Myth: Home Education is Not for Everybody

God established the family with commandments, one of which is that parents and grandparents are to teach their children and grandchildren. "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen. and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thv life: but TEACH THEM THY SONS, AND THY SONS' SONS" (Deut. 4:9, emphasis added). That's "sons' sons" as in grandparents.

Thus, when God gives children he also gives, along with the child the requirement that parents teach, as can readily be seen in the above scripture. To say, then, that home education is not for everybody is to shirk re­sponsibility. It certainly goes contrary to a direct com­mand of God. In other words, it is a cop-out. It is the same as saying, it is not for all parents to be faithful, or that obedience to parents is not for all children.

I am not saying that all education must be done by parents and grandparents or that parents can't hire tu­tors because the Scripture clearly allows for such. Parents can also send their children to schools should the}' so choose, providing said schools measure up to certain godly standards.

On the other hand, I am saying that parents have the duty to teach and the corresponding responsibility over that duty, which cannot be cast off. Parents are account­able to God, who gave them their children, for seeing that their children be educated in accordance with His instructions, whether they do it all themselves or hire tutors. The duty to teach comes with the child. There­fore, even when children are tutored or schooled outside the home there always remains a major portion of their education, the duty for which first falls upon the parents and then upon the grandparents.

Neither parent nor grandparent can stand before God at the final judgment and say, Was I my child's (or grandchild's) keeper; wasn't The State supposed to do that? Parents neither receive their children from the government nor are they commanded to abandon their children to the government.

A sad note here is the average American grandparent who fails to discover the pleasure of being involved in their grandchildren's education. Tragic, the motor home driving off into the sunset with a bumper sticker which reads, "We are spending our children's inheritance." Not only are they in derelict of duty. they are missing one of the greatest blessings of their lives—giving knowledge and wisdom to their own grandchildren.

It is important to realize that all homes do teach their children something. In fact. there are statistics to show that most of that which children leam is learned before they ever reach the age required to be able to go out to a school. Children having learned to converse in our own language is but one example. Therefore, when we are talking about formal education we are not talking about the total sum of the child's learning. We are only speak­ing about a portion of it being done in a formal setting somewhere. All of that being said, it is then obvious that home education, at some level, must be for everybody!

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