It is and will continue to be a long standing disagreement among Christians as to whether homeschooling, Christian schooling, or public schooling is the right path to take for their children’s education. The truth of the matter is that they are all right - depending on the circumstances. First of all, it must be stated that scripture does not give any specific form or setting that is best for children to be trained in, but scripture does make it very clear that the parents are to be directly involved in the schooling of their children. Therefore, whatever forms of education a parent might choose, their first priority is to be directly involved in their children’s education. Throughout the book of Proverbs there is a continual emphasis on the family and the role of the parents as teachers and leaders in the home (examples: Prov. 6:20; 19:26; 23:26).

Homeschooling ideally is the best form of education, although it is not always possible. In today’s fast pace society, it is not always possible for one parent to be able to completely devote their time to the education of their children. Also, the parents might not be qualified to be able to teach their children - especially when they reach the high school grades. If it is possible at the lower grades for one parent to be able to devote their time to training their children at home in a disciplined and productive manner, it would be most advantageous for the child to be homeschooled. It is important, if parents choose to home school, that they make the extra effort to give their children a well rounded education by giving them opportunities to learn social skills and culture in a well monitored manner.

Christian schooling is a wise choice if there is a good Christian school within reasonable driving distance. It is important that the Christian school not only be run by a godly and capable staff but should also have a majority of well behaved, Christian students. If a child is sent to a Christian school that is either run by incapable staff or contains a majority of rebellious youth, it could have a worse effect upon a child then if he was sent to a public school. It would also be good for the parents to do their homework about what type of curriculum is used as well as how much time the activities of the school will take away from family interaction and parental involvement.

Public schooling should be the last choice for Christian parents, mainly because of the antichristian agenda that has recently been growing in the public education system today. If the parents are not able to home school for valid reasons and there is no good Christian school within reasonable driving distance, then the public schools system would be a very valid choice for their children’s education. Extra effort must be put forth to make sure that a child going to public school is still primarily learning their system of beliefs from their parents.

What do you think?

I think that homeschooling is the worst idea ever. First off, the kids never get to socialize or interact with other kids! What fun is that? They are missing out on having best friends. 2nd, they get to go to school whatever time they want, or basically when their mom or dad wants to teach them. I personally just think that homeschooling is ridiculous, and should not be allowed. And they miss out on dances and school games!

I know from experience that catholic schooling was best for my situation. The public schools around me were no good, and full of trashy people, and my parents didn't want me to be around that. I think that if you are in a good neighborhood that public school is okay.
But I know that when I was in school, I would always be ahead of my friends that were in public. So needless to say, we learned more and we were also a "college prep" school, and I am very thankful for that b/c college is pretty much a breeze for me. I did struggle in high school b/c the standards were so high but it was all worth it!

"I know from experience that catholic schooling was best for my situation. The public schools around me were no good, and full of trashy people, and my parents didn't want me to be around that. I think that if you are in a good neighborhood that public school is okay.
But I know that when I was in school, I would always be ahead of my friends that were in public. So needless to say, we learned more and we were also a "college prep" school, and I am very thankful for [that] "

This has been my experience, almost word for word. I haven't gone to college yet so I cannot compare, but if it is as easy as or easier than private school I am good to go. If you are looking for a kid's education alone, the larger private schools usually pretty academically rigorous, especially opposed to public school. Right now my district is in an overcrowding crisis with understaffed teachers... I am glad to be in a private school even though I may no longer be religious.

I cannot imagine that homeschooling would ever be a good idea unless you are in a bad school's district and can't afford or don't have access to a private school. Learning all the fine nuances of social interaction is probably just as important to actual success as getting a good education. Furthermore, unless you are a very competent parent with a whole lot of time on your hands, it seems difficult to keep up a really competitive learning course.

There are plenty of things that I wish that I could have done in the past. One of them is attending a better kind of school. Although I have plenty of awesome friends in my public school, I pretty much breezed through 9th-12th grade, and I found myself to be a bit disappointed.

Though I am not Christian, sometimes I wish I could have gone to private school, for the sake of getting a better education of more quality. From what I've read on the previous posts so far, those kind of schools seem so much better than a typical public school. I love my friends and all, but there were many times when I felt that the AP classes were too easy. I also get really annoyed at the typical regular student at my high school because most of them make the dumbest conversations about the dumbest things while being serious about them.

I will not argue in this religious business, but sometimes I just wish that I could have gone to Christian school rather than public school. The quality of Christian schools just seems so much better. However, the past is the past, and I'm satisfied with what I've done with high school in public. This is no time for me to worry about public school; I'm most likely going to Rice and should be looking forward to that!

Also, like Christina and Crepe Knight before me, I just believe that homeschooling is not worth it if the parents do not take the enormous amount of time it takes to teach a son/daughter so much. I'm not saying that it is impossible to do, but I think it would just take so much work to do in order for both sides of the method to succeed. Homeschooling prevents the social life of being a teenage student from happening, and boy, try to teach your kid as if you are 5-7 teachers in the same day! Basically the parent has to be extremely well-rounded in many subjects, plus he/she has to be able to make time (plenty!) in order to effectively teach the student and give the public/private schools a run for their money. In my opinion, not only would homeschooling take toll on the student (social-wise), but it would also slowly suck life (literally) out of the parent. I've seen kids who have had really efficient homeschool teaching, and I would like to know how they did it.

I don't think you understand what homeschooling is. Its seat work like at school but its also life skills theres so much more you can do. And most kids are in sports in the school until highschool then they have to decide if the want to play sports they have to goto school.
Home schooling done correctly isn't just a when ever its very consistant. And the child should be around other kids such as my daughter is very active she is in pompoms, baton, and tball and church and playdates. She has many friends from these activities.
Now next year we are dropping batons and doing pompoms, dance, tball or soccer and bible class.and a coop for home school kids once a week they sing and play games for 2 hours. So if done correctly its where home schooled kids achieve higher grades and get into better colleges 87 percent grade higher then public school I don't know about christian school. Now if we decide justto only do 1 year kindergaten because I don't belive in all day every day so that is our ourfeeling and we have prayed prayed and prayed and feel this is best. But if you truly understood homechooling I think you would be more open minded.
Such as you can do eduation trips that schools can not do. Like ofcourse the zoo, imagination station, sauders village which teachers about the 1800s , the airforce museum, thesky is the limit on learning. And there are some really good christian curriculum. We have a school room and will be very consistant on times not just whenever.
I hope you can open yourself and see that it isn't as bad as you think.

Jamie