In California and across the nation, we are alarmed by the growing number of Christian home schoolers who are enrolling in charter school programs. Below is a summary of most of the reasons why we are concerned. This is based upon my full-time research and advocacy work in behalf of private home educators in California for the last 15 years.The battle over home schooling in America for the last 20 years has been shifting from eradication of home education to growing attempts to control home educators and recapture them for public school programs (such as charter schools) where they are under the authority and supervision of public school officials. Nothing less than the future of home schooling and the freedom of parents to train their own children in God’s ways are at stake.Can education in a charter school be Christian?A true Christian education means that all goals, rules and policies, staffing, student and adult relationships, structures of authority, methodologies, sources of funding and resources, activities, materials, and content of all subject areas must be consistent with a biblical worldview. In every aspect, the entire education system must openly glorify and please God through our Lord Jesus Christ. A thoroughly Christian education is expressed in an open, non-apologetic way–in writing, verbally, and in all actions–on the part of every participant.Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in Heaven. (Matt. 5:16)
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Cor. 10:31)
There are inescapable problems in this regard inherent in all charter school programs and all other public school programs.Most states have either a state constitution or a statutory provision which prohibits any sectarian instruction in any public school program. In addition, federal law is very clear in prohibiting religious instruction in public schools that receive federal funding. Title 20, United States Code, & sect; 8066(1)(E) states,The term “charter school” means a public school that. . . is nonsectarian in its programs, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations, and is not affiliated with a sectarian school or religious institution.
About the author
Roy Hanson is the director of Family Protection Ministries, which he established in 1986 to monitor the California state legislature for bills affecting home schooling families and their freedoms. God has used FPM (working closely with Home School Legal Defense Association and Christian Home Educators of California) to win dozens of legislative battles against a full-time, predominately non-home school friendly state legislature. Roy and his wife, Debra, home schooled their children from first grade through high school.Some charter school administrators have claimed that since parents are not employees of the charter school, parents can provide and use their own Christian curriculum. These administrators usually suggest that the parent not report any religious books being used, and not have their children make any references to religious doctrine, or Scripture, or Christ in any assignments being turned in.What does this teach children? It teaches them to lie. (Luke 17:1-2) It teaches them a utilitarian mindset–that the ends justify the means. It teaches them to keep quiet about their belief in God and His Word and their hope of salvation in Jesus Christ when it suits their financial interests and convenience. On the other hand, using materials based on a worldview that isn’t biblical teaches children to compartmentalize their life and to be dualistic in their worldview–to believe that God’s Word does not speak to every area of life.Excerpts from a letter by a California home schooling mother illustrate this issue:We were promised funding and the freedom to establish our own goals and methods, as long as they were not doctrinal. We could teach doctrine “on our own time” or use non-funded godly materials, only documenting the outcome not the method.
I was choosing to pull out of the private sector and place over our schooling efforts an authority that required me to separate God within our home. I would have been teaching our children a double standard: God is O.K. for home but not for our school. Since our school is in our home that standard would not have stood for God at all!
Strings attached—Increasing regulationsMany charter schools began with few regulations or with a lack of clarity or agreement on what the regulations are. Regulations are inherent and inevitable for several reasons, including stewardship accountability for expenditure of public tax funds and for the prevention and detection of fraud. Experience has shown that the direction is always from less regulation to more.Some of the increases in regulation include:prohibiting Christian content;
detailed written reporting of lesson content and work completed;
placing the parent under the control of a certified teacher;
specifying what subjects are covered and how;requiring standardized testing; and
required regular contact with certified teachers to evaluate not only educational goals but more subjective things like physical, mental, and emotional health and signs of child abuse or neglect, possibly involving a home visit.New legislation and changes in regulations continue to be proposed and enacted in charter school states.Testing indirectly controls curriculumIn most states, charter school students are required to take the same tests that are required in all public schools. A few states may allow parents to opt their child out of the test, but, at some point, a charter school must prove to the chartering agency that its students are meeting academic expectations.Politically correct thinking influences the content of standardized tests. This leads to a bias against objective truth and against a Christian worldview.Teachers and program directors protect their jobs by “teaching to the test,” that is–teaching the skills and content to be tested so their school or program will continue to receive federal and state funding. The tests heavily influence academic content–tests indirectly determine the curriculum!Sends message: Parents unqualifiedEvery parent who turns to the government’s charter school to help them provide their children’s education sends the erroneous and dangerous message to legislators and educrats that children cannot be successfully raised without the help of a government certified expert, and without the help of the state to pay for the resources they need. The louder this message gets, the harder it will be to keep the government from inserting itself in every aspect of families’ lives.Most public policy makers, public educators, and other professional groups see the parents as just one member of a team to prepare all children to be good citizens–”It takes a village” to raise a child. Charter schools fit in well with this government-as-parent / government-as-partner statist agenda for America.Family Protection Ministries
