No, Alicia & I don’t have kids and aren’t expecting any, but we are pretty inclined to home schooling whatever children God does bless us with.
My reasons are simple enough: The government has no God-given authority to raise children. (Indeed, the only authority God gives the government is to punish the wicked [which it rarely does] and to reward the good [which it rarely does].)
Children are born to parents and parents are responsible for raising them. Many species of animals have that figured out, but humans often lack in this point, giving their children over to 6 to 8 hours a day of government day care and impressioning and then over to a few to several hours of television or movies. It is no surprise that society–and even the churches of God–are in the state they are in.
And I’m definitely not going to add to that problem. I recently found the website of the Home School Legal Defense Association and looked up what they had for Indiana home schooling.
All I can say is, glory to God, and thank You for the freedoms here!
I can find only four requirements for home schooling in Indiana, and do you want to know what they are?:
- Children must begin school no later than the fall of the year in which the child turns 7 and must be in school until graduation or until the child turns 18 (though the child may drop out after turning 16). This is true for public schools as well.
- Attendance records must be kept, to show that schooling is being done. Simple enough.
- If asked by the state superintendent of public instruction, home schools must report the number of children attending and of what grade levels they are.
- Children must be in school for the same number of days as they would if attending public schools, which is typically 180 days.
That’s it! And yes, the absence of any sort of curriculum or course requirements is deliberate–the state has no legal right to define what constitutes a valid education! Parents can teach their children as much as they want and put the focus on whatever subjects they desire. Isn’t that wonderful!
That truly means that if parents wanted to, they could get the basics of reading, writing, mathematics, sciences, and social studies done and then concentrate on giving the child/teenager a thorough knowledge of the Bible!
I know Alicia & I will definitely be raising our future child(ren) in the knowledge of the Lord. It is our God-given responsibility to do so, as our child(ren) will be our heritage unto the Lord.
We also (well, Alicia mostly ;)) want to impart a good knowledge of literature and art as well, which is something public schools barely scratched the surface of for me.
But, I was certainly surprised by how much freedom parents have in Indiana (and perhaps other states as well; I didn’t look). I was expecting to find at least some kind of course requirements, such as requiring so many years of math or language arts or whatever. They don’t even require standardized testing!
That means as I look through my humble little library, books are starting to stand out more and more as “textbooks” now… The history of civilization with The Annals of the World by James Ussher, systematic theology with Dr. Ryrie’s Basic Theology, apologetics with The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell, and more. Needless to say, I’m excited.
Does anyone have any good recommendations for core courses, though? I’ve heard great things about A Beka, but I can’t recall any others right now.