I grew up in an environment where most Reformed Christians were doing one of two things: they would either send their children to Christian schools for 5 days a week or homeschool. In the Dutch Reformed world, not many Christians have sent their children to public schools in the last 50 years. I’ve had many conversations about various models for education over the years in the various settings in which I have lived, and have family in the field of education.
Recently I posted a tweet thread on X here in order to think out-loud and get feedback. I want to expand on that here. Feedback from my reader is always appreciated. My intent in this article is to imagine different forms for education that might lie outside of the two polarities of homeschool or school for 5 days a week.
While there are benefits to both, there are also pitfalls to both…
In extreme cases, homeschooling can look more like unschooling. In extreme cases, Christian kids who go to Christian schools 5 days a week, might grow up as something akin to a latch-key kid. A child might have to make their own meals and open the doors for themselves at times when they get home because both mom and dad are working.
On both sides of the spectrum, growing up in the Reformed community in Ontario Canada, there were principial homeschoolers and principial schoolers. I don’t believe that there is a principial argument for either form of Christian education. There is a lot of liberty in the form of education.
I don’t believe that there is a principial argument for either form of Christian education.
Take the community in Moscow, Idaho as an example on this point. There is a classical Christian school and homeschoolers, and coops, and other schools of varying shapes and sizes. That’s the great thing about Christian liberty in the sphere of education. There is freedom to form associations and time will tell whether which particular association works better and which does not work as well.
Nevertheless, there are principles for educating Christian children in Scripture and I believe that a number of those principles can be derived from Ephesians 6:4: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
Here are those principles.
1) A father is responsible to ensure that his children are brought up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord, whether that is in the setting of Christian homeschool or the Christian school. 2) The assumption of this command is that children actually do receive godly discipline and are to be thoroughly instructed. 3) Another assumption is that these children are not to be instructed in the ways of the secular state (ie in public schools), but in the ways of the Lord. 4) Even if a father decides to send his children to Christian school, he is not passing off his responsibility as a father to the Christian school. He is simply delegating authority to the Christian school, just as he might delegate authority to his wife in the home when she spends the day teaching the children. 5) That of course means that if a child grows up without a proper education, the father can’t pass off responsibility to the school or his wife. It is his responsibility as father.
the father can’t pass off responsibility to the school or his wife
I can talk about those principles more on a future date, but my intent here is to talk about models for education. By “model”, I am not referring to classical education or Charlotte Mason education or mainstream education, but simply the setting in which education is done, that is the study week. Is that study done out of the home or in the home? How much of that study is done out of the home and how much is done in the home? Before I continue, I want to emphasize again the Christian’s liberty in various models for education.
I am writing as a father with children who are ready to enter into the education system (3 so far). I recognize that a divorced mother or a father in a church may need a 5-day per week program, or are even forced to send their children to public school (due to means outside their control), but still have a responsibility to cultivate in their children a love for and knowledge of Jesus Christ and His Word. That again, is a topic for another day, how that can be done well. The general principles are above.
I had a positive experience in home-schooling. I believe my Mom did an excellent job (maybe I am biased). Homeschooling was a necessity in the context in which we lived. My parents rose to the challenge. I have always seen the benefits of a more formalized education though. It is healthy for young men in highschool to have competition, both in education and in sports. On the other hand, I am also aware of the costs of running a Christian school, my own wage that I currently make, and constantly rising inflation in Canada. My wife has a side gig that she has to make a little extra on the side and to keep her artistic skills fine-tuned. It is important to me that she has the time and head-space to manage a home, that our children don’t feel abandoned (by either of us), and that there is also time to teach them all the skills that are appropriate for where they are at in their development. I could imagine sending one or all of them to school for 5 days a week at some point in the future. I think about where we are at now and I don’t believe that is possible at this time. I also believe it is healthy for my children to learn at home (especially at this age).
I still see a need for families to support one another, for something more formalized, where we can see our own weaknesses and support one another through the good work of education. I know I have weaknesses and oversights and areas where I can’t teach as well. If my kid wants to become a medical doctor, neither I nor my wife are equipped to give our kid the tools - she is an artist and I am a liberal artist.
We are not just individual families adrift at sea. That is where the homeschool coop comes in. Historically (that is in my youth), there has been a polarization between the school system and homeschooling. But why can’t there be a mixed approach, a part time school system? Fathers have to take responsibility for the proper education of their children either way. That is one of the reasons we work to make an income.
On a more informal level, this would be a group of mothers getting together to teach children sports and maybe some academic classes. I enjoyed something like this in high school with Firm Foundation Homeschool Group north of Toronto. We met for 2 hrs a week, mainly to learn different sports. There were a few classes at times.
But let’s say you formalize that even more and add more classes and do it 1-3 days a week. On a more formal level, you could hire a university educated principal, who would not take over for parents, but would help to organize and teach classes and might help provide some structure to education. That principal could ensure that students are meeting goals and standards. I understand that tutors are a big thing in South Korea. Why not have tutors accessible whether locally or abroad who can put in half an hour or an hour a week to help students who are struggling with a particular field of study? You could even maybe have a principal and one or two full-time or part-time teachers who tutor on the side.
I hear of this kind of thing forming - most of the stories coming out of northern Washington state. Why not across Canada?
There is lots of freedom to reform the form of education in the context that we live in, for the glory of God, and for the good of the next generation. The freedom to homeschool in Alberta and Canada is greater now than it was 25-50 years ago. And we should steward that gift of freedom well.
we should steward that gift of freedom well.
What I want to see develop in my children is well-rounded, inquisitiveness, knowledgable young people who are able to think critically, to read and understand a text, and to state someone else’s argument better than they are able to. I also want them to be capable with skills in the workforce. I want them to learn how to use their time wisely and skillfully, for the time is evil. I want them to be wise. For the glory of God.
All that can happen regardless of the form, nevertheless, the form can help.