The Journey 178: School At Home
Read: Joshua 24:1-15
Home Schooling. This is the new trend that is making huge mark in the lives of kids. The growth of home schooling in the last few years has been phenomenal. The number of parents and children opting for home schooling are climbing steadily according to the research done in the last five years here in the United States. It is believed that there were about 1.5 million kids doing home schooling in 2007, and this number will have jumped at least three times according to the National Center for Education Statistics. According to the survey that was conducted, there were different reasons as to why the parents selected home schooling for their kids. Some parents wanted home schooling so that they could spend more time with the kids and also save some finances. While for some other parents, they were not satisfied with the traditional approach of teaching and hence they wanted to do nontraditional approach with regards to educating their kids. But more than all these reason the primary reason that most of the parents go in for the home schooling is because they also want to inculcate in their children moral and religious values, along with the academic subjects. This is because these religions and moral values are not at all given due importance in the learning process and in the context of school leaving the whole education system " learning with no values". Here are some parents consciously trying to impart at least some values to a generation who seems to live in a times where the rights of individual has more preference than the strengthening the needs of the family or community.
This week we are meditating on the theme " Transformation in our Family" based on Joshua 24:1-15. This is a portion in the Old Testament where the leader of a nation is exhorting its people to remember their salvation history and be thankful to God. It is not only in remembering ones salvation history that a nation or a family moves forward but then Joshua adds that they also need to reaffirm their commitment to God on a daily basis and at times when they face challenges in their expression of faithful living to God and to their commitment. Joshua tells them that this is the time when they have to choose whom they are going to serve. They have the option of two things. They can serve the gods that their forefathers served before their salvation history or they can serve God who had led them to this day faithfully. Here is the leader telling the people that they need to be careful on how they live. Living is all about living according to the values and principles of God with whom one has a commitment. Unless one takes one life and commitment to God seriously one cannot stand or take alternate life style in the expression of one's commitment to God. Parents who support home schooling are doing just the same, making an alternative to the education system and also making education related to value education. Christian commitment is also taking stand that are alternatives to the values and the patterns of the world.