Homeschooling Won't Insulate Your Children
Homeschooling doesn’t insulate your child from the world. It won’t make your kids nicer, or more responsible, or smarter. It won’t make them better Christians, or Christians at all.
But what homeschooling gives you is time to parent. With your children under your influence, time is a blessing.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 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. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
When God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, He wanted them to remember His commands and His goodness to them. And He told them to “impress them” on their children. It was so important that God gave examples: “…when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” This is discipleship. And it requires time.
Time to talk. Time for deep Bible study. Time for quality academics. Time for random questions about worldview, friends, and everything else. Time with you.
Giving your children a home education is the answer to the amount of time required for true discipleship. The alternatives are…well, the opposite.
Time with Educators
All education is discipleship. If you desire to follow God’s plan in Deuteronomy, or Proverbs, or Ephesians, or to train them with a biblical worldview, you must be the primary educator.
“Students in school classrooms spend a minimum of 10,800 seat hours being instructed by people who are not their parents. There is almost no way to calculate what a powerful force this is for influence.” (Israel Wayne, Education: Does God Have an Opinion?)
It cannot be overstated that no education is neutral. The Christian religion is not taught in public school classrooms, but there is still a religion. It’s humanist, Marxist, and anti-God.
Charles Potter, who signed the original Humanist Manifesto, said, “Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every public school is a school of humanism.” (Humanism: A New Religion)
Today, all manner of -isms are embedded in the public school curriculum. It’s not possible to “opt out” of certain courses or certain days just to avoid controversial topics anymore. Word problems in math, language arts content, history lessons, and science lessons increasingly include the religion of postmodernism, scientism, humanism, and cultural Marxism. What they do not include is that God is the Creator of our universe, and that He created male and female in His image and for a purpose. They do not teach that Old Testament history is true ancient history. They do not recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah. They do not acknowledge the faith of historic figures down through history (unless the actions of that person were atrocious). They do not teach about the Christian faith of hundreds of rulers, scientists, martyrs, missionaries, or explorers.
And with 13 years of 8-hour days, your children will be immersed in these practices. If you choose public education, you are sending a message to your children that you approve this content.
Let me repeat Israel Wayne’s words: There is almost no way to calculate what a powerful force this is for influence.
Time with Peers
If a child spends 10,800 hours (minimum) in a public school, that’s how many hours they spend among their peers. Consider: 20-30 other children the same age in the same class, spending 7-8 hours per day with minimal supervision. Because let’s face it: a teacher cannot monitor everything happening all day with that many students.
Peer pressure is still a problem. In fact, the ramifications of peer pressure are exponentially worse today. Even if you have strict limits on your child’s exposure to internet or entertainment, there’s very little you can do about what they see and hear with friends. And in any given school, the majority of the students are sporting smartphones with social media and YouTube, at the very least.
Given this reality, please understand that children will talk to other children about what they’ve seen, what they believe, and who they ultimately trust. They will naturally talk about worldview (even if they don’t realize it), origins, sex, God, and all manner of topics.
Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. (Proverbs 13:20)
Time with You
Don’t misunderstand: your children are going to be exposed to all kinds of ideas. They will access the internet. They will have friends who are raised differently than them.
But if they spend those extra 10,800 hours with you as their primary influence, the impact will be quite different. The goal is not to hide them from the world, or to pretend these things doesn’t exist. The goal is to teach and expose at the proper time and in the proper manner.
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)
You have been given a very short window of time to raise your sons and daughters to adulthood. 18-20 years is shorter than you think. But that window of time can be stretched when they are home with you.
Make the most of childhood by being there. Be the primary influence on your children. Talk to them, disciple them, and be a wall between them and the world.