Benefits to Home Schooling

Bob & Geri Boyd, hosts of Issues in Education

Word count: 2151

What is the biggest benefit to home schooling? It has to be that your child has a 94% chance they will be a follower of Christ, just as you are. If you put your child in a public school, there’s a 9 out of 10 chance they will not continue to be a Christian after high school graduation. This means home schooling gives you a 94% chance they will be with you in heaven versus a 90% chance that they won’t make it to heaven if they go to a public school. What could be more important than this? We are talking about their eternal destination, not just an education for this life. Who would put their child on an airplane that had only a 10% chance of landing safely?

The greatest teacher of all time, Jesus, said in Luke 6:40 that a student will become like his teacher. If you want your child to become an unbelieving adult, give him unbelieving teachers. God says to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God. Putting a child in a school where God is eliminated is not seeking God first.

Anyone can simply drop their kids off at the local public school, but a mother who sacrifices her career to stay at home and educate her children is demonstrating Christ. When your child sees you investing your life to to educate them, they see how important they are to you and how important a Godly education is for them. That speaks volumes to them. What a great witness this is to other people about true Christian discipleship.

If you put your child into a public school, what does that say to them? That a worldly education is more valuable than a Godly education; that evolution really is scientific and Creation is just a myth; that worldly literature, profanity, homosexuality, Islam and rewritten history is really the best education you can give them. A public school education is discipleship into worldliness devoid of Godliness.

Home education is your investment in your child’s future. There is no greater demonstration of your love and desire to see them succeed than investing your life in their learning.

Could you imagine Jesus telling his followers to turn their little children over to the pagans to disciple? Could you imagine Jesus teaching the Apostles for just an hour Sunday morning? No! Discipleship is a full time job. Jesus demonstrated it, day in and day out for 3 ½ years - 24/7. Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep. That did not mean just once a week. Sheep fed just once a week starve.

The first of the Ten Commandments says, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Yet in public schools, man is god, it’s called humanism. Jer 10:2 says, “Learn NOT the ways of the heathen.” What part of that don’t you understand? Learn not means learn not.

G.K. Chesterton said, “Education is not simply a subject but a transfer of a way of life.” That’s discipleship! Education is discipleship. Your children will be discipled, the only question is who will disciple them? Public schools are religious (atheism is a religion) and very much in the discipleship business. They teach all kinds of ideas and beliefs, all except Biblical ideas and beliefs. So that instead of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Paul, its Sanger, Kinsey, Freud, Darwin and Dewey who are the basis of humanistic discipleship.

Christian parents wouldn’t drop their kids off at an Islamic day school, or Unitarian or New Age or Unity Church, yet public schools teach these Islamic, atheistic and socialistic ideas just the same.

Chuck Coleson says, “A Christian education isn’t simply opening class with a prayer or Bible reading, then teaching out of secular textbooks. A Christian education consists of teaching everything - science, math, literature, the arts within the framework of a Biblical worldview. It means teaching students to relate everything in academics to God’s truth.”

It easier to build a child than repair an adult. That means a Biblical education can save them, and you, a lifetime of misery of having to learn the hard way.

Romans 12:2 says “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” How is that consistent with a secular school education where the goal is to conform children to the pattern of this world? Everything about a public school education is designed to conform children to the world. James 4:4 says, “Friendship with the world is hatred towards God. Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

Children have a natural desire to learn until they go to school, then learning becomes a drudgery. Why? Could it be school forces them to study things they are NOT interested in and things that are contrary to what they learned at home and church?

The most impressionable time for learning is within the first 10 years of life. The older a child becomes the more difficult it is to help him overcome a poor education and get the motivation and excitement to learn.

Learning to think creatively doesn’t just happen. It takes effort and starts when they are young. Ask children thought provoking questions that will stimulate them to think. Encourage them with words such as, “Look at the beautiful colors you used,” or “Your handwriting is so neat and descriptive, maybe you’ll become a famous writer when you grow up.” Or “You’re becoming a veritable wiz at math.” When they make mistakes say, “We all make mistakes that’s how we learn. If we never made mistakes, how would we improve?”

Recent studies by Barna found, “A person’s moral foundations and lifelong beliefs are generally in place by the time they reach age nine.” Only 6% of people over 20 years of age receive Christ. Only 6%!! So when is the best time to teach them a Biblical worldview? When they are children, right? But unbelievably that’s when most children (90%) are given over to a godless system that teaches them they can live without God. That God is irrelevant and unnecessary.

Parents are in the discipleship business. Although you may feel inadequate and overwhelmed at the task of educating your children, remember God is more than able. He will train and guide you. If you feel like an amateur, remember the unsinkable Titanic was built by professional ship builders, but the Ark was built by an amateur - Noah.

