|
The
Right Choice: Home Education!
By
Home School Legal Defense Association's Christopher
J. Klicka
 With
a majority of school-aged children attending public
schools, education in America has primarily become
a function of the state. This public school system
is failing miserably, both academically and morally.
If
we are honest with ourselves, we cannot escape
the fact that the public schools are no longer
a safe place for children academically, physically,
or most important of all, spiritually. The state,
meanwhile, not content to control only public
schools, constantly encroaches on the freedoms
of private schools and home schools through various
case precedents, regulations, and statutes. As
a result many public school authorities have come
to believe that they are the guardians of all
the children.
Many
home schooling parents, however, take offense
to this presumption by superintendents. In the
tradition of their forefathers, these parents
believe that God, not the state, has given parents
the sole authority and responsibility for the
education of their children.
Approximately
ninety percent of the estimated home schooling
families in the United States are Bible-believing
Christians. Therefore, the word of God is recognized
as the source of all truth and the standard by
which all things are measured.
When
the United States was formed, the framers of the
Constitution and many of the citizens had a biblical
mind-set. Today, it has been replaced by a secular
mind-set. Public schools are teaching the children
to be biblically illiterate and to ignore God's
absolute moral values. The negative effects are
being felt throughout the country. In many ways
we have "sown the wind and now reap the whirlwind,"
as we allow children's minds to be wasted in the
public schools, void of godly values and truth.
Home
schoolers are working to restore that biblical
mind-set in their children and trying to fulfill
the commands of God concerning the education of
their children.
The
following is a summary of the biblical principles
of education which support Christian home schooling.
The
Raising of Children is Delegated to Parents by
God
According
to the Bible, children belong to God, but the
responsibility and authority to raise and educate
them is delegated to their parents. Lo, children
are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of
the womb is his reward.-Psalm 127:3. In Genesis
33:5 Jacob introduces his children to his brother
Esau as "the children which God hath graciously
given thy servant."
In
Isaiah 8:18, the prophet says, "and the children
whom the Lord hath given me."
Although
God has "given" children to parents,
children are a "gift of stewardship,"
which means that parents do not really "own"
their children. Parents, therefore, are not free
to raise their children any way they want because
God gives the parents certain "conditions"
that must be met.
God
still considers the children to be His children.
God refers to Jacob's children as "the work
of My hands" in Isaiah 29:23. David gives
thanks to God for being "fearfully and wonderfully
made" while in his mother's womb in Psalm
139:13-14.
In
Ezekiel 16:20-21 the Lord emphasizes again that
the children are His, "you slaughtered My
children and offered them up to idols causing
them to pass through fire." God judged these
parents severely because they did not meet God's
condition for raising His children. They gave
their children up to an idolatrous system which
hated God.
As
a result, home schooling parents, aware of the
anti-God curriculum and complete lack of absolute
values in the public schools, cannot sacrifice
their children to such a system.
The
Bible states further that parents must "render
to Caesar [the state] the things that are Caesar's,
and to God the things that are God's." Since
children are not the state's or Caesar's in the
first place, but rather God's, parents do not
have any obligation to render their children to
the public school by enrolling them in public
school or complying with excessively restrictive
state controls of their children's education and
training.
Nowhere
in Scripture can a reference be found in which
God delegates to the state the authority to raise
and educate children. In fact, the only time that
God's people were educated by the state was when
they were occupied by a heathen nation which left
them no alternatives. God, nevertheless, has clearly
delegated the responsibility and authority to
teach and raise children to the parents first.
God-Mandated
Conditions for Educating Children
Part
of the parents' stewardship responsibility in
raising children is that certain commands and
conditions set by God must be followed in raising
and educating His children.
For
example, concerning children's education: "And
, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath:
but bring them up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). The word "admonition"
is the same word as "discipline," and
it involves using the biblical methods...in order
to ensure our child's obedience and ability to
"stay the course." We must not "provoke"
our children by acting hypocritically, ignoring
them, or being preoccupied with our work.
I
believe we are "provoking" our children
when we send them to public schools to learn the
ways of the world, outside of godly training and
nurture. Let us train our children diligently
in order to sear the truth of God into their very
souls. Furthermore in Deuteronomy 6:6-9 the Lord
declares: "And thou shalt teach them diligently
unto thy children, and shalt talk to them when
thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest
by the way, and when thou liest down, and when
thou risest up."
These
commands to educate our children, of course, cannot
be accomplished once a week at Sunday school.
It involves a comprehensive approach to education
on a daily basis...taught to our children when
we sit in our homes, when we rise up, lie down,
and when we travel. In other words, all the time.
This
comprehensive educational program is to be based
on God's commands; "For he established a
testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers, they they should
make them known to their children. That the generation
to come might know them, even the children which
should be born; who should arise and declare them
to their children" (Psalm 78:5-6).
In
Proverbs 22:6, God commands, "Train up a
child in the way he should go: and when he is
old, he will not depart from it."
Of
course, the children also have some responsibility.
They must obey the commandments of their parents
who, in turn, are obeying God: "My son, keep
thy father's commandment, and forsake not the
law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon
thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When
thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest,
it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it
shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a
lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction
are the way of life:" (Proverbs 6:20-23).
