The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Editorial
Deborah Wuehler,
Senior Editor

My poor, unsuspecting hus- band. Who knew his sim- ple question could reduce me to tears. “So, what did you do today?” As I blankly stared back at him, the tears would well up inside. Do?

What did I do? It was a constant, non-
stop blur of doing. From the moment I
was awakened (too early) to the moment
my husband walked through that front
door in the evening, there was a lot of
“doing” going on. As I looked back over
the day to see if there was one thing that
would help me feel like I achieved some-
thing, I was just too tired to think and
shrugged my shoulders with a teary, “I
have no idea.”
Then all those babies grew up a bit.
One married, two left for college, many
are still being homeschooled. And now a
multitude of other school and work and
family commitments blur my days. But
even as seasons and circumstances of life
change, the same kinds of questions still
haunt my mind as I try to assess, “What
am I doing?” “Am I doing the right
things?” “What am I achieving anyway?”
Achievement. It’s what we long for in
our homeschool and our life. We want to
reach the end knowing that our children
have achieved something, or simply are
achieved.

Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines achieving as: performing; executing; gaining. Something like this: Performing is what I am doing at any given time. Executing is what I am making happen (whether it is myself working or directing someone else), and gaining is the reward or fruit from what I am doing.

What are we achieving or gaining in this performance called home education?

Let’s take a brief look:
• Parental attachment and bonding that
brings safety and security to a child; af-
fecting them positively for a lifetime.

• Family stability and unity; affecting a sense of belonging, providing immediate and future emotional and psychological stability.

• Generational faith is passed from parent to child because of the 24/7 discipleship environment.

• Excellence in character is built through teaching good habits, obeying Godly statutes, and striving for excellence in all things, thus bringing honor to the parents and family and ultimately representing Christ well.

• Cultural innocence is retained through
childhood into young adulthood while
developing a strong Christian world-
view and with it the ability to withstand
cultural pressures when young adults.
The child is not left alone to withstand
the culture, but faces it with the parent
or family in safety.

• Academically superior results when compared with other forms of education. No matter the variables in each family and each homeschool and each curriculum, homeschooled children excel.

• Civically involved families which in turn produce civically involved children and young adults, positively affecting and keeping in check the society around them.

• Compassionately engaged families that take care of the widow or orphan or stranger in an increasingly apathetic world.

Even when we don’t feel it or see it some days, we are accomplishing much! But, what about those days/seasons where we are afflicted or sick or in any number of difficult trials, and it doesn’t look or feel like anything is getting accomplished? There is great hope! Especially in those times, our mighty God is achieving for us something much greater than we can ascertain. Look at this Scripture with me: