Homeschooling and Limitations

I'm not saying homeschooling is necessarily the best method of educating your kids, but it is the logical extension of the biblical principle that says education is primarily the responsibility of parents.

It makes sense that homeschooling is experiencing explosive growth. Many brick-and-mortar schools are failing to provide a quality education (including private schools). And so parents are cutting out the middleman.

It's like a carpenter who notices that his subcontractors are doing the job poorly. Since he's the owner, he decides that the sacrifice in quality is no longer worth the freedom he gains from delegating out what is ultimately his responsibility.

But I do think homeschooling has its limitations. Like the carpenter who quickly realizes he can't do everything on the job site, many parents realize they can't teach everything their children need to know.

Even with the abundance of resources available for homeschooling families, it's still hard for mom and dad to do it all. There is still a need for specialized knowledge, even if being a specialist is not required. For example, teaching a child to read requires far less specialized knowledge than it does to teach that same child, 10 years later, how to write a persuasive essay. This is why when kids get older, homeschool moms start to feel overwhelmed.

Like the wise carpenter, wise homeschooling parents recognize their own limitations. The general carpenter recognizes that the basic principle of the division of labor is a good thing. He can't do everything, nor does he have the time to do everything. Like the carpenter, mom and dad realize they need some kind of subcontractor or employee to help them do the job.

Many homeschooling parents are doing this. Many homeschool families utilize private tutors, homeschool co-ops where parents tutor subjects they are good at, and others take advantage of the plethora of online resources such as online academies and video lessons with live teachers.

The reason I write this is to encourage homeschoolers to think ahead. Even if you are committed to homeschooling your kids all the way through, you should still be prepared to delegate some of your teaching responsibilities to others. You should be thinking like the carpenter: 'What jobs should I hire out?' 'What jobs need to be hired out?' 'How can I keep tabs on everything I'm responsible for without burning out?'

I think one of the frontiers of education that needs to be explored is how home-based models of education can be blended with brick-and-mortar-based education. There's too much pride in both camps. Too many homeschoolers think homeschooling is the absolute only way to do it, and too many brick-and-mortar schools think the same way. And so there is often an adversarial relationship between the two.

This should not be, because both have something to offer the other. Homeschoolers can offer the brick and mortar school students to play on their sports teams and participate in other extracurricular activities, where, honestly, most private schools struggle to get large enough numbers to offer adequate programming. And brick and mortar schools can offer homeschool families the institutional structure, facilities, and division of labor that is lacking in any one particular family.

There is, of course, more to say. But this is something I think we all need to have in our pipes to smoke.