things i didn't know about school...and was too afraid to find out #2

Parents, even non-Christian parents, who send their kids to public school, really love their kids.


I did my fortnightly volunteer shift in the school tuckshop this morning. ('Tuckshop' is Australian for canteen.) Slaving away over the chicken burgers and nuggets with a bunch of other mums made me think of another thing I've learned about school. It's an obvious one, but for someone who's been as out of the loop as I have, it's notable.
 
Parents who are not homeschoolers really love their kids. So do parents who are not Christian. They love them and care for their needs, they worry over them and make time for them. They help them with their homework and make sure they are carrying a good lunch and are warmly dressed before taking them to school. They kiss them goodbye at the gate, miss them a little bit during the day and are glad to see them at 3.00. By and large they seem to do a pretty good job raising emotionally healthy young adults. At least, no worse than many of the Christian families I know who have grown children.

Homeschooling Christians or even Christians who send their children to school do not have a monopoly on love, sound morales, strong values or good parenting.

I can remember griping that women at church who sent their kids to school seem so threatened by my choice to homeschool. I have been known to say that this was probably because they were 'under conviction' to do the same but for some reason had not. This was because in my heart I really thought that the very best thing any Christian parent could do for their child was to homeschool them. Further, I thought that God agreed with me. School was a copy-out, second-best choice.

Obviously, this is where a lifestyle choice crosses the line from being a simple preference and moves into legalism. I am free to homeschool if I like but when I start to think that that choice, or even that call, is to be universally applied, I'm in gavel-banging territory. I have no doubt now that, much as I would have denied it earlier, I was in that camp.

That's all so bleeding obvious that it will make me look a complete idiot. But I know that some woman who has lived deep in QF will understand what I mean and be glad that I said it. We are not stupid - but in order to find the door to freedom we need to admit that we have been somewhat deluded.

I would still feel free to make any lifestyle choice I thought best for my kids whatever anyone else thought. But knowing what I know now, I just might make a bigger effort to smooth it over with a dollop more grace in consideration for the people I claim to care about. And I would strive to seek out and value the goodness and wisdom that is to be found in even the most surprising places.