Teaching
these commandments of God comprehensively to our
children is "light" to our children
and leads them to "the way of life."
A side effect of a biblical education, then, can
be the salvation of our children's souls for all
eternity. Learning God's Law and His principles
tutors and leads us to Christ. If the very souls
of our children are at stake, should we risk having
them taught thousands of hours of information
that is contrary to God's truths and in an atmosphere
that denies God's existence?
In
addition, our children will receive a tremendous
blessing, according to Isaiah 54:13: "And
all thy children shall be taught of the Lord;
and great shall be the peace of thy children."
It seems apparent that the children's peace will
affect the parents by contributing to a peaceful
home and minimal rebellion. No wonder so many
parents who send their children to the public
school for six or more hours a day of ungodly
instruction have chaotic homes in which the children
regularly challenge the parents' authority.
God
Commands to Train Our Children's Minds
God
commands His people in Jeremiah 10:2, "Learn
not the way of the heathen." The public schools
are teaching the children the "way of the
heathen," while ignoring God's ways. Furthermore,
David explains that we need to "meditate"
on God's Law, day and night (Psalm 1:2). How can
our children meditate on God's Law, when they
are never even taught God's Law in the public
schools?
Parents
must train their children to think God's thoughts
after Him. A godly education, therefore, is learning
not only to believe as a Christian (for salvation),
but to think as a Christian. Christian home schooling
teaches children to think as Christians. Unfortunately,
public schools and some private schools are teaching
children who believe as Christians to think as
non-Christians.
Since
Christian parents in the past have neglected their
duty to follow this comprehensive approach to
education, generations of adult Christians now
apply ungodly principles in their lives and work
places, while simultaneously believing as Christians.
In essence, many parents are raising humanistic
Christians, many of whom are "lukewarm"
and not thinking God's thoughts after Him.
Scripture
states that, after being fully trained, a student
will be like his teacher (Luke 6:40). This passage
continues by describing the blind who lead the
blind into the pit. This is why it is so important
that parents teach their children to think as
Christians and that children be taught by godly
teachers. Parents must not let their children
be conformed to the pattern of this world (Romans
12:12). Unfortunately, public schools are working
to conform our children's minds to the pattern
of this world.
Negative
Socialization
Even
though parents are commanded to give their children
a biblical education, they must also protect them
from "negative socialization." The Scripture
warns, "Be not deceived: evil communications
corrupt good manners" (1 Corinthians 15:33).
Proverbs 13:20 states, "...but a companion
of fools shall be destroyed."
The
public schools fail miserably in the area of socialization,
with the abundance of crime, drugs, immorality,
and gang warfare rampant in the school system.
Home schooling enables parents to fulfill this
responsibility by fostering positive socialization.
Content
of True Education
God
requires us to make certain that His Word and
principles are applied in a daily, comprehensive
manner to the education and upbringing of our
children. Furthermore, he will hold us responsible
for how we direct the education of our children.
Therefore, parents must be careful to provide
their children with an education in which the
content is based on the His Word, "And that
from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2
Timothy 3:16)
The
goal of true education is found in Psalm 119:97-101:
To train children in God's laws so they can govern
themselves, be wiser than their enemies, have
more insight than their teachers, and understand
more than the aged. If we train our children this
way God will no doubt find us faithful stewards
of the children He has placed in our care.
Does
Sending Our Children to Public Schools as Missionaries
Make it Right?
As
far as our children are concerned, God commands
us to provide our children with a comprehensive
education based on His principles. Sending our
children to public school to "save souls"
while they receive six or more hours of secular
brainwashing does not relieve us of our responsibility
before God. Disobeying God by doing something
in the name of God does not justify our sin.
In
Samuel 15:1-23, King Saul directly disobeyed God's
command to destroy the Amalekite animals by sparing
the animals and then offering them as sacrifices
to the Lord. God rebuked Saul through Samuel,
saying, "Has the Lord as much delight in
burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying
the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better
than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams."
Are we trying to make a "sacrifice"
to God by sending our children to public school
while disobeying God's command to us concerning
raising our children?
Home
Schooling is a Biblical Form of Education
As
seen above, home schooling has the support of
the Word of God. It provides, in fact, the most
successful way that parents fulfill their immense
obligations, in providing their children with
a comprehensive biblical education and restoring
and preserving their families.
The
goal of home schooling is to raise the children
so that each of them will "study to shew
thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth." Sending our children to public school
violates nearly every biblical principle described
above. It is tantamount to sending our children
to be trained by the enemy!
God
is blessing the home schooling movement, not because
families are home schooling for home schooling's
sake, but because the families are faithfully
teaching their children to obey and glorify God!
God will bless you as you seek first the "kingdom
of God, and his righteousness; and all these things
shall be added unto you."
By
making your children and their training a priority,
God will bring many invaluable blessings. However,
most important of all is our children's souls.
Some day I would much rather have [my children]
standing with me in heaven than having them live
as geniuses in terms of their secular education
and lost forever in hell. John said it all when
he said: "I have no greater joy than to hear
that my children walk in truth" (3 John 4).
Excerpts from the book
The Right Choice: Home Schooling by Christopher
J. Klicka. Noble Publishing Associates, ©1995
|
