Why We HomeEducated and Why Wed

Do It Again

Michael Goheen
Burnaby, B.C.

Introduction
Background
Home educated four to end of
secondary school
Lecture worldwide in education

Why did we home-educate?

Not: academic excellence, character
building, moral training, protection
from wicked world
But: Christian education

Why would we do it again?

Fruits and results we never anticipated

Academic Reasons

Excellent education
Read/write/think creatively and critically
Able to foster strengths of each
Breadth of subjects: e.g., able to teach
intellectual history, art history
Extracurricular activities and subjects. String
quartet.
Important foundational studies: Biblical and
western worldview.
Explicitly Christian: most important consideration.
Kids enjoy learning; curiosity remains.
Verbal skills
Flexibility

Social Reasons
Develops leaders
Not primarily peer-oriented or
dependent; lemmings or clones
Boundary breaking: Age; gender
More positive interactions per day
Contribution to broader community
Relationships: kids at home are forced
to work through problems when they
disagree, argue, or fight
Support group. Family relating to family
not just kids. More wholistic.

Family Reasons
Friendships: Kids and parents
Flexibility in schedules: enabled us to be
involved in other creative things
Marnie continued to learn as she prepares and
reads.
Marnie really knows our kids
Fathers are able to play bigger role in lives of
kids.
Learning same subjects at different levels
Kids learn from each other. Older teach
younger.
No homework! Have evenings together.

Spiritual reasons
Family worship. Single most
important dimension of our family
Many spinoffs have come we did
not anticipate

Moral reasons
Able to develop moral maturity.
Following scenario common: kids
learn from peers, learn things not
acceptable to parents, parents lay
down law to curb behaviour,
legalism, friction
Moral fibre and convictions; peerorientation not factor.

Aesthetic Reasons
Kids able to develop insight and
discernment in:
music
art
drama.

Emotional Reasons
Develop more healthy emotional
stability. Not peer and social pressure.
Security
bullying rampant in (also Christian) schools;
pressure for romance

Adolescent angst: Comes from

grouping together kids who struggling
with identity

Learning/Life Integration
Ongoing connection and
discussion between life and
learning. No artificial (rational)
structures.
Better prepared for so-called real
world

Public Life
Able to criticize and analyse
current events
Analyse critical areas: e.g., media,
globalization, economics,
technology

Challenge
Challenge each of you to list some
categories and list/talk about
benefits
Tell stories
Talk about struggles