Notes: The Christian Family Conference 2010 (Part 9)

My wife, oldest daughter and I attended the Christian Family Conference in Denver this past week. It was an amazing time of encouragement with other Christian parents – most of whom are devoted to homeschooling and home-training their children to be godly men and women, prepared to take on the world with a multi-generational vision. I’m posting some of the notes I took from the conference sessions. Some are sure to fly in the face of the traditions and cultures which most people would consider normal in today’s culture. But these men who spoke to us used the Scriptures, and their lives and the lives of their children are a testament to their integrity and boldness on these topics. Their words motivate me to continue to raise my children in a radical, counter-culture, God-fearing way.

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Chuck Black is an ex-test pilot turned homeschooling father. Really. He gave a lot of very practical lessons about raising our children in today’s world. One look at his family will demonstrate his success in the area of parenting – if you stop by his booth, his children are there running the show – they are polite, well-spoken, talented , and well on their way to becoming lights for God in a dark world.

Chuck did an excellent job of reinforcing my belief that it is the family, not church youth groups, that is responsible for developing maturity in our children. “Youth group” is a relatively modern creation. Our family often must choose between youth group activities…and being together as a family. We almost always choose the latter, and I believe that this is the biblical model. Please don’t get this wrong – I’m not saying that youth groups are inherently bad or evil – the point is that parental involvement should be the primary driver of spiritual and emotional maturity. Without it, youth group gatherings can be simply a pooling of immaturity with no real lasting value. When the parents abdicate the role of being the main spiritual mentors and enforcers in the family, the children are operating at a severe disadvantage.

“Equipping Your Children to Overcome the Cultural Pressures of Today” by Chuck Black

· One-hundred years ago, children transitioned to adulthood in a very short time, and at a young age. Today, we allow them seven to eight years of “teenage time”. This is a new invention – it didn’t used to be this way.

· Part of the reason is that there is a lot more time, money, and available entertainment in today’s society

· Children are maturing physically at an earlier age, but their spiritual and emotional maturity is coming later – this creates a maturity gap that is often filled with entertainment – and Satan is targeting this gap, instead of allowing the family to fill it

· Negative peer pressure and broken relationships exacerbate the maturity problem

· Problems in today’s society that need strong parenting in order to avoid them:

· 1) Large amounts of time are spent with immature youth – limit it, monitor it, or stop it!

· 2) Our children are culturally encouraged to spend time with, or have physical relationships with the opposite sex, without commitment – don’t allow it!

· 3) Young people are culturally discouraged to marry at an early age – this creates physical pressures and may increase the length of the maturity gap

· 4) Our children live in an entertainment-oriented world – one way we can push back against this is to help our children discover the joy and accomplishment in labor

· 5) We have culturally established academic education to take place outside of the home – parents are rarely seen as teachers anymore, and this is a fairly recent change in our society (over the last 150 years). Homeschooling restores this area to its proper place.

· 6) We have culturally established spiritual education to take place outside of the home – many parents see Sunday school or youth group as being the prime places where their children will learn about God, and so have abdicated the role of being the spiritual leaders of their family, in favor of a youth minister or another parent.

· When you see a young man or woman who is especially mature for their age, ask yourself – did they get that way because of what happened to them at school, at church…or at home?

· Chuck Black’s wife calculates that homeschooling allows her to spend 15,680 more hours with each of her children than if she had sent them to public school. There is a lot of mentoring and heartfelt communication that can take place during those hours.

· The responsibilities of parents toward their children: 1) Lead your children to the Lord, 2) Train your children, 3) Discipline your child, 4) Equip your child, 5) Protect your children from physical, emotional, and spiritual harm, 6) Carefully expose your children to important things – keep them innocent, but not ignorant, 7) Disciple your children in the Lord – and be purposeful about this, 8) Launch your children toward a target

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Back to Notes: The Christian Family Conference 2010 (Part 1)
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Notes: The Christian Family Conference 2010 (Part 5)

My wife, oldest daughter and I attended the Christian Family Conference in Denver this past week. It was an amazing time of encouragement with other Christian parents – most of whom are devoted to homeschooling and home-training their children to be godly men and women, prepared to take on the world with a multi-generational vision. I’m posting some of the notes I took from the conference sessions. Some are sure to fly in the face of the traditions and cultures which most people would consider normal in today’s culture. But these men who spoke to us used the Scriptures, and their lives and the lives of their children are a testament to their integrity and boldness on these topics. Their words motivate me to continue to raise my children in a radical, counter-culture, God-fearing way.

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Voddie Baucham is perhaps the strongest, best preacher I have ever listened to. He is clearly a dedicated family man, preacher, and evangelist. His words on education take you from his days being raised in the rough part of Los Angeles, to his story of obtaining advanced degrees from multiple notable colleges (including Oxford University), to his words on the dangers in higher education today. If you want to be seriously challenged, visit his website (but remember, I warned you, it is serious stuff). For my own words on higher education, visit here or here.

“Harvard or Heaven” by Voddie Baucham

· First of all, college is not inherently sinful, or completely useless. That is not what we’re saying.

· God calls us to prepare our children for heaven, not college or career. But this doesn’t mean that no one should go to college.

· So, what is potentially wrong with college today? There are five specific things.

1) Most undergraduate degrees aren’t worth the paper they are printed on

· On average today, a high school diploma will net you $1.2 million of income over your entire career. A college degree will get you $2.1 million. A master’s degree will get you $2.5 million.

· But, you can give your 18-year old a check for $10,000 (just once, and this is far less than you would pay for the first year of most colleges), and encourage them to save $500 a month during their “career”, then they will have $1 million in the bank by age 51. So, if being a millionaire is the goal…..then this is a pretty safe route to get there.

· Read the Forbes magazine article from January 14, 2009 entitled “The Great College Hoax”. It’s eye-opening.

· The “loan sharks” charge more, higher education costs more, the return of a college degree is less – all because the colleges know that America worships at the altar of higher education

· If you go to a decent state school and get a B.A degree, you can spend between $80,000 and $250,000 to get a four year degree – in “specialties” such as Film Studies, Art History, Dance, Chicano Studies, Interior Design, African-American Studies, Packaging Science, Metalsmithing and Jewelry, Golf and Sports Turf Management, and Surf Science. You can even get a four-year degree in Painting – not artistic painting, but how to paint a living room! Really! The point here is that people are paying tens of thousands of dollars to get a degree – just because they can. The reward of having these degrees is very limited.

2) Four years is too much time to waste

· If you are getting a degree that is worth nothing to your future career, or to God’s kingdom, then you are wasting four very productive years of your life

· From ages 18-22, people start careers and families. Read Malachi 2:14-15 to see what God places importance on in our youth.

· A lot of people pick majors in college because they simply don’t know what they want to do, or because they have flunked out of their first or second choice. And a wrong choice of major made during college can limit your options for life.

3) College costs too much money

· The economy is down, but tuition and enrollment are up! How can we explain this except that people are worshipping the idea of education, rather than analyzing the product?

· Are we counting the cost? See Luke 14:28-30. Yet, families are going into debt for college educations. And young families are starting their marriages knee-deep in debt – at a time when this burden should not be on them.

4) College is not for everyone

· Not everyone has the academic ability to go to college. But this does not prevent colleges from enrolling them as paying students!

· Long ago, when there were only a few universities in the United States, students used to have to know Greek, Latin and Hebrew – before being admitted to college! Now, an average college will take you if you have a pulse and a loan. College is a business, and people who are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars each year are welcome.

· A new college model to generate more revenue is to allow unqualified students to enroll – but then put them through a year of “remedial” classes – turning a four-year degree into a five-year degree….and charging full price for that extra year. Think about it.

· You don’t have to have a college degree to support your family! Don’t believe the lie that is told about this!

· Those who graduate from college generally don’t know anything about the business world – they have to be trained in their first job. Why not cut out the middle-man (universities) and apprentice them right out of college?

· What about my kids – what should I do? 1) Analyze their gifts and talents (Proverbs 22:6), 2) Analyze their desires and callings (1 Timothy 3:1), 3) Ask yourself if college is necessary, 4) Follow the Lord’s leading

5) Most universities are philosophically antagonistic to Christianity

· Professors are often the enemies of God (not always, but often)

· Proverbs 13:20 – the companion of fools will suffer harm – it’s a promise

· Students are often guided strongly by their teachers – in life, morals and character

· So what if I decide that college is for my child? 1) Do it as quickly as possible (Ephesians 5:15-17), 2) Do it as inexpensively as possible (Luke 14:28), 3) Do it as safely as possible – don’t send your children into a lion’s den, evaluate the environment they will be in, consider college near to home

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Back to Notes: The Christian Family Conference 2010 (Part 1)
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Notes: The Christian Family Conference 2010 (Part 2)

My wife, oldest daughter and I attended the Christian Family Conference in Denver this past week. It was an amazing time of encouragement with other Christian parents – most of whom are devoted to homeschooling and home-training their children to be godly men and women, prepared to take on the world with a multi-generational vision. I’m posting some of the notes I took from the conference sessions. Some are sure to fly in the face of the traditions and cultures which most people would consider normal in today’s culture. But these men who spoke to us used the Scriptures, and their lives and the lives of their children are a testament to their integrity and boldness on these topics. Their words motivate me to continue to raise my children in a radical, counter-culture, God-fearing way.

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“The Rise And Fall of Western Civilization” by Kevin Swanson

· Is there such a thing as getting an “education with a Biblical worldview”? Or do we think of education in the same way we do about gasoline? No one would pay extra if the local convenience store sold “gas with a Biblical worldview”. So do we really believe that an education with a Biblical emphasis is possible? We should.

· The average Christian does not realize that they are being affected by the non-Christian worldview that constantly surrounds them.

· For example, scientists just recently stated that spanking will permanently damage the psyche of a child. This clearly goes against what the Bible teaches. So, who do we believe – God or man?

· In our culture today, we give God no credit for sovereign control over realities such as hurricanes. Now, it’s all about science and the environment. When did God get removed from thinking about things like natural disasters…or the wonder of the atom?

· Consider Bobbie Carlyle’s statue of a man carving himself out of stone… how did he get started without hands? Someone had to make his hands. It’s an analogy to “The Self-Made Man” – men want to believe that they are the authors of their own lives, but where would they be without God?

· Sex education is best taught in the context of what God wants – not in the context of how to avoid sexually-transmitted diseases! Because without God, STD’s are viewed as something that can be readily fixed. God’s view on sexual purity is for entirely different reasons (and the consequences are not so easily fixed).

· When you separate God from the chemistry classroom, you run the risk of polluting your life with a humanist worldview.

· Aristotle’s big mistake – he didn’t mention the fear of God in his rhetoric.

· For history class, give your children a synopsis of all history, and how every single empire has eventually fallen. But God is building a kingdom that never dies.

· Humanist worldview shows up even in some of the most famous and classic books. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne never once mentions Jesus Christ, nor repentance. Instead, he brings an element of awe to the letter “A” that Hester wears. It’s as if Hawthorne is looking forward to the day when there is no absolute morality – I think that day has arrived – it’s the very definition of post-modernism. It’s okay for our children to read books like The Scarlet Letter, but someone needs to be there to explain the worldview and to counsel for God’s view on such things.

· “I want my children to be Christians. I don’t want them to be compromised.”

· Idea – Google “greatest Christian books” and give them to your children to read

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Back to Notes: The Christian Family Conference 2010 (Part 1)
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Notes: The Christian Family Conference 2010 (Part 1)

My wife, oldest daughter and I attended the Christian Family Conference in Denver this past week. It was an amazing time of encouragement with other Christian parents – most of whom are devoted to homeschooling and home-training their children to be godly men and women, prepared to take on the world with a multi-generational vision.

Some observations from the first 15 minutes of the conference:

· We started off in prayer – for our families, children and our world

· 1,200 of us sang hymns together

· A homeschool family got up on stage to sing America The Beautiful, with the youngest getting a solo or two (she was probably about four-years old, and she was good)

· Two prominent men running for public office got up to speak of their dedication to homeschooling and Christian principles – Dan Maes (running for Colorado governor) and Ken Buck (running for U.S. Senate)

· My local State Senator, Kevin Lundberg, was behind the soundboard, serving as he always does in one form or another(he has the best servant’s heart and attitude of any politician I’ve ever encountered – I talked to him later, and he said he was doing it because they were short-handed and needed some help)

I feel so very comfortable in and among this group of people. And I saw a tremendous number of families who were obviously being blessed in their daily walk. They are not afraid to speak to others about it, either.

I’m going to post some of the notes I took from the conference sessions. Some are sure to fly in the face of the traditions and cultures which most people would consider normal in today’s culture. But these men who spoke to us used the Scriptures, and their lives and the lives of their children are a testament to their integrity and boldness on these topics. Their words motivate me to continue to raise my children in a radical, counter-culture, God-fearing way.

“Getting Your House In Order” by Dr. Voddie Baucham

· The text is Deuteronomy 6, where we learn that the Israelites received a promise that if they obey God and fear God, they would 1) live long, 2) it will go well with them, and 3) they would multiply greatly

· Today, can we say in our American culture that “it is well” with us? We know that God will always prevail, but it is not going well in our land. And children in our land are often seen as a burden, not a blessing (the legality of abortion is one reason, but also because we see some people look oddly at families who have five or six or ten kids)

· The phenomenon of the mega-church – it’s the Wal-Mart effect when they come to town, many of the “mom and pop” churches close – hum the Star Wars Death Star theme – and many of these churches are filled with people who are being coddled in their sin

· From verses 4 through 15 – Why aren’t things going well? Why are we not multiplying? As the passage in Deuteronomy 6 tells us, we need to 1) Worship God without rivals, 2) Love without compromise, 3) Don’t forget God as we prosper

· “Worship God without rivals” – If God were not a jealous God, if He allowed others to share His glory, then He would not be God

· “God is not running for God” – He already has the job

· Don’t worship at the altar of education, worship at the altar of God – What is the goal? To get into a good college, or to serve God for life?

