My son is 7 months old and already several people have asked me what we intend to do about his education. Will we sent him to public school, private school, or will he be home schooled. Some people have posed the question with obvious expectation that I intend to home school my son. Maybe it’s because I taugh school for a while. I don’t know, maybe I just look like someone who would home school their child.
In all honestly, I’d like to keep 5 years old as far away as possible. I don’t really want to think about school right now. But that doesn’t mean I’ve never thought about the benefits and drawbacks of each of those three options. The end result can be similar in each situation.
From my experience with children, I believe them to be very open to learning until they reach about age 12. My experience with teenagers shows me that many teenagers are not interested in learning any more than they must in order to get by. I don’t know as a fact that this has to be the case, so I’d like to find a way to give my son the best start in learning and to help cultivate it so that he wants to learn more, not avoid it.
It is strange to see that providing education to all children (something that was meant to be a great opportunity) is burdensome to those very children. Most children don’t realize that except for public education, they might never learn anything. It is handed to them and is disregarded and distained in the same way a spoiled child is not thankful for his toys. That is a problem en masse that might possibly be corrected on an individual basis regardless of the means of education.
Teaching showed me that a very significant amount of time is wasted in the course of the day at school. I wish there was some opportunity to have children in school for only half of the day and train them in other ways at home the rest of the day. Being in school a whole day is exhausting and leaves little energy and motivation to learn valuable lessons at home.
Additionally, I think there would be some value to having high school be optional. In typical high schools there are two kinds of students – those who want to learn and those who do not want to learn. Those who do not want to learn probably do not learn much. Wouldn’t it be more beneficial for them to spend that time developing a skill they can use in a job? But alas, this is unfair in a PC world. Those who chose the academic route would make more money than their friends who chose not to study books. It’s already this way with college, and college is no place for someone who does not want to be there. It just seems to be a waste of 4 good years where those who do not want to learn prevent those who do want to learn from learning anything.
This sad thought is what makes home schooling compelling to me, not the potential for Biblical education. Even if my son goes to a Christian school, I never want to expect that someone else will tell him about Jesus if I have not done so at home. School is for academic learning, not theological, political, or philosophical molding. So I go back to paragraph 5 – I wish there were someway to have children in school only half the day – I’m afraid this unreality is my preference.
I really understand and agree with what you said in this blog. I am a product of public schools, but I think I sometimes was held back by spoiled kids that don't feel the need to learn.
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