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From the archives...

Federal education dollars flowing to home educators, sounds like a great idea, right? NO, NO, NO! Government shekels = government shackles! Government money = government mandates! Government cash = government control! Government funds are inversely proportional to individual freedom! How many ways can we say it? Of course, the authors of this proposal have all the best intentions, but great ships can be sunk by waves of good intentions.

New Rand Paul Plan Would Empower Struggling Families Amid COVID-19 School Closures | Brad Polumbo “If the government schools decide not to meet in person in the fall, I think every parent should have the right to take their tax dollars to the school of their choice,” wrote Sen. Rand Paul in an op-ed accompanying his new bill.

In the third article of this series, Dr. Jason Lisle (Biblical Science Institute) tackles two of the most common objections to home education, and he does so from a biblical perspective: 1) Socialization (the myth that won’t die in my opinion) and 2) the Salt and Light argument. On the second one Dr. Lisle says, “One reason some Christians send their children to public school is so that those children may be a good witness to others” but I suspect that this is more of an after-the-fact justification, than an intentional choice. It is how Christian parents can seem justified in sending their Children to receive an “education” based on the religion of Secular Humanism, but even if this were a purposeful decision, the statistics bear this out to be a failure.

Education: Objections to Biblical Principles | Biblical Science Institute Education: Objections to Biblical Principles by Dr. Lisle | Mar 11, 2022 | Theology What is the most important aspect of rearing children?  Is it ensuring that their physical needs (food, clothing, shelter, medical care) are provided?  Is it teaching them skills necessary for them to provide for t...

From the archives...

This article got me thinking about why a “chore” would need to be named and assigned in the first place. Assigning chores assumes that most domestic responsibilities are “naturally” assigned to a parent (most often a mother) and perhaps makes sense if children are sequestered for most of the day, five days a week, in institutional schooling away from the home. However, many home educating families work to fulfill all the family needs as a unit, and even incorporate academic lessons throughout the application of what others might call “chores.” Math in cooking, geometry and physics in woodcutting, chemistry in cleaning, etc. An even higher purpose of such a collaborative home life is the character in teaching, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (I Cor. 14:40). This makes me wonder if there was a prevailing need to assign “chores” before compulsory public schooling existed? Is the need to assign “chores” another negative side-effect of industrialized government schooling?

Tackling Chores, Teaching Humility Years ago, one of my little sister’s least favorite jobs was sweeping the kitchen floor. Although the kitchen was small, the chore would take her forever, and

From the archives...

The college-for-all idea is fading, but it has not yet gone out of vogue. Among the home educated, I still see and hear countless conversation about college, not usually in the context of a genuine need for a student to fulfil his or her God-given calling, but more of an assumption that post-high school studies are the expectation or the norm. As someone with more than my fair share of time in the post-secondary classroom (albeit always while working full-time), it might seem like disingenuous counsel, but be careful about falling for the myth that college is needed for “good” employment (in most cases) or that college is what young adults need to do. Be extra cautious if the pressure or need for college leads a student to choose a university without a true Christian worldview (and there are few of these).

Why College Degrees Are Working Against Many Job-Seekers | Isaac M. Morehouse It’s not that college is too good for many young people; it’s that more and more young people are too good for college.

From the archives...

Government schooling continuously “requires” greater funding without producing measurably better results because they are a 1) monopoly 2) government 3) industry. A monopoly means there is no need to produce anything better or at a significant cost savings, because there is no substantive competitor to drive the cost down or the quality up. Government, by nature, is an insatiable beast that will always continue to grow until some type of revolution slays the beast and starts small again. Industry is all about the profit, and there is profit (at taxpayer expense) in keeping/expanding government schooling regardless of the outcomes. The final recommendation in this article is a “voucher” system, but since this would likely still be government (taxpayer) funded, I would opposed that also, because that isn’t truly free-market.

Teacher: Why Schools Waste—and How to Stop It | Gabriel McKinney The United States spends about 60 percent more per student than the average country—yet we’re below average in math, reading, and science. Schools have money, it's just allocated poorly. Fortunately, there's a simple way to fix the problem.