Friday, April 25, 2008

A Strong Call for Homeschooling

I read a number of blogs on a regular basis; Ingrid Schlueter's "Hope In Laodicea" is one of my favorites. In this morning's blog post Ingrid shared the story of a little 7-year old boy who has been violently bullied at his school several times over the last year.

Sadly these events are no longer rare occurrences, they have become part of the normal environment for far too many schoolchildren.
This is criminal!!! If a child had come to school after receiving at home the kind of injuries this little boy suffered at the hands of other children, child protective services would have invaded his home and removed him to foster care!

What is it going to take to get parents to yank their kids out of the schools and protect them from this? The schools won't do it, their hands are tied by government regulations! The educational establishment is so intent on trying to offend no one that they are willing to sacrifice precious children to this kind of abuse.

Homeschooling is not the great mystery many of my friends thought it was. I did it with my 4 children and I am here to tell you that if I in all my weaknesses could do it, any loving parent can do it. Was it easy? No. But the difficulties were NOT in the educating. The difficulties came from the challenges of living within the means of one income. It was incredibly hard to live in a tiny house (the best we could afford on one income) with 4 active little ones. It was difficult doing without a lot of the things that other families have and do (fast food restaurants, large wardrobes, nice furniture, even top-notch curriculum packages).

Blogger and author Tim Challies wrote a book review that addresses nicely the issue of covetousness. I struggled with this as a homeschool mom! In retrospect, I would not change a thing. The Lord has been so gracious to us and met our needs all along the way. Isn't that all He promised us?

I strongly challenge all parents (especially Christian parents!) to seriously consider homeschooling. It is time to take our children back from an educational establishment that actively works against everything we believe in, and stands aside while children are brutalized. There are some great books out there that can be helpful in making the homeschooling decision. Check out:


There are plenty of veteran homeschoolers who would be happy and willing to help out any family desiring to take the plunge into educating their children; I certainly would offer my help and encouragement. I realize there are exceptions, but in general the schools are no more than government brain-washing camps. It is high time to stop giving them public schools a free pass while we still can, they have much to answer for.