Familyman:
Dad2Dad
Todd Wilson
Ithink homeschooling is the best inven- tion since the cordless drill . . . which is even better than sliced bread. I just interviewed Davis Carman (owner of
Apologia) this morning on my Todcast, and
he points to homeschooling as one of the
best choices they ever made as a family.
What I love most about homeschooling
isn’t how smart my children have become,
but about the relationships we’ve been able
to enjoy over the years of educating our
children at home. I love that my children
have been able to learn at their own pace
without being surrounded by, and taught, a
godless worldview.
We’ve seen the end result with three amazing homeschool graduates who are now responsible, outstanding adults. My oldest son
and his wife live right next door and made
us grandparents seven months ago. The
little boy who dove into homeschooling with us now talks about a future
of homeschooling his daughter and
other children.
“Of course, we’ll homeschool,”
both mother (who was homeschooled as well) and father
say. “Why would we do
anything else? We’re
certainly not going to
put our daughter into
that,” they add, meaning the politically correct, government school
system.
I was naive enough to assume
our children would homeschool
because they were homeschooled
and saw the benefit of it, but such is not al-
ways the case.
As my daughter-in-law said recently, “A
lot of our homeschooled friends are not
planning to homeschool.” She and my son
are perplexed by that fact . . . while I, on the
other hand, am blown away by it!
Why wouldn’t homeschooled kids homeschool their children? Why would they not
want their children to enjoy the same experiences that they had as homeschooled
kids? Why would they willingly place their
precious little ones into the public school
system?
My wife and I discuss
it from time to time
whenever we hear of
another homeschooled kid who is not
homeschooling his own children.
These are our thoughts and observations
on why they don’t homeschool:
1. Homeschooling was not a pleasurable
experience. Maybe the academics were too
rigorous and the expectations were too high.
Maybe the academics were insufficient, and
they felt “uneducated.” Maybe they had a
mom who was stressed all the time and nev-
er smiled, and they don’t want to go down
that same path. Maybe they felt isolated and
alone. Maybe they felt smothered and raised
in fear. The reasons might vary, but they
conclude that homeschooling was not a
good experience, and they don’t want
to repeat it with their children.
2. They didn’t experience
“regular” school and, therefore,
don’t see the pitfalls associ-
ated with putting their kids
in school. My wife was the one
to point that out to me, and I
think she’s right in her obser-
vation. After all, most of
us homeschool parents
were raised in the sys-
tem and experienced
all the crud that went
on . . . and it was one
of the reasons we
chose to homeschool
our children.
Our children who were
educated at home can’t believe
it’s as bad as we make it out
to be—and it sure does look
easier—so what’s the harm?
Homeschooling:
The Best Invention Ever