· As a homeschooler, evaluate your priority with this scenario – if your child’s test scores fall, would you consider sending them back to public school? On what do you judge success or failure? If it is test scores alone, then that is a form of idolatry! What test are you preparing them for – the SAT or Iowa Basic? Or a bigger test?

· (in jest) “You should start your homeschool a week later then public school just on general principle!”

· Voddie has talked with people who believe Deuteronomy 6 applies only to “non-school” hours. But if we mark our houses as God’s territory, how can we not be motivated to homeschool? Should we continue to send our kids to Caesar?

· Has our culture eroded our need for God? Example – when sickness comes to our family, are we on our knees before God asking for his help? No, because now we can drive down to the pharmacy to get a cure – and we forget God because we don’t have a need for Him!

· Teach your children to be satisfied with God – not to chase after anything else! Remember – homeschooling is not about education, it’s about discipleship.
For more on the application of Deuteronomy 6 to family life, I strongly recommend that you read Voddie Baucham’s book – Family-Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God

Exchanging Higher Education…for a Trade

As I’ve been writing on higher education, I’ve mentioned the sudden flood of articles on the subject – a great many of them now questioning the value and worth of getting a college degree.

So it is no surprise that I encountered this article last week from the Washington Post – More College-Educated Jump Tracks To Become Skilled Manual Laborers. The title speaks for itself, but it contains a good summation near the opening – “They started out studying aerospace engineering, creative writing and urban planning. But somewhere on the path to accumulating academic credentials, they decided that working with their hands sounded more pleasant -- and lucrative -- than a lot of white-collar work. So bye-bye to term papers and graduate theses, and hello to apprenticeships to become plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics and carpenters.”

For many, this may sound like going backward in time. After all, we’ve been taught that our ancestors worked long and hard in the fields, or in a blacksmith shop, or at some other difficult physical labor so that we, their descendants, could enjoy the increased fruits and pleasures of a white-collar job. We’ve been taught that today’s white-collar business structure is an “evolution” along the career timeline – that we somehow deserve to earn six-figure salaries in the comfort of air-conditioned high-rises, while somewhere there are people doing the “dirty work”.

But here are some observations that I’ve made along the way:

1) There are jobs that still need two strong hands to accomplish – plumbing, wiring houses, building cabinets – some things cannot be replaced by automation or spreadsheets.

2) These “manual labor” jobs can still pay the bills for any average family with the wisdom to stay out of debt and forego a life of unnecessary trappings.

3) A job such as an electrician is usually a local job – fathers don’t often have to travel on business – that is a HUGE advantage to the core family.

4) White collar jobs, like being a middle-level manager or an engineer or a software programmer, seem to be growing more and more unstable. There is not nearly as much job security in these careers as there once was. But even when people are out of work, plumbing still breaks, and so do automobiles…

5) A person is much more likely to end up owning their own business through a trade than they are working in the vertically-integrated white-collar world today.

6) There is a great deal of satisfaction to be had in creating or repairing something with your own two hands.

Each of these items could elicit a great deal of discussion, but let me focus only on the second point for now. Our society (not unlike many societies before ours) places a great deal of emphasis on wealth. But the Bible is very clear – material wealth can draw us away from God. Solomon attests to this in the Book of Ecclesiastes, and Jesus told us this very thing in Matthew 19:24 – “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

As was pointed out to me recently, our culture now worships at the altar of higher education – not at the altar of the Almighty God. That’s something for me to keep in mind as I get ready to send my children out into the world. And when considering my own future career.

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Back to the Thoughts On Higher Education series

Bonus Material on The Value of Higher Education

A while back I wrote about my perception of the declining value of college education. While the thoughts are not absolute, I believe strongly that many higher education degrees have unnecessarily placed students into great debt and into jobs that require them to work hard (paying off their debt) at things that are not God’s-kingdom-related. Alternative approaches that our family is exploring are community college credits while homeschooling, as well as internship and ultimately, business ownership. All of this, with a goal of no debt along the way.

It seems I’m not alone on this topic. Maybe it’s because I have been thinking about the topic, but I suddenly noticed articles popping up all over the place about this very subject. Whether it is about student loan debt, or the limited value of certain college degrees, there seem to be a lot of people questioning the same topic.

Here are some examples:

Higher Education Bubble About To Burst – Glenn Reynolds is a professor of law at the University of Tennessee. But in a very candid way, he acknowledges that higher education is not what it should be. He points out the dangerous circle of ballooning costs with the seemingly cheap credit that allows students to amass hundreds of thousands of dollars of loans – before they ever even begin to start their career. One student’s quote – "I don't want to spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back."

Placing The Blame As Students Are Buried In Debt – More detail on the student quoted above. She went to school for four years to get a degree in Religious and Women’s Studies, amassed $100,000 in debt (credit that she obtained far too easily), and now struggles to scratch together enough income to pay her $700-per-month student loan payments. “It is utterly depressing that there are so many people like her facing decades of payments, limited capacity to buy a home and a debt burden that can repel potential life partners.”

Subprime Goes To College – This one is a tough, technical read. Click on it if you want to understand how the federal government subsidizes a great deal of the education loans in this country – very inefficiently. And a lot of it is a gimmick designed to enrich the educators, not the students. “At one Corinthian Colleges-owned Everest College campus in California, students paid $16,000 for an eight-month course in medical assisting. Upon nearing completion, the students learned that not only would their credits not transfer to any community or four-year college, but also that their degree is not recognized by the American Association for Medical Assistants. Hospitals refuse to even interview graduates.”

Getting An Efficiently Delivered Education – The author argues that the value received in return for the amount paid to receive a college education has become a negative incentive, and has been this way for the last two decades. I believe this may be true for Ivy League institutions and some of the more expensive and elite colleges. It’s probably not as valid for state colleges where the student gets an in-state tuition break. “Most importantly, commercial colleges are stealing the sophisticated non-bubble students who are able to calculate the cost of education, match the specific appropriate academic field or training, and benefit from an efficiently delivered education. Plus, commercial colleges put a lot of resources into making sure their graduates get jobs.”

Did You Know That Student Loans Aren’t Erased By Bankruptcy? – “If you run up big credit card bills buying a new home theater system and can’t pay it off after a few years, bankruptcy judges can get rid of the debt. They may even erase loans from a casino. But if you borrow money to get an education and can’t afford the loan payments after a few years of underemployment, that’s another matter entirely. It’s nearly impossible to get rid of the debt in bankruptcy court, even if it’s a private loan from for-profit lenders like Citibank or the student loan specialist Sallie Mae.” I have to confess that I did not know this – once student loans are granted, even bankruptcy won’t take them off of your books. Unlike any other loan I can think of, student loans appear to be permanent. This may explain why some people are still saddled with these loans even as much as twenty years after school.