Family Protection Ministries depends upon the gifts of its supporters. It is essential to the continued freedom of home schoolers in the Golden State that we all support FPM. They spot and work very effectively with legislation at a level that no one else in California does.
Contributions may be sent to:Family Protection MinistriesP.O. Box 730
Lincoln, CA 95648-0730
Those who give $40 or more per calendar year will receive FPM’s Legal-Legislative Update newsletter.Not within civil government’s God-given jurisdictionGod has established three basic social governmental institutions, each with its own mutually exclusive jurisdictions of responsibility and authority. They are family government, church government, and civil government.God has assigned the responsibility and authority to raise and train up children exclusively to the family (Deut. 6:7, Eph. 5:22-6:4, I Tim. 5:8, et al.). On the other hand, God’s ordained purpose of civil government is to restrain evil (Romans 13:4; I Peter 2:14, et al.). God also ordained that the family should get support for its needs in three ways: primarily through labor of the family, and secondarily through voluntary charity and inheritance. God did not ordain any separate institution for education or socialization of children. Nor did He ordain that families should receive financial support for these from civil government.From God’s perspective, what we call Christian “education” must be derived from the concept of discipleship, which incorporates training, instruction, and correction in accordance with God’s Word. The care and discipleship (education) of minor children belong exclusively to the parents. God has not given us the permission to relinquish any part of our authority and responsibility to provide this for our children.When we choose not to look to the government, but rather to take full personal responsibility for our children’s education, we acknowledge the authority of God and His Word in our lives. We teach our children to honor God, His Word, and his ordained jurisdictions of authority and responsibility. We also teach them to be content with what God provides our family through our faith and diligent, obedient labors.Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)
Higher taxes and bigger governmentThere is big money involved in charter school programs designed for home schoolers. Major political battles are being fought over geographical turf rights for charter schools as they are lucrative moneymakers.Two-thirds of the voters in the United States think that lower taxes would have the most immediate positive impact on them and their families.1 Paradoxically, large numbers of people who claim to want smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom continue to clamor for their “fair share” in a plethora of government-subsidized programs. Each individual who chooses to participate in a government-funded program, like a charter school, creates a threefold demand on the government:a need for more money to pay for the goods or services they want;
a need for more bureaucrats to administer the programs to provide those goods and services; and
a need for financial accountability and laws to regulate the use of that money.But I’m only getting my tax money back. Wrong!Many parents argue that their taxes support public education and that they are justified in having that money pay for their own children’s education. In reality, parents who choose charter schools increase the tax burden on their neighbors.Most parents only pay enough taxes designated for education funding to cover about one-half of the public education costs for just one of their children.2Threat to private home schoolingIn my opinion, at this time, charter schools are the greatest threat to our home school freedoms and the heart and soul of the Christian home school movement.First, compromise of freedoms and complacent dependency are inherent in receiving government funding. Charter school families have become just one more special interest group fighting for their piece of the government pie.Private home schoolers are not a special interest group, in the sense that we do not go to the government asking for a handout. We are rarely asking for legislation. We are most often fighting to prevent the passage of laws that would infringe on the God-given inalienable rights of families. The perception of home schoolers in general by the public and state legislatures and Congress is being damaged by charter school “home schoolers” looking to preserve and expand their handouts.Second, the vigorous recruitment of home schoolers into the growing number of charter schools in our state is having a disastrous effect on the private Christian home school movement and the organizations that support it. Several private home school groups have either gone under or have been taken over by charter school parents and leaders. Others have lost significant numbers and are having a tough time just surviving.In June of 1997, Alaska enacted one of the best home school laws in the nation for private home schooling. However, at the same time, Alaska also enacted a charter school law. In just three short years, their statewide Christian support organization lost over two-thirds of its membership and attendance at their conferences dropped drastically. Their organization is a shell of what it once was. The influence of the private home schoolers in their Capitol has also been negatively affected since this group is now seen as a shrinking minority compared to the now larger charter school home school community.Third, as the number of private home schoolers becomes smaller than those enrolled in public school programs, we will see a new attack upon the precious freedoms so many pioneering private home schoolers and organizations worked so hard to establish and defend. There is a growing attempt to marginalize private home schoolers as a radical and unreasonable element of a larger “reasonable” group that understands the need for government help and supervision by certified experts. Conclusion Every Christian parent being lured to a charter school by “free” services and money must seriously consider and understand the long-term consequences of his or her decision.If we ask the government to provide what God has not ordained government to provide, we tell our children and the world around us that we do not believe our God is sufficient to meet all of our needs.© 2001 Roy Hanson, Jr. Permission to reprint is granted if article is reproduced in a complete and unedited manner and the proper attribution given.

