Wii U: Year Three

So I hope, one year from now, on November 18, 2015, to possess a system with more realized potential than I can dream.  Until then, there is hope.

Today kind of snuck up on me.  It wasn’t until about 11 am that I realized that three years ago today I bought my launch-day Wii U.  I suppose I’ve been listening to a bunch of Christmas (and Chanukah) music.

In any event, the italicized passage above is the end of my now-yearly review update of Nintendo’s system, the Wii U. I know when I wrote those words that it was quite likely that I would not return a year from then with a happy report.  Unfortunately, that was true.  That said, there is still quite a bit of hope for Nintendo.  So, as last year, let’s go through my recommendations for what Nintendo should do for their third year, and see what they did.

Lower the price

This is interesting.  While the console still sells for $299 as before, the available bundles do make it rather appealing.  It should also be noted that I suggested “a bundle with two or three games for $249” would look really appetizing.  Interestingly enough, most places have a Black Friday deal of a Wii U, Smash Bros., and Splatoon for, you guessed it, $249.99.

Cater to third parties

Well, this didn’t happen.  The closest thing to third-party support for Nintendo was Donkey Kong and Bowser in the newest Skylanders game.  No Assassin’s Creed, No EA games, no Star Wars: Battlefront.  Pretty much everything not made by Nintendo is EBWU (Everything But Wii U).

Embrace modern technology

While there are still no Nintendo games on the App Store, that doesn’t mean Nintendo is without mobile presence.  One of the most exciting things about Nintendo revealed this year (we’ll get to the other soon) was a mobile app partnership with DeNA.  The first fruits of this is Miitomo, a weird little conversation game that honestly looks awful.  However, I get the feeling that great things are in store for a Nintendo-DeNA partnership.

Effectively utilize amiibo

So this I would say they did pretty well on.  When I suggested this, there were a few Super Smash Bros. Amiibo on the horizon.  Now there are a number of Amiibo from games ranging from Smash Bros. to Splatoon, to Yoshi’s Wooly World to Animal Crossing.  Not only that, but this craze doesn’t seem to be stopping.  Nintendo hit it big with Amiibo, and while they haven’t capitalized 100%, you have to give them credit for how they have used these little toys.

Metroid

E3 2015 was, for Nintendo diehards, a travesty, and it can be perhaps most symbolized by Metroid.  Not by its absence, but rather its presence.  As I said last year, “Of all of Nintendo’s IPs, none are more suited to the HD world the Metroid.” So as we wait with bated breath for Metroid Prime 4, or something beautiful on Wii U, Nintendo announces a new Metroid game.  For 3DS. Where you can’t even play as the main protagonist, Samus Aran. The response was so negative that Nintendo actually apologized for what they had shown off, and a large petition arose demanding Nintendo cease production on the 3DS game and create a proper Wii U installment. 

Actually release Zelda (or not)

This clearly didn’t surprise me.  I have become accustomed to Zelda delays, and my established view is that when a new Zelda game is announced, push the date one year back and you’re good to go.  It was announced with a 2015 release date, and that has been moved to 2016.  Shocker.  Still, I am quite excited for it, and I hope it moves systems.

Announce a new system?

I suggested that they “announce a successor next year, and release it the following year in 2016”.  By far, the biggest news of the year for Nintendo fans, the same day they announced the Nintendo-DeNA partnership, they announced that they are making a new system, codenamed the Nintendo NX. What’s more, current rumor is that they are looking for a 2016 release.  Where’s my check?

Wii U: Fourth and final year?

Well, if the above rumors pan out, I may next year write my last yearly review of this wonder machine. So what can Nintendo do with this Wii U in this fourth, and possibly final year?

Lower the price

I said this last year, and I say it again.  $199 is the sweet spot for the Wii U.  Right now you have both PS4 and Xbox One at a mere $50 higher than the Wii U, and both of those come with games as well.  Why is it that such higher-powered systems are only marginally more expensive than the lower-powered Wii U, a system that has been out for a year longer?  There is no excuse.  A simple, core 32Gb Wii U for $199 would be exceptional.

Actually release Zelda for Wii U

They have reconfirmed a 2016 Wii U release for Zelda.  Both of these claims have been treated with suspicion.  There are many who see a 2017 release date for a game first shown off in 2014.  Beyond that, many think that Zelda will be either a standalone NX launch title, or that it will receive the Twilight Princess treatment.  By this I mean that just as Zelda: Twilight Princess had a dual release at the same time for the Nintendo GameCube and as a launch title for the Nintendo Wii, so many think that this new Zelda will be released both for Wii U and NX.

Cross-platform innovations

With DeNA as a launching pad for Nintendo into the mobile space, the time is right for some creative interplay between console, handheld, and phone.  How cool would it be for a DeNA game to work with Wii U games?  As an example, let’s say that Nintendo creates a universal currency that works between its games.  I would love to earn "N-Coins” while playing a Nintendo game on my iPhone during my break at work, only to come home, and use those N-Coins to buy Rupees or bombs in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD on my Wii U. Or, if I plan on getting an NX, I can start playing my Wii U, 3DS, and Mobile games to stockpile N-Coins for use on my NX games!  Essentially this is an expansion of the 3DS “Play Coins” aspect to be used universally between systems.

