Homeschooling is a completely valid option for a child’s education and should by no means be looked down upon as an incompetent and ineffective teaching pathway that produces brainwashed and socially stunted children. Homeschooling is a lot of work, but it reaps the benefits of flexibility and full transparency.

A short while ago, my Instagram feed was full of reels showing adorable traditional families homeschooling their children. The videos made me smile as I glimpsed the fullness of the bond between the mother and her children — idealised for the digital platform, of course, but wholesome nonetheless. Far less wholesome were many of the comments underneath these videos, which I will briefly respond to in the following.
As for me, I went to conventional institutional schools as a child — public and Catholic schools. However, many of my cousins were homeschooled, and the following comments couldn’t be less representative of them. Having just recently completed my Master of Teaching, I feel prompted to clear the air about some of these homeschooling stereotypes from the perspective of a graduate teacher. So, without further ado, this is a teacher’s defence of homeschooling.
Indoctrination?

First of all, let’s address this “brainwashing” idea. This seems to imply that schools would never brainwash their students — which is a ridiculous thing to believe. In recent times, we have seen woke narratives permeate into school cultures and even curriculums. We have seen religion pushed out of schools. We have seen STEM hailed and promoted as the most important of school subjects at the expense of the liberal arts.
There have been several instances in which students have been discouraged from criticising, questioning, or speaking out against selected narratives — and this is the hallmark of indoctrination. Schools certainly can indoctrinate children, which is why transparency with parents is vital.
Raising one’s own child with one’s own values is not comparable. Children need that stability and support, and parents have the authority to provide this. Schools do not have the authority to step in between a parent and their child. At the same time, however, indoctrination can certainly happen at home, too.
If indoctrination is just teaching a person to accept an idea uncritically, from a biased point of view, sheltered from other perspectives, then this can happen at home if education is narrow. (The age and maturity of the child are also important considerations.) Indoctrination is something that can happen at home just as much as at school. However, only one has the added disgrace of acting behind a parent’s back.
Academic Standards

“Keep homeschooling your kids. I need janitors and cleaning ladies.”

“This is why US education standards are plummeting.”

“Increased homeschooling coincides with the rise in undereducated and misinformation, oddly enough.”

Next, there is the idea that homeschooling produces poorer academic outcomes. This assumption surely has to be born from a simple lack of understanding about how homeschooling works and what kinds of resources are used. As with normal schooling, homeschooling follows a set curriculum. Common content is covered, and students have to meet set achievement standards. It is unusual for parents to write their own curriculum.
Statistically, homeschooling is very often on par with, or above, public schooling in terms of academic performance. According to one study, the home-educated typically score 15 to 25 percentile points above public-school students on standardised academic achievement tests. 
Read More
Related Posts:

Written by J. V. Fesko |
Friday, September 22, 2023
When pastors do topical series, I suspect they will not choose passages that they find theologically difficult or problematic. For example, how many pastors ignore passages that deal with the doctrine of election? If we preach lectio continua, we must deal with whatever doctrines the text presents. We don’t have time for hobbyhorses, unless of course we’re ignoring the text. By preaching the text, it keeps us balanced. Sure, who wouldn’t want to hear about the love of God, but sometimes the text speaks about God’s wrath and justice and we need to hear about it.

During the sixteenth-century Reformation one of the standard practices for pastors was to preach lectio continua, chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse, through books of the Bible. At Geneva, for example, John Calvin preached from the New Testament in the morning and the Old Testament in the evening. Despite its common use during the Reformation there are many Reformed ministers who don’t preach lectio continua—they preach small topical series on this or that, or perhaps sections of books, such as sermons on the life of David or Abraham.
On the one hand, it’s definitely good and important that ministers preach the word of God. As simple as it may seem, there are too many ministers who ascend the pulpit each Sunday morning and do not preach the word—a sad but true fact. On the other hand, I think that some pastors are afraid to preach lectio continua for various reasons. But over the years I found a number of benefits to this method of preaching that, I believe, commend its use over other practices.
First, by preaching through books of the Bible you teach yourself and your congregation about whole portions of Scripture. Far too many people in the church, pastors included, do not know their Bibles. They have favorite verses or chapters, perhaps, but seldom are they familiar with entire books. What better way can there be to learn about Scripture than to preach through Romans, verse-by-verse? A side benefit of this is that the more you preach through books of the Bible, the better you will know it. Like compounding interest, your familiarity with the Bible will accrue. You will be better equipped for ministry, counseling, teaching, and preaching.
Read More
Related Posts:

Written by B.C. Newton |
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Only God’s kingdom will endure the dissolving and remaking of the cosmos. As mighty as the kingdoms of earth may seem for the moment, they cannot endure the passage of time, let alone the day of judgment!

