More and more children are getting an education without ever entering a school build­ing. They're learning at home. And they're being taught by their parents.

The idea of home schooling may seem odd to you especial­ly if you've always assumed that schools with certified pro­fessionals are the only way to get an education. But most people who are actually involved in home schooling love it and it seems to be work­ing.

Home schooling is growing by leaps and bounds. In 1978 there were just 12,500 home schoolers in all of North America. Today just 20 years later the number is more than 100 times that amount with about 1.5 million children being home schooled in the United States and Canada.

What's it all about? If you're not a home schooler you may be curious to know what home schoolers actually do and if your family should consider home schooling.

Or you may have misgivings about home schooling. Here are some comments that home schoolers hear from time to time: "Children are too valu­able a resource to be left in the hands of amateurs; they should be taught by certified educators." "Homes don't have adequate equipment for education; children need the resources that only a well-funded public school can offer." "What if the home schooling is abusive?" "Children need other children their age for proper socializa­tion." "I could never teach my children every day; I send them to the public school to be taught by professionals."

Gregg Harris is a home edu­cator and seminar speaker. He takes these comments about home schooling and applies them to another activity: home cooking. Suppose you're out grilling hamburgers in your yard. Your neighbor says, "That's unusual. I think chil­dren are too valuable a resource to be left to amateur cooks; only certified nutrition­ists should be allowed to cook. Home kitchen equipment could never be adequate; all children should eat three stan­dard meals in government cafeterias. What if the home cooked meals are abusive? Children need to eat with other children their age to learn proper table manners. I could never cook for my own children every day so I send them out to the restaurants; they're run by professionals." Sounds a little silly doesn't it? Believe it or not there was once a time when home schooling and home cooking were about equally common. For most of human history parents assumed it was their job routinely to feed their kids but also to educate and train them for their future role in society. What children learned, they learned at home from their parents and their extend­ed family. Eventually schools were established to teach chil­dren things their families couldn't teach them and to supply learning resources their families couldn't provide. And that was okay, as long as par­ents remained involved in their children's instruction and in the life of the school.

All too often, though, parents began to leave everything to institutions, and children began to see less and less of their parents. We've now reached a point where the average parents, according to a survey, spend just seven min­utes a day in face-to-face con­versation with their children. Seven minutes! No wonder home schooling seems odd to some. Most parents hardly talk with their kids, let alone take charge of helping them to make sense of the world around them.

In a society that lives on fast food, home cooking sounds quaint. In a society that learns only in institutional class­rooms, home schooling sounds odd. In much of society, home-anything is starting to sound strange. "Home? What's that? Oh, I remember — that's where I watch TV and sleep."

Home schoolers want to make the home central, not marginal. They won't settle for a measly seven minutes of con­versation a day. They want to spend hours talking, studying, working, playing, and eating together. For many, home schooling isn't just an educa­tional approach; it's a way of life. It's not just about better academic instruction; it's about restoring the family.

This is true of home schoolers from various backgrounds, and it's especially true of Bible-believing home schoolers. In the last verse of the Old Testament, Malachi 4:6, God speaks of turning "the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers." Otherwise, says God, "I will come and strike the land with a curse." Christian home schoolers take that verse to heart. They see a terrible curse befalling our society with its crumbling homes and confused kids, and they sense the Lord turning their hearts back to their chil­dren.

For such people, home edu­cation is part of a larger vision of family restoration, of par­ents taking back responsibility for their children's intellectual, social, and spiritual develop­ment. Let's take a closer look at these areas and think about the impact of Christian home schooling in each one.

Intellectual Development⤒🔗

Do home schooled children really learn anything from ordinary moms and dads? Can there be academic excellence when they're not being taught by certified professionals?

You might see a news item once in a while about a home schooler winning the national spelling bee, or getting a per­fect score on the SAT, but these are just a few individu­als. What's the overall picture?

A study in Canada found that the average Canadian home school student scored in the 76th percentile on standard­ized achievement tests. The national average, by defini­tion, is 50. In the United States, where the number of home schoolers is much larger, the most recent major study found that the average American home school stu­dent scored in the 87th per­centile on standardized achievement tests, 737 per­centile points higher than the national average. In other words, the average home schooler is in the top 13 per­cent of all students. And the longer the child has been home schooled, the greater the advantage.