Well, this review must come to an end.  I am interested to see how Nintendo fares this upcoming year.  If all goes well, I’ll stop playing the New Zelda (maybe on my NX) to write next year’s review.  I don’t have much hope for the Wii U, but I have quite a bit of hope for Nintendo as a whole to regain enough credibility to make the NX a smashing success.

Once for All

Things weren't always this way.  There was a time when today would be marked with solemnity, not unbridled joy.  Fasting, not feasting. Blood, not remembrance. Symbolism, not reality.

Three thousand years ago, on this day, the High Priest entered into the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies, the Kadosh haKadoshim. He entered in, dressed in the clothes his ancestor Aaron wore, and he sacrificed in order to atone for the sins of his people. Surely he was not astute enough to realize that this didn't actually atone for anything.  How could the blood of bulls and goats and lambs cover for transgression against the infinitely righteous God? It could not.  But it could function as a symbol to point them towards a better sacrifice.

As he entered the Temple, thousands stood attentive, their hope resting on his ability to sacrifice. Hopefully he would not have a thought so sinful that God would smite him on the spot for his irreverence, as He had done earlier with Uzziah.  They sacrificed animals daily.  But today was different.  It was not just any day.  Today is Yom Kippur.  Today is the Day of Atonement. He walks out of the Temple, not to return to that room for another year. There is a collective sigh of relief, knowing that they are still God's Covenant people.

Almost two thousand years ago now, the High Priest of High Priests entered the Temple.  Within days He was beaten. He was spit on.  He walked to a hill, and there was put on a cross.  On that cross, all the sins of the elect, whether they be those watching the events unfold in front of Him, or those who waited outside the Temple year after year as the High Priest gave his symbolic sacrifice, or those today who trust in His work, we're finally and completely atoned for.  

Many today did not sleep last night. They were up all night studying the Torah.  They didn't brush their teeth.  They haven't eaten in well over half a day.  They stand in hope that their sins will be atoned for.  Today is Yom Kippur. Today is the Day of Atonement.

I woke up this morning, and ate breakfast.  I will not fast, but will feast.  I will feast because my sins past, present, and future have already been atoned for.  I rejoice because in the sacrifice of the Son of God I have rest, because son has been paid for once for all. Today is Yom Kippur.  Today is the Day of Atonement.

Changes and Announcements

I've wanted to write a blog for quite some time. During Purim this year, I took some time out of the day to write about it, and announced my intention to eventually write about two series, one on video games, and another on homeschooling and public schooling. I have now completed both of these, and I have a number of other topics I'd like to explore, such as Family Worship and the Sabbath.  

     Unfortunately, those will have to wait.  I am continuing my education this year, and these blog posts have taken all summer. Now I am back in school, and something like this simply isn't feasible to continue.  Moreover, if my plans succeed (and they will succeed or fail according to God's good providence), I will be in school the vast majority of the next two years, until I graduate with my Masters of Theological Studies, and so blog posting will be extremely scarce during this time.  So while I may post here and there, and maybe even a small series during my free time, the weekly pace I have established is over for the foreseeable future.

That said, I do have one more blog-related project in store.  While I appreciate the blog as a medium to explore my thoughts, and to make entire series' of posts, for some topics it is not ideal.  I believe my most recent series is one of those.  Therefore I have decided to collect all the posts in my series, "7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate your Child", and combine them into a booklet, renamed "Defying Caesar: Why the Government Shouldn't Teach your Kids".  I've edited the chapters to reflect the style of a booklet, and I've added an Epilogue dealing with homeschooling when both parents work.  It will be available both on Apple iBooks and Amazon Kindle for 99 cents.  I’d put it up for free, but Amazon requires at least that much, so I figure I’ll only charge a dollar.  I figure most who buy it will be buying it more to help me than to actually get their hands on the booklet, most of which is already available at this website for free.  I intended to release it next Friday, in keeping with my typical pattern, but in honor of September 11th falling on that day, I will delay its release to Saturday, September 12th.   I also intend on releasing it in print, but that will take longer.  The print edition will cost $5.99.

The link to the iBooks edition is currently inactive, but will activate automatically come September 12:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/defying-caesar/id1037082714?ls=1&mt=11

The Amazon page, by contrast, is already up here with the ability to pre-order the book.

While I know that this blog has extremely small readership, I truly do thank everyone who has taken time out of their week to read my thoughts, and I hope to continue this blog at some point in the future.

7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate your Child - Conclusion

For the past couple months, we have looked at a number of different arguments, both negatively against public schooling (and to a large extent, Christian schools) and positively for homeschooling.  Am I saying that homeschooling does not have problems?  Absolutely not!  In fact, most of these reasons can be applied to a poorly structured homeschool.  But to a biblically based, dynamic homeschool, these reasons provide major benefit against the public schools.  