But other homeschool moms may have very good reasons to be concerned about finishing their school work by June.

Some families have children at home and children in school. They may want all their children to begin and end their summer vacations at the same time.

The constant knocking at the door from the neighborhood child can be frustrating to both you and your son who is supposed to be doing his math. It may be easier to just take a break when Johnny next door is taking his break.

Most curriculum revolves around the traditional school year. If you are not studying at the appropriate times, you can be frustrated because a science experiment calls for autumn leaves when you are working on Science in the spring! If you are in this category, the spring can be an important time of reviewing materials to see whether you are on track to complete them by the June break.

If you think you are behind, make changes now and you might just finish on time after all.

Start by eliminating these time stealers:

Too much driving around in the car. This is huge time waster in Atlanta. The days are broken up by going out, and then there is the extra time spent preparing and dressing children and then settling them down when you come home. Do most of your errands at night and on weekends. Schedule children’s lessons only during convenient days and times. If you can’t get piano lessons at a time you want, then find another teacher. A mom has to stay home a lot to have enough time to homeschool.

Television, telephones. Turn these off or tape the shows you like so that you can watch them at times that are convenient to you.

Interruptions from others. Be firm and consistent with your friends and relatives. Establish time for them, but your students are the first priority, not your friends.

Eliminate unnecessary school work. Textbooks can have a lot of extra work that is boring and unnecessary. Remember: you own the book – so make it work for you. You don’t have to work for the book. Look at each of your children’s books. Cut out or cross out unnecessary pages. Get over your desire to finish the book. Teach the chapters and do questions orally to eliminate a lot of student paperwork.

Children are not progressing. You may have to change their curriculum or get extra help. If your books aren’t working, switch them. If you have a child with serious learning difficulties, you may need some help from a tutor.

You won’t ever have enough time to teach everything. When you plan the year, be realistic. There is so much to teach and so little time. You will not be able to cover all the information in the world. That’s O.K. The Holy Spirit is a much better teacher and He teaches full time and doesn’t takes a summer break. You are His assistant. Be content with God’s plan of time limits and constraints. Man makes his plans but God directs his paths. If you are frustrated with how the year has gone, you can rest in the knowledge and hope that if you are obedient to the Lord, all things will work together for you in the long run.

