Homeschooling: How, why, for how long, what-in-the-heck-do-you-think-you're-doing-to-your kids, are you crazy, etc, etc, etc. Phrased a million-and-one-ways, but all boil down to why we think it's better for our family to homeschool. Sometimes the questions are innocent curiosity. Sometimes morbid curiosity. :) Sometimes malicious. Sometimes judgmental. Sometimes seeking.
And finally, after expounding upon a nugget of thought from someone else on the subject, I have created my own analogy that I feel goes more to the heart of the matter than "Christian curriculum" vs. "secular curriculum."
For the record, I KNOW that our reasons doesn't apply to everyone or even anyone, and that everyone has their own reasons for homeschooling or public schooling or anything else in-between. This story just explains our heart motivation for doing what we do...take it for what it's worth...which may not be much!
Want to hear it? If not, see you next post!
Just suppose you have worked and prayed and invested over a period of time, and you finally have a nice investment account of $100,000. (If that's not a stretch for you, feel free to up the amount)!
You are so grateful to have the security of $100,000, and you know you need to manage it well at the risk of losing it altogether, nor should you hoard it. You've sought advice and prayed for wisdom, and you know how you should put your money to good use.
However, in the town where you live, you've heard that there's a woman who has a degree in finance. You're not sure where she studied, what she was taught, what she teaches others to do with their money, or how she manages her own money. But they say that, since she has a degree in finance, that everyone should really trust her to manage their money for them.
And so you follow along with what everyone else is doing. You add the woman's name to your account. You and she both have a debit card and know the PIN to make transactions. At first you didn't feel comfortable with this, but you've met her a few times and she seems like a very nice lady. And those who have used her services and financial company before didn't have any major complaints.
Is this a likely story? Would we do this?
Would we really let a virtual, albeit nice, stranger, have control of our investment?
No, we wouldn't. And if we wouldn't allow this with our money, then why in the world would we allow this with our children's hearts and minds? There may be an "expert" at the public school down the street. She may be very nice. But we don't see the wisdom in allowing transactions to be made in the lives of our children without our authority and consent.
You are so grateful to have the security of $100,000, and you know you need to manage it well at the risk of losing it altogether, nor should you hoard it. You've sought advice and prayed for wisdom, and you know how you should put your money to good use.
However, in the town where you live, you've heard that there's a woman who has a degree in finance. You're not sure where she studied, what she was taught, what she teaches others to do with their money, or how she manages her own money. But they say that, since she has a degree in finance, that everyone should really trust her to manage their money for them.
And so you follow along with what everyone else is doing. You add the woman's name to your account. You and she both have a debit card and know the PIN to make transactions. At first you didn't feel comfortable with this, but you've met her a few times and she seems like a very nice lady. And those who have used her services and financial company before didn't have any major complaints.
Is this a likely story? Would we do this?
Would we really let a virtual, albeit nice, stranger, have control of our investment?
No, we wouldn't. And if we wouldn't allow this with our money, then why in the world would we allow this with our children's hearts and minds? There may be an "expert" at the public school down the street. She may be very nice. But we don't see the wisdom in allowing transactions to be made in the lives of our children without our authority and consent.
Okay...so maybe it's not very concise. But I'm sure that being shared verbally, it comes out a lot more quickly, right? :)
3 comments:
this is a timely post for me to read, since we are debating whether to homeschool sky again next year...
Wendy , you have said it so well!!!! I LOVE this response!!
Nice analogy, I like it! :) Although I do like to think that I'm a pretty good "expert" ;)
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