TOL member, Random is doing a college report on homeschooling and he needed to interview someone as a requirement for his project. Since he chose to interview me, I thought I would post the questions and anwsers on here as well. Also, it would be neat to read the answers of any other homeschooling parents out there.
Q1 - How long have you been homeschooling your children?
I have been homeschooling my children for about 5 years.
Q2 -Why did you decide to homeschool your children? What factors influenced you? Was there any particular person who influenced you to choose homeschooling?
Our government has given us the largest bureaucratic daycare and brain washing system in the world…the public school, and I love my children too much to have them become a victim of Darwinian dogma, or be severely dumbed-down with godless government indoctrination.
We decided to homeschool our children primarily for the safety aspect at first, then our main focus became motivated by our religious convictions to diligently teach and train our own children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. One factor that influenced us was Bob Enyart Live, a radio show that exposed the danger and corruption within the government schools and urged parents to pull their kids out. The person who influenced me the most was my late Aunt Debbie who was a pioneer in the homeschooling movement 30 years ago. She home-educated each one of her four children from kindergarten through high school - And I'll tell you that ALL four of my cousins are the most intellectual, sociable, well-grounded followers of Christ I ever had the privilege to know. Seeing the fruit of her hard work has been a great inspiration to me to homeschool my own kids.
Q3 - How did the public school system affect you as a person? Do you think things would have turned out differently if you had not attended it?
I would say that nearly everything I learned that was wrong, destructive, and perverted, I learned in public school! Throughout my jr. high and high school years I spent much of my time following my peers and experimenting with drugs and sexual promiscuity, cheating my way through each grade and conforming to a debased mentality commonplace within the classroom. Despite the efforts of comprehensive sex-education, I got pregnant and had my first child at the age of fifteen. The whole public school experience negatively affected me, not only in the area of academics, but morally and spiritually as well since I learned that standards of right and wrong are relative.
Of course, I do think things would have turned out differently or better if I had not attended public school, but family life also plays a significant role in how well a child turns out. With so much anger and pain from my parents divorce, and without a father in the home, it seems as though I was destined for destruction anyway, no matter how I was educated! The public school was just a breeding ground for delinquents, and I fit right in.
Q4 - What do you think would be the greatest danger your children would face if they attended public school?
Some of the dangers that concern me as a parent are the obvious cases of violence and school shootings which are becoming regular occurrences in schools today. The homosexual agenda is promoted and sexual harassment is rampant in the hallways and allowed in classrooms. Rape, molestation and other sexual crimes are also ordinary events at schools which I don’t want my children exposed to.
Less obvious dangers are in and around the system itself. Public schools teach gang-rule, severe competition, ultimate peer pressure, chemical dependency, sick vocabulary, horrible eating habits, emotionally disturbed ideas, immorality and a variety of other delinquent and destructive behaviors which are contrary to the wisdom and instructions found in God's Holy Scriptures.
But all those things are mere by-products of godless school teachings. The government’s objective is to completely usurp parental authority, which it is succeeding at. Government schools are by law secular, which means worldly rather than spiritual, or omitting God altogether. Christian kids should not receive an education and be yoked together with thousands of unbelieving kids all day long in a place where God is irrelevant to all aspects of life!
The Nehemiah Institute's worldview PEERS test shows that 83% of the children from committed Christian families in public schools adopt a secular humanist or Marxist socialist worldview by the time they graduate. In addition to that, the SBC's 2002 annual meeting, the Southern Baptist Council on Family Life reported, among other disturbing things, that 88% of the children raised in evangelical homes who attend public school, leave church at age 18.
So undoubtedly, the greatest danger my kids would face if they attended public school is losing their faith in God.
Q5 - What do you believe is the greatest advantage that your children have from being home schooled?
One of the greatest advantage my children have from being homeschooled is the mere fact that we get to spend time together learning as a family and studying the Word of God without the hostility of the secular world corrupting their minds. Our days are flexible, and we are not restricted by school bells and rigid schedules or limited by government policies. This allows us the freedom to operate our day in the best way that will maximize our family’s needs and reap the richest rewards that homeschooling has to offer. We don’t have to call in on sick days or miss school for vacations because we can learn wherever we are and we don’t have to answer to the school authorities.
