The Conversion Of An Anti-Homeschooler

I distinctly recall the evening my sister’s friend asked if I was going to homeschool. “Uh…NO!” And I ungraciously proceeded to give her every reason in my book for why homeschooling wasn’t just wrong for me, but for anyone and everyone. I was a cocky twenty-something-year-old public school teacher, without children of my own, who was barely phased that I had been so, so…well…rude, even after I learned she was homeschooling her children.

I distinctly recall the afternoon my sister-in-law asked if I was considering homeschooling. “Uh…NO!” And I ungraciously proceeded to give her every reason in my book for why homeschooling wasn’t just wrong for me, but for anyone and everyone. I was a cocky twenty-something-year-old public school teacher (so barely pregnant with my first child that I didn’t even know it at the time) who thought I had it all pretty much figured out.

I distinctly recall the day a friend of mine asked if I would ever homeschool. “Uh…NO!” And I ungraciously proceeded to give her every reason in my book for why homeschooling wasn’t just wrong for me, but for anyone and everyone. I was a cocky thirty-something-year-old former public school teacher/stay-at-home mom of a two-year-old and a newborn, who wasn’t at all tempered by the fact that I stood directly in front of the one homeschooling family I knew personally.

Never say, “Never.”

Over the next several months I was inundated with messages about homeschooling. On the television. On the radio. In magazines. What’s more, I was actually becoming interested in it. Interested in, maybe, trying it? I was so scared I wouldn’t even tell my husband about it. I secretly checked out a couple of books about homeschooling from the library and flipped through them. Then I enlisted that one homeschooling mama I knew (after quite an apology) to be a prayer partner with me. Months later, I finally told my husband what was on my heart, and for the next couple of years we prayed and read and talked and prayed. We eventually came to a place where we were both certain the Lord was indeed calling our family to homeschool, and our only choice was to obey Him or not.

I’d had the unique experience of having taught many children many subjects – from Kindergarten through Fourth grade. Supposedly, according to everyone with whom I ever speak, this meant I should be well-prepared for homeschooling. Hardly! What it’s meant, in practice, is that the Lord has had to spend the past three years humbling me, showing me how much I don’t know, and breaking me completely so I will rely upon Him fully for this homeschooling adventure.

Now I believe there is only one best place to school your children: wherever the Lord leads you to do so, personally. I haven’t always been of that mindset. Clearly, I began on one side of the fence. Then I found myself on the other. It’s really only been in the last year that the Lord has shown me how terribly vain it was for me to think that everyone else’s calling should mirror mine. (Well, okay, maybe it’s only been in the last year I was actually willing to listen to Him on that!) Admittedly, I tremble to think God may some day call us to place our children in a school of some shape or some form. And I pray with all earnestness that we will be faithful no matter how troubling the prospect may be for me.