Do You Really Know What Your Child Faces?

In a few weeks the local public schools will begin a new school year.  Some children will be excited to go to school.  Others will face it with dread, but will feel helpless because going to school is just a fact of life for them.  I am blessed.  I know this.  Even though my husband and I don't have a lot of money, we are both in agreement about homeschooling.  We both see how God is working in our lives and in our family.  We sacrifice to do the best we can to provide a Christian education for our children.  It isn't always easy to find curriculum, to plan and schedule, and to live on one income.  However, I know my husband supports and is in agreement with what God has called me to do.  Where the first year or so felt like an experiment, a time to "See how it goes", we have both had moments of seeing great things in homeschooling.  Bringing home the highschool student, while intimidating, has been wonderful.

Not everyone is as lucky.  Some mothers don't have the support of their husbands, either for homeschooling or even in their walk with Christ.  Many mothers have to work.  There is no other option.  Some mothers are single mothers and don't feel they can work and homeschool.  I've seen it done, but I know it isn't easy.   One decision for one family might not fit another. 

What I see as a choice that could be so wonderful for a child, most parents can't even bring them to consider, despite circumstances that are nearly intolerable for the child.  One girl I know is in high school.  She is a beautiful, spirited girl with such passion.  Sometimes that passion has gotten her in trouble because she gets off the path she should be on.  She's desperate to fit in with the others, but also wants to serve God.  The two desires don't usually mesh well.  This beautiful girl is at a nearly all white school, but she is a girl with some color.  Because of this she has dealt with racism, name-calling, and has just been tortured by a few racist children.  Unfortunately, the school has let the issues slide over and over again, and actually turned things around on this girl until she had the blame placed on her for incidents that should never have happened in the first place.   She is desperate to get out of the school.  She has begged to be homeschooled.

The family has dealt with other issues before with discrimination.  It is sad that, in this day and age, this kind of stuff still goes on.  It is even more unbelievable that it has been tolerated.  Unfortunately, this girl has paid the price.  I want to tell the mother that there is a better way.  Her daughter doesn't have to live in torture any longer.  There are programs, like Switched on Schoolhouse from Alpha Omega, that assign the work and do the grading for you.  All you have to do is log on and read reports of how your child is doing.  You don't have to teach the subjects.  I wish there was a way to show parents the benefits of homeschooling.  Sometimes the benefits of getting your child away from a place that is causing her so much pain and trouble is worth the sacrifice and fear.  I wish I could show parents how healing it can be to have a child not have to deal with the constant peer pressure, feeling bullied and discriminated against, and living with the knowledge that, if given the chance, there are those around them that would physically hurt them.

I don't want to be hypocritical.  My oldest daughter just graduated from public school.  I had left the choice up to her and she chose to remain in public school.  She had her own share of pressures she dealt with, but she also had only a couple years left when given the option to be homeschooled.  My daughter never had to deal with the pressures such as what I described above. 

Parents tend to see things through rose -colored glasses.  They look at schools and don't think things are that bad.  Even when they get reports of bullying or peer pressure, they tend to think it is at the same level as what they dealt with in High School.  Truthfully, most parents have no clue what their children deal with on a daily basis.  They don't know the pressure, the isolation, and the bullying that some children have to face day in and day out for hours a day.  They've forgotten how it felt to them, and aren't taking into account that things have gotten worse in the past few years in many ways.  Ask yourself, "Do You Really Know What Your Child Faces When They Walk the Hallways of their School?"

There are no easy answers, and the decision to homeschool should always be bathed in prayer.  Not every student has a horrible time in public school.   I pray for this girl, that if she must remain in the school, that she will find Christian friends and get some relief from the battles she has faced.  I also pray that, if God desires this girl to be homeschooled, that the decision be made clear for her mother and the path be made ready.  It's not always easy to stray from what everyone else is doing, from what you've always known.  It wasn't easy for us.  Yet, we pushed through and decided that we would follow the path God had chosen for us over what we had known growing up.