Thoughts on Not Driving Your Child's Teacher(s) Crazy: Day 4

And the battle heats up once again. You know, the one that emerges every new school year. Which is best? Homeschool, public school, charter school, private school...and all the variances within each.

As parents and educators, we stake out our ground--our favorite--and then shoot all the incoming ideas from the others, which, distortedly, elevates our choice at least in our own minds.

Whatever must God be thinking? Watching us criticize each other left and right for valiantly and passionately trying to educate our kids, regardless of the camp out of which we operate.

In this series, we are considering how not to drive teachers crazy. In homeschool, parents are the teachers; thus, in the battle of which camp is best, everyone gets attacked.

When did it become a war?

When we entered into the age-old tactic of bashing you to make me feel better.

We basically live like this: we bash other churches, other parenting styles, other children's behavior, other marriages, other politics, other school choices.

And then we get thrown together in an environment--a neighborhood, a community, a church--and expect things to go well when the secret (or not so secret) undercurrent of bashing is the currency of the collective hearts.

Shame on us. There is no integrity to be found in bashing someone to make ourselves feel better. Where do we think our kids learn such tactics?

Hate is caught and taught.

Embracing each other with all of our differences in styles and choices is much harder to maintain. It requires forbearance, humility, intentional love, and the realization that our choice is no greater than simply a choice.

Just because our particular choice belongs to us does not grant it special favor or status. Why do we always demand that our choice is the better choice, and everyone who fails to join us is stupid or lesser or dead wrong?

If God entrusted to wayward humans the sharing of the very gospel, knowing we would communicate it in all manner of shapes and means, wouldn't he be for more than one way of schooling?

Proverbs 23:

Buy truth--don't sell it for love or money; buy wisdom, buy education, buy insight.

School is the arena in which we explore knowledge, test our giftings, and move toward that which we are uniquely wired to do. If we are pursuing truth, wisdom, education and insight, how can the shape and means of our school be wrong?

Our posturing is teaching the loudest lesson of all: to hate or embrace.

Tomorrow: Why I chose public school.

Comments are welcome at feedyourstrength@gmail.com.