Yesterday we dealt with the first of 3 reasons that Bill, a public school principal, gave us to homeschool. Read Part 1 Here.

Not everybody has money to spare, Bill tells us that’s just fine if you’d like to homeschool—it’s not hard on your bank. “Homeschooling,” he begins, “is the best value.” And then he relates, “I remember the first time I walked through a homeschool convention. I had been an administrator for a few years already and my wife and I were getting ready to start training my oldest. I remember seeing the families in the booths, the families throughout the convention in the pull-out sessions, and having the feeling that I have been completely robbed!” Robbed of more than money too, he had seen “the accomplishments of the young people in this setting and was amazed, and sickened at what our society has come to accept as ‘a great education’.”

I’ve talked to many people my age who are going to public school, and for the most part, I see a bit of jealousy. There are so many things about homeschooling that are just so much more enjoyable—but not just that, as a statistic, we homeschoolers get to ride the score sheets. Why wouldn’t you feel cheated? Imagine somebody saying, “I spent all day in school, and just think I could have done it at home in a couple hours, and I could have been smarter for it, and had a whole lot more fun doing it.”

But instead, society has come to accept that public education is good education. Actually, here in Canada we’re supposed to have one of the best, but one look at the average score in my county sends me wondering. In the words of Bill, “I’m sorry, but, BARF! OK, not a professional term for a public school administrator, but it really works here.”

So we choose something better, that’s home education. And it’s not only better on the spiritual and financial levels, Bill gives us the final scoop, “It’s practical.” From an administrator’s perspective he sees and hears of almost everything that goes on at the school. The more serious the incident, the more he is involved. Then Bill tells us, “It was a complete no-brainer that I would not want to send my kids to school because of the peer influence and “socialization”. I would just as soon bathe my children nightly in a cesspool.”

Now, that’s pretty strong, but you know I think that more parents might hold that opinion if they were to take a week in his shoes. What really does go on at the school where your kid is going? If he’s homeschooled, you know full well, if not, it would be good to know. For Bill, he knows too much—too much to risk putting the children he has borne, has loved, and is raising into public school. “I would move,” he says, “to another community, state, or country if I had to in order to avoid placing my children in the state system.” Wow, we think, he must really be in a low school or something, but listen to this, “I am in a “great” school with test scores to die for and wonderful “safety” record, and I wouldn’t touch it.” Does that mean that even the best aren’t good enough? I think that’s precisely his point. And he’s not the only one, as he says, “Even the teachers I serve know I homeschool and have expressed that if they had the chance they would also homeschool.”

And in this case, the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence. But unfortunately, most people would like to live a lifestyle that just doesn’t support a homeschool environment.
And that’s the end of our reasons for homeschooling.

In another question, Oneway Purpose asked Bill what ages he thought children would be hurt most by the system. He replied, “The younger the child and/or vulnerable the child, the more potential there is for long term damage to the young one’s being.” And I totally agree, in Canada’s recent federal election one of the issues at stake was government funded childcare. In relation to that, my brother Isaac wrote, “History bears record that any time when a government or any agency other than the family assumed the primary role of raising children, societal disaster, corruption, and destruction followed close.” Fortunately the Conservative government elected squashed the deal.

But Bill says he wouldn’t let his kids go to public school until they’re fully capable of entering the world—and standing firm. I think Bill would agree with this other statement Isaac made,

“As Canadians (or Americans) we believe that children are to be raised by their parents. Not by a government, not by a government system, not by a government agency. We believe it is our right, and our responsibility, and we will retain and defend that with the integrity of citizens against a socialist scheme designed only for political gain, and destined for ultimate corruption. We will not give one inch of our responsibility and right to any government system, federal or provincial. We stand firm to maintain the core of society.”

Oneway Purpose also asked Bill to list three areas where he believes his children are excelling most above their public schooled counterparts, and also asked whether he thought his children were lacking in any areas where public school students are not.

He listed: a) Learning and understanding God’s Word. b) Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control, commonly known as the Fruit of the Spirit. c) Discipline (the kind that “is sorrowful for the moment but in the end is the peaceful fruit of righteousness” Hebrews 12:11

He also says, “When it comes to excellence and lack we are comparing the Fruit of the Spirit to the fruit of the world, otherwise known as Life and death. The rest is mere academics. Limiting the comparisons to the realm of academics alone is fighting the argument in terms dearest to the world.”

I want to be careful here, because the fruit of the Spirit is given by the presence of the Spirit. It’s not the fruit of homeschooling. But I believe Bill meant that, given the opportunity to train his children, he has been able to inculcate these principles into their life, while in public school, they would be trained in principles to the contrary.

But now, I’d like to say that this is a great reason for Christians to take the positions of teachers. In Ontario, we have a section in our education act that reads,

Section 264 c) [Teachers’ responsibility in relation to Religion and morals is] to inculcate by precept and example respect for religion and the principles of Judaeo-Christian morality and the highest regard for truth, justice, loyalty, love of country, humanity, benevolence, sobriety, industry, frugality, purity, temperance and all other virtues;

How many teachers really do that? How many ever read that? I’m afraid not many, but there is a place for Christian teachers, and principals, and I’m proud to see Bill filling one of those places.

And that’s it folks! I was hoping to have some other interviews to include with this, but it just didn’t happen. Hope you enjoyed this!

Goodmorning! First I’d like to apologize for not posting this earlier, second I’d like to apologize for not posting more on the other topics. They’re coming! I had other writing deadlines I had to take care of and can also excuse myself by reason of busyness. Actually, the only time I really get to write here is between 5am and 7 am. Yes, you got it, I’m an early riser most of the time, and it’s not necessarily because I’m homeschooled either.

And homeschooling, that’s what I’m going to be talking about again this morning. I would like to thank Bill from Ask The Principal for letting me interview him. Bill is a public school principal with more years of experience educating than I have living. He prefers to remain anonymous so we’ll just have to be satisfied with well, Bill.

Bill first heard about homeschooling while in college. “In the early 80’s,” he says, “the movement was just taking off and receiving a lot of press locally in my college town.” He met a couple homeschool-supporting professors over the next few years that gave the homeschooling movement credibility in his mind. After meeting a law professor who gave him the legal ins and outs of the issue and told him of the victories that homeschooling families had, Bill anchored his favor of homeschooling permanently. But as he says, “I was yet far from developing my own reasons.”

I guess he’s had enough time to do that, since we have quite a good list here of reasons to homeschool. Unquestionably, he has them down pat. And would you guess, he’s homeschooling his children. So what we have here is a teacher, a principal, and a homeschooling dad who can sign B.S., M.A. Ed behind his name. Very unique. Let’s plunge into the interview.

I asked Bill to give me 3 reasons to homeschool. The three points he chose were “Spiritual, Economical, and Practical”, so let’s take a look at the first. This is Bill.

Spiritual. One of my favorite books in the New Testament is Colossians. We don’t know what heresy that was infiltrating their church, but it was significant and Paul had to address it. I suppose if we knew the exact heresy we would spend more time avoiding the particular instance than in avoiding heresy in general. One of the popular verses in the book is in chapter 2 verse 8:

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” (NASB)

The command “See to it…” is pretty strong. In fact, as a principal if I tell a staff member “See to it that…” I know it will be done. It is not an option. There is no waffling, etc. In terms of consequences, well, let me say that there is nothing I can do to anyone that comes remotely close to the consequences implied here if one does not take the command Paul gives of “See to it…” seriously. This whole book is excellent in terms of defining who Christ is and who we are as Christians in Him, to help us to “see to it” we are not taken captive.

As a husband and father, the “see to it” goes beyond just my own self. It is included in the leadership and discipleship of my family. For me, “See to it…”, among other things, includes the fact that my children will not be placed in a public school setting for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in godlessness. (See 2 Timothy 3:16 for an appropriate application of teaching, reproof, correction, and training in Godliness)

Ok readers, see to it that you read all the way through and comment now and on every post I make in the future. But now seriously, Bill has this pinned up very well. I think he’s seen a lot more of the training in godlessness than you or I have, and I admire him for seeing to it that his children grow up trained in Godliness.

We don’t have much time or space left for more today, so we’re actually going to leave the other two points for tomorrow morning. Check back as soon as you get out of bed to hear (aka read) what Bill has to say about the Economical, the Practical, his thoughts on the grading system, how he believes his children are excelling over their public school counterparts, and even more that I’m not mentioning.

Random: Why doesn’t Microsoft Word recognize ::homeschool:: as a properly spelled word?

• Read Spunky’s series of posts discussing homeschooling with Dr. Beam. [1] [2] [3]

Read Part 2 Here