Today, children spend the better part of most every day away from their families. Is that really the best way to spend the first 22 years of their lives? And is it really the best way to educate somebody? What is education really for anyway? The answers to these questions determine childhood for our children and lay the foundation for their lives as adults.
We live at a very exciting and privileged time. There have never been more options for how we educate our children — from homeschooling, to charter schools, co-ops, online classes, public, private, hybrids, and literally everything in between (unfortunately, some states allow fewer options than others). Today, we have an unprecedented opportunity to answer these questions in new and better ways for our own families. So it’s a good time to rethink education entirely.
Only once parents — as the first educators of their children — answer these questions for themselves can they 1) choose which form of schooling is best for their family and 2) create a home which achieves it.
After all, regardless of what kind of “schooling” you choose for your children, their primary education does not happen at a school down the road, it happens in your home (whether you mean for it to or not). The school room (wherever it is) is but one of the educating currents which feeds the rushing river of the home. So we must take great care since every little thing about one’s home is continually and forcefully (though gradually) forming and shaping each person in it.