A Short History of Homeschooling- The Importance of a Christian Education
Homeschooling has become a hot topic in recent years. Many parents have chosen to remove their children from public school settings after the interruptions in schooling due to covid. This influx of children daily in the home, has greatly changed the education landscape of our country. For many parents the time of Covid lockdowns was the first time they had an experience with teaching their children at home. The idea of teaching children at home is not novel, although many have been accustomed to think of home education as new. However, throughout history teaching children at home has been the norm for the vast majority of human history. Homeschooling has been around for a lot longer than we think.
Homeschooling in the 1800s
Homeschooling dates back to before our country was established as an independent nation. You can date formal homeschooling from Europeans settlers back to the 17th century when the United States was being colonized. At that point, there was no formal, centralized school system set up. Therefore, if parents wanted their children educated in a subject the onus was fully on the family, not the civil magistrate. Although tutors were an option for the wealthy in Europe and eventually in the US colonies, many people could not afford one. If you wanted your child to have an education, then you as parents were responsible to teach them.
This all started to change in the early 1800s. In the early 1800s the discuss of education for children was starting. Many of us would assume that discussion revolved around teaching children reading, writing and arithmetic, but it wasn’t. The conversation was more about training socially acceptable behavior in children. In the 1830s, the discussion of having “common” or public schools was started. The goal of these common schools was to impress moral instruction in order to stabilize society and to reinforce the contemporary current social structures of the day. Wow! That doesn’t sound like the 1800’s government officials were all that concerned with the education of our children. It sounds more like they wanted to indoctrinate children. But what caused this sudden change and want to teach moral instruction? In the 1850’s many people had moved off of farms and now lived in industrialized cities. When you combine this with the increased number of immigrants coming to America from Europe, you are left with cities full of people who all think and act differently. The “melting pot” of America was perceived as threatening to “boil over”.
The increasing population in cities, along with industrialization combined to change society. The result was a decrease of homeschooling. The norm of home based education was replaced with a centralized public education system. Proponents of public education today will often point out that they send their kids for the education, not for the morals. That the public schools do not teach morals, they are just teaching facts. How is that possible? How is it possible to teach facts without teaching morals? Aren’t the facts and aspects we chose to teach a reflection of our morals?
As Christians, we recognize that God has (early and often) communicated instruction for ethical living through story. From the ancient stories of creation and the primeval days of Noah, to the New Testament teaching of Jesus in the parables, stories communicate ethics, beliefs, and doctrine.
The proof is in the pudding. The American public school system was not started for the educational wellbeing of our children. The American public school system was started to moralize and indoctrinate children into the “American” way of thinking.
As a result of this push for common education, truancy laws were set in to place. These truancy laws were different based on weather you lived in a city or country. The strictest schools required 12 weeks of attendance during a year if you were between the ages of 8 and 14. The leanest schools, which were mostly found in agricultural areas required 12 weeks of school but only until age 8. This caused many parents to abandon the idea of homeschooling for decades. It wasn’t until thet 1960’s that the discussion was again began about homeschooling.
During this time, professionals started to point out some problems with public schooling. This is the time that is referred to as the modern homeschool movement. The modern homeschool movement draws much of it’s thought from John Holt, an educational theorist who began arguing that the current public school system was only making compliant workers. Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, many people joined John Holt in his home schooling groups. Children were being removed from public schools and were homeschooled. This movement caused fear in the schools. This led to many court cases in the 1980’s and 1990’s about the legality of homeschooling. By 1993 ALL 50 states had legalized homeschooling. This thought still blows my mind. Parents were in violation of the law in many places throughout the 20th century simply by raising their children and keeping them home.
Isn't that a crazy concept? Prior to 1850 homeschooling was the norm in American society (and in many societies prior). Prior to the rise of truancy laws, it was assumed that it was the parents responsibility to teach and train their children. Society and legality changed with the inauguration of truancy laws. Those truancy laws led to the department of education which took 100 years to decide that children could be homeschooled. It's mind boggling to me to see that an agency can take something away from someone ,and then years later declare that it is now ok to have because they approve it. I am NOT anti-American. I love our country and am so blessed that we get to live in this land. But I do find it shocking that the education system took away homeschooling, declared it illegal for their indoctrination and then years later when trouble was made decided to allow it to occur.
This leads us to the present day and modern homeschooling. Society is changing again. Homeschooling today is once again becoming a norm in our society. There are still many more people who send their children to public school, but homeschooling is no longer looked down upon in the same way as it was 40, 30, or even 5 years ago. Research is now showing that children who are homeschooled often score higher and achieve more academically than students who have been educated outside the home.
I am glad to see that there are many more families who have chosen to homeschool. I think there is a time and place for public education, but I do not think it is beneficial for all children. As Christians, we firmly believe that parents are to primarily train and teach our children to love the Lord. It is our job to teach them scripture. It is not our job to surrender our children to someone else for 8 hours a day, 9 months out of the year for 13-18 years of their life.
Aristotle has a great quote that says “ Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.”
― Aristotle, The Philosophy of Aristotle”
Who is the one with your child? Who is shaping how your child thinks? How do they learn? What do they learn? Are they learning how to learn? Are they learning a multi view approach to history or are they just learning a singular view? What about science and nature? Are they being taught that God created all things, or that everything just “happened”? Is your child learning how to love others? How to protect themselves and their family? Are they learning from loving adults and older siblings or are they learning their life skills and communication from children their own age?
If you have ever thought about homeschooling, now is the time to start. There are SO many resources available to you. I know how overwhelming it can seem to take on the education of your child, but rest assured YOU CAN DO IT! You were the one who taught your child to walk, to speak, to run, to use the bathroom and so much more. Please reach out to us here and we will help you get started on your homeschooling journey.
