Today is National Parents as Teachers Day, a celebration started in Missouri in 2001. The day is intended to encourage parents to be involved in their child’s educational goals. The catalyst for the day came when kindergarten teachers saw that many kids were entering school with varying levels of readiness. The educators believed that kids needed to begin their education on a more level playing field.
Far earlier than 2001, there was a homeschooling movement begun to counteract some of those arbitrary requirements. It was begun in the 1970s “when John Holt, an educational theorist and supporter of school reform, began arguing that formal schools’ focus on rote learning created an oppressive classroom environment designed to make children compliant employees. Holt called for parents to liberate their children from formal education and instead follow a method today known as “unschooling.”1 Surprisingly, this homeschool effort faced little opposition. Some states required certain guidelines to be met but the plan was basically accepted.
In the 1980s, homeschooling took a dramatic turn as “evangelicals” and Christians infiltrated the scene, declaring the public school to be “Satanic hothouses” and fighting against anything the county or state required. It wasn’t so much that the requirements were unscriptural. It was that there were requirements at all and the Christians did not feel that they should have to answer to anyone. This led to a barrage of legal battles that had not been known prior to the 80s.
This devotional is not intended to debate the public school vs. homeschool movement or to take sides in the fight. I’m merely making what I think is a basic observation and I believe everyone will agree.
I thought ALL parents were supposed to be teachers, teaching all the time.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 says, “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: (7) And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (8) And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. (9) And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” The passage speaks about the spiritual education of the child. God’s plan is that this was always to have been done by the parents. That’s their primary job and the work cannot be relegated to a school or even a church.
It would seem that this holy work was known in the heart long before this passage of Scripture was written. Genesis 18:19 says, “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”
While you may not be able to teach your child electronics, chemistry, biology, or calculus, you can teach them about the things of the Lord. You can bring them early to the Lord. You can help get their feet established in the Word of God and equip them with the tools they will need to face an ungodly society. You can help them set their priorities EARLY in life so that ballgames, band, debate clubs, drama, or other school activities will be put into their proper place.
The parent is the best teacher the child will ever have. Never tire of teaching them the most important life lessons. Timothy had those parental (and grandparental) teachers in his life.
2 Timothy 3:14-15 says, “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; (15) And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
1https://responsiblehomeschooling.org/research/summaries/a-brief-history-of-homeschooling/
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