Poll: Do you home school for religious reasons?

[Jenny in Florida]

. . . I was hesitant to say even that religious reasons were part of the consideration, because I believe that would leave a false impression.

 

See, we're Unitarian Universalists. So, we're not your typical religious homeschoolers. And wanting to impart a particular worldview was not the primary reason we chose to homeschool.

 

For us, it was first and foremost about academics. I had an extremely bright and academically adept child who, because of a December birthday, was going to have to wait a year after all of her friends went to kindergarten to start school. It was clear, too, even from her limited experience in preschool that institutional learning was going to be challenging for her. She was already bored with the curriculum and frustrated with her inability to find friends who understood or cared about the things she liked. From the first weeks, she enjoyed the company of the adults much more.

 

We're also vegans, for ethical reasons that, for me, tie in with my religious/spiritual beliefs. And we found institutional learning--even in her very nice, private, two-morning-a-week preschool--to be poorly equipped to handle that.

 

So, we definitely started with academics (and comfort and convenience in accomodating our dietary choices) in mind. However, as the years have gone by, we've incorporated more and more religious education and exploration into our studies. It has become a very valuable part of what we do.

[Elaine]

that religion plays no part in our decision to homeschool, but that wouldn't be totally honest.

 

Honestly, dh and I are non-deist pagans and we both feel that the schools are overrun with christianity. We strongly oppose having our child exposed to that. While that isn't the PRIMARY reason we homeschool, it has played a major part in our overall homeschool ideology.

 

This surprises me because as a Christian, I don't see any Christianity in the public schools. Teachers are not allowed to share any Christian viewpoints under penalty of discipline.

 

I voted in the number 2 category, just FYI.:001_smile:

[LibraryLover]

We are not Christians, and religion has not played a role in our hsing choice.

[Just a Jen in Mississippi]

While religion is part of the reason I decided to homeschool, the main reason by far was that I didn't feel our public schools were good enough (I saw that first hand while doing my student teaching), I couldn't afford private school, I honestly didn't want to be away from my children all day, I felt that I could give them a better education than what I received, and I wanted to protect them from some of the so called "socialization". One of the perks is that I can teach them about faith and read the Bible to them daily, but religion was never the main issue with me.

[Natalieclare]

but after my oldest went through K and 1st in private school, I began to give it some thought. Not the most efficient momma, I realized that I couldn't send my child to school all day, follow her interests through outside activites, AND have a close relationship with her. I found I could manage to have the close relationship (which is so important for life-long success) and pursue outside interests while schooling at home.

 

Another important factor for us, in fact the deciding factor that pushed us over the edge, was that my husband's hours changed. If the kids had been in school all day, they would not have seen their dad during the week. He's a great guy, and it was absolutely crucial to me that they have time with their dad.

 

All that said, I certainly prayed about the decision. And the Lord gave me an excitement to do something I thought I would never want to do. I couldn't have gone forward if that eagerness hadn't risen up in me.

[reservejagmom]

We decided to homeschool because the ps wasn't helping our ds with his sensory/auditory processing issues. I took him out a month or so into first grade and have never looked back. :auto:

 

Actually, the ps did us a huge favor. I had always wanted to homeschool but when he had so many problems in the beginning, I didn't think I could do it. He was in an EELP class for preschool, and it really did help him alot. But then the ps mainstreamed him and it was just too much for him. My ds is 2e -- twice exceptional -- bright but with, as I said, SPD. (Although that has improved incredibly in the past few months.)

 

His kindergarten teacher noticed how he struggled although he was one of the best readers in the class. At this point they had stopped his OT and denied him speech therapy; he always managed to just test out by a point or so. When his k teacher tried to speak with the guidance counselor at an intervention meeting with me there, her response was, "He reads well and he's not a behavior problem."

 

So ... I realized that unless I helped /taught him, no one else was going to do it. And it has just been the best thing for him.

 

Carol

[Sunkirst]

We HS for academic and cultural reasons, and I find that this puts me in the (agreeable) company of many religious HSers.

[keptwoman]

My vote says it all. No we don't, at all.

Reasons we do:

Academic, LDs, family togetherness, emotional happiness for the children, fun and many more.

[dalynnrmc]

I pulled my son, now 9, out of ps after he completed first grade because he was not getting what he needed academically OR (believe it or not) socially.

 

Being able to teach science from a Christian standpoint, as well as include religious studies, was simply icing on the cake for us.

 

More icing on the cake, and a huge motivation to us to NEVER go back - we've adjusted our schedules to more closely match my husband's. He works nights, and attendance was an issue for us in the ps.

