Scriptural Reasons for Home Education
by Mimi Rothschild
One of the main reasons families opt for home schooling their children involves religious grounds. Religion subjects are no longer part of public school curricula, and because of this, parents feel that they ought to be responsible for teaching their children not just the educational subjects that they need in the future, but religious doctrines as well.
They are right for doing so. A careful study of the Bible will point you to the conclusion that God indeed meant for children to be taught in the home by their father and mother. According to Proverbs 6:20, “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother.” He clearly meant that children ought to abide by their parents’ laws.
God himself placed authority on parents, and not on any other person or institution. Proverbs 29:17 says, “Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.” This means that if you bring up your child with your teachings, through God’s guidance, you, your child, and society, will find satisfaction.
Because of this, as Christian parents, we ought not to turn our responsibility over to others. It is not the responsibility of the government, or the church, to raise your children and teach them how to live in this world. It is our responsibility, and we ought to take it seriously and not allow other external factors to affect our children.
When God gave us this responsibility, He also expects us to be responsible for our actions. One good example of this is the story of Eli. 1 Samuel 2:22 states, “Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” When Eli learned of this, he consequently told his sons to stop their wicked acts, but they did not listen. Eli was then punished by God, because it fell on Eli’s shoulders to discipline his sons.
Likewise, it is our responsible to take account for our actions. If we send our children to a public school, where they will learn things that we never meant for them to learn, we ought to own up to our actions. After, all, we were the ones who put them there. Another inevitable part of public education is that at some point, you and the teacher will one day contradict each other, and this will cause confusion for your children. To avoid this, it is best to educate your child in the home.
Home schooling will also help “separate” our children from the worldly society. This is not to say that we ought to stop our children from having friends. This just means that we ought to know who our children associate with, and to keep them from people that might influence them negatively.
These are only some of the scriptural reasons that we, as parents and Christians ought to keep in mind when thinking of educating our children. It is responsibility to teach our children, and we should not reject this responsibility.
 E-Mail to a Friend
|