Dealing With Doubters

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Question: How do I deal with people who question the wisdom of home schooling when neither of us has a background in teaching?

Answer: Keep in mind that true home schooling is home-based discipleship, not just teaching academics. Separating the academic part of life from the spiritual part of life, then saying that one is more important than the other is not a concept that you find in the Bible. God is concerned about all of life.

Parents who love the Lord have an additional motivation to prepare their children for all of life because they see academics as a part of the "toolbox" necessary to obey commands such as Matthew 28:19. Professional teachers from humanistic universities who function in humanistic schools have set aside the most important parts of life. As a result, they leave the impression with children in the classroom that being a good person is possible without God, or by worshipping any god.

Researchers have shown two very important things: 1) On the average, the academic performance of home schoolers is not significantly affected by whether their parents do or do not have college degrees. 2) The performance of home schoolers who live in states with restrictive standards (academics for parent/teachers, reporting, subjects taught, etc.) is not better than the performance of home schoolers who live in states where the standards are low or non-existent.

(See http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200410250.asp)

The bottom line is that in the long run, a background in teaching does not help.