I am frequently told how smart my children are.

Maybe that sounds like I'm bragging--and it's certainly not intended to be--but it is the situation that I find myself in. I have smart kids.

There was a time when I took more credit for this than I do now...a time when I thought their intelligence was simply due to the fact that they were home with me all day, rather than being farmed out to various substitute caregivers. But I have to be honest and say that not every home educated six-year-old can read at a 5th grade level, nor does every homeschooled 4-year-old understand place value. I don't fancy myself to be that stellar of a teacher. Without a doubt, much of it is inborn; or, more accurately, a gift from God.

Intelligence. A gift from God. "So, that must make homeschooling pretty easy for you, doesn't it?"


Well, in a way, yes. I suppose it does help with any motivation problems I might have to hear my 4-year-old say, "Please, mom, could we do math?...Please???".

And it does help that I can hand just about any book to my son and have him be able to read most of the words accurately (although, this causes a whole set of other problems).

But, it doesn't let me "off-the-hook". In a way, having intelligent children makes my job as a home educating mom harder.

It might be tempting for me to coast through this homeschooling thing. Tackle the three R's, impress my friends with their academic achievements, and believe that I have done my job.

But, here's the thing...

I am not afforded the luxury of raising geniuses who have no character.


This is the BIG problem with education in this country, and homeschoolers are not immune to it.

We can spend so much time trying to "prove" to everyone else that our home educated children are just as smart as, if not smarter than, their government educated peers. We can talk to death about the problems with the public school system, how bad the literacy rates are among 4th graders, how high school students don't get a course in basic economics, and how most of our kids don't know the difference between Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr.

However important these issues may be--and they are important--they still miss the greater point.

The most glaring thing missing from a government education is--GOD.

And, please, let us not think we are much better if we believe that reading a Bible verse and saying a prayer first thing in the morning is sufficient.

No, indeed, sprinkling a couple of Bible verses into an otherwise secular education doesn't make it Christian any more than standing around in a parking lot makes one a car.

Our primary goal in education must be to train up fully-devoted followers of Jesus Christ. The thought of our children rejecting the Savior ought give us cause to fall to our knees, trembling and tearful. Why do we seem to miss this point? Do we really think this is the Sunday School teacher's job? Do we really believe that because our child was baptized, or "prayed a prayer" when he was five, that we can sit back, relax, and breath a sigh of relief? I sincerely hope not!


We must teach every subject from a distinctively Christian perspective.  If we have a hard time understanding what that would look like, we need to re-examine our own world-view. Moreover, we must seek to lead them to Christ in everything we teach, and with our whole lives.



This one goal--that they KNOW GOD--must transcend everything else. If it does not, we have failed, no matter how brilliant, successful, or wealthy our children one day become.

Is "the world" enough?