Our children's education

The following came from my friends Tricia's blog Best-in-the-Nest




We believe that children learn and grow best while they are still in the nest. To begin with I would like to give the REAL definition on education found in the American Dictionary of the English Language 1828 version. Education-The bringing up, as of a child, instruction, formation of manners. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important, to give them a religious education is indispensable, and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties.
If we think on the words of Noah Webster then the first and most important thing to decide about our family and the training up of our children is to have a vision. A vision that projects far into the future when our children have left the nest and are required to stand on the things they were taught while growing up. Things taught both inside the home and outside of the home. What are we, as their parents allowing the tender hearts of our children being exposed to? Are our children being brought up with a Christian worldview or a secular one? Your answer to this question may indeed give you a glimpse of the future of your child.

Everyone has a worldview. Whether or not we realize it, we all have certain presuppositions and biases that affect the way we view all of life and reality. A worldview is like a set of lenses which taint our vision or alter the way we perceive the world around us. Our worldview is formed by our education, our upbringing, the culture we live in, the books we read, the media and movies we absorb, etc. For many people their worldview is simply something they have absorbed by osmosis from their surrounding cultural influences. They have never thought strategically about what they believe and wouldn't be able to give a rational defense of their beliefs to others.

Paul of the New Testament tells us....If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

I hope that as Christian parents we will seek diligently for the things Paul spoke of. But where do we "seek" for them? In the mall, at the park, in the neighbor hood hang outs? No, we find them in our homes and churches. No where else can we find the things that Paul speaks of. And for us that is where homeschooling comes on to the scene....Martin Luther once said...."I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth." I am certain that there is not enough space to list all the reason's that we as parents need to be ever so diligent in choosing wisely how our children are being brought up and to whom that is to be delegated.