Society is to Blame: We are Society

Once again, another study has come out that shows interesting discrepancies between what parents believe and how they live. This study of mothers finds that mothers are overwhelmingly concerned about society and its negative impact on their children. But the question is what are they doing about it? Reducing TV, increasing monitoring of media such as music and video games and the Internet? Other studies suggest that this is not the case. Mothers in this study report, as many other recent studies of parents have found, they are concerned about the moral life of their children and they feel their children are not receiving enough moral instruction. But in other studies, they readily admit that they as parents spend little to no time instructing their children in moral or ethical issues. The studies are particularly striking in Christian parents who overwhelmingly believe that they should be the ones teaching their children about Jesus Christ but the majority of believers do not. (Barna.org)

Society will only change one family at a time. It is time for us to dust off our history books and remember that true, lasting change only occurs in societies with grassroots efforts. For example, the American Civil Rights Movement would never have begun without the tiny efforts of many. (Everyone from high schoolers up should watch the video series Eyes on the Prize, an excellent documentary of the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties that does a great job of exposing the grassroots origin of Civil Rights.) Leaders only arose out of the grassroots; they did not swoop down from on high and mobilize people. That means that if I am going to get on my soapbox demanding change, I had better the one out there leading the way.

It is so easy to forget this simple truth as we gripe and complain. Hate the school system? Homeschool. Feel corporate America is unfair? Start your own business. Hate all current politicians? Run for office yourself. Think this country's morality is going down faster than a sinking ship? Revitalize your own spiritual life and teach your children to do the same. Monitor the clothing you wear, the music you listen to and the TV and movies you watch.

The women in the study say that motherhood is the most important role for them. Does their calendar/planner reflect that? They say their marriages are important but how much time and respect are they devoting to their husbands? Does their calendar/planner reflect that?

About work: 83 percent strongly agreed that their care of their children is so unique that "no one else can replace it." Yet 41% worked full-time outside the home. Only 16% of mothers felt that working full-time was ideal. Yet over twice that percentage worked full time.

Most mothers worry about materialism -- 88 percent agreed that "money has too much control over our lives." But what are they doing to reduce the role of materialism in their lives and in the lives of their children.

More than 80 percent agreed that society as a whole should do more to protect children from "adult" aspects of the world. They also felt that society makes it "hard" to protect children. I agree. It is hard. Hard, yes but still necessary. Are these concerned moms considering homeschooling? Do they monitor the media that their children are exposed to at home?

When I speak of the glaring inconsistencies in the lives of the mothers in the study, I speak of myself as well. As a self-appointed critic of many aspects of American life, I must constantly challenge myself and ask those around me to challenge me to remain true to my ideals and to at least attempt to live that which I ask others to live. Of course, we will all fall short at times but the valiant efforts of many will ultimately lead to the change in American society that most parents seek.

Shop Our New Store Today!

Hooray! My husband Sam and I announce the grand opening of our online Homeschool Mom Store. Sam did a terrific job of creating fun designs and putting them on t-shirts, bags, hats and mugs. Check out our new store! Thank goodness one of us is artistic!

Click here to find out more about the story behind our store.

Shop, have fun, show your support for homeschooling and help our family business.

Thank you!

Homeschool Mom With the Lord

Thank you all for your prayers for the homeschool mom in our local group struck with cancer. She passed away this afternoon. If you would be so kind, remember the family in your prayers today.

I feel so sad. Some things are so hard to accept...

A View from Inside Schools: More Reasons to Homeschool

So many parents just are not aware of the shaky ground that schools and their methods of instruction are standing on and using as absolute truth. I was one of those parents. I assumed that since school administrators and teachers had degrees, some of them advanced, they must know what they are talking about. How wrong I was. It does not take much research to find out the sorry state of schools of education. The "hot" theory today, after millions of dollars is spent implementing it, becomes tomorrow's mistake. What sounds theoretically sound and worked in one school is passed off as doctrine only to get changed when once again, the (fill-in-the-blank) plan that was going to save the schools was found to be lacking.

From banning red pens, to deleting kickball and recess, schools have become more ridiculous than ever. How much learning is going on in the average school? Not much if you are not a self-starter whose learning style meshes with that of the system.

Parents need to take a much more active role in keeping abreast of education policies and politics. Even if a family is unwilling to homeschool, the parents should take long periods of time devoting themselves to understand the origin and history of schools, the current roles of schools in our society today and whether or not schools are accomplishing what they have set out to accomplish.

