No Guarantees

I don’t care how good or popular something is.  I will not use a home school curriculum that touts home schooling as the only choice available for Christians and/or promises to turn out godly children if we follow their curriculum.

I’m sorry, but we’re talking about children, not appliances. (A nod to a line from the movie Parenthood.)

In my early days of researching and searching for a curriculum to use with my children, I came across many that put forth the idea that home schooling is something that God calls parents to do and to home school is to be obedient to God. Now, I am a ‘Christian’, and I do believe that this is what I am meant to be doing.  But does He call everyone? NO, He most certainly does not. Reading such bold claims did not sit well with me then, and really raises my hackles now.

I guess it is a good marketing strategy to advertise one’s goods as being the best. And perhaps, this is what these companies were doing. However, invoking God’s name is just not a good idea in my books.

So, it was more than a little refreshing to find a company that did not advertise itself as the best. Nor claimed to be the only godly choice. In fact, they said that home schooling is not for every child, and may not even be the right choice for the same child at another point in his/her life.  This was indeed quite different from some other companies that basically said that sending your child off to public school was equivalent to sending them to the Devil.

And I’m sorry to say, I don’t agree with the idea that if we only follow a set of rules to the letter that we can produce godly offspring. Shame on the companies that try to sell that idea and then try to blame the parents for not applying the rules properly when things go wrong.

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