We have about a week left for our current families to reenroll for next year, so I thought it fitting to offer some perspective on why ECS is not a homeschool co-op…even if we do think that homeschooling is great.
When a private school administrator lauds the virtues of homeschooling, pay attention. When he points out its deficiencies, there may be a conflict of interest. I get it.
Maybe suspend your squinty-eyed skepticism for a moment and consider the context. I’ve gone on record before saying that homeschooling is awesome. I still think that in principle, though my sentiments must be qualified. Homeschooling done well requires the sort of parental investment that Deuteronomy 6 requires. Unfortunately, some stop listening at that point, when the next part is also important: not everyone can do it well.
What do I mean by this? Homeschooling done well features certain kinds of fruit. For instance, the child/trainee is marked by….
- Deep family fellowship and loyalty.
- An interest and ability to shape culture when his training is complete.
- The skills to worship robustly, produce copiously, and learn prodigiously.
But this sort of fruit is no more unique to homeschooling than it is guaranteed to come from it. Neither is it guaranteed fruit of an ECS education, as much as we aim for it. As a pastor, I want this for all my people. I am jealous for the blessing that comes from obedience for all of them. As one invested in our church and schools’ (Evangel Classical School and Comeford College) bigger work of societal formation, I realize that ECS is one weapon in a big, generational cultural project. It is not a silver bullet, a panacea, a guarantee of success or anything. It is an avenue for faithfulness and a help to parents as they work to do more than merely educate their children.
You read that right. ECS is about more than education proper, it’s about soul formation of the next generation of culture-builders. It is the responsibility of our teachers to keep before them this question: How am I going to help the image-bearers before me to realize their potential? It is a long (and also quick!) project that involves skill acquisition, reps, drilling, discussion, singing, and all those other regular features of daily life at our school.
“So far, so good,” says the homeschooling mom. “We can do that from home or when we’re on vacation.” And right you are. Your mileage may vary, and it may look different from day schooling, but technically you can “do” a lot of those things at home. But how does a conversation about The Bondage of the Will or Frankenstein around the kitchen table compare with one facilitated by a teacher and involving a broad host of perspectives? Does rhetorical training differ when your audience comprises a dozen peers rather than your little sister? Does the singing around your kitchen table compare with the singing at Matins?
Recognizing these differences does not make me a homeschool hater. Homeschooling has great strengths, including cost and flexibility. Some people actually, really cannot afford private school tuition, but there is always a steep cost to all education…and sometimes it involves dollars. Private education costs a lot of tuition dollars; homeschooling costs a lot of time actually administering lessons; both models cost a lot of our selves if we do them right. Public schooling costs tens of thousands of tax dollars per year, per child…but if you send your kids there it may well cost their souls. So cost is inescapable. The question is a matter of how much cost we are willing and able to incur as we educate our children and live by faith.
I’m going to finish this by speaking personally about why we, the Sarrs, choose to send our kids to ECS rather than homeschooling them. My wife and I were trained as educators, and I am 100% certain that I could not duplicate my children’s ECS education at home.
There’s nothing in Deuteronomy 6 that prohibits the inclusion of multiple voices in our children’s training, even if the ultimate responsibility belongs to parents. Further, the whole of the New Testament assumes Christians’ mutual dependency. Many of the people that my children love and respect the most are the teachers at their school. This does not absolve me of responsibility, but rather constitutes a multiplication of my parental efforts. The female teachers of ECS all have the green light to speak into my daughters’ lives and offer perspective and input that reinforce what we’re trying to do at home.
Likewise – and this is a particularly uncommon grace to ECS – a cadre of godly men get to encourage my son in ways that only support what we are trying to do at home. Whether it’s the male teachers or myself, my son cannot escape the presence of men who are striving for godliness, and we (my son included) would not want it any other way…even if it meant being able to save on tuition dollars or travel whenever we wanted (common reasons given for homeschooling).
And this says nothing about the influence that godly friends are having on my children. I actually really like my kids’ friends, and I’m glad that they’re in their lives. Their sparring partners are also their buddies.
Maybe in the Millennial Kingdom homeschooling will be the norm…but I tend to doubt it. When the zeitgeist is holy there will still be a different set of benefits to multiple teachers for a student. As for now, while we think our model is best for the reasons I’ve enumerated, what we need most is the grace of God in our educational efforts. May God be kind to effect that in each of your families “when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise,” or whenever else you are discipling them (Deut. 6:7).
Risus est bellum!
Jonathan