I must stress what I did not talk about.  I spent extremely little time on content.  What I did talk about regarding content was the Christian base.  People can debate over whether or not Common Core is good for schools.  People can debate over whether or not the teaching of evolution and an old earth is good.  People fight to get intelligent design taught in schools as though that is justification for putting our children into schools.  It is not.  What is absolutely not debatable is whether or not Christ is exalted in the standard public school program.  He is not.  Thanks to Madelyn Murray O’Hair and the United States Supreme Court (Engel v. Vitale and Abington School District v. Schempp), school prayer and Bible reading has been outlawed since 1963.  Some will try to dodge the issue and say that students can pray (quietly) and read the Bible during class.  That is not the issue.  If the educators cannot educate children in religious matters, like modeling prayer and reading the Bible as inerrant, then the educators cannot properly educate.  The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline (Proverbs 1:7).

So how will you respond?  What compels you to send your children to the public schools?

     It is not because your children are to be a light in the schools, for it is not their job, and they are almost certainly ill-prepared for the task (Aside)

     It is not the education, for their education is corrupt (Reason #1)

     It is not because schools are time-efficient, because they are extremely inefficient (Reason #2)

     It is not because they are bigger, because they fall harder (Reason #3)

     It is not because it is free, because it isn’t (Reason #4)

     It is not because they are flexible, because they aren’t (Reason #5)

     It is not for the one-on-one interaction, because it simply isn’t present (Reason #6)

     It is not to get away from remedial education, because it is present every year (Reason #7)

So why?  Why do Christians pour their children into these places?  Why are these parents surprised when, after giving them 10 times as much secular education as they do religious education, they find out their children are secular?  

In almost every instance, these people put their children into the public schools because they simply haven’t thought about the issue.  They grew up in the public schools, and most, if not all, of their friends grew up in the public schools.  Their friends with older children put them in the public schools, and so when it comes time to decide how their children will be educated, the answer is clear.  For many of them, private Christian schooling is simply too expensive for consideration.  The idea of teaching them at home, or with a trusted homeschooling friend, simply doesn’t come up.

In the beginning I said that my target audience was not those whose kids are in high school.  If anything, my audience is the high schoolers themselves.  People who don’t yet have children, be they single or married.  People who have young children.  People who have only recently put their children in public schools.  There is still time!  When your child is 15, it is most likely too late.  To those whose children are older, I’m sorry.  I don’t mean that in a judging way.  I truly feel sorrow because even for those students who do stay in the church, they are absolutely affected.  I speak as one of them.  After my mother became informed on the reasons we decided to homeschool, she actually apologized to me for putting me in the public schools.  She can’t unmake that mistake, but she can (and has) supported us fully in homeschooling our children.  Perhaps that is a book for her to write.

As I conclude this series, I must make one other thing clear:  There is no absolute dichotomy here when it comes to salvation.  It is certainly possible for a child to go through 12-13 years of public schooling and exit a Christian, perhaps even a fairly strong Christian.  It is also possible for a child to be homeschooled through the most God-honoring, efficient, customized school program in existence, and exit without any love for God.  There are Daniels in the public school, and Judases in the homeschools.  But we can’t decide that public schooling is acceptable on the hope that our child will be a Daniel.  We can’t write off homeschooling because of the chance that our child will be a Judas.  Far and away the majority case is that you act as you have learned.  Will you learn the Fear of the Lord?  Or simply fear of man?

The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline. - Proverbs 1:7

7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate your Child - Reason #7

The final reason in this list against government education is perhaps most visible right now.  Kids are right now coming off of summer vacation and going back to school.  When it comes to the high school age and below, it is not often that you start new fields.  They do exist (and these new fields are exempt from this reason), but you only take maybe two per year at most, if at all.  What I mean by "new fields" are classes that you didn't take a previous iteration of them the semester before.  For example, shop class is a new field (at first).  So is Spanish I (but not Spanish II).  Most of the classes you take in high school are just more advanced versions of what you took in middle school, and even elementary school.  I took English all throughout my schooling, as I did Social Studies, Science, and Math.

For these core classes that you take year after year, schools typically waste about 2 weeks per year because of two words:

Summer.  Vacation.

Anyone who does any sort of independent learning knows extremely well how awful it is to spend 3 entire months without studying a subject.  You get rusty.  When I spend extended time away from Hebrew, I start to forget some of the morphology.  What that means is that when I go back to studying it, I have to delay learning new material, because I need remedial education just to get me back to where I was at before!

It is the same thing for math, or history, or science.  Teachers spend the first part of the school year going back over what they taught right before summer vacation.

What has homeschooling to do with this?  When we looked previously at how inflexible government schooling is time-wise (Reason #5), I mentioned that there was another facet to schools' inflexibility.  We now come to this facet, which is that schools have standardized summer vacation as a break.  It does not matter what your parents do for a living.  It does not matter if you are really interested in a subject.  We won't teach you.  Not now.  You'll have to wait until August, or study by yourself.

Some may defend Summer Vacation.  Some students will spend their time at a summer job.  Some students will spend their time reading ahead for next year's classes.  These are both valid points.  However, the problem is that most students will do absolutely nothing during their vacation.  Video games, TV, and gobs of Internet usage headlined my summer vacation, and I have reason to suspect that most kids do not veer far away from my itinerary.

