Paranoia is not a good reason to do anything, let alone to embark on the journey of homeschooling. However, there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about sending your children off to public school, and even to a christian school these days.
For the sake of this post, we’ll categorize the different types of safety into four general categories:
Mental Threats
There will more than likely be sibling rivalries and some level of strife among children in a homeschool. But the kinds of situations faced simply pale in comparison to the stresses brought on by impending confrontations with bullies, or from being teased by peers or even older children. There are also a variety of threats that arise from group-think standards of dress and manners
Physical Threats
There are many physical threats that just aren’t present in the homeschool. The opportunity to come into contact with peers who are experimenting with drug and alcohol use are easily avoided. And although there is going to be a time when our children need to learn about such things, sooner is not better than latter when we think about our kids being exposed to sexual experimentation. That says nothing about the presence of actual weapons – knives, guns, pipe bombs, or other outrageous things.
Emotional Threats
Threat from fallacious medical diagnosis of ADD/ADHD. This is not to say that there is no core of individuals who are truly in need of this help. But in today’s “me too” society, any tree that waves in the breeze is suspected of hyperactivity. In the home, there is nothing wrong with taking a little break from class to “get the wiggles out” without the use of pills or injections.
Spiritual Threats
Whether we want to admit it or not, there is spiritual warfare taking place in schools today. Not only the hearts and mind of our children, but their very souls, are being won or lost in our modern modes of education. The ability to pass on our values, as mentioned in a previous Why Homeschool? post, can protect our children from spiritual influences that we’d rather they not face while still of tender years.
With a list like this, you might be afraid to let your children leave their beds in the morning. Parenting, and teaching homeschool for that matter, consists of a long series of letting go as our children mature. But having a say in the pace of this process is of great value. It is important that you have positive reasons to commit to homeschooling. But it is still a comfort to think about all the unfortunate things that you will be avoding.
Tags: homeschool, homeschooling, safe homeschool, safe school, safety, school safety