8 Reasons College Tuition Is the Next Bubble to Burst – Some interesting points: “On average, college tuition increases at around 8 percent per year, which means the cost of college doubles every nine years.” Or, “Today, 66% of students borrow to pay for college, taking on an average of $23,165 in debt.” And here’s one that’s hard to believe, “Schools are spending on luxurious amenities to lure in more students. At High Point University in North Carolina, students are treated to valet parking, live music in the cafeteria and Starbucks gift cards on their birthdays.” And what prevents all of this from coming back into balance in today’s economy? “When your ‘customers’ have easy access to credit and pay you with money they don’t have, the economy doesn’t really matter, does it?”

All is not lost. The education bubble may burst soon, driving down the cost of a college education, and prompting universities to re-evaluate their priorities. But in the absence of that, there are alternatives to getting your student an education, a job, or even their own business. And you may be able to do it without incurring debt.

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Back to the Higher Education series

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Exchanging Higher Education For A Trade

What Is Missing From A Government-Funded Reading Program?

The local paper article I read today was almost too fantastic to believe.

The Colorado state legislature passed an initial proposal to implement a “Pay To Read” program this week. Under this law, over $1 million of taxpayer money would be used to pay low-income children $2 for every book they read. It’s an effort, theoretically, to get children to read and, thus improve their test scores (based on a Harvard study showing a connection between the program and superior test results).

There is so much I could say about this legislation. Such as why our government feels it can use tax money to bribe children to read? Or why the reward is offered only to low-income children? Or the fact that public libraries full of free books are available to kids whose parents are in any income bracket? Or how such a program puts those low-income children on the government dole early in life? Let’s be honest – one of the lessons that many kids will learn is that the government will pay them just to “show up” or do the minimum required when they become adults. And a lot of those kids will go on to live their lives with exactly that expectation – and find themselves part of the welfare spiral.

I’m tempted to write on all of these topics, but the real issue for me was summed up by the bill’s sponsor – Democrat senator Chris Romer from Denver. He believes that researchers at Harvard “cracked the code” for child motivation and then defended his position with this heart-ripping statement - “It's much cheaper to build children than to repair adults."

“It's much cheaper to build children than to repair adults."…

Why do I think that statement is against all that is right and good and godly? Because Mr. Romer has plainly stated the depths which our society has plumbed. That is – that the parent-child relationship is irrevocably broken, and so we have turned to something else to replace it – the government, acting through federal programs. Rather than fix the very root of the issue, we have decided to spend great amounts of money on an inferior solution. The government believes it now has the duty to “build children”.

In Malachi chapter 4, the Bible tells us that a prophet will be sent to “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” That is the most desirable state for a family to be in. This verse is one of the primary reasons that my wife and I homeschool our children – not because they get a superior one-on-one education, but because it gives us far more hours in a day to turn our hearts toward each other. And it has been a tremendous blessing to our family for these past six years.

The idea of a government paying kids to read because society has given up on good parenting is at the farthest extreme from God’s design. The problem of uninvolved or uncaring parents cannot (and should not) be fixed by a government program. The verse in Malachi tells us that the source of the issue lies in the heart of the individual. And the heart is best changed by one thing – God’s gift of the Holy Spirit actively working in a person’s life.

Thoughts On Higher Education – Part 3

…continued from Part 2 – Why Not To Work For A Big Company and What To Do About It
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A college education is now perceived by most Americans as being necessary to “succeed” in the business world. Indeed, I felt this way when I attended college – there was never a consideration on my part to stop my education at the high school level. As I pointed out in Part 2, though, there are now some very fine alternatives to college – and they don’t cost a fortune, nor do they take place in anti-Christian settings.

As I pondered this concept, two questions came to mind. If I ever feel that my kids cannot achieve their full potential without a college degree, should I reevaluate what I want them to attain in this life? What is it all really about?

A very wise man, one who had vast resources at his disposal to “experiment” with this idea, once endeavored to answer that very question. He devoted himself to study (Ecclesiastes 1:13) and to explore wisdom. He sought out pleasure, and cheered himself with laughter and wine (Eccl. 2:1-3). He took on great architectural projects, and planted vineyards and gardens –massive projects that were a great source of pride (Eccl. 2:4-6). And he amassed great wealth and acquired many possessions with which to delight himself (Eccl. 2:8-9).

For the first time, I noticed that this progression from the Old Testament parallels the typical American dream. Get educated – set yourself up to have some fun – do great things that can be seen by men – gain wealth – and retire to do something that rewards all of your efforts. Incredibly, it’s right there in the Scriptures – a test of the American dream, played out by the wisest man who ever lived.

King Solomon pondered education, toil, possessions, and amusement. What was it that he learned?

“For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die!” – Ecclesiastes 2:16

Solomon concluded that even wisdom is not something that lasts, and while being a wise man is not a bad thing, it is not the ultimate goal. So, what is it that we should spend our lives striving for? Bible readers know the answer that is forthcoming. At the very end of the Old Testament book, the ultimate goal of man’s life is revealed:

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” – Ecclesiastes 12:13

When all that makes up a great life by human standards is considered - a college education, or wealth, or possessions, or wisdom, or great accomplishments – all of these pale in comparison to the one true goal given to mankind. Fear God and keep His commands. I believe this is the lesson that God has been pointing me toward as he placed the burden of writing these articles on my heart. My children are nearing the end of their time under my roof. The time to make decisions about their future quickly approaches. Can they really be happy if their ultimate lot in life is to have a Bible, a little bread, and a prayerful heart (like the famous 1918 Eric Enstrom photograph at the top of the page)? I must deeply consider what the Father wants for them. Whether it necessitates a college degree – or not – there is one principle that must override every other desire.

I want my children to know God and to have an eternal relationship with the Creator of the Universe. God wants that, too.

Because that is what it’s all about.

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Back to Part 1 of the Higher Education series

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on to Bonus Material
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Other resources:
We’re Losing Our Own Kids
Jeff Myers – How Parents Subsidize the Destruction Of Kids’ Faith
How To Combat Secular Indoctrination

Thoughts On Higher Education – Part 2

…continued from Part 1 – The Old Model – Why We Used To Get a College Degree

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Recapping Part 1 - The value of working for a big company used to be substantially different – the employment was stable, companies helped fund employee health plans, and pension plans were offered to aid in retirement. Today all three of these benefits are being stripped away by the big companies – they no longer want the added expense. Thus, in a fairly short amount of time, the idea of owning one’s own business has grown extremely attractive. And here is a key point - you don’t need an expensive college degree to hire yourself as the owner of your own business.

To be sure, some professions still require a college degree in order to participate – such as the medical or teaching fields. My oldest child is considering the medical profession, so I’m not off the college hook by any means. But if these fields are not your goal, you may want to reconsider the idea of paying tens of thousands of dollars to obtain a degree from a university. I believe that the day is fast approaching when that little piece of paper called a diploma will mean a lot less than it has in the past.

The second reason that I hesitate to send my kids to a school of higher learning – especially a state school or Ivy League institution – is due to the culture that pervades these places. I went to a state school - so did my wife. I saw the drunkenness, partying, disregard for authority, and even the Marxist thought that pervades many of our universities. I attended a Psychology class where part of the standard curriculum was to show pornography to the class during one entire class lecture, in an effort to expose students to "another viewpoint" (by the way, that was one of the few days in my four year college career that I skipped class). I saw boys and girls openly groping each other in their dorm rooms, with the door open, in an effort to impress others with their exploits.

All of this had an effect on me - most notably, to strengthen my faith and cause me to step out and be "set apart". Sending my kids into such an environment scares me – it should scare any Christian parent. I have little doubt that my children will be able to handle that cultural pressure after they leave our nest - much like I was forced to adapt. But is it absolutely necessary for their development? Must I pay tens of thousands of dollars to an institution trying to undo the very moral character that my wife and I spent eighteen years nurturing in each of our children? Is there a chance that one of them might stumble, and be forever lost and separated from God's kingdom? There is that chance - and that makes the choice about higher education a very important decision.

One more thought strikes me - and it is bound to be unpopular with many. My own vision for my two girls is first and foremost that they grow up to be stay-at-home mothers, raising and homeschooling their own children in an effort to perpetuate a multi-generational vision of God-serving families. "Stay-at-home mom" was the vision that my wife and I had for our own family when we first were married (homeschooling came a little later). We vowed not to let a desire for money overtake that vision. And so, even though she was very close to overtaking me as the biggest moneymaker in the house, my wife quit her job just before our first child was born. We have never regretted that decision, and I am firmly convinced that God has blessed my career and our earnings because of it. Am I saying that women should never have careers or earn money, even after they have children? No, I am not - that is not a Biblical tenet. I'm simply saying it is the vision that I have for my own family. God tells us, "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18). So I’ve chosen a vision. It may not come to pass, and I will be fine if God wills another direction for my girls.

Want another practical viewpoint – from a real, live, potential college student who has decided to pursue a bold path? Check out Miranda Trujillo’s excellent blog post here. When dealing with the idea of higher education, she writes:

College. It prepares you for a career. As I have said before, I want to be a Godly wife and mother someday. My first priority is making sure that I can someday put my kids first - raising, training and educating them with the bulk of my time. So college, first of all, would train me for an occupation that I would neglect once children came into the picture - maybe even before children if the occupation kept me from focusing on my home.

College also takes lots of money. Money that I don't have. So not only would it train me for a career that I wouldn't use for long - it would put me into debt for this training. Debt that might cause me to continue working at the career I don't want in order to pay off the training I needed for the career I don't want... [italics mine]

That last part is brilliant. I pray that my own kids maintain such a perspective, and that they marry others who are this wise.

Finally, what can we do to prepare our children to earn a living – without the necessity of transferring thousands of dollars to a university? The Christian Home Educators of Colorado have devised a solution – it’s called the AME program. AME stands for “Apprenticeship, Mentorship, Entrepreneurship”. This program pairs willing mentors with interested students to explore, learn about, and work in various professions – without the expense of “checking it out” for years in college (where it is still rare to gain exposure to practical, hands-on experience). Moreover, a student can decide to change their profession after some work experience without the expense of tacking on an additional year or two of college. Finally, the program is designed to bring students under the Christian mentorship of professionals – with an eye toward developing them to work for God’s service (something you don’t get in most colleges). Check out their link at AME.

To Part 3 – Ultimately, what is it all really about?

Thoughts On Higher Education – Part 1

It’s hard for me to believe that I am less than two years away from making a decision about college for my oldest child. In all honesty, it doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was receiving my own college degree.

For many years, the question of higher education for my children had a known formula – get a college degree, find a good job with a stable company, earn a comfortable amount of money, and take care of their family above all else.

So why am I suddenly having serious doubts about this plan?

I think the root of my concern is twofold: 1) I believe that the “value” of a traditional college education has been fading over time, and 2) I see many university programs as being fundamentally anti-God. Do I really want to pay thousands of dollars to an institution that would purposefully try to lead my child away from God’s eternal reward? And then place them in a career where they work, not for God’s kingdom, but for man’s - for half of their waking hours?

I truly believe that the value of a college education, seen even from a worldly viewpoint, is quickly eroding. Things are not the same as they were in the world of business twenty years ago, when I graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. To be sure, my university experience taught me much in terms of social skills, working with others, and how to live with another human being in a twelve foot-by-twenty foot space for a year (a skill I'm not anxious to repeat, but I leave that to God). But those lessons can also be learned outside of the college campus – and you don’t have to pay $10,000 a year, or more, for the privilege.

During my four years of university, I also learned how to manipulate thermodynamic equations, take Laplace transforms, and calculate the magnetic field surrounding a charged Gaussian sphere. And yet, in over twenty years of employment for various technical and engineering-driven companies, I have never had to perform a single one of those exercises. To make the point even more plain, I left college with no clue as to how to wire a simple three-way house electrical switch (the kind used at the top and bottom of a stairway), even though I accepted my diploma – in electrical engineering. This is not to say that I’m ungrateful or spiteful of my college education. I'm thankful for how God has blessed me through the education I received. It has served me and my family well for twenty years. God has blessed us tremendously through my career (and He has divinely intervened at least a couple of times…but that is another story).

My degree got me interviews with big companies, even though my practical knowledge was very limited. That model works well when big companies exist to hire college graduates. The model worked like this – you pay your money to a college institution - who gives you a piece of paper after four or five years of modest effort – and that piece of paper becomes your “ticket” to interview for the world of big business.

But this model has less value if the goal is to work in smaller business or, better yet, if you want to run your own business. If business ownership is the goal, then practical knowledge and a grasp of how to manage a startup is what is needed. And fortunately, starting out a career saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt is not required to run your own business. That money (the money that the parents and student have saved for a college education) could be directly applied toward a business startup, preferably after a period of industry mentorship and training.

Think about it – if you have $50,000 saved or purposed for higher education, you can: 1) pay it to a university, get a degree, and jump on the big business bandwagon, or 2) spend some time in a mentorship or training program (while likely earning some money) and then use the $50,000 as seed money to get your child started as the owner of their own business….having already been exposed to the career they will pursue. How many of us have wanted to start our own business at one time, but lacked the money to do so? Would it have been a better investment of that money to apply it directly to our dream, instead of indirectly through a university? For some, I'm sure the answer is "Yes".

These are hard words, full of risk, for those of us who face the decision about higher education. But keep this in mind - isn't the ultimate desire for Christian parents to keep their children directed toward a godly purpose? As long as we keep that final goal in mind, and dutifully ask for God's wisdom, we can count on His intervention to make the right decision...and take the right risk.