Homeschooling allows us to break that awful chain.  Does that mean that our children never get any break, ever?  Not at all! We, as a homeschool, can (just as an example, this concept is entirely fluid) spend the summer months one week on, one week off.  We can take the last few weeks of August off, and then "start" school back up in at the beginning of September.  Birthdays?  Holidays?  Automatically off.  It allows us to enjoy the benefits of summer, while pushing forward in education, and removing that remedial section found in the public schools.

When I was a child, I thought like a child.  I reasoned like a child.  I thought that summer vacation was great. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.  I realized that summer vacation simply does more harm than good.

7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate Your Child - Reason #6

This reason, outside of the first one, may have the single greatest practical effect on the child.  In importance, I would rank this as #2 of these 7 reasons.

Simply put, in the public schools your child is one of many.  I don’t mean to insult any public school teachers, and I don’t mean to give the implication that they don’t care about their students.  Some homeschooling advocates seem to give off that impression, but I want to be clear that for the most part, teachers genuinely care about their students.  However, they get so many.  Your average third grade teacher almost certainly cares for the kids entrusted into their care.  But they only really get one good school year with each of those students.  How many elementary school teachers can remember the names of half of the class they taught 5 years ago?  3?  Last year?  As much as they can care for students, the simple fact is that most of those students they care for now, their care will fade into nothingness a decade from now.  Sure they will love to hear of what happened to them afterwards, but how many of them are praying for students they had 5 years ago?  The problem here isn’t with the teachers, it is with the system.  

Not only does the child move from teacher to teacher, but when they are in class, they are usually in a group of maybe 20 other children.  That means that one-on-one interaction is extremely limited.  Given the inefficiency explained in a previous post, the teacher simply does not have the time to give each and every child the opportunity to ask questions and effectively teach the lesson.  Also, every child in that classroom is different.  Some of the children are tracking very well with what the teacher is saying.  Some are bored because they already understand the material and are waiting for the teacher to tell them something they haven’t already heard.  And some are having great difficulty even keeping up with what the teacher said five minutes ago.  So why are these kids in the same class?  Because they are the same age, and are grouped into completely arbitrary units called ‘grades’.  If you are 11-12 years old, then you are in 6th grade (they used to hold children who were struggling back from advancing to the next grade, but now it is far more common to placate parents by advancing them anyway and giving them a title like “learning disabled”, and this is coming from one who spent years under such a title).  This also means that if you are in 6th grade, you are in 6th grade everything.  This creates the possibility that one could be at a 7th grade level in math, but a 5th grade level in science, leaving one bored in one class and outclassed in another.

Under such a system only the most gifted students are typically noticed.  The only other ways to be noticed in school is by a) being attractive, b) excelling at extracurricular activities, or c) acting out in defiance (this is negative attention, but most kids would rather have negative attention than no attention at all).  This leaves a good chunk of students falling through the cracks, and that is such a shame.  Teachers are aware of this, and try to push these “sheep children” up, but there is only so much that can be done under this system.

So what is the solution here?  The best solution is to homeschool them.  Under this system the child is being taught by someone who not only cares for them, but loves them deeply, and is more concerned about them than a schoolteacher will be.  The teacher will know the child’s gifts, and after a few years will know the best way to teach them.  Class sizes shrink from 20 to siblings (or perhaps a few more if the homeschooling parents are taking on extra children.  Obviously in that scenario some of these benefits are mitigated). That means that there is much more time to take more questions, and explain things in more depth and detail.

Is one child behind another?  Allow the excelling child to read ahead, while you slow down to the level of the struggling child, and help them understand what is being taught.  In public school, curriculum is decided by people who have never met the children in the room.  Homeschooling allows the curriculum to be shaped by each individual child’s needs and gifts.  Read those two sentences again.  That is seriously some potent stuff there.

Under this system grades can be scrapped altogether.  Or they can take on a much more fluid form, allowing one student to be in multiple grades simultaneously as each subject is taught to different levels.  Is one child gifted in chemistry, but another is gifted in geography?  The way classes are done can actually be changed to help those students foster a love for those subjects.  

Under such a system nobody falls through the cracks.   The teacher will not forget the student, but will care about them deeply, and will know the best way to teach them. And every student gets education tailor-made for their particular gifts and needs.

Which system do you like better?

7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate Your Child - Reason #5

Today’s post will be shorter than the others.  Not because this reason is less important, but I don’t feel like there would be much debate about this.

When I was in high school, classes started at 7:30 am.  I typically got to school at about 7:10 ish.  To get there on time, I was usually picked up at my bus stop at 6:40 am.  To get to my bus stop on time I had to wake up at about 6:00 am.  Believe it or not, but most school-aged kids simply aren’t very awake for their first class - and usually their second.  So why have it so early?  Since school is so inefficient (See Reason #2) you have to start pretty early to get kids home by 3 pm.  Parents work, kids go to school, then they reconvene at home and, unless sports, cheerleading, or videogames get in the way, perhaps the family can spend a few hours before its time for bed (unfortunately, this quality time is both shrinking, and being eroded by TV time where the family members don’t speak too much to one another outside of commercial breaks).