How can that be? How is it that children can learn more from ordinary parents than from expert teachers? Well, the simple fact is that children thrive when they're being taught one on one and their individual interests and abili­ties are taken into account. God creates each child indi­vidually, not on an assembly line. In some school class­rooms, there's a "one size fits all" approach. Twenty or 30 students of different back­grounds, interests, and abili­ties all have to cover the same material at the same rate. For some children the pace is frus­tratingly fast, while for others it is boringly slow. At home, on the other hand, the pace matches the individual. The child can slow down when something is a struggle and speed up when it's a snap. Children learn best when they're treated as individuals, not as units in a factory.

And don't think home schooling parents are com­pletely on their own. If there was ever a time when parents didn't have resources to give their children solid training, that time is past. Books, com­puter programs, and countless teaching helps are available, and there are many home schooling support groups. At any rate, the facts show that the average home-educated child does better academically than the average child in school.

A number of home schooling parents happen to be trained as certified teachers, but there's little difference between the achievement level of their children and the chil­dren of other home schooling parents. Research among home schoolers has found that parents with less education do as well as those with more. Low-income parents do as well as rich parents. Home schoolers in one ethnic group do as well as those in another. These facts stand in sharp con­trast to public schools, where low-income and minority stu­dents tend to score much lower than wealthy students in the ethnic majority. Apparently the ability to give your children a good educa­tion at home has little to do with institutional certification or wealth or ethnic back­ground. It has everything to do with a commitment to person­ally providing an education for your children.

It's an old prejudice to assume that in order to be wise and well-informed, you have to have formal training at the feet of a certified expert. Jesus himself ran into that kind of prejudice. His father Joseph was a carpenter; his mother Mary, a housewife. People who heard Jesus speak could­n't see how a man from a working-class family in a poor town, with no expert training, could be so knowledgeable. How could Jesus be so brilliant if he'd never been the student of a recognized rabbi? They asked each other, "How did this man get such learning without having studied?" (John 7:15). Still today it's hard for certain people to believe that someone can have great learning without having studied in a formal set­ting.

Home schoolers are disprov­ing those kinds of prejudices. Most home school students aren't falling behind; they're excelling. And they aren't being left behind by modern technology. In fact, they're on the cutting edge: 86 percent of home school families own a computer, far higher than the national average. More and more colleges and universities are actively recruiting home school students. When it comes to intellectual development ­home schooling works.

Social Development←⤒🔗

You might wonder, though, about the children's social development. Don't kids need to get out of the house and do things and be with others their own age? Probably the most common question home schoolers hear is, "What about socialization?"

Well, home school children don't live in isolation. Studies show that 98 percent of home schoolers are involved in two or more activities outside the home every week, and the average home schooler is involved in five weekly activi­ties, including sports, ballet, various clubs, church events, and so on. If anything, home schoolers are more likely to do too much outside the home than too little.

At any rate, while many school children spend seven hours a day in classrooms with kids their own age, trying to sit still and be quiet or else whis­pering and passing notes, home schoolers are studying cooking, cutting grass, doing laundry and other chores, and helping out with younger brothers and sisters. Many home schooled kids finish their schoolwork quickly and then go where their parents go, meeting people of various ages and occupations. Isn't that healthy socialization? After all, in the adult world, people aren't divided into age-segregated groups that sit in rows in the same room. That only happens in school.

When people ask home schoolers, "What about social­ization?" they often haven't thought much about the kind of socialization their own children are getting. Their biggest con­cern is that home educated chil­dren don't spend enough time with kids their own age. But why not reverse the question and ask if kids in school are spending too much time with kids their own age and not nearly enough time with their parents? Why take it for grant­ed when school children become peer-dependent and yet worry that home school children might be too parent-dependent? Isn't that getting things backward? How many kids are using drugs or alcohol, talking dirty, or having sex because they spend too much time with loving parents and not enough time with kids their own age?

Socialization is important, all right. Companionship plays a huge part in how we turn out. Scripture says, "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm" (Proverbs 13:20). Where is a child more likely to be walking with the wise — when he's with his parents or with his peers? Who is wiser, Dad and Mom, or a bunch of kids who all watch the same movies, lis­ten to the same music, wear the same clothes, and do all the same things their classmates happen to be doing?

This doesn't mean that if your kids go to school, the family can't remain at the center of their lives. But you will have to work at it, or your children's lives will soon be centered on their schoolmates. You must work to steer your kids clear of the wrong crowd at school. At home you must make space in your schedule and your chil­dren's schedule to do fun things and pursue helpful projects together as a family. You must make sure there's plenty of time outside of school hours for family meals and conversation to nourish and strengthen fami­ly ties.