[Mamagistra]

I do wish I had worded the poll better! Perhaps a list of all the reasons why we do this would have made a clearer discussion, but I am satisfied nonetheless that so many of you chimed in. Thank you.

 

I truly appreciate the diversity of voices on this board. :001_smile:

[Ravin]

My athiest best friend sends her children to church with her husband despite her beliefs in large part because having grown up unchurched she was subjected to a good deal of teasing and rejection for it. She wants them to fit in more than she is concerned about what they are taught to believe.

 

It's less of a concern here than when we were in TX, but when my niece came home with a color page of an angel from public Pre-K, it affirmed that I don't want my religiously-minority child subjected to the judgmental attitude that too often is expressed by the majority.

 

Religion also plays a part because as Heathens an important value is self-reliance and independence. My child's education is my responsibility, not the state's.

[DIY-DY]

Nope. Lifestyle, family closeness, academics.

 

 

OK. All done. :D

[momto3]

I was reading posts and thinking exactly what Janna said. :iagree: (Sorry, I am not very high-tech so you will have to page up to find her post if you don't remember.) It is getting late and I do not want to say something I may regret in the morning, but, I do not see how you can separate your moral decisions from your religious convictions.

[Laura R (FL)]

I hs because I don't want to work full-time to pay for a private, Christian school and never see my kids. I voted for primary but now I'm thinking it was a mix.

[KarenNC]

This surprises me because as a Christian, I don't see any Christianity in the public schools. Teachers are not allowed to share any Christian viewpoints under penalty of discipline.

 

A lot can depend on your area of the country. Around here separation of church and state is honored a lot more in the breach than in actuality in many areas, and not just in the schools. We still have city council meetings opened with prayers "in Jesus' name" that are corporate rather than personal expressions of faith. The mayor of our town lists his (very Christian) prayer breakfast as one of the three major accomplishments and goals of his tenure in office (in the official town yearly update publication). It goes along with the atmosphere of the community. The local paper has the daily prayer and Bible verse (from "The Upper Room") on the second page and regularly gives out (Protestant Christian) Bibles, etc.

 

We've had issues even with groups that are state funded and clearly state in their by-laws that they are totally secular end up in extremely confessional Christian activities, especially at Christmas. It was unintentional, but it was simply something they couldn't see as problematic from inside their perpsective. Once it was pointed out that "if you as a devout Christian wouldn't have an issue with your 5 or 6 year old singing the equivalent songs/doing the equivalent crafts about Allah or Krishna, then I am probably not going to have a big problem with mine singing them about Jesus", she had a clearer idea of what I meant about the difference between learning about a religion and practicing it.

 

That said, religion was not a major part of our original reason to homeschool, but it certainly has been a larger factor in choosing materials. We are very religious---religious polytheistic Neopagan Unitarian Universalists. This doesn't mean we are homeschooling in search of religious *isolation*, however, which I think may be what the OP's friend meant (IIRC). We belong to an inclusive support group which includes Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Neopagans, agnostics, atheists, etc. and it's great. Just because one may be homeschooling for religious reasons (in whole or in part) does not mean one is automatically doing so to avoid all contact with those of differing beliefs, as per the stereotype.

[Linda in NM]

We homeschool for academics and flexibility for my soon-to-be highschool athlete...hockey every night--even if we have to drive 50 miles to get there! Dedication.

[Holly IN]

I voted Religious reasons play a primary role. Remember that the word religious have many meanings behind it. One parent homeschool for religious reasons may be a different reasoning than mine.

 

I also have other reasons why I homeschool other than religious. With that in mind....religiously I can't send my kids to public school.

 

 

Holly

[profmom]

Just because one may be homeschooling for religious reasons (in whole or in part) does not mean one is automatically doing so to avoid all contact with those of differing beliefs, as per the stereotype.

 

:iagree: As I mentioned before, I chose #1, but it's because God's leading to homeschool is our #1 reason to do it (with many other reasons as well).

[Philothea]

The starting point for our reasons for homeschooling are for religious reasons.

 

We're Catholic and we follow the teaching of the Church that one of the primary duties of married persons is the education of children. Therefore, we have the option to delegate that task to someone else or take it on ourselves.

 

If there were any Catholic schools acceptable to us, we would still continue to homeschool. And the reasons are that I do not want to have to work to undo what the other children may teach mine at the end of every day. Secondly, some of the materials used in parrochial schools are not what I would choose for my children. I hate the thought of being away from my children every day and never seeing their eyes light up when they learn something new.

 

In other words, what starts as religious/moral, ends up having an academic focus centered around a family oriented lifestyle.