But what about the parents who don’t work 9-5?  If I worked 3-12am (as I often used to do) and my wife worked outside of the home (as she used to do) what is the public school going to do?  Nothing.  In that circumstance, I would be left forced to send away my children during the day.  Since someone would have to be around to take care of the kids later in the day, my wife would have to work during the day as well.  By the time I go to work, I’ve spent my day alone, and by the time I get home the house is asleep, the children having lived a functionally fatherless life.  

Homeschooling fixes this.  If I have the children with me, then even in this undesirable situation, at least the kids are spending time with Daddy.  We can do 3 hours worth of school, and the rest is play time.  When Mommy comes home, she does 3 hours worth of school, and the rest is play time.  The burden of school is shared between both parents, and the joy of fun is shared between both parents, even if (a mighty shame) the parent’s have little time together.

The point is that with homeschooling, the burden can be shared, and the schedule can be flexible.  I work Saturdays, but I get Thursdays off.  In public school my children would have to go to school Thursday.  Homeschooling allows us to, at the drop of a hat, give us the option either to allot me with teaching for that day, or to simply take the day off as a weekend day.  If I want to teach at night and enjoy the day together, I can.  If we agree to sleep in until 11 am and start at Noon, that is an option.  There is another major facet to this, but that will have to wait for a later post.

7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate Your Child - Reason #4

One of the biggest reasons I’ve read against homeschooling is that it is simply too expensive. And don’t get them started on private schools.  It’s much better to send children to the public schools, where the education is free.

That line of thinking annoys me.

Government education is never free.  The only difference is that they get their money from you in different ways.  The two that come straight to mind? Taxes and gambling.

We all are used to the concept of sales tax, but do we actually know how it is being used?  I’ve always figured it had some blend of healthcare, education, and fixing roads.  After doing some digging, it turns out there is a lot more to it.  I live in the St. Charles county of Missouri, and this is our tax rate: http://www.sccmo.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2388

It is difficult to read, but what is clear is that the vast majority of money from St. Charles taxes goes to the public schools.  This is in addition to Missouri’s own sales tax, which takes a full percent of whatever you are buying and taxes you to give it to the schools.  I am sure that there are other taxes I am not aware of that funnel into the education system, but note that this is standard fare in the U.S.  If you’ve just bought a $1,000 TV, then Congratulations!  You’ve just donated $10 to the public schools, and not necessarily with your knowledge or consent.  I don’t want to give off the impression that we shouldn’t give to good causes.  I just don’t like the idea of being forced to give to what I think is not a good cause.  Whether you use the public schools or not, you still have to pay for them.

Secondly is gambling.  Often known as a “tax on the stupid”, casinos and lotteries use education very well.  Often it is the case that a town does not want a casino.  Some casino company decides to try and convince that town otherwise.  With the help of pastors and others, the town maintains a firm resolve.  Then the casino reveals the ace up its sleeve.  The casino promises to donate massive amounts of money to the schools.  At this point the town is divided between people who “care about our children” and those who don’t.  Eventually the casino wins.  They act as though they get free money, when in fact the money that is donated to schools came from the down and out patrons who live in that very area, who lost their money to the allure of gambling.  It is truly shameful that the education system gets its money in this way.

So how much does it actually cost for the government to send a child through the public school?  It varies by state, and it varies by region within that state.  Missouri, for example (as of 2012) spent an average of $9,514. (Source: http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/01/29/how-states-are-spending-money-in-education)  New York, by contrast, spends over double that!

Let that number soak into your head.  9,514.  Nine Thousand, Five Hundred, and Fourteen.  You might think, “Well, that’s not too bad for 12 years of education.”  Wrong.  This is $9,514 per student, per year. 12 years of that means that by the time your child graduates high school, it cost Missouri $114,168. Your children have a huge economic footprint by simply being in the public schools.  And not only that, but people fight to spend more money on children, as though more money = better education.  It simply doesn’t.

The decision to homeschool isn’t a decision to start paying for school instead of getting free education.  The decision to homeschool is a decision to offload some of the burden from the economy and take it upon yourself.  It is being responsible.  It would be absolutely irresponsible of me to not pay my child’s medical bills, but rather expect others to pay it for me, even if they don’t want to (even if they have accepted that they have to pay it).  My child’s educational bills are no different.

So what does homeschooling look like, financially?  The HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) has found that the average homeschooling parent pays $900 per student, per year.  However, they acknowledge that the majority of homeschoolers pay significantly less than that (those who pay more are the type to buy special satellite classes and other expensive things).  It is probably more likely to say that parents spend about $200 per student, per year.  But for the sake of bigger and more verifiable numbers, we’ll use $900.  After 12 years, the parent will have spent $10,800.  This is only $1,300 more than what it would cost to public school that same child for first grade!  To homeschool a child is to spend over $100,000 less, on education that we have already seen is higher in quantity, and is centered in the reality of God’s universe, and not in the fictional story public schools like to weave.  Public schools simply cost too much money for the economy.  We, as parents, need to take on the load (and share it with those who are willing), not force it on the unwilling and unsuspecting.

7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate Your Child - Reason #3

If I’ve learned anything from watching boxing or UFC, it is that the bigger guy doesn’t always win.  Sometimes the game is won by speed, not strength.  True, the bigger guy has much more power, but all that power is useless if you cannot hit your opponent. Bigger is not always better.