If you don't do this, if instead you drop your kids in a day­care center as babies, in pre‑school as four-year-olds, and in public school from kinder­garten through high school, and if you plunk them in front of TV when they are at home, and you interact with them only seven minutes a day, then plan on your children being more attached to schoolmates than to you. And don't be shocked if the results aren't too pretty. The key to healthy social devel­opment, whether your children are educated at home or in school, is for you as parents to win your children's hearts and steer them in the right way.

If you home school, you can give your kids plenty of chances for outside involvements and you can give them ample opportunity to have fun with friends. But the family remains the hub of their lives, and friendships are spokes tied into that hub.

The socialization issue is sometimes considered a nega­tive of home schooling but it's actually a positive. Researcher Thomas Smedley conducted a study and concluded, "The home educated children in this sample were significantly better socialized and more mature than those in public schools." Another study comparing home schoolers to children from good private schools, found that the two groups were equally well adjusted socially and emotionally. The only dif­ference was that the home schoolers tended to be less peer dependent. So if you ask, "What about socializalion?" the answer is that home school­ing can produce excellent social development.

Spiritual Development←⤒🔗

The most important matter to consider as you raise your chil­dren and provide them with an education is spiritual develop­ment. The Bible emphasizes that parents are their children's main teachers in spiritual mat­ters and that educating children in God's ways is an around-the-­clock activity. "Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deut. 11:19). God wants parents to provide their kids with a God-saturated envi­ronment.

The spiritual instruction of children isn't just the job of a pastor, Sunday school teacher, church youth leader, or Christian school teacher. Such people may have a role to play, and parents may delegate some work to them, but the spiritual instruction of children is first of all the job of parents and grandparents. Scripture plainly says in Deuteronomy 4:9 about the things of God, "Teach them to your children and to their children after them." In Psalm 78: 5-6 the Bible says, "He commanded our forefathers to teach their children ... and they in turn would tell their children."

Earlier we mentioned stan­dardized tests. To be honest, most Christian home schoolers don't care much about those tests. In some places the tests are required by law, and home schoolers generally do very well on them but those tests only measure the kind of things public schools care about. For example, they don't test a stu­dent's knowledge of the Bible or of other great books in the Christian tradition. They don't ask how the wisdom of God and the lordship of Christ relate to other subjects of study. They don't measure a student's moral and spiritual develop­ment and relationship to Jesus. But to Christian parents, these things are the heart and soul of education.

In fact, some Christian home educators don't like the phrase "home schooling" at all; they prefer to speak of "home-based discipleship." They're not just trying to make kids smart enough to get a job and make a living; they're trying to make disciples for Jesus who will radiate the light of Christ to others. One reason some folks object to home schooling is that kids won't learn to fit in. But Christian parents don't want their kids to fit in with the world; they want them to stand out for God. And there is every indication that God is blessing their efforts and raising up a generation that is intellectually bright, socially sound, and spir­itually strong.

I hope that what you've read here helps you understand and appreciate Christian home schoolers. I also hope that if you're a parent, it's made you think about your responsibili­ties toward the children God has given you. If your children's school situation isn't good, and you don't have the option of a better school, maybe God is leading you to consider home schooling.

If there's an outstanding Christian school in your area, such a school may be an excel­lent place for your children. Still, don't assume you can leave everything to the school. Even if your children go to a fine school, you as parents are responsible to invest the time and energy to make the family central and put God's ways first in your children's lives.

Some parents decide to home school even when there's a good Christian school nearby. In some cases, they'd rather not have both parents working out­side the home to pay tuition bills. In other cases, they simply believe God is calling them to be the teachers of their children and to spend the best hours of the day with them without del­egating the work to a school. Parents who choose to home school and those who send their children to Christian schools should respect one another's choices. Why con­demn or compete, when we can cooperate? It's best when Christian schools and home schoolers work closely together and deeply appreciate one another.

If you're considering home schooling, expect to work hard at it, and expect that you will have to maintain order and dis­cipline in your home, since you'll be spending so much time with your kids, and you can't ship them somewhere else. Expect that you will need to look into various education approaches and choose what's best for your family. Expect to have direct responsibility for your children's intellectual, social, and spiritual develop­ment.

So expect challenges, but also expect great joys. Expect the delight of being there to see each new development in your child. Expect to be amazed at how you really can teach your children and at how much you learn yourself. Expect to do what you never thought you could do. Expect to say, "I can do all things in (Christ) who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13, RSV). And, firmly, expect to say, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walk­ing in the truth" (3 John 4).