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.Hebrews 12:25-29 ESV
The book of Leviticus is a fundamentally about worship. Particularly, it is about how a sinful people were to worship the holy and sinless God. The seriousness and solemnity of that privilege is made evident by a brief narrative that is found in chapter 10:1-3:
Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace.
There is a large tendency among Christians to read such Old Testament passages with great gratitude that God is no longer “like that.” For it is largely believed that Jesus came to put an end to God’s angry phase back in the Old Testament. Of course, we do live under the age of grace, where God’s special grace is being poured out through the gospel across the globe and God’s common grace upon all men has never been more blatant. Our previous passage gave us a marvelous portrait of the far greater grace that we have under the new covenant in Jesus Christ. However, we should not imagine, as many have done, that God’s character has changed between the Old and New Testaments. As the author of Hebrews has pointed out numerous times already, he now warns once more that the unparalleled display of God’s grace goes hand-in-hand with an unparalleled display of His judgment that is still to come.
Do Not Refuse Him Who Is Speaking—Verse 25
In many ways the passage before us is the climax of Hebrews, while chapter 13 is all resolution (to speak in narrative terms). Our previous passage gave us a sevenfold vision of the new covenant that Christians have already entered through the once for all sacrifice of Christ. That mighty revelation paralleled the sevenfold vision Jesus as the divine Son of God in 1:2-3. Now the author continues onward to parallel the very beginning of his sermon-letter, which reads: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (1:1-2a). Christ is the definitive and perfect Word of God, for unlike any prophet Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s nature. In all His words and deeds but also by His very being, Jesus communicated the nature of God to us.
Yet even though Christ has ascended to the right hand of God the Father after having perfectly accomplished His priestly work of redemption, He has not gone silent. As the author has been showing through this written sermon, God is still speaking by His Son through the Scriptures. Particularly, the author has labored to show how the Old Testament still speaks to us about who Jesus is and of the gospel that He came to accomplish. Indeed, all throughout the letter the author introduces Old Testament citation by saying he says or as the Holy Spirit says. Thus, by the sermon-letter of Hebrews, which is itself Scripture, and by the Old Testament passages that it has quoted, God is speaking to all who read these words. Though it may not seem as spectacular as God’s audible speaking to Israel at Sinai, it is a far greater revelation that we are hearing, and it is imbued with more grace and even an even greater glory.
Thus, we now begin the author’s final warning of the book: See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. This is the same command that the author gave in 3:12, saying, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” So we could similarly say here: Take care that you do not refuse him who is speaking. This is a matter worthy of your utmost attention and focus.
In Luke 10:38-42, we read the well-known account of Jesus in the house of two sisters, Mary and Martha. Mary, we are told, sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to His teaching, while “Martha was distracted with much serving” (v. 40). After Martha demanded that Jesus make Mary help her, Jesus simply said this: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (vv. 41-42). This was a loving rebuke to Martha that even serving, as wonderful as that is, is not ultimately necessary. Gladly listening to and knowing Jesus is the one thing in this life that necessary, for it is the good portion that not even death can take away. Martha was failing to receive that good portion because she was too distracted to listen to Jesus.
Notice that the author of Hebrews here indicates that having read or listened to his letter means having heard Christ speak; therefore, if you refuse Him, you are not simply being distracted away from the one thing necessary. You are openly rejecting Him. The remainder of the verse adds to this warning:
For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.
Again, this is not a new point that the author is making. The new covenant that Christ has inaugurated is marked by great grace that far exceeds the grace that was given through the old covenant; however, the judgment for refusing is also far greater. As 2:2-3 said, “For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” Or in 10:28-29:
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of one or two witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
Indeed, remember the similar phrasing of 10:18 and 10:26. After spending chapters 7-10 describing the priestly work of Christ, the author finished by confirming Jesus’ once for all sacrifice by saying, “Where there is forgiveness of [sins and lawless deeds], there is no longer any offering for sin.” And we cry, “Amen!” Christ has paid it all. He has made the complete and final sacrifice for our sins, so there is nothing more that we need to give or could ever give to make our salvation more secure. Jesus has done it all!!
Yet in 10:26, the author used almost the same wording but put it in a different context: “for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” In this verse, the same truth of Christ’s sufficiency takes on a terrifying tone. For if we reject the only sufficient sacrifice for sins, what else remains? To what other hope will we turn when we have rejected the salvation given through the shed blood of the Son of God?
That again is the question that the author sets before us here. If those who refused God’s speaking from Sinai did not escape the judgment that came for them, those who refuse God’s speaking through His Son from Mount Zion will certainly not escape an even greater judgment of God that is still to come.
The Great Shakening—Verses 26-27
In these verses, the author turns his attention upon that coming judgment, using the contrast between earth and heaven as his point of connection:
At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken–that is, things that have been made–in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.
Briefly the author references the shaking of the earth that marked God’s speaking to Israel at Mount Sinai, but then he quickly moves on to contrast that shaking of the earth with God’s promise in Haggai 2:6 to shake both the earth and the heavens.
 Read More
Related Posts: