One of the most staggering doctrines in the Bible is that God uniquely creates—and therefore knows—every single person who existed in the past, is existing in the present, and will exist in the future. Every bit of information located in the DNA of each child is crafted by God in the womb according to His glorious purpose. Similarly, every person is placed in specific homes, hopefully with loving, caring parents who will nurture this God-given uniqueness into its full expression.
What does our culture do with such an amazing reality? It puts them into groups of 20 – 25, in a classroom that is approximately 20 feet by 25 feet, gives them all the same material and uses the very same approach for each pupil, acting as if each student is nothing more than a widget going down the assembly line of life. Stick a piece on there and adjust a screw here. There is little to no individualization. It is impossible for a teacher of 25 pupils to access learning styles and give needed one on one attention. At a superficial glance, it is laughable, but at a point of deep contemplation it is emotionally criminal. You may ask, “Why would anyone send their children into such a system?”
I have a confession. My oldest daughter went to a Christian pre-school for two days. Like everyone else, my wife and I believed the lie that she should be with others rather than being home in a loving, caring and intimate atmosphere. She was wrenched from her mother’s legs the first day with a repeat performance the next day. As my wife left the parking lot, she thought, “What am I doing? My child wants to be with me.” She turned back around and that was the end of systemized schooling in the Smith household. Looking back, I wonder what I was thinking as her father. I shake my head in shame that I would take my baby girl and simply drop her off with absolute strangers, regardless of their level of personal integrity. How terrified she must have been. Still, 95% of parents do the same thing every year. Why? “Because everyone else does.” Surely, a little something must die in every child’s heart and perhaps in the parents’ hearts as well. God forgive us.
Their security is shredded right off the bat. To survive in public school, they have to prostitute their personhood as well as their convictions to fit into one of the numerous sub-cultures. Like prison, somebody has to have their backs. The right clothes and attitude must be crafted in order to fit in and find security that God automatically provides in the home. Students cannot be too smart or too dumb, too fat or too skinny, too tall or too short, else there is the devil to pay in teasing and mockery. More of their uniqueness is eaten away. Then, when they hit the teenage years, we are dismayed and disappointed when they act like everyone else instead of being who God made them to be!
Homeschooling naturally helps limit this type of emotional compromise as it offers some protection for our children; however, we parents must still be cognizant of the fact that we must intentionally nurture their uniqueness. In other words, it is not enough to defend it; we must also cultivate it intentionally. How? For starters, we don’t compare them to other children outside or inside the home. One will mature earlier while the next will mature later. It is not so much a matter of being behind another child or someone else’s expectations as it is a discovery of God’s unique timing. The glory of homeschooling is that we not only allow for this, we celebrate it!
We also allow for rabbit trails that depart from the normal day and curriculum. If we see something spark our children’s interests, we want to feed that for as long as we think wise and healthy before God. It is okay to put the books down for the day and let our children explore outside on a beautiful afternoon in order to interact with nature, not just read about it.
In other world religions the gods are impersonal with all focus going one way … toward the gods themselves. the Christian kingdom, however, it is a relational two-way street. We worship and serve the one true God, yet He initiates that relationship with us for while we were yet sinners, He died for us. He knows us personally. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalms 139:14) What a great and good God we serve.
One of the most precious freedoms we enjoy as humans is to be the person God made us to be. Just as we want to do all we can to keep America free, we should be equally emphatic about doing the same for our children. While the world is pressing others into its mold, we need to keep our children with us to preserve the mold God cast for them before time began.
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