As homeschooling goes mainstream, some contend that homeschooling works for many families, but it isn’t a good idea for everyone.

That is not the case. There are, frankly, fewer reasons to not homeschool than to homeschool.

Education outside the home, especially in government schools, should be treated as the exception to the general rule of home education. Education should be a family affair, and for Christian families, education absolutely must be in-house, with rare exceptions for certain private schools.

The reasons for families to homeschool are seemingly endless, but there are five main reasons which should be enough to convince nearly any family to homeschool.

1. More Time With Your Kids

Podcaster Jennifer Welch recently sparked an uproar when she made comments on the “I’ve Had It” podcast deriding homeschool parents. Welch specifically critiqued parents for wanting their children with them for more than a couple rushed morning hours and a short dinner time. “I think it’s just f—ing weird as f— that you want your kids around you all day every day and all night,” Welch said, adding, “I don’t trust somebody that wants to be with their kids 24/7.”

Welch was roundly and justifiably excoriated online for her comments. But the incident revealed exactly why many homeschool: Most non-psychopath parents actually enjoy the company of their children. Even parents who send their kids to school often bemoan how little they see their children throughout the school week, and how rushed are the hours they do spend with them. When schooling is done at home, the number one reason that children would ever need to leave their parents is eliminated.

2. Better Quality Education 

One quarter of American adults are functionally illiterate, yet most graduate high school. Many deride the illiteracy of America’s children, yet the story is more sinister. It is one level of failure if students aren’t learning. It is another level of neglect if the schools deem illiterate students as educated students. The latter is a failure of the adults, and indeed, of the very institutions supposed to educate the youth.

Because of this, homeschooling has a very low bar to clear to become a better option than public schooling. While homeschoolers should do more than just clear this bar, it is difficult to continue making the argument that the average parent isn’t more qualified than the average public school teacher to teach.

3. Accessibility of Almost Limitless Resources 

Some may argue that if the illiteracy rate is so high, then why let the parents educated in these failing schools educate their own children?

It is misguided to believe that homeschooling parents are limited by their own education. Modern homeschool parents have a plethora of resources to make their jobs easier and the education they give to their children better, including online school and in-person tutors, detailed and exhaustive curriculums, YouTube lectures, and printable worksheets. In fact, parents have the chance to impart to their children a level of knowledge which they themselves may have never had. The only thing that would limit their children’s education would be to darken the doors of a public school, thus continuing the cycle of illiteracy for another generation.

4. Less Woke Indoctrination

The indoctrination that occurs at public schools is painfully obvious, but it is likely that most parents are still not fully acquainted with the extent to which it permeates even conservative rural school districts. With homeschooling, families not only escape overt attempts to indoctrinate their children against Christianity, patriotism, and tradition, but they also gain the opportunity to weave the gospel, the Bible, old foundational texts, and traditional educational materials into their children’s education.

5. Homeschooling Reignites a Parent’s Long-Lost Education

For many adults, the last book they pick up is the last one they were assigned for a high school or college class. Most adults forget who the Ottomans were, how to calculate the surface area of a cone, or the names of the planets by the time they are in their 30s.

But homeschooling essentially turns every adult with children into a teacher, enabling parents to constantly review and re-learn their own education. Imagine getting a refresh on Roman history three separate times for each of your three children, or getting better and better at long division with each child who completes middle school! Homeschooling gives parents the immense gift of lifelong learning.

While not an exhaustive list, the reasons above should make every parent sending their kid to a government school pause. As children prepare to embark on yet another grade in the public school system, parents must realize that it is up to them to stop the cycle of illiteracy and indoctrination which haunts their children.

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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

Image credit: Flickr-IowaPolitics.com, CC BY-SA 2.0