[Kate in Arabia]

I chose "religion plays some role", but the main reason we started was that my oldest ds was 4 and wanted to learn to read. He has a late birthday and so couldn't start school, and by the time he was old enough to start kg he was several grades ahead. We did try a summer program which was a disaster because he already knew what they were teaching and just started getting into trouble, bored..

 

Since moving here nearly everyone has asked why we didn't put our kids in school, since we're now in a "Muslim country", but nothing really fit the ideal learning experience dh and I had in our heads, and no school was able to reassure us they could meet our ds' needs (academically advanced, maturity-wise really really not, lol).

 

So mainly academic, but we also are aiming for a more rigorous religious studies program. To me, it doesn't really have much at all to do with "morals" or diversity or what have you in schools. We are very interested in our kids having a diverse circle of friends and experiences..

 

Kate

[HSMom2One]

I was reading posts and thinking exactly what Janna said. :iagree: (Sorry, I am not very high-tech so you will have to page up to find her post if you don't remember.) It is getting late and I do not want to say something I may regret in the morning, but, I do not see how you can separate your moral decisions from your religious convictions.

 

This echoes my earlier post as well. When you are a follower of Jesus, there is no neautral ground. He is Lord of all your life not just certain parts.

 

Enough said-not argument intended. :D

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[Beth in Central TX]

This would be us. Academics are a very high priority for us too, and I'm sure I often spend more time considering academics than biblical training. However, I had to think about this long and hard when an enticing classical school began in my city! They use much of the same curricula as we do at home, and I know families who were homeschooling classically who have now enrolled their children. (Just to be clear -- no judgment here!) I came back to the fact that we do feel that God wants us homeschooling and that academics are not our #1 priority (very high, but ultimately not the highest).

 

I agree that the classical school is very enticing; well, everything except the tuition. Looking back, we did not start homeschooling for religious reasons. My oldest was in public school, and while it was not a negative experience, it wasn't positive either. After reading TWTM, we truly felt we could provide a better academic setting at home. Of course, prayer played a vital role in discerning whether or not this was the right step for our family, but we weren't originally convicted to homeschool for purely religious reasons (ie. Deut 6:6-8).

 

However, now that we are homeschooling, we will continue this journey for religious reasons. We feel called to graduate all 3 boys. This change came about as we considered whether or not to send them to private school which would meet the rigorous academic requirements we didn't see in public school. After considering private school enrollment last summer, we feel that homeschooling has taken on more of a religious role and will be continued in our home regardless of the academic opportunities that become available in our community. Academics are still high on the list though along with character training.

[Valerie in Chicago]

The first reason that we researched and ulitmately decided on homeschooling was academic standards. What passes as "vast improvements" in the Chicago system are laughable.

 

The second reason was not outright religious reasons (although we are people of faith). Rather, it was what I call value-based. During my own teacher-training, I saw too many teachers presuming to download their own values into their students, no matter how young, no matter if the teacher's values disagreed with the parents', no matter if it had the slightest thing to do with the academic material.

[slug hollow]

We aren't religious people. I've wanted to homeschool longer that I have wanted to have children. I think it's an amazing experience & can't imagine my kids being away from home so much of the day at this age. (almost 6 & almost 4 + one due in 11 days :))

I do have strong moral convictions that I hope to pass on, but I consider that more a part of parenting than of our educational plan - though it is nice to have those 2 aspects in parallel.

[Barb_]

We began homeschooling because the schools in Florida were horrendous. Religion never played into the decision. I was in my early 20's and a little intimidated by the responsibility I was taking on, but I figured I couldn't possibly do any worse than what I was seeing. I had been afterschooling her and literally, that was the only education she was getting.

 

I've toyed with the idea of putting the kids back into school for a year or six months now and then. You know, moves, new babies, job losses...stressful times when education begins to take a backseat. But each time I recoil at the paperwork. It's so propriatary! Why do they need to know about their medical backgrounds, birthweights, and general mental states? I understand the desire to get to the root of a learning or behavior problem, but why dig before a problem presents itself?

 

Lifestyle reasons probably trump even academics. If you'd have asked me 10 or even 5 years ago, I would have said educational reasons were primary, but now that I'm graduating my oldest and the next one down is beginning to seriously think of her future, I'm reminded of how short the time is that we are together. Cliche'd, yes, but so true. We know one another in a way that wouldn't have been possible if we were separated 40 hours a week. I remember my mom musing when my oldest bunch were littles, "they are experiencing a Little House on the Prairie childhood." What a gift that has been.

 

Barb

[Audrey]

This surprises me because as a Christian, I don't see any Christianity in the public schools. Teachers are not allowed to share any Christian viewpoints under penalty of discipline.

