As parents, we have an inborn protectiveness regarding our children. We want to protect our children from harm, provide a safe and healthy environment, and teach them the way they should live. We don’t just throw them out on the street to learn and survive on their own. It is a protective instinct—even wolves protect their young from known danger.

What are your goals in parenting? Take a minute and write down your top goals for being a good parent. Now, take another minute and write down your educational goals for your child. How do they align with your parenting goals? In most cases, there is not much difference in parenting goals and educational goals. We want our children to receive a good education, to be raised in a safe and healthy environment, and be able to study the Bible and put this faith into practice in their daily lives.

Does this sound like a match with the public school system? Are the children learning? Are the public schools “safe”? Is it a “healthy” environment? Can they learn about their faith and share it with others, without fear of reprimand or humiliation? Here are ten reasons to bring your child home now!

Bring Them Home, Build Their Faith
The public school system has removed all symbols of Christian faith from our children’s education, one piece at a time, from the prohibition of Bibles and prayer to prohibiting any celebration or recognition of Christian holidays. Our faith is more important than all else; it doesn’t change based on where we are or who we are with. Why would we expect our children to spend many of their waking hours in an environment that disregards our faith and shames our children for any display of Christian faith? What message is this sending to our children—that some- times it’s okay to have faith and other times it is not? Children deserve better than that from their parents—consistency is crucial. Inconsistency only introduces doubt and much more. Build their faith; build their future.

Bring Them Home, Build a Strong Relationship
What kind of relationship do you want with your child? When we began homeschooling, we realized that we didn’t really know our children, and they didn’t really know their parents. They knew more about their teachers and friends than they knew about their family. Our relationship with them had been one of a caretaker—“do your homework,” “brush your teeth,” “get ready for school,” “did you get your lunch money,” “what time is play practice,” etc. Looking back, it was too easy to let other people (teachers and administrators) become the people that the children counted on through the ups and downs of childhood. However, God planned for PARENTS to be the people children rely on and learn from—this is the relationship that lasts a lifetime. This is not a dress rehearsal. Your children have only have one childhood—and it is in your hands.

Bring Them Home, Protect Them From What They Might Learn
From drugs and alcohol to sex to trash talk, children learn all kinds of things in public schools. Among the many reasons that people pull their children from school is to protect them from these elements of a “public school” education. Yes, you might say that they have to learn about these things somewhere—why not at school? First of all, children are learning about these things in early elementary school these days, long before they are ready to begin to understand what they are learning. Why bog down the learning process at such a young age with so many harmful words and ideas that only confuse and create more fear? Bring them home and let them learn, asking questions of YOU when they come across things that they don’t understand. Give them some time to have a childhood and learn to value their minds and bodies before exposing them to things that can be so harmful for the rest of their lives.

Bring Them Home, Give Them a Quality Education
Instead of a state-approved standardized curriculum developed to prepare students for standardized tests, give them an education that will last a lifetime, not just through an end-of-year test. Use real books, real people, and lifetime adventures to teach your children lessons that will help them for the rest of their lives. Get back to the basics of learning, and help them develop a love of learning. Using the wealth of learning materials available today, along with your time and commitment to help them learn, you will be surprised at the difference in how much your child can learn and just how far this approach to education will take your child. They can join the ranks of other homeschooled people that include Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, George Washington Carver, Sally Ride, and many others.

Bring Them Home, Improve Their Quality of Life
Looking back at that list of parental goals, is there any mention of happiness? Bring your children home from public schools and all of a sudden there is no school fear or worry, and your children’s world is a happy and safe place. No more fear of being bullied or harassed on the school bus or school grounds, no more fear of being ridiculed for being a slow reader or asking too many questions, no more fear of not wearing the “right” clothes. You can give them freedom to learn what is important without “school” pressures. No more labeling, name-calling, or making fun of kids who really want to learn. Give your children a healthy environment that encourages questions, allows them to learn at their own pace, and gives them the chance to try without worrying about failure or peer judgment.

Bring Them Home, Help Them Develop
Every child has been given unique gifts and talents, and it is part of our job as parents to help them discover and develop these special God-given gifts and talents. When a child is attending public school, she tends to take on the interests of the other kids, mainly to be able to fit in at school. When you pull your child from this environment, you give her the gift of freedom—freedom to pursue her interests while continuing her education.

Bring Them Home, Keep Them Safe
The issue of school safety is not new, and it looms larger with every passing day. We are all familiar with the Columbine tragedy and other recent shootings at public schools. With these have come metal detectors, policemen assigned to each school as “safety officers,” locker searches, and even more school safety incidents and issues. At the top of the list you made about parental goals, was one of them to provide a SAFE and healthy place for your child? While researching this topic, I came across a staggering statistic. According to a report from the Department of Justice, in 1999, there were more than 19,000 in-school rapes in America.¹ School is no safe haven, as much as many Americans would like to wish that were true.

Bring Them Home, Give Them Opportunities
Whether your child is a gifted artist, talented dancer, or budding astronaut, you can give him the time to pursue these things under your watchful observation and guidance. If you have a child who is interested in space, you can take the time to focus on this interest with special studies, experiments, books, or even a trip to NASA to talk to astronauts and investigate opportunities for the future. From taking advantage of volunteer opportunities to helping them develop their own business that showcases their creations, you can open the world for your children as they continue to grow in wisdom and stature.

Bring Them Home, Maximize Their Learning Experience
Schools are getting rid of music programs, laboratory classes, computer labs, and more, all because of the lack of funding. When your child is learning at home, you can do all of these things and more, expanding their learning and enriching their education. Buy a microscope and watch the world become a world of zillions of things to examine. Bring in a piano and see what beautiful music swells. Try using a telescope with them every evening and watch their dreams soar with the astronauts. Bring a computer home from a garage sale and let them take it apart to see how it works, and create a desire to learn more about all things digital. Begin a scrap lumber collection and start working on a tree house that could provide a lifetime of building knowledge as well as wonderful memories.

Bring Them Home, Give Them the World
Introduce your children to the world while you are there to smooth the way. Bring them home to learn, where you will be able to provide a support system 24/7. From missions trips to volunteer work at the nursing home, from canoe trips down the local river to beach walks full of sunshine— you can give them the world and be there to help them grow in it.

“Government schooling is the most radical adventure in history. It kills the family by monopolizing the best times of childhood and by teaching disrespect for home and parents.” —John Taylor Gatto, letter to the Wall Street Journal

Amanda Bennett is a well-known author and speaker at homeschool conferences and women’s retreats. With two children in college and one teenager at home, she and her husband are now in their fourteenth year of homeschooling. Speaking at conferences and retreats, Amanda shares her faith, homeschool experiences, and a contagious love of learning. Visit her website www.unitstudy.com or her blog at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/amandabennett.

1 “ Raped in Class” by Dr. Judith Reisman, WorldNetDaily, August 17, 2001. www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ ID=24096