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Randi St. Denis is an educator, popular homeschool speaker, and a seasoned homeschooling mom. Randi works as a consultant to public, private, and homeschool families; providing teaching expertise and assistance for all types of children. You can visit her website at ChicagoHomeschoolExpo.com.

Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (KJB). Overcoming your fears of homeschooling is the first step in making one of the most important decisions of your life as well as your child’s life. The opportunity to homeschool your children is not only a blessing but it is a privilege. It is well understood that not everyone is able to home school, but for those that do, the chance should be seized upon. No one loves your child more than you do, therefore you are the one that can make the greatest impact on his or her life. It is your reasonability to ensure your child’s development and what better way to guarantee your child’s maximum potential than your personal involvement.
Some fear their child will not acquire the best education. When you homeschool you can closely monitor his or her pace of development and allow him or her to do their very best. Too many times in public schools they focus on the “middle of the road” students (due largely to the vast number of students in overcrowded classrooms) henceforth, some children are held back while others are given “social promotions”. Homeschool gives your child the advantage of moving on in a subject if they are advanced or taking the time to grasp the subject completely before moving on making certain they have the skills necessary to achieve the goals they have for their lives.
Some fear they are not qualified to educate. In most cases, no one is more qualified to educate your child than you. There are so many good curriculums available now that lays everything out for you that the argument of being under qualified is now null and void.
Some fear the social development of their child. This is somewhat understandable considering the fact that they will need dexterity in interacting with others when they become adults. Again, with all of the positive community sports programs, clubs, and other sources of social interaction such as Churches, the argument is minimal at best. This the greatest gateway to have an impact on his or her life, to instill in them the morals and values that are so needed to become a productive member of society.
So I urge you to have courage in your decision of homeschooling your child. Consider this statement: Courage is not the absence of fear but rather it is going on in spite of fear.
I have found a wealth of information that can guide you every step of the way in your exciting journey of your child’s superior education.

http://www.geocities.com/homeschool_fear/

You love homeschooling. You love the closeness it develops in your family. You love the progress your child is making.

But sometimes homeschooling can also be stressful. One of the most trying times in many families is that moment when you clear the schoolbooks off the table, power down the computer, and put dinner on the same table where you’ve been studying all day.

That paragraph makes it sound easy, doesn’t it? You turn off the computer and the workspace is tidy. You close the books, and the dining room is a lovely haven, a place for civilized meals.

Really? Not always, at my house at least. Sometimes the computer is still surrounded with papers and pens, and maybe music is still blaring from it too. Piles of books sit on the floor and all the chairs are still gathered there.

The dining room table has a welter of books and papers, too, plus art supplies, science equipment, and maybe some insect specimens or leaves. And the chairs? Oh, yes – they’re still gathered around the computer.

Food? Maybe we got too caught up in the novel we were reading to get around to taking the chicken out of the freezer. We begin to think that pizza delivery sounds like a good plan.

How can you avoid this scenario? A few simple techniques will help.

A place for everything — and everything is more likely to be in its place.

If you have a shelf for schoolbooks, a file box or drawer for papers (and file folders to put in it) and containers for supplies and equipment, then it will be much easier to gather things up and put them away than if you keep things in piles.

Don’t forget the margin.

When you plan your schedule, include some time for cleanup. If the school day ends at 3:00, then studies should end at 3:30. Gather everything and put it all away, meanwhile reviewing and discussing the best parts of the day.

In the morning, too, have time at the beginning for setting up the study area. I like to ask my older students what they read last night and how they liked it while we get everything set up. It’s not wasted time, but time spent together practicing the habits of being prepared, cleaning up, and keeping a peaceful, gentle heart.

Have a plan. And then have a backup plan.

Plan your meals at the beginning of the week, before you do your grocery shopping. At the beginning of your busy day, you can check your plan and see what preparation is required, what can be done in free moments during the day, and how much last-minute preparation you need to plan for.

