How to Get Free From Public School Tyranny

Homeschooling is so simple, simple, simple.

Recently, I was reading an article which showcases this idea. It went into great detail discussing whether the Socratic or the Charlotte Mason method was better for teaching literature, and I couldn’t help but think, “Why can’t we simply enjoy the book?”

And here’s the truth I hope will set you free: You don’t need scholarly stacks of books and courses to understand how to educate your child.

I’ve homeschooled our 15 children for over 36 years and done it all—from boxed curriculum to “unschooling.”

Along the way I’ve learned that a truly educated person needs:

1. Good relationships with God and man.

2. Tools to learn anything he needs to learn in life as necessary.

3. A developed taste for higher things and being familiar with as much information as possible.

4. The ability to analyze and apply all of the above for the furthering of God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

With these goals in mind, a parent/teacher could use almost any materials (except for those methods which murder original thought, such as textbooking or drilling useless trivia into young brains without any context).

What hampers us is when we start setting specific goals for specific ages and stages in a child’s growing years.

Instead of saying, “This child should know this by this age,” it should be, “This child should be so delighted with God, His creation, and those He loves that he is learning every second he is awake.”

With this sort of mindset, the “scope and sequence” of schooling becomes too narrow and limiting.

A truly educated person should never feel hampered by the dictates of others—he is a child of the King, and His Father has given him ALL things freely to enjoy!

I love the ideals of Charlotte Mason and her respect of the child as a person. But when I start hearing that there must be “form one requirements” I gracefully bow out.

We seem to enjoy dissecting and attempting to capture the essence of every positive experience in our lives. Perhaps we learned this tendency due to our consumer culture. We want to take joy and bottle it, package it, and send it out in trucks for mass distribution.

But that’s not how genuine joy works. Certainly not the joy of learning and discovery.

As we witness it in nature every day, God’s plan is about order in uniqueness and variation. Yes, there are similarities and patterns, but the variables within each are astronomical.

No program available, with all the quarterly requirements, is going to be able to meet the needs of my specific child.

His goal, every day, is to become the best he can be for that day; to learn as much as he is able, as an expression of God’s love in his life and the life of others.

This may include doing math to learn how to design bridges someday, or it may not.

It might mean reading Homer to understand Western culture, or even to study ancient civilizations to showcase their accomplishments and examine their downfalls (but not to revere or emulate failed social experiments formed from out of God-less minds).

It may also mean sitting and painting while listening to Bach or jazz, or even playing with the baby or a new puppy.

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I have asked myself over and over just why we have felt the need to gather information and cook it down until it has lost all of its taste, then can it and serve it to children as required nutrition.

I think it can be synopsized like this:

There was a time when information was scarce. Too few books and too few readers of those books.

Those who had access to information began to feel elevated and superior. Then they decided the masses were incapable of handling information correctly, so they formulated ways of keeping information from them—such as locking it all up in Latin where only the most learned scholars could access it. This included the Bible.

But the printing press could not be stopped. People were reading and translating all of the hoarded knowledge. Even the poorest person could unlock the treasures in books if they could read.

So, the elite and the scholarly devised plans to thwart the masses in their pursuit of knowledge—both secular and sacred.

They did this in two ways:

1. They promoted drivel which kept people occupied while trapping them in lower thinking.

2. They used education methods aimed at keeping people from comprehending the “higher” information, and they did this mostly by dumbing people down.

Hence, compulsory education was born. As it evolved, its original purpose has evolved into the malevolent form we enjoy today.

There is a poignant picture of our current education model; the hobbled horse.

“Hobbling” is when a horse has its front legs tethered together. This allows it to wander around a small area and graze without allowing it the freedom to take off at a gallop.

This is the goal of the compulsory school model. It hobbles people. It keeps them controllable. It forces them to feed in a limited space without the freedom to run and seek their own patch of green grass to graze in.

In our modern era information is no longer kept locked up. It is instantly available to us at the touch of a screen or the command of our voice, and yet, there is an inherent resistance to taking advantage of it.

It’s as if we are horses hobbled from the time we were ponies, and we just can’t imagine ever galloping full-out.

My dad spent some time training horses (among all the other things he experienced as a Western-style renaissance man).

One day I overheard a conversation he was having with an old cowboy. This cowboy enjoyed taming wild horses—ones he captured on army land which ran free and often hampered the combat training going on there.

He and my dad discussed all the different methods of taming, with one being leading a wild horse into a few feet of water before being mounted. The water restricted the horse’s movement and put the rider more in charge.

The entire conversation was unique and fascinating, but one part stuck out in particular.

Neither of them thought domestic horses were very bright. Sure, they were more easily trained, but they were also timid and nervous. When confronted with the sudden unknown, they were nearly useless.

Tamed wild horses, on the other hand, were confident. When confronted with the unfamiliar, they knew how to analyze and adapt. This made them more reliable and useful.

Unfortunately, most of us who homeschool have grown up domesticated. We have spent most of our lives being fenced in and hobbled.

We have the ability to break out in a gallop, but we are too timid to try. We’ve been trained to need the security of the fence and the rope. We keep to our place and await orders.

But we were meant to gallop and run as fast as we want, with our tails flicking and our manes flowing.

The only remedy is to look down and convince yourself that your legs are no longer tied together; you’re free.

So, take advantage of that freedom! Dare to venture from the fence; dare to prance and trot and GALLOP!

Go find your own pasture and enjoy nibbling on the sweet grass there.

It’s OK to have a loose plan, but don’t be afraid to learn something, not because it’s on the list, but because it is interesting to you. Read books aloud and then talk about them together; maybe draw some pictures or go to the places the book mentions. You don’t have to do these things immediately—maybe days, or weeks, or years later.

Develop tastes for grass in different pastures; different cultures and understandings.

And as you find your freedom together with your children, they will develop the ability to think and adapt, so when they are tamed with the responsibilities of life, they will face difficulty with confidence and adapt accordingly—by God’s grace and for His pleasure.

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