What is the purpose of education?
What is the purpose of school?
What is your philosophy of education?

In other words, why do we “do school”? Why do we send our children to school? What is the reason for our education system? Most of the time, we never think about this; like much of our lives we just do what our culture does. But what is the purpose of education?
At any given time in the news, you can find stories of things going on in school systems that shock and scare you or just plain disgust you. Some of you may have just seen the debate over whether we should be able to teach from books that don’t teach evolution (click here). When our children were in public school, they were allowed to be taught about Buddha and other religions, but could not be taught Christ or anything close to that. You can see by the dropping test scores how things are going on the academic side of things. The CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program) tests are all about the importance of teaching our children and making sure they’re learning it.
What do you teach your children? What do you allow your children to be taught? Now, consider your ways. WHY DO YOU TEACH OR ALLOW THEM TO BE TAUGHT THAT?
Here is something to consider: The Bible teaches that knowledge for the sake of knowledge simply leads to pride. Knowledge without application just leads to vanity.
We have homeschooled for 13 years and are now in the final one, sad to say. We know that homeschooling may not be for everyone, but everyone ought to consider it. Why?
Because as parents, God has given us the responsibility of raising our children into adults that love and know Him. We may choose to delegate the authority of educating them to other people, but the responsibility is still ours. It is my RESPONSIBILITY to teach my children (Deut. 6:4-8). When I send my child to your class, I’m giving you the authority, but I’m still responsible to God. I’m responsible for what they learn, what they don’t learn, what they’re exposed to and what they’re protected from. My challenge for you is to think through why you do what you do. What is the purpose? What are your goals? What is the reasoning behind the system that you have chosen? What are the benefits and the costs? What are the pros and cons? Make a list and put down what you desire for your children and why. Which system of educating provides it?
Some of our reasons are and were:

• The Bible teaches my children belong to God, but I’m a temporary custodian of them. We wanted to teach them to love and honor Jesus Christ and to make sure they get to Heaven.
• We believe one of the most important things that our children could possess is a Christ-like character and Godly wisdom. These come best from parents’ example and doctrine. Keeping them at home gives you the time and ability of just being there at the ‘right’ time.
• The time with your children is very short so we wanted to maximize that opportunity to its fullest extent.
• We are charged by God to protect our children from the influences of sin until they are fully equipped. We always said we were not sending our kids out until their full armor was ready for battle so they could withstand the fiery darts of the devil.
• We wanted them to have a biblical worldview so they could make the right choices in life and eternity.
• It gives us the ability to formulate a personalized curriculum around the uniqueness of each child so that they can excel.
• Homeschooling builds a strong family with common values and goals.
• Individual tutoring is historically proven to be the best method of instruction.
• We get to teach them to be lifelong learners.
• We can adapt our schedule according to what life throws our way.
• We just make learning a way of life.

This can feel like a daunting task, but so worth the effort and time you have. Like my husband always said, no one loves your child and wants what’s best for them more than YOU! May the Lord bless your decision.
Consider your ways (Haggai 1:5)

Excerpts taken from an article by Joe Holman (Editor’s note: the original article is no longer available online, thus we were unable to link to it.)

By DeAnn Wilkie
DeAnn Wilkie lives in Denver and is a member of the Bear Valley church of Christ where her husband, Brian, serves as an elder. DeAnn is the proud mother of four children ages 16-22.