Q6 - To be more specific, what is the greatest academic advantage that your children have from being homeschooled?
The greatest academic advantage my children have from being homeschooled is to be able to learn in a safe and stress free environment, and to have the one-on-one attention necessary to cater to their individual needs which will nourish their love for learning. They will not be forced-fed humanistic, New Age propaganda or compelled to study subjects that are boring to them, rather they will have the opportunity to study subjects that are of great interest to them, and learn specific skills that will help them succeed in their adult life.
Q7 - How do you choose a curriculum for your child? How do you decide which is the best one?
As Christians, the Bible is our core curriculum. Teaching basic phonic sounds is the primary focus so the children learn to read with ease. Once they learn to read, quality classic books are what we use to learn. For other academic subjects such as history, science, biology, ect., the best curriculum is one that is Christ centered since we believe that God is the Creator of life and He is author all subjects.
The goal for us is not academic success. Education is not just about what facts a child knows; it is primarily about how he becomes equipped for the battle, and how he lives his life once he is grown.
The most important objective with raising children is building their character with a strong moral foundation, not teaching them math, geography, and science. The main goal in child training is to train them to be obedient, respectful, to honor God, to learn His Word and to love each other. Once those things are in place, the academics will naturally follow with ease. (*Note: Homeschooling statistics reveal that children who are taught at home outscore their public school classmates in all areas of academics by a landslide.)
Q8 - One aspect that most people are concerned about is socialization. Some would argue that homeschooling deprives a child of a social life. What are your thoughts on this?
This is a common myth that segregating children by age with very little interaction with other adults, except their teacher(s), for 8 hours a day, five days a week is somehow a healthy and effective way to learn how to socialize properly. When people ask me about socialization, I say that this is the VERY reason why we don’t send our kids to public school. If I wanted my kids to be severely sexually harassed daily, experience fierce peer pressure, have poor self-esteem, pick up a few drug habits, disrespect authority, use foul language, learn about sexual immorality and perversion, embrace relativism, feminism and tolerance as virtues, or possibly get sexually molested by their peers and teachers, then I would send them to public school in a heartbeat. But I actually love my children and care about their physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, so that kind of 'socialization' is not an option for our family!
Public education does not have some magical formula for people to deal with the 'real world'. In fact, I believe that the school environment puts kids at a disadvantage. There is no other circumstance in 'real life' where the conditions of a public school are duplicated, other than the prison system.
Q9 - How do you socialize your children?
I socialize my children by having them interact with people of all ages. We go to museums, the zoo, the park, library, the grocery store, a nursing home and other places on a regular basis during the week, which provides them with stimulating experiences where they can also learn how to communicate in a mature manner with a variety of people. I do like to limit outside influences that don’t align with our belief system, so my children primarily learn proper socialization with their siblings, friends, elderly neighbors and other acquaintances that have a strong moral foundation, hold each other accountable, and seek to edify one another in the Lord.
Q10 - A concern that many parents have about the public school system is its tendency to medicate children. What are your thoughts on this?
Parents should be concerned! The most unnatural thing you can do to young children (especially boys) who are growing and exploring is to force them to be confined to a classroom and sit still at a desk for 8 hours a day with little or no relief to express themselves. Despite the potentially dangerous side-effects of Ritalin (or other drugs), public school authorities now pressure parents to give Ritalin to their children so these kids won’t “act up” in school. Public schools across America are giving out powerful, mind-altering drugs to children as if these drugs were candy, yet outside there are signs that read, “Proud to be a Drug Free School Zone”. Such hypocrisy!
Naturally, most parents don’t want to drug their children just because they are unruly, bored in class, energetic or high-spirited. However, compulsory attendance laws force parents to send their children to public schools, and since it’s a “free” education, parents ignorantly comply. Just as school authorities resort to compulsion to get their students by force, so they apply the same compulsion against children and their parents to pressure parents into giving Ritalin to their kids.
