Homeschooling their kids for religious reasons?

Question

I'm just simply curious....

I'm curious of why the reasons you homeschool or are homeschooled for that reason (If that is the reason)?

Is it because of evolution? Because of no prayer in school? (Please, no answers which intail "I homeschool them because the public school system has failed")

Or simply the fact that you don't want your kids to be exposed the the world of other religions? And to have your kids indoctrinated strictly into a certain belief?

Would you let, and understand, and respect your kids beliefs now? If they didn't agree with Christianity? And believe in evolution? Ect?

I'm just curious of everyones opinion on this subject....

Thanks....

=)

Answer 1

I homeschool my kids because I believe that school is simply unnecessary.  We have better things to do with our time.

:D

Answer 2

I began homeschooling my son (now a 2nd grader) at the beginning of his first grade year, because he complained of boredom in one of the better magnet public elementary schools here in my city.  Later, I had him evaluated, and he tested as "cognitively gifted," along with some challenges.  Our neighborhood public school told me that they had nothing for my son at his level; the counselor said the school is a "struggling school" where most of the children are having difficulty with working on grade level whereas my son tested at or way beyond grade level in everything.

My son, at the age of 8, questions me about lots of things and has already shown me he is a thinking, questioning, intelligent, intellectual young boy.  I do respect and understand his beliefs.  Right now, he keeps talking about how much monkeys, apes, etc. look so much like humans, and how much they act like humans.  We have had numerous discussions regarding this.

I homeschool, because I believe it is the best way for my son to obtain what he needs, follow his own interests, learn about the many things that they can only touch upon in school, etc. and accelerate at his own pace.

Answer 3

My wife and I homeschool our daughter and neither of us are Christian. We chose to do this on the following grounds:

1. We wanted to spend more time with her.

2. The school district we are in has no resources for gifted or ADD children of her grade level, and our daughter falls into both categories.

3. We live in Florida, which is a "Red" state that is firmly in the "Bible Belt" and we wanted to make sure that she was taught from a scientific perspective, not a faith based one.

4. We honestly feel that we can do a much better job than the schools in our area.

5. We want her to develop a love of learning and encourage her natural curiosity.

6. We want her to learn and understand, and not just have to memorize data for the FCAT, which is Florida's standardized test that decides how much money schools get each year.

Answer 4

i was home schooled all my life and i pretty much educated myself. i disagree with my parents on a lot of things.

Answer 5

Only a small part of the reason I home school is for our faith. No i don't believe in evolution but I will teach it because my children need to know about that crock of BS!

I would like to see prayer in public school. Isn't it funny that when the government said no prayer the school started becoming really bad?

Last year we started home schooling and one of our books was Windows on the World. It is a book about different cultures and what they believe so no I don't have a problem with my children being exposed to other faiths. I have a problem with those other faiths being forced down my children's throats.

I have a problem with children in second grade being taught that homosexuality is normal and good. Don't believe me?  http://www.missionamerica.com/agenda.php... check this out.

You talk about indoctrinating our kids but I happen to think its the public system that is indoctrinating. After all home schooled kids usually learn that their are at least 2 theories as to how life began. Public schools only teach evolution and is you don't believe it then your dumb. They don't give you a choice as what to believe. If my kids grow up to believe that evolution is right then OK I'll respect them and pray for them after all they are my children and I love them but when you are presented with more than one choice at least you can decide what to believe!

Answer 6

We homeschool and it has nothing to do with religion.

They all know about evolution, even the 4yo.

We don't believe in public prayer (Matthew 6:6)

They have been to temples and mosques and are free to make their own choices.

They are not indoctrinated to anything but compassion and respect for everyone on the planet.

I do respect my children, completely. So much that I listened to their frustration and anger with public schools and pulled them out. So much that we are radical unschoolers so that they *can* choose their own life paths, in regards to education, religion, diet, etc.

It sounds like you are working on some indoctrination of your own. Because most homeschoolers are not doing it to maintain religious control on their children.

Answer 7

A lot of people I've come across do it because they feel that public school policies are geared toward secular, and often "immoral" practices, and that they feel their children should not be subjected to such confusion about what their faith teaches and what actually goes on at such a young age.

If you ask me, its better to train your kids up in your faith to the best of your ability and then send them off to public school, because kids need the social diversity. They need to realize that their beliefs and practices are not the only ones out there.

Besides, faith isn't real unless its been tested.