This is true of corporations as well.  For example, I know a guy who owns a business.  He has a pretty up-to-date Mac, running the newest version of Mac OS X.  Most big corporations have just recently moved to 5-year-old software on 7-year-old machines, and only because Microsoft is leaving Windows XP behind. The reason is simple: it costs a lot less money to upgrade one computer than it does to upgrade 10,000.  Bigger is not always better.

This is also true of churches.  I know a pastor whose church has maybe 40-ish congregants.  However, the intimacy and connectedness between those congregants as a whole is greater than that found in megachurches.  Bigger is not always better.

Most people can see that.  However, many people do not even think for a moment to apply the same logic to education.  Homeschools can’t do what public schools can do, so they are inferior.  But this simply isn’t true.  The gains that public schools enjoy come at great costs (some of which we will defer to a later post). Today I just want to talk about the actual experience itself (One aspect of this I want to flesh out, and is important enough to warrant classification as a Reason).

Before I get started, I have to make an important disclaimer.  Trust me, I won’t do this often, but in this third Reason, it must be admitted that their are gains that the public school has that homeschools are very unlikely to have.  Most families don’t have 10 different instruments in their homes, or their own personal laboratory.  That said, much of the key laboratory equipment can be purchased somewhat inexpensively (especially if you shop thrifty).  There isn’t much outside of some special utensils, a microscope, and its equipment.  A telescope would be nice as well (something public schools don’t have, because class is never at night, something we’ll get to later).

Perhaps the best way to illustrate the difference between the public school experience and the homeschool experience is to talk about the different ways that they go about field trips.  The zoo is a great example, so we’ll use that.

Steps to a Public School Zoo trip:

     1. The idea comes before school management.  Whether it is one teacher’s idea, or the plan of a whole department, the first step is for the higher ups at the school (and district, if necessary) to decide that they want to pursue a possible zoo trip.  Of course, this must be done well in advance of the trip.

     2. Set a date and contact the zoo.  Since a large amount of students will be present, it is important to check with the zoo to make sure five different public schools aren’t planning the same trip on the same day.

     3. Send the forms. With a date set, it is now time to send release forms to students to bring to their parents in order to sign.  Once these forms have been collected (and any payment necessary procured), it is safe to proceed.

     3.5. Since children often lose forms, and parents sometimes delay, schools have to deal with late forms.  One can expect that the day before the trip the school will know everyone who is coming.

     4. Finally, we reach the day of the trip.  The school will have readied a bus, and, after getting all the children from home to the school, they are sent on to another bus to go to the zoo.

     5. Having reached the zoo, the children are organized to go into the zoo.  

     6. During the zoo trip, great care is taken to ensure that children are not lost.  As such, a specific, pre-approved pathway through the zoo is typically followed, giving each child little to no control over what is seen and when.

     7. When the trip comes to a close, the kids get back on the bus and wait to call roll, because the teachers can’t keep track of all of these kids all the time, and it would be terrible to lose a child.

     8. The bus comes back to school, and kids are either picked up by parents who have driven to school, or are shuttled back home via buses.

Steps to a Homeschool Zoo trip:

     1. Parents and children decide to go to the zoo.  This could be done well in advance of the trip, or even the night before.

     2. At this point, the next step is to decide the date according to what works best for the family.  Since a large-quantity trip is not in view, the zoo does not need to be notified.

     3. Before coming to the zoo, homeschool teaching is coordinated to relate to the zoo trip.  For example, if students are learning about Africa, then special worksheets and other material is prepared.

     4. The day of the trip, the family gathers in their vehicle and drives to the zoo.

     5. Once arriving at the zoo, the family enjoys the zoo and the students learn about African animals and whatever the family decides to view.

     6. After enjoying the zoo, the family returns home.

Both school trips go to the same place.  They could even go on the same day.  But the experiences are very different.  The public school experience separates kids from parents, and leaves the children to a pre-approved walkway.  Every child’s experience is relatively uniform.  This isn’t to say that it is not fun, or educational.  But it is standard, everyone relegated to a single-file line in order to maintain efficiency.  The homeschool trip stresses freedom, children having the capability to exert some influence over when to go see the turtles.  I would argue that from the child’s point of view, the homeschool experience is more enjoyable and educational.  From the parent’s point of view, the homeschool experience is definitely more enjoyable.

     While the large-scale format of the public school does provide some minor benefits, on the whole the smaller, more intimate, more fluid nature of the homeschool provides a better experience.

7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate Your Child - Reason #2

As I said in the beginning, from this point on, we are dealing with minor reasons for homeschooling (all these reasons apply to Christian schools as well as government public schools).  So keep in mind that if they seem like minor things, it is because they are.  That said, they do add up.

This reason will use a lot of math, so be prepared.

The second reason I have is that these schools are incredibly time-inefficient.  At the end of the day, it takes longer for schools to do less.  We see this both within the individual classroom, as well as the standard class day as a whole.

        One note: For the sake of comparison, I am treating homeschooling as though it is lecture-style.  While it certainly does contain lectures, homeschooling is much more flexible (to which we will return).

