Should HS Kids Fit In?

The following comment was left by an anonymous blogger:

I agree that homeschooling has positive benefits. It gives you control over what your children are exposed to. I might however suggest you be mindful of selective learning. Though it is important to ensure that our children are not 'tarnished' it is also important to make sure they understand the world around them. Do remember that though we live 'for' the next world, we live 'in' this world. Public school education may employ methods and subjects you don't approve of, but there are lessons in them that we all must learn if we are to function and guide our society. In raising children, whether home or publicly educated, we have to have faith in ourselves that we gave them the tools they need. More importantly, we must have faith in them that they will make the right decisions for themselves.

I really appreciate this comment. I always feel bad when I come across as someone who relentlessly bashes all public schools because I know so many good people who are employed there and send/sent children there, and I know many of them feel called to be there. However, I have never met someone with a strong enough case to convince homeschoolers that there are more benefits from public education than homeschooling (unless you feel that yearbooks, proms, sports, extra-curricular activities, etc., are necessary in order to be "well-rounded"). I wish I would have asked the anonymous commenter to be specific on what lessons we learn from public education that will help us "function and guide our society", but I didn't. So in an effort to relate this comment to something I wanted to write about anyway, let's pretend s/he is referring to something along these lines: adapting to today's culture and winning the lost.

For many, the big socialization issue against homeschoolers is more about pop culture than it is about getting along with others; homeschoolers might not get enough exposure to all that is "hip" when they spend all day at home with Mom and their siblings. They'll turn out weird, non-conforming to society's standards, and won't know how to relate to their traditionally-schooled peers unless they immerse themselves in the world beyond the home front. When a secularist makes this argument, we homeschoolers will roll our eyes with a big "whatever". But when our brothers and sisters in Christ tell us that our children should be in the world in an effort to win the lost, I can't help but stop and ponder the issue.

There have always been movements in the Church to not only reach out to the ever-changing culture, but to adapt to culture that it may appeal to the lost. Some Christians argue that children need to be around the lost in order to better understand the lost, as if this is all it takes in order to save the lost. Our faith need not be in our children's ability to get along well in society. It needs to be in the Spirit working through them when telling others the Gospel. Following the latest fads and trends aren't the answer; knowing the Bible is.

We, their parents, have a responsibility to teach them about the world and all that is in the world--even the bad. Not on an R-rated level, but enough so that they know that evil exists and will be able to recognize it when they see it. This is something they can learn while under our watchful care and be ready for when they go into the world as young adults. I do not agree with this notion that children need to be exposed to things that their young minds can't understand or handle in order to cope better later in life. Let them be kids, and let us adults--the ones with better coping mechanisms--worry about the evil that surrounds us.

Putting our children out into the world so that they might come in contact with the lost is another issue. If they are at home all day, everyday, there will be too many missed opportunities to minister to the lost. R. C. Sprouls, Jr., makes an interesting observation about this in his book When You Rise Up. He writes how he has never met a Christian parent who has enrolled his child in a Muslim school in order to save a few lost souls. He adds that if winning the lost should be a priority for our children, shouldn't we find less convenient ways for them to run into the lost than enrolling them in free public schools?

Now, just in case I completely misread the comment earlier on...perhaps the anonymous blogger meant something else by the "function and guide our society" comment. Perhaps this is coming from a perspective that homeschoolers--especially conservative Christian homeschoolers--do not teach their children "diversity" or tolerance to alternative lifestyles, that this is something best taught in the public schools. That would be a correct assumption, at least in our home school curriculum. We won't be reading Heather Has Two Mommies at our school, and I won't have my boys practice putting condoms on bananas for Sex Ed. They will be learning God's Word; they will learn to not only love the Lord, but to love even their enemies. They will learn what it means to show mercy to those who do not deserve it. And they will learn about sin. They will learn about what happens to nations who do not follow the Lord, because they will read about it in His Word. And when learning God's Word, they will also be taught what this means in the world we live in today. They will learn how to pray for the world we live in, for guidance in their own lives and for our government, for the lost, the poor, the sick..they will learn what's most important in guiding our society.