Myth: Only Highly Trained Educators Can Teach Children

In thinking back over my youth, if I were to list all of my teachers (those who taught me something of value for life) most of them would not be my public school teachers. The majority would be just ordinary people who crossed my life, some ever so briefly. They would include many who had never been to college or high school. Some of them did not even finished grade school. My own father falls into that last group.

Among my list of teachers would be some very beau­tiful people who had never gone to school at all. I can only wonder how much more they could have passed on to me had they but believed they could. How much more could I have asked of them had I only known to do so? I have eventually come to regret that I often failed to ask. Time has now taken many of them beyond the reach of mortal men.

It is also noteworthy that even children can and do teach children. A reporter for a local newspaper once told me that he and his wife, neither of whom had more than a high school diploma, made a set of flash cards and taught their three-year-old daughter to read by the time she was five. Then using the same flash cards they also taught their second daughter to read by the time she was five. Those two sisters, one five and one seven then took that worn set of flash cards and taught their little, three-year-old sister to read by the time she was five.

Isn't it interesting that a seven-year-old and a five-year-old can teach their three-year-old sister to read without the aid of a trained teacher, yet amazingly, the more educated each succeeding generation becomes the more it tends to look upon itself as being incapable of teaching its own children? The exact opposite should be the case. The more educated parents become the more capable they should be! The apparent lack of self-confidence is a by-product of godless (secular) school­ing; which leads to a lack of confidence in God who created us and commanded us to teach our sons and our son's sons. (See Deuteronomy 4:9). Is it any wonder that a people taught to have no confidence in their Creator will have no confidence in the creation— namely themselves?

While considering my observations. Virginia con­cluded that the lack of self-confidence can best be cured by stepping out, in faith, to do that which we feel we can't. She believes such is the case, not only in homeschooling, but in most everything. I might add. she has followed homeschooling to success and has gained the confidence to take up midwifery, becoming much in demand. It is amazing the things which homeschooling parents will do once they break the shackles ofl-can'l-do-it thinking.

The original intent of teacher certification and school accreditation was to assure parents that the school run by the government was a good place to send their chil­dren for an education, and to assure the taxed public that the public school was a good investment. It was never instituted to use as a club against anyone, or to prove that without certification one cannot teach. To use it that way now defies intelligence. A license to teach no more proves that one can teach than a license to fish will automatically assure us of a fish dinner. Teacher certification means that the teacher has been through an approved course. Accreditation means that the school has certain specified facilities, courses, and faculty. It is commonly assumed that such has some­thing to do with education.

Whereas, even children can teach children, it should be obvious that children are going to leam with or with­out highly trained teachers! The more important ques­tion is not who is going to teach them; rather. What are they going to learn?

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