Quit or Carry On? Quitting (Part 10)
Actually, there are no good reasons for quitting. Well, I wish this were true, but it isn’t. Sometimes life has a way of throwing things at us that require major shifts in plans, if not paradigm changes to our lives.
We started this series with reasons for not quitting, the biggest being that we, as followers of Christ, are not really given the option to quit, that is, if obedience matters.
We then went on to discuss how (grand)parents, church, family and children can all play roles in convincing us to lose our resolve to home educate and send our children back to the very system we originally intended to escape.
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Your Quitting Is Not My Fault! Quitting (Part 9)
I received an interesting email the other day from a former student who must have been struggling with decisions he had made. In a half-hearted attempt at justifying his case or cause, he had come to question a number of things associated with our past relationship.
While I am not at liberty to discuss the issue raised in this communication, I do believe my response contains thoughts that everyone should consider.
Here goes!
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Quitting Due to Burnout: Quitting (Part 8)
One of my greatest disappointments is when I see parents lose their resolve to home educate and send their children to school. I keep thinking that I could have done better, that maybe I should have been able to see this coming and to have done something to avoid this catastrophe.
I have been advising families for a long time and I know that once families decide to quit home educating it is nearly impossible to convince them otherwise. Still, and against my better judgement, I usually feel the need to do something out of my Christian conviction to love my neighbour even though I risk wasting my time and more by attempting to clearly explain how their decision to quit is in error.
The following is what I wrote to such a family in response to their letter informing me of their decision to send their children to school after many years of having home educated them from the start. I hope you can glean some pearls of wisdom from what I wrote:
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Pressured by Parents to Quit – Part 4: Quitting (Part 7)
Since this is the final part in a continuous series, I highly recommend that if you have not yet viewed the first three parts of this series, that you do so before proceeding.
GP – Third, there are standard tests given by a third party at the end of the school year to determine if the child has met provincial standards. “Boy” deserves to be taught to the standard and we think you need to have some accountability to someone.
LG – Yes, “Boy” deserves to be taught to a standard, but whose standard are we using? The absence of true standards is the best kept secret of the entire education industry. They cannot exist. How can we standardize people?
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Pressured by Parents to Quit – Part 3: Quitting (Part 6)
This week we continue to “evaluate” a stereotypical letter from loving (grand)parents to new home educators. To put this into perspective, this young family is not only the eldest in the (grand)parents’ family but also the first to make the decision to home educate. Although it may be difficult to see, both parties share a Christian worldview.
Since this is the third part in a continuous series, I highly recommend that if you have not yet viewed the first two parts of this series, that you do so before proceeding.
Continue reading “Pressured by Parents to Quit – Part 3: Quitting (Part 6)”
Pressured by Parents to Quit – Part 2: Quitting (Part 5)
With permission and protective of privacy, I would like to share and comment on a letter received by a young family from their loving (grand)parents.
Please bear in mind that these (grand)parents are very sincere in their concerns and likely had no bad intentions in writing this note, even if displaying a profound ignorance of home education. It is equally important to understand that both parties claim a Christian worldview.
Note: Since the letter provides three main concerns, I have decided to break it up into three parts to be addressed over the next three weeks.
Continue reading “Pressured by Parents to Quit – Part 2: Quitting (Part 5)”
Pressured by Parents to Quit – Part 1: Quitting (Part 4)
One of the biggest disappointments in life is when either parents or children fail. There are innumerable stories of how parents have failed children. In many ways, most of us feel a bit cheated by our own personal upbringing. Even the best parents fail, you know, because everybody falls short of perfection.
Children can also be a real source of heartache for parents. In fact, I doubt that there has ever been a child who has not disappointed his/her parents at some point, because children, like parents, also fall short of perfection.
It should be obvious that the closer the relationship, the greater the possibility for disappointment and since there is no closer relationship than the parent-child one, everyone will experience disappointment, regardless of the age of those involved. This goes both ways and involves both positive and negative traits and recollections.
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Pressure by Others To Quit: Quitting (Part 3)
Our years of experience in home education have seen a lot of very positive results and, unfortunately, a few wrecks and failures as well. It is hard to pin point a single reason for parents giving up on home education as each situation is as unique as the family involved.
However, there are some things that can be identified as fairly common reasons for doing so. This series will be addressing a few of these reasons.
The objective of talking about home education failures is obviously not to celebrate them, but to discuss why this happens, in order to avoid following the pattern. Everyone should pay attention to this as there are none who are 100% immune to falling into one or more of these traps.
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Quitting Due To Pressure From Children: Quitting (Part 2)
The easiest thing to do is to just quit. Walk away. Abandon the event. Turn away from the problem. Although that may be the best way to remove yourself from an unpleasant situation where you are not part of the problem or the solution, it is usually not the best option most of the time. Needless to say, it takes zero courage to simply give up and quit.
No matter what you may be engaged in, you can count on being challenged. In fact, it may at times seem like the only thing that comes easily is trouble! Trust me, from my aging perspective, I cannot remember not having problems as an integral part of my life. If I thought life would get easier, I was either deluded or I was fed a lie or I wasn’t listening to my elders who undoubtedly warned me that things would not get easier with age!
Problems are a part of life. That is hardly front page news. The big news is not that problems will come but the way in which they do. If we could predict with certainty how and when they would come, we would be prepared to either avoid them or to take them on, but problems are rarely predictable.
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