Christian homeschooling: Why parents shouldn't send their children to school

Many parents think it is commonsense - children should be in school. This is a common attitude amongst American parents. Most American parents send their children to school. In recent years, more children's rights attention goes to paddling in schools. However, I am opposed to any punishment or consequence for violating the student code of conduct in a school. I am also opposed to all schooltime curfews.

The reason to avoid sending your child to school is written in the Bible. See Colossians 3:21 KJV:

Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offenses, namely the slightest of personal offense perceived by a child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by a child, stemming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including, but not limited to, any punishments, reprimands, or other controlling demeanor toward children. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children one last time. Parents who punished their children were charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined under the Law as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen in biblical times as holding your child hostage merely for things that they did wrong, thereby treating them as a quartered slave. Paul here was lifting up the Law in order to convict a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child in his secular writings. Paul may not have gotten along with the women of the church, but he sure loved children, and even took in a few orphaned children during his time. Indeed, in Greek schools, teachers got out the scourge of cords - but Christian parents did not send their children to school, instead homeschooling them.

Today, under the English common law, a schoolteacher or school principal is a parent in loco parentis. That means, in legal English, that schools act in place of the parents. Thus, they have the same moral responsibility towards non-violence that parents have. In the Early Church, no good parent sent their child to school, and if they did, they were excommunicated for putting their children in danger.

Punishment, today, is the staple of school. Most all schools, apart from democratic schools, employ punishment as a means of social control in schools. There is simply no divorcing punishment from school. Schools punish, and many schools around the country employ the paddle to control their student bodies. In 47 states, corporal punishment is permitted in some school environments, with most states allowing for corporal punishment in private schools, and 19 states allowing for corporal punishment in public schools. Only Iowa, Maryland, and New Jersey ban corporal punishment in all settings. The Keeping All Students Safe Act prohibits all forms of seclusion and restraint in schools, but stops short of banning corporal punishment or other forms of punishment in schools.

How do you keep your child safe from punishment? Ideally, you shouldn't send them to school  Find a homeschool regimen that works for your child, and encourages the natural curiosity of children. I myself learned very little from school, with me being self-educated from an early age, teaching myself how to read by age 2. My autism simply prevents me from applying that knowledge that I harbor.

If you do need to send your children to school, for whatever reason, be there for them when you get home. Sending young children to kindergarten could, in and of itself, be an attachment injury. Here in Pennsylvania, children do not have to go to school until age 8, and school younger than that age is not compulsory. Most states have similar laws. An attachment injury comes from perceived abuse by the child that is unavoidable. 

Teachers will automatically be able to spot gently parented children - they will see signs of separation anxiety. What schoolteachers should do is reassure the child every so often by pointing out when school will be over. Use a warm, inviting tone of voice. Ideally, children should be kept away from schools, but if you do send them, wait until age 8 or so. If you already have them enrolled before then, you made a huge mistake, and thus you need to atone before the Lord for provoking your child to anger.

If a child wants to go to school, it should come as a natural consequence, meaning once they get cold feet, bring them back home for some homeschooling. Chances are, a child might idealize school, then be shocked by the brutality of the punishment meted out by school principals and schoolteachers. If they truly enjoy school, which is possible, keep them there, and disregard my homeschooling advice. Every child is different, but no child deserves punishment, including in a school environment.

I myself has behavioral issues as a child, and I wish I was homeschooled. I was struggling with bipolar disorder as a child. One of the more humane strategies tried was sending me home on medical grounds, meaning evidence of a psychiatric disorder. Homeschooling provides a slower pace of life for a child, and I needed that slow pace of life badly. I didn't get better until I was prescribed medication, meaning I was completely out of control, in a way that no school in our society is designed for. A child with bipolar disorder is completely incapable of moral internalization until AFTER they are medicated. Medication made me feel better, not worse, and when we tried once lowering the dosage, I wanted it raised right back up because I felt out of sorts. Childhood bipolar disorder should be caught as early as possible. I was 15 when I was prescribed lithium carbonate, and that opened me up to the Holy Spirit. 

Children with behavioral issues are most at risk for child abuse. Most people don't know this, but this is the fact. Most adults are only nice to "nice" and "easygoing" children, losing their patience with any child who doesn't listen to or comply with instructions. More "naughty" children seem to elicit an entitled and controlling response in children. Some teachers that I had figured that out on their own, and they happened to be gentle parents. Most adults extended to me by my parents were abusive. Some schoolteachers weren't abusive, apart from maybe getting the police involved, which the teacher in question does regret. I support a method known as classroom evacuation, as that is the most humane way to deal with a schoolchild who flips tables. I could be that child, growing up. They presumably have more pressing needs than the rest of the students, and so more attention should be paid to them.

I really didn't belong in any school setting - I was too disruptive. When you warehouse children like that, you are bound to have fights and frays. In modern Israel, as well as many European countries, chronically disruptive children are given homeschool instruction, and that is because they don't fit in anywhere else. It is seen as cutting an overburdened child a break.

The depraved and entitled parents who extend punitive adults to their children will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be cast forever into the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Repent!