is preparing the children of America for the year 2000 when we will all merge into the new world order. He went on to say that the children of Christian homeschool families would not fit into that planned system.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yep,\u00a0it\u2019s going to be like that.<\/p>\n The biggest issue I have with statements like this is the lack of information that would allow anyone to attempt to verify what the actual statement was, or whether any statement even resembling this was ever made. What judge? What was his name? What kind of judge was he? What was the date? Was this in a decision he made? If so, what was its name? If it was in a comment to the media, where were his comments published, and when? We don\u2019t have information to allow us to actually look this up<\/em>.<\/p>\n This statement also rather dates the book\u2014it was published in 1994.<\/p>\n Never even consider sending your children to private Christian schools, much less the public automaton factory. Whether a classroom is based completely on Christian education or secular is not the issue (although, we would by far prefer the Christian).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Again, I am not at all surprised.<\/p>\n I have to say, though, after being homeschooled and taught exactly the above about public schools, I\u2019ve been interested to find that the public schools my own children have attended are far less factory-like than I\u2019d expected. Granted, my children are still in elementary school, but there is more flexibility, project-based learning, and embrace of a diversity of academic levels and learning styles in an individual classroom than I\u2019d expected.<\/p>\n God didn\u2019t make teenage boys and girls to sit together in a classroom every day using their brain while real life passes them by.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is another common claim I\u2019ve seen made by homeschool advocates like the Pearls\u2014particularly those who are working class\u2014and it\u2019s one I find fascinating on an academic level. Compulsory and widespread high school attendance came after compulsory and widespread grade school attendance, and for most of the early history of our country it was assumed that teenagers would work. This changed as the nature of work changed, but there are still points of conflict over various policies, such as vocational high schools.<\/p>\n The argument behind vocational high schools, as I understand it, is that a\u00a0young person is better off reaching age 18 with a trade internship under her belt and practical experience and training than reaching 18 with a academics-focused high school degree and no plans to attend college. The counterargument, of course, is that not every young person knows when entering high school whether they want to attend college, or what they want to be when they grow up. Attending vocational school can cut off college opportunities, making it difficult for a teenager\u00a0who might change her mind about what she wants to be when she grows up partway through.<\/p>\n The point to note, here, is that Michael appears to be\u00a0taking a solid approach against<\/em>\u00a0focused academic training for teenagers. While not all teenagers are as equipped for academics as others, we live in a world where many career paths require<\/em> teenagers to focus on academic learning in preparation for college. You can\u2019t be a nurse, or a teacher, or a scientist without a college degree. Arguing that teens should be focused on real-life on the job training effectively shuts the doors to these careers, and others like them.<\/p>\n The world\u2019s system digs a pit and then creates a myriad of industries to reclaim the tragic lives that fall into it. Classroom education for the young is a pit. The psychiatrists, counselors, social workers, Planned Parenthood, policemen, social manipulators, juvenile courts, drug dealers, penal institutions, and medical doctors stand on the edge of the pit competing for the business generated by the shovels of the National Educational Association.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Well that is an \u2026 interesting perspective.<\/p>\n And just in case\u00a0we weren\u2019t clear about Michael\u2019s\u00a0emphasis against<\/em> academics, he adds\u00a0this:<\/p>\n One warning: There exists a fundamental fault that is telling in the discouragement experienced by many home-school families. The public educational system is based on false premises. Therefore, both its curriculum and its format are in error. The homeschool is not established to duplicate the public school in a private environment; yet most homeschoolers are attempting to do that very thing. The stress on the family attempting to perform for the sake of public image, as well as state required testing, is destructive to a wholesome growth environment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This reads as an endorsement of educational neglect. Michael makes some interesting assumptions here. When he writes of\u00a0\u201cstress on the family attempting to perform for the sake of public image\u201d or \u201cstate required testing\u201d he doesn\u2019t seem to even consider that that stress could instead\u00a0result from wanting to make sure you do right by your kids\u2019 education<\/em>.