by Theresa White
While doing some curriculum research, I ran across a couple of sites on "Christian Unschooling". Intrigued, I went through them. What at first looked to be naivete on the part of the webmasters revealed a much more sinister problem. They had been sucked into the Natural Law school of thought (or unschool of thought, as the case may be).
Christian, according to Webster, means "one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ."
John Holt describes what would become unschooling thusly: "...give children as much help and guidance as they ask for; listen respectfully when they feel like talking; and then get out of the way. We can trust them to do the rest."
But verse after verse in the Bible admonishes us to teach, train, and guide our children. NOT to simply be a sounding board for them, but to be an authority and a teacher.
Lev 18:10ff "...put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses."
Deut 4:9 "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons.."
Deut 6:7 "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."
Notice that it does not say "Provide a stimulating atmosphere filled with the things you want them to learn, or that they are interested in." TEACH THEM DILIGENTLY (diligently = characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort : painstaking). Is not that the opposite of the unschooling definition?
Psalm 34:11 "Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD." Not, "I will model reverence toward the Lord, and my children will pick it up through osmosis."
Proverbs 9:9 "..teach a just man, and he will increase in learning." Again, TEACH, not "trust him to learn what he needs to know for his life."
Isaiah 28:9ff "Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little." My unschooling acquaintances advocate letting that child discover truths for himself, and only those truths he chooses to discover. Yet clearly we are to teach our children from the time of their weaning, and to teach them concept upon concept, precept upon precept, building from one level to the next.
But even the non-teaching aspect is not the major exclusion of Christians to unschooling. It is the premise that children are empty vessels waiting to be filled, that the child exists as a pure and innocent creature. That is the antithesis of what the Bible teaches -- that we are all born with a sin nature and need redemption through the blood of Jesus.
Most of the Christians I talked to who are unschooling do not fit the stereotype of a tv-watching, video-game playing, child-centered home (though a few do). They desire the best for their children. It's simply that they have not tested the educational philosophy against the Scriptures. In the same manner that on first glimpse, we may rationalize and justify the secular world's push toward natural-consequence discipline or (non)submission to authority, so do many Christians become sucked into the philosophy of unschooling. Each of these bears a closer look at God's Word, testing to see if they are true (they are not). Can one be a Christian and unschool? Certainly. Just as one can be a Christian who disregards other commands of the Lord. But you cannot provide both a Christian education and an unschooling education simultaneously. They are mutually exclusive.
Why does it matter if a Christian calls himself an unschooler? It matters because it lends legitimacy to what is largely a pagan movement (pagan, not secular). The Christian with a relaxed homeschooling style, when he declares himself an unschooler, gives tacit approval to the unschooling movement. And that unschooling movement is not simply just an education style, it is a lifestyle. A lifestyle that rejects fundamentals of the Bible -- that children are to be trained, to be taught, to be nurtured in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
Theresa
I'm interested to hear from Christians who unschool. How do you justify it against the clear commands of the Scriptures? E-mail Theresa here. NOTE: By emailing, you agree that your comments may be published in full or part, without notification or compensation (I'll leave your name off if you want.)
For an excellently written treatise on the fallacy of unschooling as a whole (not from a Christian viewpoint), try Home Taught.
SOME INTERESTING COMMENTS:
"Everything you quoted is LAW; we are not under the LAW, but grace." J.M.
"You obviously don't know any unschoolers." L.D.
"Who are you to judge?" E.H.