Hello, , from NHERI.

Should each God-designed family and the children within it be considered a unique constellation, or a cookie cut out by the work of a centralized planning "initiative"? What should be driving a father and a mother in the education and upbringing of their children?

Along this vein, "All children and youth in America should learn certain core things." Well, at least this sounds very attractive at first blush, to many people. But the water gets deep real fast when deciding what children should learn.

For many years, the fifty States stuck with their federalist authority with respect to the education of children in state-run schools. The thinking was something like this: We are Texas, you are Oregon, and they are Massachusetts so let us respect each other's state-level and local freedom to mold children - whose parents choose to send them to our schools - in the image each state-controlled school agency thinks they should be molded. That all seemed to suddenly collapse during the year 2010.

As of today, 42 States and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core Standards.[1] [Endnote 1] The Common Core State Standards Initiative claims that "These standards define the knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs," that the initiative is a state-led effort coordinated by governors "... and the Council of Chief State School Officers ...," and the "... standards were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts, ..."[2]

The purpose of the standards is to make sure that 18-year-olds can do well in college and the "workforce," and so "our communities" can "compete successfully in the global economy."[3] Not so fast - now it is time to back up and go to the real core: What is man's purpose in life?

If you are an "old-fashioned Christian," you know that man's purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Your child might be able to do this by attending and succeeding in college, doing well in the workforce (whatever that is), and competing in "the global economy" (whatever that is). His core purpose, however, should be an explicit, blatant, laser-like focus on submission to, living for, and enjoying the King of kings and Lord of lords. The main purpose is not to live for one's State (i.e., civil government), succeed in the workforce, or to be a top dog in an international economy.

This might seem like quibbling over words and purposes but it most certainly is not. All parents and others who profess the name of Christ need give keen attention here. It is crucial that parents decide what their key message is to their children. They must help their children answer the big questions, such as the following: Who made you? Why did He make you? What is your purpose in life? What is the proper role of the civil government in your life, and that of the people of God?

If it is true that a child's rightful purpose is to come to faith in Christ, by His grace, and live for Him forever, then would placing him in a state-controlled school - most of which will now be driven by centrally planned "Core Standards" - be a prudent thing to do?

Read "Statements of Support." [4] Do you see Biblical Scripturalists United listed? No. Do you see Jesus the Christ's words quoted? No. Do you see Seminary Following The Inerrant Word of God listed? No. Do  you find Biblical Jurisdiction Association mentioned? No. There is good reason you do not see anything like these listed. These standards do not originate from biblical thinking nor are they designed to raise children and youth to know, love, and serve the Savior.

On a practical note, how many regular American folks believe that the Common Core State Standards Initiative is going to have a significant and godly impact on national morality, young persons' creativity, biblical economic success, and college life for the United States? I guess it is close to none. At the "local" level of the State, the government education systems have been trying for many decades to boost success via state-run education but most think things are getting worse. They have clearly not improved the biblical moral climate of America. Why would anyone think that a national centralized effort will do any better?

And already to the disappointment of advocates of central planning, researchers have found the following:

"Those who hope that the Common Core standards represent greater focus for U.S. education will be disappointed by our answers. ..... We also used international benchmarking to judge the quality of the Common Core standards, and the results are [negatively] surprising ... Top-achieving countries for which we had content standards put a greater emphasis on "perform procedures" than do the U.S. Common Core standards. High-performing countries' emphasis on "perform procedures" runs counter to the widespread call in the United States for a greater emphasis on higher order cognitive demand."[5]

What might home-based educators learn from this? They need to know their worldview. If it is biblical, then appreciate and rejoice in the unique design God was pleased to create for each family, the parents and children in that entity. Dad has these skills and that personality; Mom was given these dreams and that temperament; Bomba, Charise, and Tyrone each has his special talents, dispositions, and calls on his life; they should capitalize on all of this handiwork of the Master to His glory. And the father and mother should not look to the civil government to define for them man's purpose in life and the standards for what their children should know and learn or how to think. "Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures."[6]

NHERI continues to advance research on home education and challenges to the status-quo of the academic world into the research community and the public at-large. Thank you for your comments, encouragement, and financial support of NHERI.

P.S. Please feel free to send us your questions about homeschooling and we will try to answer them in upcoming messages.

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  1. Send a check to: NHERI, PO Box 13939, Salem OR 97309 (using a check puts the largest percent of your gift to work at NHERI)

  2. Click here http://nheri2010.org/ and then the "donate" button.

NHERI, PO Box 13939, Salem OR 97309, USA

 

Endnotes