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HOME EDUCATION/TRAINING WORLDVIEW
Home Schooling: God's Idea
by Phil Lancaster
There are many excellent reasons for choosing to
teach your own children at home. First, there is
now incontestable evidence that on average
children who are home schooled fare better
academically than children of either public or
private schools. This is not surprising since tutoring
has always been recognized to be the best method
of education.
Second, home educated children are spared the corrupting
environment of the peer-oriented classroom and thus are
benefited socially. A common myth of our society is that
children need to be with other children for extended periods of
time to be properly socialized, but this is the exact opposite of
the truth. Much time in a peer culture is damaging to children.
Socialization is one of the best reasons to home school.
Third, any home schooling family will tell you that one of the
greatest benefits of the process is the way that family bonds
are strengthened. Parents and children grow closer through the
shared hours of each day. Siblings develop a new love and
respect for one another as they live and learn and work
together day by day. These families can overcome the
family-fragmenting forces of modern life. They just plain have
more time together; and love is spelled t-i-m-e.
Fourth, home educating families prosper spiritually. Parents are
able to guide their charges in godly paths as they protect them
from the immorality and falsehood so prevalent in public
schools and teach them the Bible and its application to life.
The very process of discipling one's own child results in
character growth in both the child and the parent.
As good as all these reasons are, however, the very best
reason to choose home education has not been listed yet. But
to appreciate the force of this last reason you must first agree
to a vitally important premise. So let me run that by you first.
The premise is simply this: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is
useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in
righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly
equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3;16,17). Or, put
another way: "His divine power has given us everything we
need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who
called us by his own glory and goodness" (2 Pet. 1:3). Or,
finally: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path"
(Ps. 119:105). In other words, in our Lord Jesus and his Word,
the Bible, we have all we need for spiritual and moral direction
in life. The Scripture is our wholly sufficient guide for what to
believe and how to live in ways that please God.
Do you believe that? Do you agree that what is written in the
Bible is written to tell us how to live; that when the Word of
God addresses any particular aspect of life, it is giving us
wisdom to be followed carefully; and that God has good reason
for all that he reveals in his Word? If you do, then you are
ready to hear the final point.
The best reason for choosing home education is that it is God's
revealed plan for raising our children. The Bible knows no other
system of education. God did not prescribe schools for his
people; these were invented by others. The pages of Scripture
espouse, by precept and example, a process that closely
resembles what we call home education.
To grasp God's plan for the raising of children we need to
consider what the Scripture says about four important
elements of the educational process: the teachers, the
method, the content, and the goal.
The Teachers
Throughout the Word it is the parents who are assigned the
role of teaching their own children. The primary responsibility
rests on the father. God said of Abraham, "I have chosen him,
so that he will direct his children and his household after him to
keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so
that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has
promised him" (Gen. 18:19). Paul gave this guidance under the
Holy Spirit's inspiration: "Fathers, do not exasperate your
children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction
of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4).
Of course, as the man's helper (Gen. 2:20-23), his wife is also
a teacher of the children. "Listen, my son, to your father's
instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching" (Prov.
1:8; cf. 6:20). Even the grandparents are to share in the
teaching task: speaking of God's commandments, Moses said
to God's people, "Teach them to your children and to their
children after them" (Deut. 4:9).
Home education by the parents is highlighted at the very apex
of Old Testament revelation. Israel has just heard Moses
pronounce the sacred Name: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our
God, the LORD is one" (Deut. 6:4). This is followed immediately
by the commandment which Jesus called the "greatest
commandment" (Matt. 22:38): "Love the LORD your God with
all you heart and with all your soul and with all your strength"
(Deut. 6:5). Then comes the climactic charge to the people:
"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon
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" (6:6,7). Parents have a
solemn obligation to learn God's Word and teach it to their
children.
The mandate for parents to teach their offspring is a perpetual
one. "He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in
Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their
children, so the next generation would know them, even the
children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their
children" (Ps. 78:5,6). Each generation should be raised with
the expectation of teaching the next.
Beyond the parents, the priests and Levites had a teaching
role in the holy community; but even they did not teach
children directly apart from the parents. They taught "the men,
women and others who could understand" when gathered as a
group (Neh. 8:3,7,8).
The Bible, through command and example, presents the
parents (and grandparents) as the only teachers of children.
While it might seem at least possible, as an exercise of
parental prerogative, to delegate the teaching responsibility to
others, there is no instance of this in Scripture. (Gal. 4:2
speaks of a child being subject to "guardians and trustees until
the time set by his father." This may have been the practice in
the affluent strata of the pagan society which was the cultural
backdrop of the Galatian converts. It is not presented as a
positive practice in this context, a context which is not
addressing how parents should raise children.) Although the
bare teaching function might be delegated, the parent-child
relationship cannot be delegated. No one can successfully
replace the parents as the child's teacher because no one else
is the parent, and it is this special relationship that is central
to the success of the educational process which leads us to
the second element of that process.