When you make that plan, have one day when you can double the recipe and freeze half. Then, when the day gets away from you a little bit – and we all have days like that – you’ll have that container of soup or pan of enchiladas to pop into the microwave.

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of Learning By Grace, Inc. the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

What are the experiences and opportunities that really count in building Christlike character and at the same time, can serve individual personality? How can the homeschool curriculum and homeschool program provide for such experiences and opportunities?

The Christian homeschooling teacher needs not only a clear-cut purpose, but we also must know his own children very well let’s talk about how we can better understand the nature and needs of our children. Without some degree of understanding the homeschooling teacher is poorly prepared to plan opportunities for normal Christian growth, to evaluate and make use of the child’s everyday experiences in encouraging such growth and to help them to overcome the obstacles that hinder his developing Christian self.

If Christian homeschooling parents are to guide their growing children effectively, they must be prepared to think of the homeschool as a school for living. It must be more than a place where children come to listen, where the “good” children are passively quiet ones who never “do” anything. It must be thought of as a place where children can not only are help to understand Christian troops, but also may have rich experience is in living by these truths. The age old but still truthful adage reminds us that children learn to do by doing. This is as true in learning to follow Christ as it is in learning to ride a bicycle. The homeschooling parent then must not be content to merely tell her children, what is right and good to do. It must provide actual opportunities in which children can do Christian thinking and carry out Christian act’s. The homeschool then becomes a practice school in Christian living.

In working together in the homeschool group to carry out Christian purposes, children find opportunities for Christian living, for putting into practice the teachings of Christ. Forbearance, patience, forgiveness, cooperation, brotherly and yes, the sympathy, sharing, sacrificing one’s own wishes and desires for the good of others. All of these are found in their beginnings in a homeschool with the atmosphere and leadership make the development of such traits a normal experience. Their characteristic of a homeschool only when the leaders care enough to plan and prepare themselves for their work. And when they know how to work with the child’s nature and not contrary to its, when they recognize his capacities as well as his limitations. We will not talk in this series of articles only about homeschooling methods rather. We will talk about attributes in capacities which God has implanted within the child’s nature, so that he may learn and grow toward Christlike menace. We hope to help homeschooling teachers recognize and deal with some of the problems of growing children. As a result of these recent articles, it is our prayer that homeschooling teachers will be able to better evaluate their own homeschooling methods and to choose a homeschool program or homeschool curriculum which will truly help them to guide their children more effectively in their development as Christians.

The longer range goal of developing in each student a Christlike character does not intend to Terri and Joe and Johnny will all be exactly alike in 10 or 15 years, anymore than they are like now. A Christlike character is not a fix to mold into which each developing personality is to be forced. Personality is precious, unique, God-given, and there are as many personality types as there are people. Fun-loving, Tommy serious Sally and realistic Ricki will certainly be individuals, alike in their Christlike character, we trust, but differing from one another as flowers, birds or trees do, under the same beautiful son.

But how does the homeschooling teacher work with purpose, if there is no single task with which to work? Teachers need to recognize as Paul did, that people differ in abilities in capacities, and gifts and in nature. Though all made love and serve Christ with equal devotion, some will do it best as teachers, some as parents some as businessmen, some in this capacity and some in that. Homeschooling parents must work with each of their students just as Jesus did, holding back impetuous Peter, inviting shy Andrew into his home., discussing meanings with cultured Nicodemus, seeking out the repentant sinner, excepting service from the hand of a weeping woman. Was Peter like John after his experience with Christ? Was Nicodemus, like Andrew? No, each board the imprint of the master, but not in lost his identity or personality. With each one Jesus used a different approach. The wise teacher will cherish Fred’s sense of humor, tarries immature idealism, rakes and realistic approach to a problem. He will not try to make Terri like Sally or Joe like break. He will seek to enrich each personality, and to provide those opportunities and experiences that will develop the best in each child. The homeschooling parent will seek to bring them all to the master for that further enrichment and fulfillment that is beyond the human teacher to provide. This series of articles will help the homeschooling teacher understand our children better, but we must always remember that there are always Divine resources and power supplementing everything we do.