I believe that parents should be given the right to decide how to educate their children, and as long as those kids are being educated well and to standards, then I have no qualms with that side of homeschooling. When it gets really hairy is when parents refuse to allow social interactions for fear of "contamination of ideas", or some other c**p, and the kid winds up screwed up. I know a kid like this, and it ain't pretty. The kid has no understanding of sarcasm or abstract thought(everything has to be put in literal, true terms for him - you can't say, for example, "gah, everybody hates me" and mean that certain people are being pissy towards you, because he won't get it). That's tantamount to child abuse to me.

Answer 8

I am Christian, as are my husband and son.  And yes, I do homeschool him because our school system sucks rocks, to put it lightly.  Our district has a 20-30% dropout rate annually, and my 10yo is doing a higher level math than the 9th and 10th graders at the high school next to our subdivision.  (They sure do have a great football team, though, gotta give them that.)

However, he is exposed to Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, humanism, atheism, and every other kind of "ism" out there - and can explain most of them more succinctly than many adults.  He also is well versed in both creation and evolution, and enjoys discussing them with professors at the university my MIL works for.

If he chose, down the line, to believe something other than he does now, I would still love and respect him.  He's my son!  I wouldn't agree with him (and he wouldn't expect me to), but his beliefs have no bearing on my love and respect for him.

Answer 9

You seem to suffer from a misperception that all homeschoolers do it for the same reason.

In fact, there are quite a few reasons that people choose to homeschool.  Some of the reasons I've found--from homschoolers themselves or from accounts in the media--were:

--Religious isolationists, as you suggest

--Quality

--Political ideology (extreme right- and left-wing)

--Isolation (central Alaska, for example)

--Special needs

--Racism

--Parents who are abusing their children who don't want the public school teacher to report suspicions

--Children with careers (e.g. entertainers)

--Neglectful parents who can't be bothered to get students to a public school early in the morning

Note: there are no clean statistics on the relative prevalence of these motives among homeschoolers, and in some cases multiple ones apply (for example, the polygamists in rural Utah who are equally motivated by religious intolerance, racism, and child abuse).  But it's my considered opinion that the over-riding majority of homeschoolers are doing it for reasons of quality or special needs--two entirely positive and logical reasons for wanting to do it.

Answer 10

You are just ignorant.  religion has nothing to do with it.  Homeschooling just gives a better education and thats why parents do it with their kids.  Why is your name "the intellectual"?  you should change it to "the ignoramus"

Answer 11

The really religious people who homeschool would be just as rigid if they sent their kids to school.

For example, I'm homeschooled. My curfew is 10:30, I have a boyfriend, I basically make my own schedule, and I can wear whatever I want. Granted I'm not in to showing a lot of skin, but my point stands.

I know a kid who went to Catholic school whose parents were draconian beyond belief. She couldn't even get a haircut because long hair is what's desirable in a Catholic Albanian bride. F***ed up much?

Christian parents will most likely have Christian kids.

Also, since most people are religious and all homeschoolers are people, it stands to reason that most homeschoolers would be religious.

I'm atheist, so maybe this answer was just pointless. If it was, sorry, it's 1:20 AM over here.

Answer 12

I'm in the UK and originally my husband and I started home educating our youngest son because he was having problems in school due to his mild autism but 8 years on we can see that as Christians it is the best thing we could have done for our children (we have both at home now!).

It isn't just a 'religious' thing (most of our reasons for keeping them home are now due to us being Christians) but the education system here is going down hill quickly! I think that trying to appease everyone doesn't help - the PC culture is in our schools.

I went to a state school (public school if you're American) and I picked up all the swear words I used to use from my friends, all the dirty jokes I picked up from them etc and neither my husband nor I want our children to be surrounded by such filth! They were given to us for us to protect them! We don't isolate them from non home schooled children so they do mix with other children outside of school hours!

We believe that Salvation is of the Lord - we [as in all humans] can do nothing at all to gain it  so if our sons don't become Christians and turn their back on Christianity then so long as we have done our part - it is up to God to move them to Him! They will still be loved by us!

I don't know if this answered your question or not!

Answer 13

My husband and I are both what I'd consider to be conservative Christians (Baptist), but we both live in the modern world....sort of.  He's a CPA and I was a museum curator with a Master's before I came home to raise our adopted daughter. We live on a small farm where we raise adorable goats and draft horses.

