You have just had a really great conversation with a friend about the benefits of Christian education. They agree with you that there is a much better way to the secular state alternative. There is already a thriving home educating community at your church; there is even a true Christian school a mile up the road. You think they might be slowly churning the idea over in their mind, and then suddenly the door is slammed shut, never to return to again with the words, ‘But, I could never do that!’ What is to be our response? Perhaps we could help people to think a little bit harder…
1. Can’t or Won’t?
Let me begin with a controversial idea: I sometimes wonder whether ‘I could never do that’ is occasionally a euphemism for ‘I don’t want to do that’(!) I’m not saying this is always true, but it might just sometimes be true. I have sympathy here because this is an excuse that I use when I don’t want to do something. Think about this: I have a problem, small or large, that I discuss with my husband. He comes up with an earth-shatteringly outstanding suggestion of how to solve it and what do I do? I think of a reason why this solution is inconceivable! It is far easier for me to comfort myself with the assessment that an otherwise great idea is just not possible in my situation, than to face up to the fact that I can and should do something about it.
2. The ‘Only-Change-One-Thing-at-a-Time-Rule’.
I have seven small children whom we are endeavouring to provide with a Christian, classical education at home. I realise that for the family who is struggling to get their first newborn into some type of routine, this might appear beyond their realms of possibility, and even quite off-putting. But here is my secret: once we were convicted of the importance of a Christian education, I began with one newborn, and then I just started changing one thing at a time. Home education is not 0-100 in sixty seconds.
This is what it looked like for us: once my oldest child was able, I taught him to read. Once he started showing some skill with a pencil, I added 5 minutes of handwriting practice a day, followed by 15 minutes of maths. A few weeks later I instituted a morning memory verse time together and several weeks after that, I began teaching phonics to my first set of twins. This might seem like quite a bit, but in actual fact, at this point in time we were done in less than an hour a day and were ready to hit the great outdoors by 10:30. I still follow the same principle today: one thing at a time and don’t even think about changing anything else until this is nailed. Last year, one ‘thing’ was the adjustment we had to make when our younger set of twins no longer needed their morning nap. At the moment we are taking a few extra minutes each day to learn poems by heart. This is enough for me; I will not tinker with anything else until we have these few minutes of adjustment under our belts.
3. Some Methods of Schooling Need to Stay in School.
It is so easy to take our knowledge of schools and imagine that we have to recreate them exactly in our homes. I really do not know what a five-year-old does all day at school, but I can only imagine it must be mostly play (which my crew are very competent at, without needing to go to school to do it). Over the years, any five-year old children of mine have really done very little ‘school work’ and my older children today all have great reading skills and are highly curious and capable.
Likewise, we do not need to take a subject and imagine that we need to multiply it by the number of children that we have. Some subjects are best taught at the pace of a child, but history and science are easily taught to multiple ages. We need to try and approach problems of how to teach our children through the eyes of wisdom, received from the one who gives generously to all who ask (James 1:5), rather than through the eyes of the schooling system.
4. ‘My God Shall Supply all my Needs’ (Phil 4:19).
Let’s not listen to these words on Sunday and cast them into doubt on Monday. If God convicts us to home educate our children (or perhaps to put them into a truly Christian school), then we can be confident that he will supply. I honestly did not know how we would do this and never imagined that we would be where we are today. I continually look ahead and wonder how I will manage when another child needs to learn to read. I look down the road a few years and wonder what we will do about exams. However, the difference is that I do not worry because I can call to mind the faithfulness of God who I have walked with for most of my life, and who has only ever shown me abounding loving-kindness. Why should I worry about tomorrow as long as I am certain I am walking in obedience today?
Years ago, I remember sticking a postcard on my wall that said, ‘Only dead fish go with the flow’. To go against the grain of the secular education system is a big (and blessed) move. I fully understand that the reaction of many parents to the challenge of Christian education is to say that ‘I could never do it’. If they express this to me, then I think they are engaging with the right person, because the truth is that I could never do it, and yet not I, but the Lord.