It amazes me how much time parents will take to research their favorite sports team or reality TV star or what type of digital TV they will buy. But when it comes to their child's education, many suddenly grow silent and weak. Parents must change before the schools will change. There can be no other way.

Sex With Teachers: Another Reason to Homeschool

Even I was shocked when I realized that over the past few weeks, the city of New York reported 5 incidences of inappropriate sexual behavior between teachers and students. See some of the stories from the New York Daily News here, here and from the New York Post here. (By the way,could stories like these help to explain why public school teachers are loathe to teach about abstinence? Hmmmm, I wonder...) But it got even worse. The mayor of New York, Mayor Bloomberg, admitted that such occurrences happen regularly only the press does not always find out about it. But wait, the stories get even worse. Once the offending teacher is exposed, he or she typically gets a slap on the hand and is sent right back into the classroom. Think it can not get any worse than that? Guess again. The teacher's unions refuse to add any teeth to the disciplinary action to punish sexual offender teachers because of the chance that a student might just make up a story to hurt a teacher. They do not want any teachers being wrongfully disciplined.

Okay, can we all see what happens here? First we start with students not being safe in their own school, at the institution they come to for learning. This is in direct contrast to opponents of homeschooling who point to the relative safety of schools in which students are free from the horrible abuses that can occur at home.

In fact, CBS News, The Akron Beacon Journal and others have run "investigative reports" that have suggested the opposite. Homeschooling, we were warned, merely serves as a haven for those who would misuse or abuse their children. If children were sent to school, the school proponents argue, any abuse could be quickly discovered and indeed, parents may not be abusive at all because they would be aware that they could be "found out".

The statistics just make you feel all warm and fuzzy thinking about sending your child into the safe confines of public school right? In this age of accountability spurred by No Child Left Behind (NCLB), our upright schools have taken to out and out lying to suppress the number of violent incidents occurring so that schools can maintain their "safe" school status.

I wish I could just stay focused on the self-serving bureaucrats allowing children to be harmed in school each day all around the country. For I would rather feel anger toward them than the sadness that grips my heart when I think of defenseless children, abandoned in public schools for "their own good" by the parents whose charge it is to protect and teach them.

Homeschooling is certainly not easy and homeschoolers are not perfect. Yet is time for more parents to step up to the plate and face reality in admitting that the archaic, failing system of compulsory education is not good for kids. It just is not.

National Mother of the Year

Nice article here about a 72-year old who was named Mother of the Year. Seems that she has some good old-fashioned advice about caring enough about your children to instill morals and values in them. Perhaps the most impressive and important part of the award is that the winner will go around the country and speak about the importance of motherhood, a role that has been much-maligned since the rise of feminism.

Prayers for Ill Homeschool Mom

I have a heavy heart today despite an awesome service at church this morning. One of the local homeschool moms here is very ill with cancer. I am resisting feelings of despair and defeat because I have promised to pray for her and her family. I know that my faith has to be front and center. So I plod on, asking God to give me the strength to carry on and continue to believe for her healing.

This morning at church we had a guest speaker (Gary Spicer from England) who talked about the difficult circumstances that even the staunchest of believers will face. He discussed examples from his own life of how some prayers are answered and illnesses are healed while in other cases prayers seem to go unheeded.

He did not offer any pat rationalizations for these occurrences. He only reminded us that regardless of how our circumstances may appear, we have a choice. In every instance we have a choice of how to respond to life's circumstances and we can do so through the lens of faith or through the lens of negativity.

His words particularly touched me this morning.

Homeschooling is very important to me, both personally and for its role in American society. I feel called to mother, write, teach and preach and I am not sure exactly how those roles are to be fulfilled. Our family's financial situation is precarious at best. The house is too messy and Chase did not practice his writing yesterday.

The above-mentioned items are nothing, nothing at all in the life plan that God has for me. Small potatoes, those things! I am here to live life abundantly, no matter what and to serve Him in whatever way I can all the time. I am to worry and be anxious for nothing. I will seek Him and His Kingdom and let Him do the rest.

I assume a humble posture of gratitude as I acknowledge all the blessings God Has poured upon me and my family and I am practically breathless at the remembering. I mighty God indeed and I will remain in His shadow for life.

I also ask that anyone reading this blog would pray for Cathy, a fellow Christian homeschool mom. Please pray for her complete healing, pray for her children and for her husband. Thank you so much and may God richly bless you and keep you.