This is not to put down the dedicated PS teachers out there, I really respect them and their hard work,  but we never even considered sending our little girl to PS. Both of us were educated primarily at private schools in elem. and middle school and I went to a boarding school for the gifted in late HS. Both of us then went to private colleges. Like it or not, most of the people I knew both at boarding school (the Louisiana School for Math, Sci, and the Arts- a public boarding school) and in college were either out of parochial school, private school or a public magnet school. In our experience, the public schools in our area simply don't offer a high-quality education.

What PS does offer is:

       1) teaching that violates our religious beliefs

       2) an often dangerous environment

       3) a culture that promotes sports and s*x rather than learning

       4) a "survival-of-the-fittest" environment where the stronger and older students are often allowed to bully the weaker

       5) physical, sexual and emotional abuse that would not be tolerated in any modern U.S. business environment.

       6) an often impersonal atmosphere where a child feels like a number rather than a person.

       7) a laboratory for human guinea pigs (the students) to try out new educational theories (like the wonderful "New Math").

       8) a means by which children can be removed from their parents' influence and indoctrinated with whatever message is politically correct at the moment (or which ever one is pushed by the most influential special-interest group) or which ever "culture" is popular du jour.

       9) a place where Christianity is often ignored even in history and holidays. I'm sorry, Christianity is part of America's culture and has to be recognized. If you went to live in Japan, you wouldn't expect them to completely do away with their traditional religion simply because you didn't practice Buddhism or Shintoism. That would be ludicrous and offensive. My Christian culture is just as important for my child to learn as other cultures around the world.....I often wonder if the Christian children in some PS will have any culture at all. They won't know a lot about their own culture, for sure.  I've seen more on children's television about Chinese New Year than I saw about Christmas.

This is why we don't send our child to public school: it offers neither a good moral foundation for life NOR a great education.

As far as being exposed to world religions....she's going to be exposed to them at some point. Very few people keep there children in boxes or closets. As far as I know, it's illegal in most states. (LOL)  As for her, her mother was of Muslim heritage (she's from a minority group in Russia), so she'll learn about that as well as about the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church as she grows older. We have Orthodox icons all over our house and we're trying to find artifacts from her nomadic tribe.

I believe in what my religion teaches. I'm not a "cultural Christian." If I didn't believe in Christianity I wouldn't be a Christian nor would my husband. He wasn't raised in the church, and I was exposed to many different religions in boarding school. She'll also have to deal with evolution...even many Christian colleges teach that.

I believe that Christianity has helped me in my life, and I want to pass that along to my daughter in the same way that I want to pass along other beneficial life skills and knowledge to her. Once again, Christianity is our family's religion of choice. I guess I'm indoctrinating her to Christianity in just the same way that I'm indoctrinating her to serve baked potatoes with steak, to not wear white hose until after Easter, to say "Yes, Ma'am", and to get on a horse from the left-hand side.

Right now she's five years old and isn't able to make an informed decision about very much....if life was up to her she'd live entirely off peanut butter sandwiches and spend most of her time outside in the dirt with the goats. If it were up to her, she'd go swimming right now, no matter how cold it is, and she'd play and wander around the house all night long.  She believes in Santa Claus and talking animals, and tells stories about pink flying cows. She's a child and she needs direction.  When she's 18 or 21,  and leaves our home with hopefully a little more long-range vision, at that point she'll make her own decision. We'll have had our primary chance to influence her and to argue our case for Christianity.

At that time, it'll be up to her. No matter what, we'll still love her.

Answer 14

We homeschool after our child was abused by a teacher at one school and almost murdered by a classmate at another school.

We have always allowed whatever belief our child has.  We respect our child as a separate human being.  

One of the problems inherent in your question is that all homeschoolers are Christians.  We are not Christians.  We know homeschoolers who are of many faiths.

Answer 15

My parents did and did not homeschool us for religious reasons.  When I started 'kindergarden' I could already read and do basic math, so the main reason they homeschooled was to keep me learning at my own pace.  Although religion was a factor, it was one of many factors.  Later when my parents would ask if I wanted to go to school it was always understood that I would go to a private Christian school.  (We are not Catholic, and most non-religious private schools around here are extremely expensive.  We're talking $15,000 a year easily.  So a Christian school was our other option.)  Public school was always out of the question and personally, I did not want to waste my time putting up with all the needless c**p that happens there.  Here are the reasone we homeschooled:

Freedom to choose what to learn

Freedom to choose when to learn

Freedom to choose when not to learn

Freedom to choose what not to learn

Freedom to be curious

Extremely minimal peer pressure

Religion

More social time

More social options

Wider array of friends with different backgrounds, race, age

One-on-one learning

Start college early

And the public school system never failed me, but that's becuase we never gave it the chance too.