To Part 2 – Why Not to Work for a Big Company and What To Do About It

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Related Reading:
Washington Post article – College Costs Rise While Educational Quality Suffers

Will Cultural Brainwashing Now Be Mandated To Get A Teaching Degree?

“Whoever controls the schools controls the world.” – Voddie Baucham
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I promise that I am not making this up. Okay, I did photoshop the picture, but really - that’s all. I apologize in advance to the University of Minnesota graduates, but I’m pretty sure Mao would have been proud of what is happening at your school.

A task force at the University of Minnesota is recommending a training plan for future educators that is so Orwellian, you would think that Karl Marx had written it. This group – called the Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group – is recommending a multi-step plan of cultural “re-education” for those wishing to get a teaching degree at “the U”.

Under this plan, students wishing to obtain a degree in education must admit - and be willing to go forth and teach - that America’s roots are racist, sexist, and homophobic, and that such attitudes have been the cause of poor minority academic performance in state schools. Put simply, teachers would need to confess their inherent bias, and then pass on to their students that white students have had an unfair educational advantage due to a history of racism in our nation.

The task force’s recommendation comes in two parts. First, a prospective teacher must confess their own history of prejudice. Extra points are given for being self-critical. A sample “confession” is included in the report - "As an Anglo teacher, I struggle to quiet voices from my own farm family, echoing as always from some unstated standard. ... How can we untangle our own deeply entrenched assumptions?" Again – I promise – I did not make that up.

Second, teachers must be able to point out to students the history of racism and how it has led to an unfair bias against non-whites in the educational system. They must be able to teach about “the myth of meritocracy” in the United States – which is a fancy way to say that the people who have been successful in our nation’s history did not earn their position through hard work, but because of racial privilege.

What if a student resists this program at the University? The task force recommendation deals with this specifically. If someone is unwilling to conform to the cultural re-education process, the University must "develop clear steps and procedures for working with non-performing students, including a remediation plan."

The overall direction of this plan is not so different from the reeducation camps used by Mao Zedong during China’s Cultural Revolution. Hitler used similar tactics to brainwash the youth of Nazi Germany. Even if there is a grain of truth in American racism (and there have certainly been isolated examples), promoting this philosophy has nothing to do with becoming a better teacher! It simply arms teachers with an excuse to give their students for underperforming. If you were paying the University of Minnesota a large tuition to turn your child into a quality teacher, would you be happy with this program? Would you like it if a teacher graduating from this program was assigned to your first-grader – to influence their formative years with racial bias and untruths?

We need educators to stand up for what is right and true, and not fall victim to the recommendations of those who wish to corrupt our children. Home educators – Mom and Dad – need to be willing to teach the truth to their children, regardless of social pressures. Public educators need to rise up and stand against the tactics used by “task forces” which aim to offer up our children on the altar of political correctness. Parents of children, whether home-educated or state-educated, should understand the forces which arise to steal our children’s hearts, minds, and souls. They should not be afraid to take a vocal or public stand against the dumbing-down of the American school system. Write an opinion piece for your local paper, get involved with your school’s leadership, contact a Congressman and let them know your wishes for education, or take personal charge of your children’s education by considering homeschooling.

If we don’t, our children’s children will be living in a world far different from the one in which we grew up. And pretty soon, our beloved United States will start to look like Communist China…or Nazi Germany.

Thoughts on President Obama’s Education Speech

The President of the United States gave a fifteen-minute address to the school students of our country yesterday. Since I had read a lot of speculation about what he would say, and how he would say it, I decided to evaluate it myself. So, last night I opened up one computer window with the video clip, one with the text transcript, and one with Microsoft Word and I watched the whole thing, ready to make notes about the perceived fallacies in what he had to say.

After watching the whole thing, I have to admit that I didn’t come up with one single egregious statement worthy of intense criticism. So for those who think I may be an anti-Obama, all-the-time complainer, let it be known that I went into this video with an open mind and left with very little to say in the way of disparagement.

Obama’s speech really consisted of a few well-worn messages. Stay in school, do your homework, mind your teachers, and work hard. And my favorite – be sure to wash your hands often so you don’t get the flu this winter. That’s it. It wasn’t terribly presidential – in fact, it was pedantic. It wasn’t even that well written or delivered. It was…just a speech. I doubt many kids walked away from it with any more inspiration than they had going into it.

The whole thing got me to thinking about whether or not I would want my children to watch the speech (they did, at home, over the Internet). But was the uproar from many sides about his speech right or wrong? Little was said in his words, and the speech was largely devoid of politics, religion, (petitions for healthcare votes), or moralizing. It was…just a speech.

But consider this – does who my children listen to matter as much as what my children listen to? To this, I have to answer “Yes”. If Michael Vick was giving a benign and pleasant speech at the local Humane Society, would I want my kids to go? With Vick’s background of endorsing dogfights and animal abuse, I would have to say that his character would overshadow any words that he might have to say. Even if they were good words, I do not want my kids idolizing someone who lacks character.

“But you surely can’t compare our President to Michael Vick!”, I hear some people say. Well, in some ways, I suppose that is right. Our president has openly supported policies which enable and further the practice of abortion. The killing of innocent babies is far worse to me than the abuse of animals. So our president’s policies offend me even more than those of Vick. Truly, they do. And I do not want my kids watching a benign speech by the president and coming away thinking that everything is really okay with him – that he’s a decent sort of fellow, and one we would like to imitate in many ways. So, we train them to consider the character, as well, when listening.

Some people will think I’m crazy making such a comparison. But consider the numbers when comparing the Nazi holocaust alongside the abortion rates occurring in our country – right now. Six million Jews were killed during the holocaust. But in the United States alone, between 800,000 and 1,400,000 abortions are performed every year. Approximately the same number of abortion deaths will occur in one-and-a-half presidential terms as occurred during the entire holocaust. And our president, among many, many others (including the president before this one), does not have the courage to stand up to this atrocity and make it stop. Instead, he works to make access to abortion easier. He continues to allow my tax dollars to go toward the funding of this abomination – in this nation and beyond. Can I stand by while he allows this to happen? Will people look back on our nation in fifty years, and compare this time to the Jewish holocaust? And back to the topic at-hand, is this the kind of person that I want my kids to look up to and admire?

The point I make is this – at least as important as the words delivered by a speaker is the character of the speaker. Does his life honor God? Does he glorify God in his actions? The longer I look at politics and character, the more I believe that the next time I cast a vote for president, it will not be for Republican or Democrat. If I could not choose the man to be an elder in my own church, how could I vote for him to lead this great nation?

Please continue to be in prayer for our president, our leaders, our nation, and our children.

Getting a Constitutional Education – Presidential Power (Part 1)

It’s important that we educate our children on the topics of politics, government, and the Constitution which governs our nation. This nine-part series attempts to remind us of some basic principles, lest they be forgotten by the next generation.