Look for the Flowers

We are so beset these days by storing the children engaging in vandalism, so deluged by reports of children guilty of law violations, so overcome with the evidence of their acts of cruelty and violence that we are forced to the conclusion that the extension range of juvenile depredations today were unheard of in previous generations. Communities all over the country have justifiably become aroused to the extent that noble efforts are being exerted on many fronts. In an attempt to stem the rising tide of juvenile delinquency. One member of the homeschooling co-op closed a timely and sobering question recently when she said, I have been thinking about in the about how I go about cultivating my flower bed. Leads to spring up among the flowers, but I don’t vote all my gardening hours to getting rid of the leads. I know the flowers are still there in the flower bed, in fact, regardless of how many feet I pull, I am still not going to have any clues. When blooming season calms unless I devote some attention to the flowers to. The growth of the leads must be curbed, but the flowers must be cultivated, marriage, and watered. Have we become so consumed with the task of eradicating the leads in a game the lives of our children that we have overlooked the fact there are some flowers growing day or two, and that these flowers need our attention? I wish that we could hear more about the art of cultivating the flowers.

When we observe children carefully, wiki node is abundant evidence of the fact that there is the noble intention, a high impulse, the sympathetic inclination, the human response in them. It is hard sometimes for us to describe these traits we see in our children, because we have not considered them often and seriously enough to have developed a vocabulary suitable for depicting this admirable behavior. But, oh, what a adjectives had at our disposal for describing the little tirade across the street.

Many parents and teachers are so accustomed to looking for the objectional behavior in children, even accepting it with understanding and patience when it expresses itself, that they overlook the child’s concern for an effort to help the crippled dog on the sidewalk, little Janey’s concern for the lonely old lady who lives alone in the next block and Taylor is pleased with his family provide shoes for his schoolmates who has no shoes to wear to school. Perhaps parents sometimes ignore these humanitarian tendencies in their children because they have been led to believe that the child ought to feel his love for himself and not because the type of behavior exhibits. Of course, the child was loved and excepted only by behavior or only when his behavior is acceptable does have a problem: but so does the child, whose expression of kindness and tenderness is brushed aside or ignored by grown-ups.

The British psychologist, see. W. Valentine, in the normal child and his abnormalities, related some of the experiences which children meet in having their noble impulses washed by unthinking adults. He tells the story of a child of 16 months who always wept when he was told about Tommy Greene. Putting a kitty cat in the well. He reported that Robert Southey the public was so distraught with grief at the end and the death of Billy Pringles paid that he begged his mother not to go on with the reading of the story. When we observe children closely we see a spontaneous and sympathetic response to the needs of others helping a friend in trouble, comforting the plane included several laws, wanting to relieve the suffering of an injured animal. These expressions of the child’s nobler in this are as worthy of careful and sensitive handling, as are his outbursts of anger and hate.

Encourage the child and his desire to be helpful, approve of and share his feelings of love and concern for the unfortunate. Communicate to him. The fact that these attitudes are really important ones, and that they constitute the basis for meaningful living. These are responses that adults can make in helping the flowers. He never flower beds to grow, even while remembering that there is also work to be done in curbing the lead.

em>Mimi Rothschild is the Founder and CEO of Learning By Grace, Inc., the nation’s largest provider of online K-12 Christian homeschooling programs and homeschool Christian curriculum. For more information about how online homeschooling is revolutionizing homeschooling, please go to www.LearningByGrace.org today.

Permission is granted for the duplication of this article if it is reproduced in its entirety including this sentence.

An important aspect of learning to get along with others is learning to be considerate of others. Courtesy is not in born: he just talked courtesy does not well up from the depths of the child loving desire to see other people happy at the cost of his own convenience inconvenience. He does not just naturally like to take his turn, to wait for an older person to go ahead of him, to take the smaller cookie so that Johnny can have a larger one. This is not the way human beings are made up: they have to be taught this kind of conduct.