So how do schools pressure parents? They threaten to expel the child, hold the child back a grade, put the child into a special-education class, or threaten the parents with prosecution for child abuse.
Q11 - When you attended public school were you ever medicated? If yes, what effects did this have on you?
No, I was never given medication, but my oldest daughter was from preschool to 2nd grade when she attended public school. I was told by the so-called “experts” that she had ADHD and needed the meds to sit still and focus, otherwise the couldn’t have her in the classroom. Naively I trusted them, and magically the pills worked to the teacher’s benefit. The meds made my daughter in a zombie-like state of mind, she lost her appetite and still failed to learn. We pulled her out after the 2nd grade, took her off the meds and she’s be progressing and doing great ever since.
Q12 - What advice would you give to parents who are considering sending their children to public school?
Well, it depends on if the parents are Christians or not. For the average unbelievers I would simply say, if you love your kids, pull them out of the public school before it’s too late. Oftentimes parents may get discouraged or feel overwhelmed with the thought of homeschooling their own children because the culture says parents are not qualified to teach if they don't have a "degree" in education. But a casual look at the products of today’s public schooled children quickly reveals that the so-called trained professionals are failing miserably at their jobs and producing immoral misfits who can barely read or write.
For believers, I would encourage them to have a Biblical perspective when it comes to education, and remind them that it is their responsibility as parents to diligently teach their own kids in the ways of the Lord. I would let them know that God's design is for the family to be together; it was never to send children away from the home all day to be educated, especially to a godless humanistic, pagan seminary – A place where children are surrounded by heathens all day, where God is mocked and abolished from all aspects of life, and a place where all Truth is relative while all morality is tossed out the window.
I would tell parents who are considering homeschooling that if they love God and are committed to doing what is right, they are qualified to teach their children! No one can teach children better than their own parents because no one loves the children and cares more for their children's eternal salvation than mom and dad.
For Christian kids, there is no better place for education than in the home where children are loved, nurtured, attended to, and taught by their own parents.
Every Christian parent who is truly interested in the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of their children, their homes, and the future of our beloved America, should pull their kids out of public school and offer them an exclusively Christian education!
Q1 - How long have you been homeschooling your children?
I have been homeschooling my children for about 5 years.
Q2 -Why did you decide to homeschool your children? What factors influenced you? Was there any particular person who influenced you to choose homeschooling?
Our government has given us the largest bureaucratic daycare and brain washing system in the world…the public school, and I love my children too much to have them become a victim of Darwinian dogma, or be severely dumbed-down with godless government indoctrination.
We decided to homeschool our children primarily for the safety aspect at first, then our main focus became motivated by our religious convictions to diligently teach and train our own children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. One factor that influenced us was Bob Enyart Live, a radio show that exposed the danger and corruption within the government schools and urged parents to pull their kids out. The person who influenced me the most was my late Aunt Debbie who was a pioneer in the homeschooling movement 30 years ago. She home-educated each one of her four children from kindergarten through high school - And I'll tell you that ALL four of my cousins are the most intellectual, sociable, well-grounded followers of Christ I ever had the privilege to know. Seeing the fruit of her hard work has been a great inspiration to me to homeschool my own kids.
Q3 - How did the public school system affect you as a person? Do you think things would have turned out differently if you had not attended it?
I would say that nearly everything I learned that was wrong, destructive, and perverted, I learned in public school! Throughout my jr. high and high school years I spent much of my time following my peers and experimenting with drugs and sexual promiscuity, cheating my way through each grade and conforming to a debased mentality commonplace within the classroom. Despite the efforts of comprehensive sex-education, I got pregnant and had my first child at the age of fifteen. The whole public school experience negatively affected me, not only in the area of academics, but morally and spiritually as well since I learned that standards of right and wrong are relative.
Of course, I do think things would have turned out differently or better if I had not attended public school, but family life also plays a significant role in how well a child turns out. With so much anger and pain from my parents divorce, and without a father in the home, it seems as though I was destined for destruction anyway, no matter how I was educated! The public school was just a breeding ground for delinquents, and I fit right in.
