Beware the Horse!

We’re all familiar with the Trojan Horse story. After a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks build a big wooden horse, fill it with a few select warriors, and then pull out of town. The Trojans, thinking it is some sort of parting gift, pull it into the city, and surprise…the Greeks hop out and conquer the city.

The point is this: it was NOT the 10 years of external forces that conquered the Trojans. Victory came when the Greeks were unknowingly brought into the camp.

I’ve been noticing a Trojan-type thing going on in homeschooling circles for a while now. This time it’s not about the government trying to control us by enticing us to use their money. It‘s something more sinister and Trojan-ish.

Last night, my wife joined a group of area homeschooling moms at a local coffee hangout.

When she returned, I knew right away that she felt… “heavy.”
“How’d it go?” I asked, and for the next twenty minutes we sat at the kitchen table and talked about how ‘different’ the homeschooling world has become.

You see for the last twenty or thirty years, the outside world has tried to destroy homeschooling. We’ve stood against threats, arrest, ridicule, sideways glances, experts’  criticism, and even family critics. But we’ve stood, convinced that God has called us to home educate our children and that home was the best place to do it.

Much like that 10-year siege of the Trojans, the world has tossed everything they can at us and we’ve stood, proving to them that they will NOT win this battle. But it’s not just about single battles; it’s about the WAR. And that concerns me greatly.

What my wife shared, and has shared before, is that there seems to be a growing lack of conviction in the homeschooling world. Young moms are using it as an escape, a gap-year program before REAL school starts, or a nice thing to try.

If it were just about those families, I wouldn’t be alarmed, but those seemingly innocent moms are pulling the Trojan Horse on us. They’re poisoning the minds of other homeschoolers around them.

“Yeah, I’m thinking after this year…I’ll put them back in school…after all they need to be salt and light. One teacher told me that schools have really gone downhill because Christian parents have pulled their kids out….”

My wife told me of one mom who is teetering on the edge of what to do with her teenage daughter who wants to be around friends. Shockingly, the other moms didn’t come to her aid and encourage her to “keep her home but instead encouraged her that school was good, she’ll be fine, and that we need to be salt and light…blah blah blah.

I feel like that old koot standing by the Trojan gate screaming, “Don’t bring that horse in here!!!”

Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t allow new homeschoolers in our midst. Just the opposite is true. But I am saying loudly, beware of those who nudge you back to the school system. Beware of their ‘salt and light’ argument*. Beware of the slippery slope of dipping your toe into the system. Beware of those who would encourage you to do the exact opposite of what you once believed. Beware…BEWARE the HORSE!!!

That said, let me now remind you that HOME is the best place for kids to be and that parents are the best teachers of THEIR children.

Feeling tired and frazzled with one or more of your children? Feeling like the school year will never end? Feeling like you’re doing a lousy job and messing over your children? BEWARE of the horse!!!!!

Smile and Beware!!!

Todd

*That argument of our children being salt and light doesn’t hold water. I grew up in the system as a Christian kid. I saw very little salt and light. Instead what I saw happen to others (and ME) was that we got less salty. I believe that when we put out children into the school system we de-salt them. Little by little, they get less salty until they have very little ‘flavor’ and produce very little light. And that’s the best possible scenario. I’ve had many parents tell me that putting them in school was the worse thing they ever did. One mom we know said it ruined her children. So when someone pulls the salt and light argument, just say, “Whatever!” There’s plenty of time to be salt & light as adults.