Reasons To Homeschool #1

Almost from the inception of Walden's Wits, I have had it in my mind to start an ongoing series on reasons to homeschool. I'm going to start it today. Without further ado...

Reason To Homeschool #1
Home-based education is closer to the Biblical model of education. Shortly after he gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy, Moses instructed the people to do the following:

These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (NAS)

There is clearly a Biblical mandate to the parents of children to instruct their children. Further scriptures supporting this include

• Ephesians 6:4 - Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
• Genesis 18:19 - "For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him."
• Deuteronomy 4:9 & 10 - "Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons. Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, 'Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children."
• Deuteronomy 11:19 - "You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up."
• Psalm 78:4 - We will not conceal them from their children,
  But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD,
  And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.
• Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go,
  Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

God assigned parents the task of teaching the important things. It doesn't mean that parents are the only ones to instruct their children. This is where a lot of people don't understand the concept of homeschooling. Under the Biblical imperatives above, the parents, and to a lesser extent the extended family, are the primary instructors. They are responsible, no matter what provisions the state may make or otherwise relieve them of the burden to educate. This is why every parent must be actively involved in their child's education, no matter the method--public, private or home--for schooling.

For us, however, the method that is closest to the model above remains at home. The Bible does not directly instruct us to set up school districts, school boards, sport booster committees or truancy officers. At best, these are hired hands recruited to do the work of education for us. This leads me to #2 of the Reasons To Homeschool.