Q4 - What do you think would be the greatest danger your children would face if they attended public school?
Some of the dangers that concern me as a parent are the obvious cases of violence and school shootings which are becoming regular occurrences in schools today. The homosexual agenda is promoted and sexual harassment is rampant in the hallways and allowed in classrooms. Rape, molestation and other sexual crimes are also ordinary events at schools which I don’t want my children exposed to.
Less obvious dangers are in and around the system itself. Public schools teach gang-rule, severe competition, ultimate peer pressure, chemical dependency, sick vocabulary, horrible eating habits, emotionally disturbed ideas, immorality and a variety of other delinquent and destructive behaviors which are contrary to the wisdom and instructions found in God's Holy Scriptures.
But all those things are mere by-products of godless school teachings. The government’s objective is to completely usurp parental authority, which it is succeeding at. Government schools are by law secular, which means worldly rather than spiritual, or omitting God altogether. Christian kids should not receive an education and be yoked together with thousands of unbelieving kids all day long in a place where God is irrelevant to all aspects of life!
The Nehemiah Institute's worldview PEERS test shows that 83% of the children from committed Christian families in public schools adopt a secular humanist or Marxist socialist worldview by the time they graduate. In addition to that, the SBC's 2002 annual meeting, the Southern Baptist Council on Family Life reported, among other disturbing things, that 88% of the children raised in evangelical homes who attend public school, leave church at age 18.
So undoubtedly, the greatest danger my kids would face if they attended public school is losing their faith in God.
Q5 - What do you believe is the greatest advantage that your children have from being home schooled?
One of the greatest advantage my children have from being homeschooled is the mere fact that we get to spend time together learning as a family and studying the Word of God without the hostility of the secular world corrupting their minds. Our days are flexible, and we are not restricted by school bells and rigid schedules or limited by government policies. This allows us the freedom to operate our day in the best way that will maximize our family’s needs and reap the richest rewards that homeschooling has to offer. We don’t have to call in on sick days or miss school for vacations because we can learn wherever we are and we don’t have to answer to the school authorities.
Q6 - To be more specific, what is the greatest academic advantage that your children have from being homeschooled?
The greatest academic advantage my children have from being homeschooled is to be able to learn in a safe and stress free environment, and to have the one-on-one attention necessary to cater to their individual needs which will nourish their love for learning. They will not be forced-fed humanistic, New Age propaganda or compelled to study subjects that are boring to them, rather they will have the opportunity to study subjects that are of great interest to them, and learn specific skills that will help them succeed in their adult life.
Q7 - How do you choose a curriculum for your child? How do you decide which is the best one?
As Christians, the Bible is our core curriculum. Teaching basic phonic sounds is the primary focus so the children learn to read with ease. Once they learn to read, quality classic books are what we use to learn. For other academic subjects such as history, science, biology, ect., the best curriculum is one that is Christ centered since we believe that God is the Creator of life and He is author all subjects.
The goal for us is not academic success. Education is not just about what facts a child knows; it is primarily about how he becomes equipped for the battle, and how he lives his life once he is grown.
The most important objective with raising children is building their character with a strong moral foundation, not teaching them math, geography, and science. The main goal in child training is to train them to be obedient, respectful, to honor God, to learn His Word and to love each other. Once those things are in place, the academics will naturally follow with ease. (*Note: Homeschooling statistics reveal that children who are taught at home outscore their public school classmates in all areas of academics by a landslide.)
Q8 - One aspect that most people are concerned about is socialization. Some would argue that homeschooling deprives a child of a social life. What are your thoughts on this?
This is a common myth that segregating children by age with very little interaction with other adults, except their teacher(s), for 8 hours a day, five days a week is somehow a healthy and effective way to learn how to socialize properly. When people ask me about socialization, I say that this is the VERY reason why we don’t send our kids to public school. If I wanted my kids to be severely sexually harassed daily, experience fierce peer pressure, have poor self-esteem, pick up a few drug habits, disrespect authority, use foul language, learn about sexual immorality and perversion, embrace relativism, feminism and tolerance as virtues, or possibly get sexually molested by their peers and teachers, then I would send them to public school in a heartbeat. But I actually love my children and care about their physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, so that kind of 'socialization' is not an option for our family!
