SECULAR HOMESCHOOLING

LINK TO CURRICULUM PAGE


Secular Homeschooling:  To be or not to be?  That is the question.

These words were said by that ever famous author Bill Shakespeare.  The problem with our public education curriculum is that tomorrow’s graduates of High School may not know who Shakespeare is let alone a read single one of his works.  Sure they may have seen West Side Story, but that is about as close to Shakespeare as they will ever get. 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with us, you may be thinking that we must be another one of those “Christian Wackos” who are contemptuous with the schools daring to teach our kids Darwinism.  Or perhaps we are isolationists who live in fear of the outside world.  For those of you who DO know us, you realize that just the opposite is true.  We are far from religious, non-isolationists and embrace the natural world around us.

The common core curriculum seems to have dumbed-down every single aspect of our education system.  Kids no longer learn writing, have very little appreciation for the arts, have atrocious math skills and still have very little time for physical activity during the school day.  I do not mean to write a scathing review of our teachers whom all have the best of intentions.  These teachers have their hands tied with a nonsensical curriculum dictated by bureaucrats who don’t have the faintest idea concerning how kids learn.  They are further hampered by lack of resources, their unions, too many students per classroom, and the never ending threat from administration of the importance of the standardized test program. 

It is with some sadness that we are traveling down the path of homeschooling.  However, when the United States lags behind even many of the poorest countries in regards to academic achievement, what other choice do responsible parents have?  We can accept mediocrity from the local public school system, or we can attempt to teach our kids what we think they will need to be successful in the future.  We as parents have to weigh the pros and cons of our decisions concerning our children’s lives and education, but in reality what are our children really losing out on by leaving the public classroom?  They may no longer get to experience the adolescent cliques of “mean girls”, or why a person who dresses or acts different should be looked down upon, or how someone who is above their peers either academically or socially needs to be restrained to allow the rest of the group to catch up, or perhaps how we should pressure our friends to act more sexual at an ever decreasing age, or……the list goes on.  

Of course we are not so naïve to think that social interaction among your peers is unimportant.  We have witnessed adults who lack in that category.  However, we must ask ourselves what kind of social interaction is positive and what kind is negative?  Shouldn’t we encourage the positive and discourage the negative?  Wouldn’t this be easier in controlled environments?  We are not saying to avoid conflicts with other people, but in a more controlled setting parents will be able to more easily foster that conflict resolution, much easier than a teacher is able to do in a room of 26 children.

We encourage you to keep an eye on our future homeschooling blog posts and welcome suggestions.  Our goal is to develop a secular homeschool curriculum and teach our children to be future leaders, and not the drones of society.  Check out some of our lessons on our curriculum page (more coming soon).

Curriculum Page