As the child grows older, he’s going to find himself in social situations, which will be cumbersome for him, unless through parental teaching, he has the tools with which to cope with these exigencies. The more tools with which the youngster has been provided through his early training, the better prepared. He is to handle these new social situations, which he will be things. I surrounding the boy or girl with an atmosphere of politeness in the home, I teaching him or her to say, pardon me, please, thank you, I’m sorry, parents are teaching the child valuable social skills which he will need later.

Some object that the small child should not be taught these niceties of behavior until he is old enough to understand the meaning of what he is saying. Teaching the child what to say and when to say it may not have much meaning for him in his very early years, but the child who has been taught these courtesies gradually comes to feel the meaning behind them. This is especially true if the child is exposed to the climate of politeness in the home. Having cultivated these niceties of conduct, the child is more comfortable with himself and with others.

This learning of good manners is closely related to the child’s development of social skills. When he expresses the discourtesy his consideration of others, other people warm-up to the child were madly: they like him more sincerely. This in turn causes the child to like these people more than he otherwise would. We are, as we’ve seen, concerned that the child develop self-confidence and inner emotional security. In doing that is, let’s not forget that external security is equally important. We work against the child’s developing external security. When we fail to cultivate in Hindi habits and attitudes of courtesy.

One of the most important traits of an employee is his ability to get along with others. This is what at least one employment interviewer looks for first in a potential employee. He states that the most frequent reason for discharging of workers is that they become troublemakers because they have never learned how to get along with fellow employees or their supervisors.

As we increasingly live and work in closer proximity with more and more people in our Hively specialized society, it becomes increasingly important that our children develop qualities of personality which enabled them to sustain happy and harmonious relationships with others. This is a significant aspect of maturity. In fact, it can truthfully be said that the degree of maturity, which one has achieved is measured in proportion to the extent to which he is progressed from the utter selfishness and self-centeredness of childhood toward the responsibilities of social living.

Because they always exist in relation to other individuals personality problems which interfere with the establishing of harmonious human relationships cannot be corrected in isolation from other people. The fact is fact may be illustrated by comparing the individual and society to the keyboard of a piano. The value of a single key lies not in the fact that it is 156, of all blood notes, but in its infinite relation to other nodes.

The primary group is the family: therefore, satisfactory personal relationship ships here will prepare the child for harmonious relations elsewhere. It is necessary, however, the growing child to further develop social skills through contacts outside the home, particularly with those of his own age group. When a member of his peer group shouts at the child I don’t like your attitude. The child begins to understand that he is going to be accepted by his playmate. He’d better ease up on being such a brat. Personality is modified to such first-hand experiences in social interaction. In these direct relationships, aggressive and hostile tribes that are integral part of the child’s personality, must be changed: he learns how to control them because of the necessities imposed by the group. And because of the conditions under which he is accepted by others in it.

Mimi Rothschild is the Founder and CEO of Learning By Grace, Inc., the nation’s largest provider of online K-12 Christian homeschooling programs and homeschool Christian curriculum. For more information about how online homeschooling is revolutionizing homeschooling, please go to www.LearningByGrace.org today.

Permission is granted for the duplication of this article if it is reproduced in its entirety including this sentence.

This video is a homeschool mom expressing her opinion about how she belives government homeschooling will negatively impact homeschooling as a movement. I believe that she makes some excellent points that need to be strongly considered. She points out that the “freebies” are enticing and oftentimes we forget there nothing is actually free. When we take the free handouts from the government cyber schools, we are paying a higher cost than we realize. She points out that users of the K12 curriculum who recieve computers from the state are not allowed to use that computer for any religious reasons. For many Christian homeschoolers, this is the “start of a downward spiral in terms of loss of parental control.”

What do you think of government homeschooling programs?