First Things First

This article is part of our series for those New to Home Education.

Thinking through why you choose to educate your children at home is the first step to developing your own educational philosophy. Don’t let the terminology scare you off. This just means what you believe will make for a good education. What your goals and beliefs about education are.

You may be thinking, I just want to know what books I need to buy to get started, not get into some philosophical discussion. But before we move on, you must realize that behind every school, every teacher, every educational publishing company, every educational resource is an educational philosophy. You may not think you have one or want one,  but you do. If you haven’t thought it through, yours is most likely the one you learned from your own government education.

Whether you have thought yours through or not, there will be one presented to you through every resource you use. It is wise that you know what theirs is and if it lines up with what your goals and beliefs for your children’s education is. If it doesn’t, not only will you be working against your own purposes, but you will also be frustrated because what you’re wanting in your children’s education isn’t being accomplished.

Many believe that there is either Christian education or “secular” education. But it goes far deeper than that. (See our Seminar for more on this.) All education is religious. There is no such thing as a neutral education. The religion being taught is either Biblical Christianity or some other religion. Either God is being glorified as God in everything taught, or some other entity is being lifted up as god. This is only the beginning of your beliefs about education.

There are several questions you need to ask yourself about your educational beliefs. You may not be able to answer them all until you have read and thought more about education, but begin thinking about them now, as your answers to these questions will determine what resources and methods will work best for educating your children at home.

• What are our reasons for wanting to home educate?
• Is home education for us a conviction, a preference, a passing whim (let’s just try it)?
• What is the purpose of education?
• What do we believe should be the role of the teacher? the students?
• What do we believe are the most important things to teach/learn?
• How do we believe they should be taught/learned?

We could dig much deeper than this, and explore the philosophies of educational philosophy, but for now, this will get you off to a good start and enable you to choose an approach and resources that will be a good fit for your family. The Freedom & Simplicity™ of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ Seminar presents Biblical insights to help you renew your mind to develop a Biblical philosophy of education.