 

I voted in the number 2 category, just FYI.:001_smile:

 

 

You see, it's all in the perspective. :001_smile: Also, I am in a rural area in Western Canada. Our local schools still have a christian prayer broadcast every morning, and a prayer broadcast at lunch, plus they allow the local parish priest to teach a catechism (sp?) class there for the grade 3 students. They can "opt out," but there is a lot of peer pressure to attend it.

 

For me, that's just too much. And, just FYI, yes, they are public schools, but ... I don't know. I don't really understand why it is the way it is. It just is, though. I realise there are stricter constraints in US public schools, and in public schools elsewhere in Canada. This is just my experience locally.

[Susan in TN]

It's a little hard for me to rate it, since the foundation of everything we do/think stems from religious/philosophical beliefs. So in a sense, yes, it's the main reason. I want a rigorous education for my kids, which stems from the belief that learning about our world is learning about God, who He is, and who we are in relationship to Him.

 

Originally, though, I started looking into homeschooling because I was pretty sure his teachers would tell us he had ADD or some other disorder, and I wanted something better for him.

[QuirkyKapers]

Not homeschooling for religious reasons. My son and daughter are very inquisitive and active! I didn't think a traditional classroom would keep them interested in learning. Montessori was too expensive. So I thought I would give homeschooling a whirl:001_smile: I like that I can get everything done in less time and than he can be outdoors using their extra energy.

[nmoira]

 

For me, that's just too much. And, just FYI, yes, they are public schools, but ... I don't know. I don't really understand why it is the way it is. It just is, though. I realise there are stricter constraints in US public schools, and in public schools elsewhere in Canada. This is just my experience locally.

I don't know if they still do it, but I'm from Ontario and the Lord's Prayer was recited by a student over the PA every morning in both elementary and high school (I graduated in 1986). Most kids of other faiths just looked the other way, but the pooh Jehovah's Witness kids had to leave the classroom and received no end of taunting. The taunting wasn't because they were JH (no on really understood what that meant anyway), it was just that they were "different" because they had to leave.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

We started out home schooling for the purposes of the kind of education we could provide, and the flexibility of it. As the time went by, we loved the fact that we could include our beliefs and worldview into it.

[Mommy22alyns]

Not for religious reasons here either, and I am glad to see such a wide variety of reasons! :)

 

I feel that I can better fit Becca's unique educational needs and personality/learning style at home. In a ps setting, she could fall between the cracks, get labeled, or just plain lose her love of learning.

 

I also dislike how early the pressures start on kids in our society to conform, grow up too fast, etc. I want to let Becca be five. I don't want her to try and emulate Hannah Montana because her friends in school like her.

 

My weird little thought is, she's like play-doh right now. We have a shape we'd like her to be. So we work on molding her, but then we send her off to other people who have a different idea of what she should look like. They alter her and send her back to us... so we have to work to correct it... back and forth. But play-doh only stays flexible for so long - eventually it starts to dry out. What shape will she be in when she starts to "harden"?

 

It's an imperfect analogy, but it works for me.

[Audrey]

Amber, I have to chuckle at the quote in your signature line. What is the FCA home education handbook, and can one find a copy online?

[Paula in PA]

We are an Atheist/Pagan family. We decided to homeschool to give our dd the best foundation we could. Our spiritual beliefs played no part in that decision or in why we continue.

[hornblower]

OK. All done. :D

 

Big, big squeeaaaal!

I finally recognize someone!! LOL - I'm sure there are others here I know but golly, I feel like when you've gone from the small jr. high to the really large sr. high & can't see anyone you know. This board is so, um, BIG, now. Wow.

Thx for the welcome, Dy. :hurray:

[Mommy22alyns]

Amber, I have to chuckle at the quote in your signature line. What is the FCA home education handbook, and can one find a copy online?

 

 

Here's a direct link to the PDF page:

 

http://www.familychristianacademy.com/FCAPDF/p%2012.pdf

 

And here's their website:

 

http://www.familychristianacademy.com/default.htm

 

They do have the whole handbook online. It's the umbrella school we're going with for Becca. I'm excited about their on-campus classes for homeschooled students! I was looking through my copy of the manual and was really struck by that quote. It speaks volumes, doesn't it? :)

[Melissa in Australia]

academic reasons here.

I sent my children to school , went to work, and expected them to come home educated!!!. when the oldest was in grade 5. I realised he couldn't read or write. I asked the teacher about what was his plan to help him learn, and the teacher said" don't worry, he isn't the worst" that was the last day of him being in school.!!!!. I wished I had started earlier.

MelissaL