The Method
Scripture does not even use the word "education" to describe
the process of training children for adulthood. That word, as
we use it, is freighted with connotations of schooling,
academics, and training of the mind a very narrow
Greek/Western concept of training (rationalism views man's
mind as his primary faculty).
Those who are properly informed by a biblical/Hebrew
perspective would say that true "education" is discipleship. It is
a process of training the whole person, not just the mind. The
goal is not a mind stuffed with facts; the goal is a changed
person.
The heart is the most important part of a person "for it is the
wellspring of life" (Prov. 4:23). The purpose of life is to love
God with the whole heart (Deut. 6:5); and this purpose is
realized in children as parents have God's Word in their own
hearts and then impress it on their children (6:6,7). Fathers
are to say to their sons, "Lay hold of my words with all your
heart; keep my commands and you will live" (Prov. 4:4).
God's method of education is revealed in Deuteronomy 6:7-9.
Speaking of God's commandments it says, "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." True education occurs any place ("home and
road") and any time ("lie down and get up"). The parents are
to be the constant companions of their children, teaching them
God's view of life at every opportunity. Every child of a godly
family will live unceasingly in an environment that is saturated
by God's Word, and his parents will be creating that
environment.
Since the purpose of education is to love God with the whole
heart and to have his commandments lodged in the heart, the
method must be one which reaches the heart.
Discipleship along-the-road living with the two people to
whom the child is closest (his parents)is God's method for
reaching the heart of children.
The method is seen also in Jesus' relationship with the Twelve.
He did not enroll them in a classroom course and address only
their minds. He chose them "that they might be with him" (Mk.
3:14); and they talked, worked, walked, ate, and slept
together for over three years. They were his apprentices. They
learned by watching, listening, doing, as Jesus taught them
about and modeled for them the life they were to live.
Jesus said, "A student is not above his teacher, but everyone
who is fully trained will be like his teacher" (Lk. 6:40). That is
the discipleship method: on-the-job, real-life training until the
student is like the teacher. And that is the only method of
education that results in the changed lives that God is seeking.
Biblical education/discipleship cannot be accomplished within
the confines of a classroom. A small part of it could occur
there, but it's main features require involvement in the real
world with real people doing real things. It requires doing work
and ministry. It demands character training and learning life
skills. It requires spontaneity as well as structure. Teaching
can occur in a school, but discipleship can only occur in the
context of real life.
Our educational method must reflect a biblical understanding of
truth and life. The Greek/Western worldview sees truth as
ideas that can be reduced to printed pages and considered in
abstraction in a classroom. In the biblical/Hebrew worldview
truth is personal (Jesus said, "I am...the truth." Jn. 14:6); and
while it can be expressed in the statements of Scripture, it is
always connected to life and conduct ("speaking the truth in
love," Eph. 4:15). Truth is not only something we can know, it
is also something we can and must "do" (1 Jn. 1:6). God's truth
is only communicated truly in the context of relationship. God
did not just give us the written Word of truth, he gave us his
Son and fills us with himself ("If anyone acknowledges that
Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God."1 Jn.
4:15).
God wants truth to fill our children's minds, but he wants much
more. He wants the One whose name is Truth to fill their
hearts and shape their lives. That is what discipleship is all
about.
In a thoroughly biblical approach to education, the method is
as important as the content.
The Content
Most discussions about education dwell upon the content of
the curriculum; and whereas the importance of method is often
minimized, we should not, in our attempt to balance the
discussion, minimize content. It is absolutely critical. Truth has
content, and part of education is passing on that content to
our children.
What exactly is the content of education for Christian children?
Psalm 78 puts it this way: "We will not hide them from their
children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy
deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.
He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in
Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their
children..." (vv. 4,5). The Word of God and the works of God
are the content of a godly education.
All education should focus upon the Lord God: who he is, what
he has said, and what he has done. Fathers are instructed
concerning children to "bring them up in the training and
instruction of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). Not the instruction of the
world or of mere men, but "of the Lord."
Study of the Word of God itself is the foundation for all learning
since the Word is the source of all wisdom. That is why
parents are given the task of impressing God's commandments
on their children at every opportunity (Deut. 6:7-9). In the
psalm quoted above, fathers are commanded to teach God's
"statutes" to their children, referring again to the written Word.
Obviously, the very words and passages of Scripture and the
history and doctrine they contain must be taught diligently and
systematically. The Book of books itself must be studied as a
worthy object of attention in its own right.
But that is not the only use of the Scriptures. Psalm 119:105
presents one of the broader purposes of the Bible: "Your word
is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." God's Word is
intended to illuminate the world we live in so that we can walk
pleasing to God. The purpose of a light is to shine on an object
so that it can be discerned more clearly. Similarly, the Bible is
meant to "shine" on anything we encounter in the world so
that we can understand it from God's perspective. This means
that beyond studying the Bible itself, we should use the Bible
as our lens through which to view any other subject in life.
