Anyone care to share their thoughts on Home Schooling vs. Public Schooling?

Krispy

My wife, having worked six years in the public school system, was easily persuaded to homeschool our children.

The Jesuit's have a saying, "Give us a child until he is eight years old, and we will have him for life!" - that is, they understand that the most effective time to indoctrinate a person with one's own moral system is during the early years of that person's life.

The public school system (well, television helps too)is simply the most efficient way to indoctrinate a child into the "world" system.

In the first four or five years of any child's life the child learns social behavior, language, reasoning etc. Some estimate that half of what we know was learned in the first and formative years of our life. Children learn by example, by situational necessity, by experiment etc. - all of which comes quite naturally at home.

Then we take them out of that carefree learning environment where they have already learned so very much more than they will ever learn in school, and we force them to sit against their nature in straight rows, face the front, and 'learn'?? Perhaps I am just a romantic, but this seems quite ironic to me.

Anyway, my wife and I determined to homeschool our children in their formative years - at least till after puberty.

We determined this - that education and intelligence do not make a person happy in life - as these qualities can be fostered, nutured, and grown in a classroom - but these qualities only make a person more likely to have a higher paying job. Our priority was not that our children have high paying jobs, but that they learn contentment, that they should grow to be happy in whatever they end up doing - that we would determine our success as parents and homeschoolers, not on whether our child was the most educated person, but on whether they were happy, and living entirely to God's glory.

To that end, we were not as concerned about scholasitcs as character. Never the less, our children are exceeding far beyond anyone their own age in the public school system. Nothing like one-on-one all day with the first and primary teacher (mom).

Some further, unseen benefits of homeschooling that we have noticed, have been that our children are great friends with one another, and they have unfeigned respect for adults - whom they communicate with as people and not as "the enemy."

We have been blessed by the Lord in that we are able to homeschool. My wife thought there was no way she could ever do it, and there was much fear and trepidation when we started, but now it is easy, and the benefits are so profound that we would never have changed a thing for the world.

I sympathize with those who would like to homeschool but cannot because of financial, or personal considerations. Sometimes when a person gives a positive endorsement of homeschooling, it triggers a very negative reaction in others, who view the positive endorsement as a personal criticism against their own choices or situations. I add therefore this caveat - the Lord called my wife and I to this, and we have been blessed because He did. It is not an indictment against anyone who doesn't want to homeschool, it is not a boast as though I thought I were somehow a better parent because I am a homeschooler - nothing at all like that. The Lord gave us this opportunity and we took it. What was possible for me may not be possible for others, and I don't want to give the impression that I think it is.

Hope that helps

Dan
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Daniel van de Laar

Dann... I have nothing to add to that. You wrote my testimony! Thats plagerism, isnt it? :-P

Especially that last paragraph. I agree completely. I know people who are homeschooling and they really are doing their kids a disservice. Probably because they were not called of God to do it. Christian school would be a better alternative.

Conversly, I know many Christians who dont believe it's possible for them to do it, when it really is... they just have their priorities a little out of whack.

But that was a very gracious response, and right on target. I hope the thread stays this way.

We have 4 boys... and except for the Bible, Dr. Dobson's book "Brining Up Boys" is the most read book by my wife and I. He has some great things to say about the drugging up of boys (by diagnosing them "ADHD", and fixing it with drugs) to make them fit into an educational environment that is suited toward girls. Girls are more capable of sitting and paying attention than boys are at a young age. It's a good book, and I recommend it to anyone who has sons.

I coach youth football (American football... not that sissy soccer stuff! LOL), and I cant tell you how many of my guys are on prescriptions for ADHD. I had one kid come on the team last year, and he was always gazing off. I yelled at him one night and he started crying. I pulled him off the field and asked what his problem was... he said "I'm ADHD." I said "That's just an excuse... I'll help you get over it." 30 push-ups and 30 up-downs later... he was paying real good attention, and I only had to get on him one other time.

Krispy

[i]*sigh*[/i]

we've all been there...posting a long, juicy reply to a thread and it gets deleted for some reason....

well, suffice it to say I agree with you both 100%

'specially Krispy's point about all the boys being diagnosed ADHD because they don't fit into the new-age public school system and frankly, because of the laziness of teachers, parents, and doctors.

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Eli Brayley

Well, we did the public school and for the most part it was an incredibly blessed experience. My daughter who is high functioning autistic received beyond what we could have expected----occupational therapy, speech therapy, etc. We did not have to ask the school for one thing when we moved to our current home. They told us what she needed and gave it to us. What a difference from our Florida public school experience. Another awesome thing is that our current PS is FILLED with Christians and boy can you tell. We totally believe the Lord's Hand was in our move here and that PS was a blessing for us. That was in 1999.

Now my kids(twins) are ready to graduate from elementary school and we have made the decision to homeschool. We are very excited about doing this. Why did we make the decision since our school system seems so good? Well, the middle school years are absolutely HORRENDOUS. Hormones raging, clicks, peer pressure, choice language and behaviors, etc...........only a few of the reasons we feel we need to homeschool to benefit our children. My son (a true ADHD boy, non medicated) is quite a comic........and a follower, unfortunately. My daughter is sweet natured (for the most part), social and would do whatever someone told her to(bad things). Wonderful....my kids just walked in the door from school as I was typing this and my son told me a boy on the bus was teaching my daughter the "F" word, which of course she repeated over and over to this boy's delight.........sigh.........

For us, homeschool is a protective measure for our kids, not to mention a great way to bond even closer to each other. In any case, until we are sure they are able to handle the "world" in a positive manner, we could not in good conscience send our kids out in it, knowing their weaknesses. Thankfully, we are in the position to be able to homeschool.

So, in my opinion, PS can be wonderful or it can be terrible, depending on where you live (I live in a very "Christian" conservative area, so the PS is actually quite good and not real "worldly"). Just my thoughts. Blessings, Cindy :-)

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Cindy

We home schooled my daughter from 2nd grade through high school and she is now getting ready to attend college. I think if you have the time and resources to do it, it's great. Would I do it all over again? Yes. Would my daughter do it again? Yes.

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Ken