        Let's think about the average classroom.  Each class is given one hour.  But anyone who has attended a public school class knows that all of that hour is not learning new material. Before and after class, a number of time-consuming activities occur.

        5 minutes typically pass before the class settles down enough to actually teach.

        Another 5 minutes is usually taken up to take class roll.

        Another 5 minutes are usually taken as recap for previous lessons.

        Finally, after the lesson is done, it takes 10 minutes to go from one class to another before the whole cycle starts over again.

        If you subtract all that time from the hour designated for learning, only 35 minutes of that class time is spent learning new material. That is scarcely over half! How is that not extremely inefficient?

       Compare this with a lecture-style homeschool class.

          With less children in the room, it takes less time for kids to settle down, but we’ll still give 5 minutes just to be conservative.

          No time is needed to take roll because the teacher knows all the students extremely well (being their parent, and all).

          We’ll still give 5 minutes to recap previous lessons.

          After the lesson is done (again, presuming that you’d even be taking another class immediately after the first one), since the class would be in the same room in a much smaller building, all that is really needed is 5 minutes for a bathroom break.

          Subtracting all that, you are left with 45 minutes learning new material.  At face value, that seems like a small gain, only 10 minutes.  But after four classes, you would have accumulated 40 minutes of extra teaching time, more than the functional time of one public school class!  Time-wise, teaching four homeschool classes has the value of teaching five public school classes.

     Having looked at the individual class, let’s look at the child’s schedule at school.  Again, we will limit homeschooling’s flexibility for the sake of comparison.

          Typically, a high school student has about 6 classes per day.

          We have seen from above that since only 35 minutes of each hour is allotted for learning new material, the 6 hours spent at school boil down to 3.5 hours of new learning.

          Add in an hour for lunch.

          Remember, children don’t teleport to school; most often, they take the school bus.  I lived at the absolute edge of my school district’s zone, and it took me about 30 minutes to get to school.  I think, then, it is fair to say that 15 minutes of driving time is a reasonable average.

Adding everything together, let’s set a hypothetical itinerary for a child, from the moment they step out the door to the moment they walk back in.

Child wakes up at 6:15 am.

Gets ready for school, and leaves the house at 7:00 am

5 minutes waiting for bus

15 minutes bus travel

10 minutes to get off bus and get to class

7:30-2:30 School time+ lunch

10 minutes to get on bus

15 minutes bus travel 

Leaves house at 7:00 am, gets home at 2:55 pm

Just shy of 8 hours to get 3.5 hours worth of education.

That's less than half!

How does homeschooling fare?

Each class takes an hour to get 45 minutes of learning.

Total that is 4.5 hours of learning.

30 minutes for lunch, because you aren’t feeding hundreds.

6.5 hours of total time.

No need to get on or off the bus, because you live at school!

An itinerary for homeschooling can go like this:

     Child wakes up at 7:15 am.

     8-2:30 school time + lunch

     2:30+ is non-school time.

The homeschooling child gets up an hour later, gets done 25 minutes earlier, and gets an entire hour more time of learning new material than the public school child!

While an hour seems like a small gain, let us look at a week, and a month, to compare.

The public school child spends about 45 hours of time in a week to get 17.5 hours of learning.  The homeschool child spends about 32.5 hours to get 22.5 hours of learning.

The public school child spends about 160 hours of time in a month to get 70 hours of learning.  The homeschool child spends about 130 hours to get 90 hours of learning.

Put another way, in order to get 100 hours of new learning time, it will take the child enrolled in public school 28.5 school days.  The child who is homeschooled will need only 22.2 days to get the same 100 hours of new learning time.  In other words, the homeschool child could take an entire week off for no reason and still beat the public school child to 100 hours of new learning time.

Public schooling simply is not efficient.

7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate Your Child - Reason #1

Reason #1 - Public Schools are not grounded in a biblical worldview

      "Every Christian parent is obligated to give their children a Christian education." - Voddie Baucham

        If nothing else, the fact that our public schools are banned from giving our children a Christian education should be the clearest sign that it is not a place where our children belong  (For more information, research the ESEA adopted in 1965).  Unfortunately, many Christian parents do not even think about whether or not God's Word might shed light on the issue.  Let us now look at three passages, one concerning the sphere of Christian living, one concerning the origin of knowledge, and one concerning the purpose of Creation.

       First, we'll look at Deuteronomy 6:4-9.  This is known by many as the Shema (Shema is Hebrew for "Listen", the first word in this section).

      Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, all pasages HCSB)

      Typically when we hear this, we hear it in the sense that it is important to worship as a family, and that is absolutely the case.  However, let's move from the perspective of the parent, to the child's perspective.  The child is being told constantly about the Lord and His works.  Wherever he is, correct beliefs follow him, from the bed to the gate to the road. While this doesn't mean that we have to paint laws on our doorposts, the real command is to make sure that our children are raised not with occasional Christianity, but absolutely drenched in it.  If you can find any event done frequently by you or your family that does not showcase Christ in His glory, you should take greatly question whether or not you should take part in it.

                Next, we'll look at Proverbs 1:7.

                The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline. (Proverbs 1:7)

                

         This passage is not insignificant; in fact, a number of scholars think this to be the key verse of the entire book of Proverbs! To understand this passage, we must understand the phrases used.  We will look at each one in turn.