If a stranger asked to borrow you credit card, would you give it to him? Of course not, yet parents willingly turn something far more precious over to strangers in a secular school, the discipleship of their children, the very soul of their child.

“If you send your child to a public school, you are sending them to hell.” D. James Kennedy.

When parents hand their children over to a secular school, they are in essence handing them over to a system that denies God in creation, ignores His Commandments and treats the gospel as irrelevant. If you could see into the future and see your child in 10 to 15 years, what would you like them to be? What would you like them to believe? Their education will determine their future.

Some of our nation’s most influential people were home schooled; presidents, inventors, scientists pastors, artists, businessmen. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, got most of his education at home. Thomas Edison, the greatest inventor in history, and Benamin Franklin were home educated. Look at who’s faces are on Mt. Rushmore; Washington, Jefferson Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, all were home schooled. Mt Rushmore could be called a monument to home schooling. Their mothers probably never imagined their little boys would be enshrined on the side of a mountain as our nation’s most influential men when they were being taught at home.

Benefits of home schooling include: keeping children away from negative peer pressure, drugs and gangs. Teaching them all subjects from a Biblical perspective. Home schooling allows you to tailor-make your own kind of education to fit your child’s best learning style. Let your child’s interests determine what they study. Learning follows interests. They can learn at their own pace and study things that interest them. This is how they discover their God-given abilities and talents.

The most inventive minds come from a desire to learn and the time to think things over and write about their thoughts and discoveries. Home schoolers are not tied to a school curriculum. The public school may require higher scores in science for everybody, but a home school family may realize that their child is destined for a career in music or art.

Students become motivated to read when they can read about what they are interested in.

Following their interests makes learning fun, even adventurous. We, at Issues in Education, interviewed the founder of the modern home school movement Dr. Ray Moore. Dr Moore counseled the parents of a boy that was fascinated watching butterflies. Dr Moore suggested they encourage his interest with books and magazines on butterflies. Secular educators would say that was a waste of time, but patient, loving parents got their son books of butterflies and he became a very successful, renowned entomologist.

Education must be more than just memorizing facts; it needs to be part of life.

Top 3 Homeschooling Advantages

1. Learning is tailored to your child. Children who don’t understand something can spend as much time as is necessary on a topic in order to master it. This creates a more complete education and allows for better recall. This means less stress to conform to the schedule of the school when they can learn at their own pace.

2. Learning Outside the Classroom Walls

The ability to learn outside the classroom is one of the things that makes home schooling not only unique but also a great way to reinforce the lessons learned at home. It’s more interesting to learn history, science and the arts by actually participating or going to a museum then it would be to learn facts and figures in a book.

3. Your Child Learns Your Values

This means morals and character can be taught by reading biographies you select, such as the great Christian men and women in history. That means you can make learning fun with a joy and lure of discovery, not stuck behind a desk, to remain silent and in place in a classroom listening to a boring teacher. They will be able to spend time outdoors enjoying and learning from nature, going on field trips to museums, libraries, touring places of historical interest, etc. This means you will bond together as a family, rejoicing with them when they learn new and exciting things. This means they will relate to people of all ages not just their peers because they were segregated by age in a public school.

Home schooled children learn that they are not the center of focus but Christ is. Christ came to serve so we are to serve others and not be so selfish. So trips to nursing homes, feeding poor people in shelters and missionary trips will help children learn to serve and not be served. This is what it means to be transformed away from the worldly mindset of focus on self.

All the reputable studies show home schooled kids know more, are better disciplined and have better morals than kids who go to government schools. But raising Godly children takes time and effort. There are no do-overs in child rearing. Just as craftsmanship is slow and meticulous to make magnificent art, woodwork or music, so cultivation of Godly character takes time and attention to detail.

Parents do you want to do something great for the Kingdom of God? Raise Godly, Biblical children. God is entrusting you with His most precious gift. What will you do with that gift? Don't simply ask what kind of education you want for your children, ask what kind of people you want them to become, and where you want them to spend eternity.

BIO For Boyds:

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Bob and Geri Boyd are the recipients of the Dr. Robert Dreyfus Courageous Christian Leadership Award by Frontline Ministries for moral courage through their radio program, Issues in Education. Issues in Education began with Pastor Chuck Smith on KWVE and is now heard on 650 stations. Countless parents have begun home schooling because of the messages they hear on Issues in Education. The most important issue facing the our nation is the education of our youth. It will determine the future of Christianity. Issues in Education www.issuesineducation.org