My parents and I pretty much see eye-to-eye on religious issues, but that is defintely not because they made me their clone.  I went through some very rebellious stages where I argued with them about everything, always trying to prove them wrong.  They simply argued back and directed me to different books and articles from both sides of the argument and let me make my own discisions.  But I do know they would still respect me if I had different beliefs.

Nice to see you finally have something to say/ask other than "homeschooling ruined my life, blah, blah, blah.."

Answer 16

To give them a solid foundation on what we believe and why so when they do encounter others of differing believes they can dialog intelligently and stand for what is right.

The ps teach many things as fact which are theory(look up the definition!) and are becoming increasingly hostile to Christians.

Answer 17

"(Please, no answers which intail "I homeschool them because the public school system has failed")"

Why take away that option? It is true.

That is why I homeschool. My child was required to be on medications that were destroying her health and permanently stunting her growth. She was on uppers in the morning and downers at night. The teachers never stopped asking for more meds and increased doses and the doctor always followed their lead. We were lied to about the law and help available to my child, repeatedly. We found out teachers were encouraging my daughter to cheat and even giving her answers for tests. Despite it being illegal my child was kept out of art, music and gym for being unable to complete her assignments. We were refused an IEP, until our doctor threatened the school with legal action. Our child in the third grade read as though she had been in the first grade for one month. - At least that is what the testing told us. Yet, the school insisted she was fine and WOULD read at grade level, WOULD continue to be passed on to the next grade and she would continue to be heavily medicated etc. My child cried, started to withdraw and considered herself a failure. The teachers told me point blank that there was nothing they could do for my child.

I don't know what you call that, but I call that the system failing the students and tax payers.

Now that we homeschool, we do not use those drugs and though she will always be petite, my daughter is growing. She is easily distracted, but not hyper and her distraction is easy to work around if you are willing to try. She is no longer skeletal and gray around the eyes. She can read, is approaching grade level and has made progress in all subjects, though how long it will take to undo the damage of her school experience, I can't really say.

Before you suggest we should have tried another school, you should know that she attended the finest city school in our area. Without the option to homeschool, I shudder to think what would have become of my child.

Answer 18

While we are a family with faith, that is not the reason we HS.

We HS because our son is profoundly gifted and no B&M school would *ever* fit his needs.  The public schools themselves have told us more than once to HS and continue doing it.  They cannot offer us anything.

A secondary reason is also so our son can experience the joy of learning and have the best academics possible.  With HS'ing, students can learn *so* much more!  My son actually gets sad when he finds out his peers in the PS don't get to do real history and art like he does, or take Spanish and Latin, or take an all-day field trip rather than a 30 minute walk through a museum/zoo/gallery/business.

FWIW, in our HS studies we study all the major world religions in addition to ours.  It's the only way to see the "big picture" of the world.  We study them from their inception to the present (or until they died out - like Greek mythology).  So exposure is not a problem here.  In fact, our DS gets *more* exposure to other religions by being HS'ed.

