Homeschool News & Views #3
from Homeschool Helpers

Greetings.  This is Dan White with issue number 3 of
Homeschool News & Views.

In Homeschool News & Views, we don’t focus so much on
the smaller details of how to teach math or which
curriculum to use.  We concentrate on the big factors
in Christian homeschooling, the anti-Christian
direction of America and the pro-Christ direction of
homeschooling.  That is why most families homeschool.

Sometimes it can get a bit discouraging as we hear one
item of bad news after another for Christians.  But
the bad news is real, not just made up.  When we began
homeschooling nearly 30 years ago, the news was not
nearly so bad then as now.  Would that we still had
those times, even though the society was certainly
turning down, even then.

It is human to want to be like the Jews of Jeremiah’s
time and just ignore the bad stuff and make up good
stuff.  Once, a couple of years ago, we were talking
with a group about the onslaught of homosexuality in
America and the western world, and how in Canada it is
illegal to speak against it.  One man made the comment
that we should just ignore the sodomy and preach the
gospel.  I was set back by that comment.  It made no
connection between Christ and getting rid of sin. 

Mat 1:21, World English Bible, says that Christ “shall
save his people from their sins."  In Act 3:26, Peter
said that God sent Christ to “bless you, in turning
away every one of you from your wickedness."

Christ came to get rid of sin, past, present and
future.   Sometimes, like Jonah but perhaps for a
different reason, we hesitate to speak out against
sin.  When Jonah wanted to bury his head in the sand,
he got buried in the sea instead.

We are currently under an onslaught of
homosexuality/sodomy.   Earlier, around the 1950’s the
drive was to make divorce acceptable and common.  Then
a few decades later the push was to make adultery and
fornication acceptable and common.  Now the push is to
make sodomy acceptable and common.  If America turns
into Sodom, Christians will be like Lot, surrounded by
hostility, burdened with vexation.

2Pe 2:6-8, WEB
(6)  and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into
ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them
an example to those who would live ungodly;
(7)  and delivered righteous Lot, who was very
distressed by the lustful life of the wicked
(8)  (for that righteous man dwelling among them, was
tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with
seeing and hearing lawless deeds):

The King James says “vexed his righteous soul from day
to day.”  In like manner many of us are vexed today.

And in that vein, in the last Homeschool News & Views
we spoke of a transgender student in a Missouri
school.  He was a he who wanted to be a she.
Apparently nothing had been surgically altered to make
him look like a her.  People can claim they are
transgendered if they just put on a skirt or a pair of
pants.  So where does he who wanted to be a she but is
really a he go to the restroom at school?  Would you
want your daughter going to the same restroom as
he/she/it?

New York City recently was considering a policy which
would have allowed someone to claim a new gender and
get a new birth certificate affirming the change
without going to the trouble of having a surgical
operation.  Those who argued for that said, “The
measure of a person’s gender isn’t surgery, but rather
how that person lives and feels on a daily basis.”
This would allow people to change their gender as they
changed their clothes.  After some protest, NYC did
not implement this policy, but issues new gender birth
certificates only after a convertive surgical
operation.

Seventeen states have nondiscrimination laws for
transgenders.  As in the small Missouri school, this
again raises the question of where do these people go
to the restroom?  If a man can change his gender by
putting on a dress and then legally go into the
women’s restroom, I suspect there will be some
transgendering going on by those who still think very
much like males.  This will affect the government
schools, as those are always in the forefront of court
ordered policy changes.

Many public school students dread going into the
restrooms at their schools.   That’s where the bullies
bully and the druggies druggy. As the transgender
movement gains momentum, many more students may be
holding their movements all day.  Would you want your
daughter going to the restroom with guys with skirts on?

Now is this real or is this ridiculous?  One reason
that New York City did not allow non-surgical
transgenders is because of the obvious restroom
problem.  It doesn’t seem reasonable that such an
absurd situation could come to pass, yet the moral
situation the country is in today did not seem
reasonable 30 years ago.  I do know that when we go to
the public parks now, several times we have seen men
with women coming out of the women’s restrooms.  We
even asked a park ranger about it, and he said, “Oh,
yeah – happens all the time.”

For you homeschool families, in your daily battles to
teach the multiplication tables and deal with
dipthongs, relax a little.  Going to the restroom is
not a function to be feared in your schools.

Never forget, folks – never, never forget – that in
this river of sin there are always eddies of
obedience.  No place is that more true than with the
Christian homeschoolers.

Here is an excerpt from a posting by a homeschool mom
to a homeschool group.  Her child is only two, but we
began all of ours to read at age two, also.  This
family is currently in southeast Asia.  She said, “I
have been homeschooling my kindergartener here in
Thailand this year.  It has gone much better than I
expected.  He's learning to read and it is very
satisfying to be teaching him.  I'm teaching him using
a phonics approach and using some of the same
materials that are used here to teach English to the
Thai and Burmese students.  I am also finding it very
satisfying to be teaching him the Bible.  I read Bible
story books oriented to children, but I also just read
to him straight from the Bible and try to make it
applicable to his everyday life as much as possible as
we go along.  I try to focus him always on the core
messages of trust in God, love for God, God's love for
us, our obedience, etc. 
 
We have a first year student here at [the] Institute
where we are serving who is seeking to be a Christian.
 One afternoon, [my son] initiated a conversation with
him and then he ran in to get the Bible I read to him
from.  I then sent my 2 year old out with the picture
Bible. They sat out there about 45 minutes sharing
what they are learning about the Bible.  This student
is in Bible I class, stories of the OT, and is
learning the same things that [my son] is right now.
Anyway, it was a little gift from God to show me, I
believe, that our children really are listening even
if we sometimes wonder.”

Notice that this mother said “it is very satisfying to
be teaching him.”

We also received this email from a friend.

“During Sunday night's NFL football game between San Diego
and Kansas City there was a first for homeschoolers.

During the early parts of the football game the
announcers introduce the various players with a short
intro for each group of players.  When the offense is
on the field they introduce the offensive line, etc.
These intros consist of a prerecorded piece with each
player giving his name and the college he went to.
Recently I saw one player give his high school rather
than his college.

Last night during the intros for one of the
Kansas City groups one of the players said,
"I was home schooled, Thanks, Mom".
I told my wife that's got to be a first.
Not long after that the announcer repeated
my observation about it being a first.”

What a powerful statement.  “Thanks, Mom!”  How do you
think that Mom felt?  Now I don’t know why the
statement only went to Mom, as homeschooling is
certainly a family commitment, but laying that point
aside, how did that Mom feel, after putting in all
those hours, days, months and years – let me state
that again:  hours, days, months and years – to have
her son take the trouble to state on nationwide TV, “I
was homeschooled.  Thanks, Mom.”

How did that Mom feel?

I am sure she felt much the same as the lady who is
teaching the two year old the Bible, and then heard
him telling the Bible to someone else.  

Teaching our offspring is absolutely one of the most
Godly and necessary things we can ever do in this
life.  Teaching our offspring is also one of the most
fulfilling, satisfying and rewarding things we can
ever do in this life.  God spends our few years on
earth teaching us.  David said, “God, you have taught
me from my youth,” Ps 71:17; and “Behold, you desire
truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the
inmost place,” Ps 51:6.   The whole drawn out episode
with Job was just to teach the most obedient man on
earth more about obedience.  In the midst of today’s
moral troubles, we must always remember that.  Bad
times teach good people to be better.

Fathers are told about their children, to “nurture
them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord,”
Eph 6:4.  It is no accident that in this age the
parents have been removed as primary teachers.  With
day care, pre-school and then regular school, almost
nobody is nurturing.

First of all, many parents have become so self focused
that they don’t want to teach their children.  They
want to spend the bulk of their time making money.
Americans have more stuff than any people in history,
and yet Americans want to spend most of their time
making money to get more stuff.  In fact, this
selfishness has reached the point in rich Western
societies that people don’t even care enough about
kids to have any.  Europe’s reproduction rate is
negative.  They’re not having enough kids to replace
themselves.  I saw an article about some Euro middle
aged workers who had passed the child bearing age and
had chosen never to have children.  Did they have any
regrets?  No.  They work to get money to go on holiday
from their work.  They get about six weeks of vacation
a year and go to the beaches of southern Europe, on
holiday.  That’s their lives, work and holiday.

Even among American Christian parents who do value
their children, and who actually want to teach them
principles from the Bible, most don’t really make time
to do that.  George Barna is a renowned Christian
researcher, constantly tracing the attitudes and
actions of American Christians.  He found that fewer
than 10% of American evangelical Christians actually
do devotions with their families at least once a week.
 Surely a large portion of that 10% are homeschool
families, many of whom have family devotions every
day.

Consider that.  Outside the homeschoolers, almost no
Christian families have devotions together, where the
parents actually sit down to teach their children the
most valuable lessons possible.

The following argument is often made against
homeschooling:  the schools should teach the kids the
regular subjects, and the parents should teach the
morals.  That is a total cop-out and a ruse.  Here is
the real situation.  Counting travel time and waiting
time, the schools have the youth about 8 hours a day,
5 days a week, or about 40 hours a week.  During this
time the students are fenced off from God and are
exposed to the latest socialist fads and the latest
media mire from an unguided peer group.  There the
students are taught their immorals, 40 hours a week,
every week for most of the year.  By comparison, what
do they get from their Christian parents to offset
that?  Almost nothing.  Generally only a church
service once a week where nothing is said that might
offend anyone.  In other words, they talk theology
instead of sin, and almost nobody really listens.

What is the ratio of bad teaching versus good teaching
here?  About 40 to 1.

No wonder almost all the Christian public school kids
stop being Christian!

Homeschooling does take time.  But it is not wasted
time, any more than God wastes His time when He works
with us.  God worked with King David for 7 years
before He ever let him be king over all of Israel.  7
years David got chased and spears chunked at him,
living in the wilderness, hiding in caves, having
spittle run down his beard and his wife taken away.
But that wasn’t wasted time!   Yahweh was training a
king of Israel.  And you, Christian homeschool
parents, are not wasting your time when you decide to
make less gold and teach more God.  You are training
future kings and priests of Israel.  You are reversing
that 40 to 1 ratio of bad and good teaching.

No wonder almost all the Christian homeschool kids
keep being Christian!

What does the Christian homeschool parent get for all
this time and effort?

Two things.

One:  someday you can hear 'Well done, good and
faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few
things, I will set you over many things. Enter into
the joy of your lord.'

And two:  at some point you Dads and Moms can hear
this from your children:  “I was homeschooled.
Thanks, Mom!”
 
Christian homeschooling is really parental discipling,
personal real life teaching, just as Christ did with
His disciples.  Christ is doing that with each of us.
This world we live in with its many problems is our
classroom.  Indeed sometimes it’s harder than algebra!
 So pay close attention to the teacher.  Spend hours,
days, weeks, months and years with Him in personal
instruction.   We don’t really learn to obey and gain
the faith to obey in tough times from an institution.
We only get that from God and we only learn that from
the things which we suffer, just as Christ did.  So we
do have something to be thankful to the liberals for –
the suffering!

And someday when we graduate from this school of life,
we can tell our Father and our Older Brother, “I was
homeschooled.  Thanks!”

This is Dan White with Homeschool Helpers.  God bless
the Christian homeschoolers.