         We will first take a quick look at the phrase “the Fear of the Lord”.  When people first think of the word ‘fear’, typically negative images come to mind.  We don’t typically think of ‘fearing’ puppies.  But the word fear used here is  יִרְאָה (“Yirah”), and is, with little exception, used exclusively in reference to God.  At any rate, the meaning here is not so much to be “wet-your-pants” terrified as it is to give reverence.  No English word really contains all the meaning packed into this Hebrew word, but the two words that come closest are fear and awe.  Perhaps it would be helpful to think of this as the Awe of the Lord as well as the Fear of the Lord. So this Fear (or Awe) of the Lord is an intense understanding of just how glorious and powerful God really is.  How this fits into this passage will be observed after tending to the next phrase.

        We look next at the phrase “the beginning of knowledge”.  What does it mean for something to be the beginning of something? This isn’t a phrase that we use today, but a good synonym is foundation (or perhaps the core).  In other words, for A to be the beginning of B means that A is the foundation upon which B exists.

         Putting these two together, we see that the the reverential, fearful awe of God is the foundation upon which knowledge itself is grounded.  Anyone who has built a house (or played Jenga, for that matter) knows how important it is to keep something important on a firm foundation.

               Finally, we turn to the New Testament letter of Paul to the Colossians.  In one of the greatest passages of the entire Bible, Paul lays down the greatness of Jesus Christ, and he explains that Jesus is the Agent of Creation in Colossians 1:16:

For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him and for Him. (Colossians 1:16)

               As beautiful as that description is, I want to turn your attention to the very end of it, “all things have been created through Him and for Him.” Think about that.  Everything that exists exists for Jesus Christ.  The universe’s very structure and order (science, math) exists for Jesus Christ.  The earth’s land, its animals, its plants, and its people (history, law, literature) exist for Jesus Christ.  If the purpose of everything is Jesus as Θεός (“Theos”, God), then everything is inherently theological.

How public schools fail

     If we put all three of these verses together, we see that secular education is simply inadequate.  While we could probe into more areas, I will instead make the following observations:

     In public schools today, Jesus is not allowed the prime place.  Even if someone tried, you know the ACLU would be there in a flash to “restore order and non-sectarianism”.  Could you even imagine a government public school that has, right in its logo, “The Fear of the Lord is beginning of knowledge”?  Of course not!  In school, Darwinism is king, and I’m not just talking about in the science class.  

     If the views of evolution and cosmology found in the science class is true (as is assumed), then math is not the discovery of the incredible order integrated perfectly in God’s creation.  Rather, it is simply a series of dry facts.  The universe came about haphazardly, and math is simply a byproduct of randomness.  History is not the providence of God, carefully guided to His ends, but rather entirely man-centered.  It is considered in schools far better to read manuals to prepare students for jobs than to read Romans to prepare students for a life of Kingdom ministry.

    At this point, I have to take an aside to make a clear distinction.  I am attacking the public school as a system.  I am not attacking Christian teachers in these places.  As I’ve explained in the previous post, it is not the place for Christian kids (or kids from Christian homes) to take on public schools.  However, for the established Christian who is an educator in the public school system, I encourage you to use your position to be a positive influence in the lives of children.  Unfortunately, for most students, one teacher will not accomplish much.  But for some students, whose lives are in great turmoil at home and at school, one Christian teacher may be the stable rock that will help that child find the Rock of Ages.  

          The problem is that sometimes people make the argument that some teachers are Christians, and therefore the public school system as a whole is justified.  This simply is not the case. Can a Christian teacher pray for her students in class?  Absolutely.  But absolutely silently.  The Christian teacher will not model prayer for her students, and so even when Christianity finds its way into the system, it is only limited.  Christian social studies teachers do not have carte blanche freedom over the curriculum.  If he speaks the truth about Christian sexual morality, it will not go unnoticed.  He will be silent, or he will be silenced. I pray it be the latter.

Where homeschools can succeed

     Where the public school fails miserably, the home school (and the high quality, private Christian schools) can succeed.

        Firm Christian theology taught freely

               Christian parents need not fear their jobs by teaching their children Christian principles (at least for now).  No government public school would put on their logo “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”.  Below is our homeschool’s logo:

     As you can see, the children taught here are taught God’s Word, and they are taught God’s Laws, completely unashamedly.  A thorough Christian education can be found in a Christian homeschool in a way that simply cannot be found in a public school.  For example, every teacher can pray to God reverently before, during, and/or after every class, something that simply cannot happen in the government schools. As we have seen in the above Scriptures, we have an obligation to give our children an education that shows that everything is for Christ, and a homeschool is capable of providing that to them.  I do not need to speak much about homeschooling, simply because the problems with government schooling is fundamentally a problem with government intrusion and regulation, something that homeschooling, as a whole, does not have to deal with. 

This is the most important reason.  Whatever else I write over the next couple months, the simple fact is that my children need to be taught about the world from a Christian perspective, and that will simply not happen.  Whether it is evolution, sex education, or history, the world’s views are very different from Christ’s view.  How dare I let the world’s views be the main education my children receive.