These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (NASB 1995)

When I was young, I was told that free public schools were essential to ensuring that the people of a nation were educated. And I believed that – because I was a young student and because there was no voice contradicting that claim. There was no debate.

In my high school years I realized that, despite taking honors classes and dual enrolling, my education was not high quality. At that time, the discussion of education revolved primarily around tax funded vs. parent funded (ie: private) schools. The assumption was that to ensure a good education, parents needed to pay for an expensive, exclusive, private school.

However both of these options required that the children be sent away from parents for the majority of each day. Both required the hiring of professional educators. Both placed children in sterile, assembly-line environments.

Another Way

I discovered home education when I happened across an interview with a kid who was spending his senior year of high school sailing around the world. “Now THAT is an education,” I thought to myself. Not only was he using the tools of navigation and sailing, he was learning history by walking where that history had taken place. He was reading classic literature. He was actually using math and science. His knowledge was real, not just regurgitated from a textbook.

I decided at that moment that my kids would be home educated. (I did not even have kids yet.)

As I sought more information about home education, I rediscovered Deuteronomy 6:6-9 and Ephesians 6:4. True discipleship takes place throughout the activities of daily life. Schools monopolize a family’s time leaving little room for anything else. I saw how I had been discipled into a Secular Humanist worldview which was completely counter to my parents’ efforts to disciple me in Christ.

My commitment to home education grew.

Eventually our children came along. We had a wonderful time with hands-on learning activities. We read together. We took nature walks. There was plenty of free time for them to just be children. It was certainly not perfect; we were human, after all. But real learning was taking place.

My experience further convinced me that God’s plan of intentional daily discipleship is the best way to ensure that individuals are well educated when they reach adulthood.

Generational Impact

Somewhere along the way, I realized that I had learned even more than my children. That was a surprise. By teaching our children, my husband and I had educated ourselves, too!

We were reading and discussing great literature. Our math skills were a little sharper. We were able to discern where current scientists failed to follow the scientific method. Our understanding of and appreciation for the Creator grew. Our deeper understanding of history was affecting our attitudes and daily decisions.

Furthermore, my parents had learned alongside us. Home education was impacting three generations at once!

A Humbling Realization

Of course our kids had some gaps in their education. Every education has gaps. It is impossible to teach everything about everything in the universe.

Yet after the kids graduated, I started to realize that they did not remember every little thing that I HAD taught them. They would ask questions about things which I knew we had discussed.

What!? How could they forget those fun things we did when they were seven years old? Or ten? Or even fourteen?

Had I failed as a home educator? Had I ruined my kids?

No.

Many of the things I had taught had fallen by the wayside because my kids were not using them regularly. Or they lost interest in that topic. Or maybe their little brains and bodies were so busy growing and maturing that they could not retain everything.

I certainly do not remember every moment of my childhood. I should not expect the same of my kids.

A Deeper Understanding

That was when a fuller meaning of Deuteronomy dawned on me. Yes, it is about educating our children throughout our days. But it is so much more.

It is about re-educating ourselves as adults.

When we take the time to teach our little ones, our intermediate ones, our young adults, we review these things for ourselves, too. By explaining things to our kids at each stage of their development, we are giving ourselves a mental workout. Meanwhile, our own life experiences facilitate a deeper understanding that we simply could not grasp when we were younger.

This is true of literature, history, math – every subject. It is especially true of God’s Word.

Training our children and grandchildren is our continuing education. This is how we remember to not forget.

Schools – both public and private – remove that review. Parents are disconnected from learning and from their children. They cease to remember. They forget.

In forgetting, parents completely miss the joy of discovery in their children faces. They lose the wisdom that could be applied in daily life. Their awe for the Creator of all wisdom and knowledge fades.

So once again, I am awed by God’s infinite wisdom.

And I am more convinced than ever that

Home education is the best way to ensure an educated nation.

Keep walking along the way,

Rebecca