As a nation, we pay an incredible amount of attention to the election of our presidents. If you’re not sufficiently tired of the election cycle that ended only a couple of months ago, fear not – it will all start again in about two-and-a-half years. It seems to be the ultimate reality show, made for television.

Already, the newspapers and other media outlets are looking to our new President to single-handedly solve the perceived problems in our nation. If you were an alien just landing on earth and you happened to drop in front of a television, you would think that the President has the power to do anything, fix anything, and change anything. He seems to be larger-than-life and is credited with far more wisdom than any other person in our land.

Similarly, whenever there is a question of right and wrong that is not adequately resolved between men or institutions, we are content to run to the Supreme Court as the final arbiter for any issue. Again, to an outsider it would seem that the nine justices of the Court possess such vast wisdom that no problem is too hard to tackle. And we let them get away with wielding this power. But between the President and the Supreme Court, are we correct in assigning them this amount of authority?

Article II of the Constitution contains four distinct sections which describe the duties and limits of the President. The specific authority given to the President includes: Commander in Chief of the military, authority over other members of the Executive branch, the power to grant reprieves and pardons, the ability to make treaties (with congressional approval), the power to nominate ambassadors and Supreme Court justices, and the authority to appoint Senate vacancies during recess periods. His duties include: making a State of the Union address, he may convene or adjourn both Houses as necessary, receive ambassadors, commission officers, and “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”. That’s all – there is nothing more in the Constitution to define the power or duties of the office of President.

The power and duties of Supreme Court justices are vague indeed – see Article III. They have authority to hear cases deemed to be of a federal nature, and they have the ability to exercise “appellate jurisdiction”, meaning they can review state-level cases that are deemed necessary to review. Beyond that, little is said about their role.

To properly interpret the relationship between the three different branches of government, one should look to the words of the founding fathers, who clearly meant for checks and balances to exist. Their greatest fear was the rebirth of a monarchy like the one they had fled in England. They did not want their President to be a king, nor did they intend for nine judges (originally six), appointed for life, to singlehandedly interpret the Constitution and wield it over the people. Rather, the founders issued countless letters ensuring that power stayed with the people, in their respective states.

To give an example, consider the presidency of Andrew Jackson. During his term, he was committed to the dissolution of the United States Bank, and argued vehemently for its demise. He sparred with Justice John Marshall during this time, and their argument included the topic of constitutional authority. Marshall declared that the Supreme Court was the ultimate decider on what is constitutional and what is not. Jackson found this outrageous, and said,

“To this conclusion I cannot assent…Congress and the President as well as the Court must each for itself be guided by its own opinion of the Constitution. It is as much the duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of the President to decide upon the constitutionality of any bill or resolution which may be presented…The opinion of the [Supreme Court] judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the judges, and on that point the President is independent of both” (see http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/writings/bank/jackson.htm for further details).

These are tremendously important words, and very different from the behavior we witness today. Jackson understood that no single branch of government had overarching constitutional authority. There are many examples in early America of states ignoring the laws handed down by federal officials (including the President) because, simply put, it was understood that state’s rights were sovereign. That little fact was the original construct of our government….and it’s been forgotten.

Next article: States’ rights versus central government rights, and the curse of the Seventeenth Amendment. Back to the main index article.

Getting a Constitutional Education – Free Homeschool Curriculum

As a homeschooling father, I am always looking for ways to teach my three kids a unique, but true, perspective of any subject. I take it as a personal challenge to ensure that I research topics and understand them thoroughly before attempting to pass on any learning. This does require quite a bit of time, and sometimes I wish I had more time to pursue other interests like golf or restoring an old car. But right now, at this stage of my life, nothing is more important than impressing true, meaningful knowledge and wisdom on these three children living in my house.

The Constitution of the United States is one of the most important documents ever created, and likely affects those of us who live in the United States more than any other single paper written entirely by men. It is one of the few mandatory subject requirements handed down by our state board of education. I wonder – how many people have read the Constitution? Do our public schools require the reading of the document, or do they only present the subjective interpretation of what the Constitution means? I have decided this: my children are going to read the Constitution and are going to understand what it means. And I intend to teach them how it can become distorted in our country and in our government so greatly that the principles contained within that document are almost unrecognizable today. Finally, I intend to instruct them on how they can have an effect to reverse this trend in their lifetime.

To this end, I am starting a nine-part series on the Constitution, what was meant in the words that the founding fathers laid out, and how it is interpreted today. I have read several books lately that have helped tremendously on this topic – most notably by David McCullough and Thomas J. DiLorenzo. In the coming weeks, you should expect to read the truth about topics such as (click on the highlighted text to go directly to the article):

1. Does the Constitution give the President as much power as we seem to think? What about the Supreme Court? Are the nine justices that sit on the court really invested with the ultimate authority to interpret the Constitution and how it applies to our freedoms?

2. What was the purpose of the Constitution in regards to states' rights versus central government rights? What did the framers intend in regard to this power struggle? Was the Constitution approved as a nation? How does the Seventeenth Amendment affect this?

3. Is government debt really okay? What are the pros and cons? Is it constitutional for the government to go into debt?

4. What happened to states' rights when the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified?

5. What are the concepts of secession and nullification about? And was Abraham Lincoln really a good president?

6. What are “enumerated powers” versus “implied powers” in the Constitution?

7. What happened to my money when the Federal Reserve Act became law in 1913?

8. What is the “General Welfare Clause” and should I like it?

9. What brought about the birth of “judicial activism”? Was this interpretation intended by the founding fathers?

Consider this to be curriculum suitable for using with your own children – all for free. Two installments per week will be posted, ending in early March. When the series is completed, I’ll put together an official question and answer key that homeschooling families can use. Until then, feel free to share these postings with your children and discuss the overall principles behind some very meaningful Constitutional principles. There will easily be enough material here to count as a quarter’s credit in government.

Harvard or Heaven?

Our family is in our fifth year of homeschooling. It has been the best decision that we ever made since having children, and the blessings that have proceeded from the decision are countless. Sometimes, it is hard for me to refrain from telling people about the wonders that we have experienced. I recognize that people are not always open to the idea, and have often formed a preliminary opinion about homeschoolers. Just to set the record straight, my wife doesn’t like wearing denim jumpers, and we don’t bake our own bread (very often).

On the occasion where I do get to share our experience, I might tend to ramble. There are so many reasons that we have found to support our decision to educate in the home. For details, check out the Further Topical Reading section of this blog – titled “(At Least) Ten Reasons Why We Homeschool” (in the column at the side). I’m enjoying one of the advantages even as I write this chapter – our family is enjoying the warmth of a California vacation in the month of October, at a time when there are very few people competing for pool time or to form lines at the theme park (we started school a week early in August so we could take this week off in the middle of the fall). Of course, if everyone were to turn to homeschooling, I would probably have to give up this advantage, but I think I could live with that.

If you read this blog very often, you’ll see that our family’s true reason for homeschooling has evolved over the last few years. I recently came across a quote from the Home School Legal Defense Association that perfectly sums up our number-one reason. “Homeschooling is not about getting your kids into Harvard; it’s about getting them into heaven.” This doesn’t mean that publicly-schooled children can’t go to heaven – but we believe we have vastly improved our chances with our own children by doing so. Is that a bold statement? Yes. Is it true for every single family? No, there is no doubt that homeschooling is not practical in every situation. Heaven and Harvard are not mutually exclusive choices that pivot on your choice of schooling. However, to better understand my position, a demonstration using gambling techniques and statistics might be appropriate.

Suppose you were asked to play one game of dice. The stakes are these – if you win, you can count on having enough money in your bank account to retire more comfortably than you have ever imagined. But if you lose, your account will go to zero. The game is simple. By rolling two six-sided dice just one time (just like in Monopoly), your win or loss will be determined. There are two tables to play on, with rules differing at each table. The rules at the first table are these: if you roll anything except a double-one or a double-two, you will win. But if you roll a double-one or double-two, you will lose. If you are looking for statistical calculations, your chances of winning under this scenario are 94.4% (there are 34 winning combinations out of a potential 36).

Things are a little more restrictive at the second table, though the reward or loss is exactly the same. At this table, your roll must contain a six on at least one of the dice to win. If the roll doesn’t contain a six, you will lose. Again, for the statistically-minded, there are 11 winning combinations out of 36 possibilities – a 30.6% chance of winning.

It may seem silly to ask the question, “Which table would you choose to play?” But these odds are exactly what statistics tell us about children remaining faithful when they enter the university system. A study conducted by the National Home Education Research Institute and often presented by Pastor Voddie Baucham shows that 70-88% of professing Christian teens fall away from their faith at the end of their freshman year in college, while only 6% of homeschooled professing teens fall away in that time frame. Consider those statistics again…there is at least a seven out of ten chance that a publicly-schooled child will reject God after their first year of college. Less than one out of ten will do so if they are homeschooled.

This study may be tough for some to accept, especially when so few of us believe that such a prognosis could possibly occur in our own family. And we should understand very clearly, the study does not explicitly prove that schooling is the only factor that determines a child’s grasp on God’s grace. It stands to reason that a homeschooled child will have more parental involvement in his or her life, and this is a big contributor to the Christian walk. I believe further study would conclude that public-schooled children who enjoy a devoted father and mother, and a family who prays and worships together regularly will improve on the 70-88% odds greatly. But once again, any study that concludes with such a diverse result – 70-88% versus 6% - is either flawed, or else it has uncovered a fundamental issue to be considered.

Please bear with me for a moment on this. I recognize that there are some families for whom homeschooling is not possible. Single parents raising children, or parents in family situations that don’t allow the time or monetary investment required for quality homeschooling will struggle under the demand. But for those of you who are considering the pros and cons of home education, don’t neglect to consider the eternal, spiritual perspective because statistics show that the benefits are very real.

I have spoken with many parents who are often shocked at what is being taught to their children in public school. Mere theories such as evolution and global warming are taught as fact. More importantly, the idea that there is a God who created our universe and us, and who wants to have a personal relationship with us is suppressed, and often ridiculed. I know, because it happened to me in multiple instances in public school almost thirty years ago.

Unlike the dice game, the state of our children’s souls is not a random event. Thankfully, God’s grace is the ultimate determining factor in that outcome. But when our children reach the age where the schooling venue decision must be made, do we put as much thought into it as we would our investments and retirement asset distribution? To a degree, we are forced to play the game and choose which table we will play. I understand that there are far more pieces to the puzzle than we deal with in these few paragraphs. High-quality parental involvement and influence takes many forms. But I am personally unwilling to take the additional risk, and gamble away my children’s eternal salvation. I cannot control every detail in the lives of my children, but I can limit their exposure to the godless mindset that has infiltrated our public schools. My children’s eternal destination is far more important to me than my retirement account, and I spend far more time working with them on their A-B-C’s than I do manipulating my 401(k).

For those interested in a very clear opinion on home education versus public schooling, check out http://www.voddiebaucham.org/vbm/Blog/Entries/2007/5/22_SBC_Education_Resolution_2007.html. Fair warning – prepare to be challenged by Pastor Baucham’s writings.

Things Have Changed

July 7, 2008

My wife and I recently attended the Christian Home Educators of Colorado conference. It was a great event, and it gave the two of us much needed time to talk, reminisce, and dream. We played catch-up on a lot of ideas and happenings, as we don’t always get to chat as often as we wish.

This will be our fifth year of homeschooling. It gets better every year. We discussed how things have changed over time – progressing from the first year of experiment and doubting our sanity, and proceeding on through the most recent quarter, which was full of confidence, growth and joy. And as we were talking about curriculum, daily planners, and what special subject I was going to teach to my son this year, a sudden thought occurred to both of us. The purpose for homeschooling our children has completely changed in just four years.

When we began, it was about giving our children the best education possible. And while we admired many aspects of the elementary public school which we attended, we knew that our children were not learning enough, and were not being challenged academically as they should. My son, who was progressing to first grade when we made the homeschooling decision, was destined to spend the next year doing worksheets in the school hallway because he had learned to read earlier than the others in his class. The school could not modify their curriculum to accommodate this, and so he was effectively going to be punished for his effort. I wonder if the “social skills” that people question in homeschoolers develop better in lonely school hallways?

We made the decision to educate at home largely because we wanted our kids to have a superior education – to demonstrate superior academic achievement as they had already shown in their first years of schooling. This desire drove the first two years of our home education. We focused mostly on typical education rigor, making sure that our children could pass any test, in case a surprise auditor came to our door to see if our children were really learning at the pace mandated by the state.

Through God’s grace, a new objective inserted its way into our lives. The primary purpose of homeschooling our children no longer is academic – we do it so that we can disciple our children to live godly lives! The surprising part is that neither of us can recall exactly when this goal came about. It is abundantly clear to us that through God’s leading, our long-term vision for our children (and their children after them) is first to know God and to serve Him. My former self tells me that any of the school day that my children spend in reading the Bible, or in memorizing scripture, or in learning how to intelligently argue against evolutionary theory, is time not spent learning biology. And they aren’t getting as much time in trigonometry or Civil War history (though even this isn’t true – we get more of this because of the sheer efficiency of our “class size”).

Isn’t that thinking backwards from the way God intended? If I allowed my children to spend their time learning secular subjects first, isn’t that time that they could have been spending with God, or learning godly principles? Proverbs 9:10 says “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” The education of my children should first begin with dwelling on God’s precepts. And once they are grounded in what is right and good, they will be better prepared to serve God in this world. Doesn’t that trump our culture’s incorrect interpretation of success?

The bottom line is this – if my child grows up to be a highly-paid, Harvard-educated lawyer on Wall Street, but doesn’t know and serve the Lord God, I will have failed. And that vision will continue to refine our homeschool efforts, as well as our children’s hearts.

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