The second component of study in a godly education is what
Psalm 78 calls "the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power,
and the wonders he has done" (v. 4). To study these works of
God we must, of course, begin with the Bible itself which
reveals his mighty works of creation and redemption. But this
study will lead us beyond the pages of Scripture to the whole
wide world that God made and sustains by his power. History,
science, geography, law, art, music, mathematics,
language any subject area is a study of the works of God
since it is he who created this world and guides the history of
men in their scientific, cultural, and civil endeavors.
Each of these subject areas must be approached in the "light"
of the Word, if it is to be properly understood. The Bible should
not only be a subject in the curriculum, its truths should
permeate every other area of study, providing God's
perspective on every subject.
Also, each field of study must be viewed in relationship to the
others since creation and history are a seamless fabric of
overlapping influences all under God's sovereign control. Life in
God's world does not unfold in neat categories. The traditional
approach to education which presents a student with a
collection of unrelated disciplines is a caricature of the real
world. All realms of study find their unity in our Creator and
Savior. The best education will present any particular subject
in its relationship to other subjects and to the God of truth
who gives them all meaning.
That is why many home educators abandon the traditional
school-subject approach to teaching in favor of a "unit study"
approach which takes into account the inter-relationship of the
disciplines. Children thus engage in academic study in the same
manner in which they experience the rest of the
world encountering the connectedness of the various
elements of life. Such an approach not only respects the
nature of the content of education, it also is most compatible
with the discipleship method of teaching: learning from real life
as it is encountered "along the road" every day.
The Goal
Each of the other elements of the educational process the
teachers, the method, and the content combine to achieve
one essential end. God's goal for us is to raise children who
know, love, and obey Jesus Christ.
The aim of education is a part of the great aim of this age: to
"go and make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19). For
anyone who is a parent, the discipleship mandate begins in the
home. He must make disciples of his own children.
Education ought not to be seen as an end in itself. Nor should
it be viewed in terms of mere academic or social preparation
for life. Knowledge, by itself, is nothing and leads only to pride
("Knowledge puffs up"; 1 Cor. 8:1). We could give our children
the very best academic preparation in the world, and only end
up making them more effective instruments in the devil's
hands. No, God has something higher in mind.
God did not say: "train a child in what he should know, and
when he is old he will not forget it." He said, "Train a child in
the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from
it" (Prov. 22:6). Education is not just about what a child
knows; it is primarily about how he lives.
Understood in its broadest terms, education is character
training. God is in the business of transforming people; and he
is creating a people who have a living relationship with himself.
The beginning of the process is simply to take God seriously in
everything or, as Scripture has it: The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of knowledge and wisdom (Prov. 1:7; 9:10). The end
of the process is mature people who know God; and who,
knowing him, love him; and who, loving him, obey him in all
things.
Christian parents should desire for their children what Paul,
imitating the Lord's own yearnings, wanted for his children in
the faith: "My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains
of childbirth until Christ is formed in you..." (Gal. 4:19). The
great object of education must be Christ-like men and women.
All the elements of the Bible's plan for child-training combine to
achieve this goal; and each ingredient of the plan is crucial to
the outcome.
Replace the parents with strangers or even godly
fellow-believers as teachers, and you disrupt the parent-child
bond which is God's chosen channel of grace and influence.
If you choose a sterile classroom full of age peers instead of
the rich home-based community environment with its natural
variety of ages and conditions; if you choose mass teaching
focused on the mind instead of face-to-face discipleship along
the path of real life experiences then you bypass God's
chosen means of reaching the heart of a child.
If you choose teaching which presents academic subject areas
in isolation and without a biblical reference point instead of the
unity of all truth based on the God of truth and his Word, then
you eliminate the means of providing a coherent Christian
worldview from which the child can engage the false ideas of
the day.
Tamper with any of the facets of God's revealed plan, and you
decrease the prospects that your children will turn out to be
godly men and women. Scripture gives us a promise in Proverbs
22:6: our children will not depart from God's way if we faithfully
raise them according to it. Modern Christians have come to
doubt the truth of this verse because they are seeing their
children fall off the path in such great numbers. But the
problem is not God's plan or his faithfulness. The problem is
that we have abandoned his plan in so many ways.
We are back to our foundational premise: the Scripture is our
wholly sufficient guide for how to live. Since, by precept and
example, it presents a pattern for the process of raising our
children, wisdom dictates that we follow that pattern.
The path of safety and blessing is always that which adheres
most closely to the revealed will of God. Home education as we
practice it today falls short of the perfect pattern set forth in
the Scriptures, but it is certainly a big step in the right
direction because home education is God's idea.
Phil Lancaster and his wife Pam have homeschooled their six children (born 1979 to 1993) from birth to post high school.
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