Public education does not have some magical formula for people to deal with the 'real world'. In fact, I believe that the school environment puts kids at a disadvantage. There is no other circumstance in 'real life' where the conditions of a public school are duplicated, other than the prison system.
Q9 - How do you socialize your children?
I socialize my children by having them interact with people of all ages. We go to museums, the zoo, the park, library, the grocery store, a nursing home and other places on a regular basis during the week, which provides them with stimulating experiences where they can also learn how to communicate in a mature manner with a variety of people. I do like to limit outside influences that don’t align with our belief system, so my children primarily learn proper socialization with their siblings, friends, elderly neighbors and other acquaintances that have a strong moral foundation, hold each other accountable, and seek to edify one another in the Lord.
Q10 - A concern that many parents have about the public school system is its tendency to medicate children. What are your thoughts on this?
Parents should be concerned! The most unnatural thing you can do to young children (especially boys) who are growing and exploring is to force them to be confined to a classroom and sit still at a desk for 8 hours a day with little or no relief to express themselves. Despite the potentially dangerous side-effects of Ritalin (or other drugs), public school authorities now pressure parents to give Ritalin to their children so these kids won’t “act up” in school. Public schools across America are giving out powerful, mind-altering drugs to children as if these drugs were candy, yet outside there are signs that read, “Proud to be a Drug Free School Zone”. Such hypocrisy!
Naturally, most parents don’t want to drug their children just because they are unruly, bored in class, energetic or high-spirited. However, compulsory attendance laws force parents to send their children to public schools, and since it’s a “free” education, parents ignorantly comply. Just as school authorities resort to compulsion to get their students by force, so they apply the same compulsion against children and their parents to pressure parents into giving Ritalin to their kids.
So how do schools pressure parents? They threaten to expel the child, hold the child back a grade, put the child into a special-education class, or threaten the parents with prosecution for child abuse.
Q11 - When you attended public school were you ever medicated? If yes, what effects did this have on you?
No, I was never given medication, but my oldest daughter was from preschool to 2nd grade when she attended public school. I was told by the so-called “experts” that she had ADHD and needed the meds to sit still and focus, otherwise the couldn’t have her in the classroom. Naively I trusted them, and magically the pills worked to the teacher’s benefit. The meds made my daughter in a zombie-like state of mind, she lost her appetite and still failed to learn. We pulled her out after the 2nd grade, took her off the meds and she’s be progressing and doing great ever since.
Q12 - What advice would you give to parents who are considering sending their children to public school?
Well, it depends on if the parents are Christians or not. For the average unbelievers I would simply say, if you love your kids, pull them out of the public school before it’s too late. Oftentimes parents may get discouraged or feel overwhelmed with the thought of homeschooling their own children because the culture says parents are not qualified to teach if they don't have a "degree" in education. But a casual look at the products of today’s public schooled children quickly reveals that the so-called trained professionals are failing miserably at their jobs and producing immoral misfits who can barely read or write.
For believers, I would encourage them to have a Biblical perspective when it comes to education, and remind them that it is their responsibility as parents to diligently teach their own kids in the ways of the Lord. I would let them know that God's design is for the family to be together; it was never to send children away from the home all day to be educated, especially to a godless humanistic, pagan seminary – A place where children are surrounded by heathens all day, where God is mocked and abolished from all aspects of life, and a place where all Truth is relative while all morality is tossed out the window.
I would tell parents who are considering homeschooling that if they love God and are committed to doing what is right, they are qualified to teach their children! No one can teach children better than their own parents because no one loves the children and cares more for their children's eternal salvation than mom and dad.
For Christian kids, there is no better place for education than in the home where children are loved, nurtured, attended to, and taught by their own parents.
Every Christian parent who is truly interested in the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of their children, their homes, and the future of our beloved America, should pull their kids out of public school and offer them an exclusively Christian education!
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