Answer 19

Not everyone homeschools for religious reasons. I'm homeschooled because in general the public schools (and private schools I considered) weren't meeting my needs. The work in the HONORS classes was ridiculously easy... a joke, when I had a chance to take more difficult classes I was told I couldn't because of my vision (you see, this would have meant ordering new accessible books and supplies... OH NO!) They tried to tell me that because I'm blind I couldn't handle it. Pffft. Because blindness really makes you MENTALLY challenged as well. My creativity was being stifled to the point of making me lose interest in things I used to love (art, singing, guitar, writing poetry), I was told by my science teacher that he couldn't answer my question about what set the planets in motion A) because it "wasn't in the standard curriculum" and B) because "I don't have time for off-topic conversation". Well, I didn't know talking about what set the planets in motion was off topic when the lesson is on enertia and gravity in space. I was told by my chorus teacher not to ask questions AT ALL because she didn't know the answers, and it was jjust going to confuse everyone and disrupt the lesson. Meanwhile she was telling her class that an eighth note and a quarter note were the SAME THING. In my HONORS ENGLISH class the teacher often had to stop and explain things like what a NOUN is because the kids just didn't care enough to pay attention. NO ONE cared in my History class. There's one day in particular that stands out in my mind about that one, but I'd rather not get in to it. And my math teacher was one of the worst. She refused to give me a copy of the overhead so that I can see it up close and take notes from it like everyone else. She refused to provide my work in an accessible format (even though there was someone at the school every week who would prepare the work for her if she gave it to him in advance), I wasn't allowed to sit in the front of the class so that I could see the board better because she called it "special treatment" and said it wasn't fair. She gave me 0% for every day that my large print textbooks hadn't arrived because she didn't understand why I couldnt' "just use the regular book like the other kids are doing", and what it finally boiled down to was her telling my mom she thought I was just using "blindness" to get out of doing real work. Then there were the people who handled kids with disabilities at that school. I was pulled out of class for no reason at all (or in the case of the first highschool I attended, for an entire 90 minute class period) for what they called "Vision Skills" whcih, for a well-adjusted, independent student who didn't need someone telling her how to organize her backpack or walk through the lunch line properly, just meant sit there quietly and do nothing until the bell rang.  I got a lunch detention for WALKING TO CLASS BY MYSELF...even though I was perfectly capable of doing so and would have been late if I did what they wanted me to do. "Wait until everyone else has left so the hall is clear, and then we'll send a teacher to come get you." pfft. I was told I wasn't allowed to go to the pep rallies unless I was accompanied by one of the "vision teachers", and once I was there I HAD to sit with the teacher off away from the other students. No cheering with my class or participating in the games or any of that. When my mom cut in here and told them I was joining the marching band and would HAVE to attend rallies alone, they told her that I couldn't join marching band...because of my vision. (forget that I'd been in band for years before and even attended marching band camp over the summer.) It's no wonder my blind friends who still attend the public schools in this county (with the exception of my boyfriend of course) are so...dependent.

Bottom line is that school first and foremost didn't meet my academic needs, and then went on to fail me as a visually impaired student. I don't go to church. I don't pray. I don't study the bible or creationism or adom and eve or any of that. I'm not even Christian. Really, i don't practise any religion... But I do have a good reason to homeschool. And so do millions of other homeschooling families.

Answer 20

You do realize your very question is confusing--you want everyone's opinions, yet you don't want to hear "the school system has failed"? Most of the parents I know who homeschool pulled their children out of school because the system WAS failing the kids--either academically or in other ways. I would have to estimate that at least 75% of the homeschoolers I know did not start out homeschooling. Those who chose to do it from the start have a variety of reasons. I have yet to know one personally who decided to homeschool for religious reasons.

I have also yet to personally meet someone who homeschools because evolution is taught in schools. Evolution only comes up in the school curriculum where I live in gr. 11 biology. That's it. Prayer in schools isn't a focus where we live as it sounds to be in the US; regardless, there are public school Christian programs people can send their kids to.

As for being exposed to other religions, our children are more exposed to other religions by being homeschooled than they would have been in school, since they would have gone to a Catholic school for those who speak French at home--it would have pretty much all been Catholics. As homeschoolers, they interact with Muslims, atheists, pagans, UUs, various Christians and more. They don't have a clue what religion the other kids are and that's fine. I only know because of conversations we parents have while the kids are off doing whatever they are doing. Even if they'd gone to a regular public school, it really wouldn't have been any different--they wouldn't have been exposed to other religions because religion does not come up in school.

Although we are Catholic, our religion had nothing to do with choosing to homeschool. Catholic schools are essentially public schools here so it would have been easy enough to have that taken care of in school. Given I grew up without any religion and went through a whole searching process myself, I would have no problem with my kids leaving the Church. Our focus is not so much on believing the tenets of the Church but on really following through on what is *right*. And we do believe in evolution. The Catholic Church has said that they see nothing in the theory of evolution that discounts God's role in creation. Not that they say, "Oh yes, evolution is how God did it all," but just that they are open to evolution being involved. Mind you, if the Church changed its mind, we'd still tell our kids to really think things through and find for themselves what makes sense.

Answer 21

For us religion has little to do with it. I think it is probably one of the only reasons I don't do it - hehee.

I homeschool because:

I believe one-on-one education is key

I believe learning is not cookie cut - each person learns at their own level

I believe that I can prevent my child being held back by peer pressure or other classmates

I believe that security in many schools is lacking and my child will not be a statistic to dangers in public schools

I believe that while their are many exceptional caring teachers in public school - many more are uncaring

I believe schools have disciplinary problems that take away from learning

That is just a few of the reasons I homeschool.

I have always stressed that I do not care what beliefs my children subscribe to when they are adults as long as they are moralistic.