\u00a0Are there homeschool\u00a0families where it\u2019s literally just about image? Certainly. But there are plenty of other homeschool\u00a0families where it\u2019s actually<\/em> about making sure to provide children with the academic instruction children of their age ought\u00a0to receive.<\/p>\n I know this in part because these parents sometimes write to Michael and Debi (or other evangelical leaders<\/a>), worried that they\u2019re shortchanging their\u00a0children because their kids can\u2019t read, or do basic sums. They worry that their kids\u2019 education is falling through the cracks because they\u2019re so busy trying to keep food on the table, or care for the next baby. And Michael and Debi (or those other evangelical leaders) tell\u00a0them not to worry so much about their children\u2019s academic education\u2014it\u2019s their children\u2019s spiritual education that matters.<\/p>\n What about making sure you provide an adequate or excellent academic education because God calls you to excellence? Or so as not to sully their Christian witness? When I was a child my\u00a0mother used to put bows in our hair and make sure we were all dressed up when we went out, because, she would tell us, we were representing God, and homeschooling, and large families. Why not approach homeschooling with an eye toward academic excellence, instead of this excuse-making for not\u00a0providing academic instruction at all?<\/em><\/p>\n And yet, this is what we get:<\/p>\n Ask yourself and answer the question, \u201cIf I did not have to answer to anyone, and I were not controlled by public opinion, what would I desire for my children to learn in their early years?\u201d Keep in mind that specialty disciplines that are necessary for professional employment need not be taught by either the classroom or the homeschool.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This has<\/em> to be an endorsement of the trades, because it\u2019s manifestly not true<\/em> that someone can get the \u201cspecialty disciplines that are necessary for professional employment\u201d outside of the classroom or homeschool if one wants to be, say, a nurse, or an accountant, or an engineer, or an occupational therapist\u2014all things I saw graduates of my homeschool community go on to study in college.<\/p>\n Parents, you are wearing yourself out trying to keep up with the Judges. Teach from your heart, not from the John Dewy perspective. Children need a mother who teaches them, not a teacher who doesn\u2019t have the emotional energy to mother them. Young men need a father who teaches them to work, not a father too busy working to teach them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ah and there it is\u2014this is a very Michael Pearl perspective. It is also a very rural perspective. This is literally unworkable for a family that lives in the suburbs, with a father who works in an office as an actuary. There are many, many, many professions where a young man can\u2019t just work alongside his father, because his father\u2019s workplace wouldn\u2019t allow it\u2014but then Michael\u00a0does not appear to have ever worked for anyone, preferring\u00a0entrepreneurial\u00a0money-making schemes that by his own admission fail more often than not.<\/p>\n Michael isn\u2019t simply talking about homeschooling, here. He\u2019s also endorsing a particular lifestyle. And if you\u2019re wondering if he\u2019s endorsing child labor, I\u2019ll just point out that homeschooled teenagers, unlike teenagers who attend public school, don\u2019t have certain hours each day cordoned off for academic instruction, which creates a system easily abused by men like Michael\u2014especially when they categorize\u00a0manual\u00a0labor\u00a0as education<\/em>.<\/p>\n Michael seems to take issue with the very idea of compulsory education itself.<\/p>\n The best schooling for children is a good home life, not a home that is all school. It is a strange perversion to remove a child from that which is natural to life and make of him a professional student. Such accepts the false premise that academic and behavioral education is the foundation of life and society. Order your own life according to God\u2019s perspective. Your children are too valuable for you to compromise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The problem, again,<\/em> is that in our society today many professions require a certain level of K-12 education, and many more also require college. If you deprive a child of those things, you effectively shut off those occupations entirely. Michael may want a world where all that\u2019s required for any career is real-world experience and on-the-job training, but we don\u2019t\u00a0live in that world, and wanting to won\u2019t change that. That is why we have compulsory education in our country\u2014to prepare students to enter\u00a0our workforce such as it is\u00a0today<\/em>.<\/p>\n (Is everything perfect? No, everything is not perfect. Not all schools are equal, and there are reasons to question the relentless march toward universal college attendance in an era when college debt can bury students. But this<\/em> is not the solution.)<\/p>\n As if to forestall concerns, Michael adds this:<\/p>\n After homeschooling for over sixteen years, we have seen the fruit of our \u201cphilosophy\u201d of child rearing. Our oldest just finished her first year in college with a 4. average.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n