Preparing Your Kids for the Real World (Part 12) - Intellectual Development (Part B)

Watch the video of this sermon on YouTube: Preparing Your Kids for the Real World (Part 12) - Intellectual Development (Part B) For the outline and the rest of the sermons in this series, click here: Preparing Your Kids For The Real World To listen to or watch the previous sermon in the series, click here: (Part 11) To listen to or watch the next sermon in the series, click here: (Part 13) 2. A child's education should start very early (Isa 28:9). A. The things of God should be among a child's first concepts and words. B. Children learn first by imitation, then orally, and then by reading. C. Watch what you say around them because they absorb both good and bad. D. They understand more than you think. E. Your example of godly living and religion will teach them more than your words. 3. Parents should directly take part in their child's education. A. This should include teaching them the scriptures. i. This should begin at birth (or before) by reading the scriptures together with your children present. ii. If the only exposure to Bible reading your children get is at church, you are failing in your duty before God. B. This should include teaching by your example. C. You WILL teach by example. Make sure it's a good one. D. This should include early education like teaching them proper grammar, how to read (which is the most important skill you can teach them), how to count and do basic math, etc. E. This can include fully educating your children by homeschooling them. 4. Formal education (through high school) A. Remember parents, it's your responsibility to ensure that your children get the best education they can. B. Depending on your situation, finances, and ability, you have three choices for formal education: homeschooling, private schooling, or government (public) schooling. C. Homeschooling i. You have been given the right by God to homeschool your children and personally provide their education (Eph 6:4). ii. Homeschooling may not be for everyone. iii. It's a good way to limit the indoctrination your children will receive in public or private schools. iv. It's a good way to limit the amount of sinful garbage your children are taught at school and pick up from their friends. a. Don't worry about your kids being sheltered from the real world when they are young. b. If you're doing your job teaching your children the scriptures, they'll be aware of the evils of the world. c. They should learn about them from God's word before they are exposed to them in the world so that they will know how to deal with them correctly. v. Homeschooling is a good way to limit the amount of control and influence that the government has over you and your children. vi. It has been shown to be superior to traditional schooling (more on this later). a. One of the reasons for this is the teacher/student ratio and the personalized attention that it affords. b. It's hard for a homeschooled child to be "left behind," so to speak. vii. Homeschooling is a major task and commitment. a. The majority of this responsibility will fall on Mom since Dad is away at work for most of the day. b. If the parents decide to go with a curriculum in which the parents teach their children as a school teacher would, this means that Dad might have to help out around the house (cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc.) since Mom will be spending much of her time doing schooling that she would have been doing those other things. c. When mothers are homeschooling, husbands should not expect to have museum-quality homes, nor should they overload their wives with unnecessarily large homes. d. Parents might want to instead consider a self-taught curriculum such as the Robinson Curriculum or the Ron Paul Curriculum which are both excellent curricula which require little to no direct teaching from the parents. e. Self-taught curricula are less work than some other curricula for a homeschooling mother, but they still require checking up on your kids to make sure they are doing the work correctly. viii. Objections to homeschooling. a. Objection 1: I'm not smart enough to homeschool my kids. (i) Nobody is more qualified to teach your children than you. (ii) Nobody cares more about your children's education than you. (iii) You can hire labor and service, but not true caring. (iv) For advanced subjects, you can use tutors, YouTube, or other parents in a homeschooling association. (v) Self-taught curricula remove your own limitations from the equation. b. Objection 2: I don't know how to teach. (i) Yes, you do. You have taught your young children everything they know. (ii) There are great self-taught curricula like the Robinson Curriculum and the Ron Paul Curriculum. (iii) The Robinson Curriculum is focused heavily on reading, writing, and math. Once students learn to read, it is self-taught. (iv) The Ron Paul Curriculum is self-taught after the second grade and is video based, so your children are learning from qualified teachers. 1. It also gives children regular reading and writing assignments so they are not learning solely through a computer screen. 2. The downside to it is that it requires your children to spend a lot of time in front of a screen. 3. This can be potentially harmful for children. 4. It could also teach them that the way to acquire information is by watching a video instead of reading a book. c. Objection 3: I'm afraid that my children will not be socialized. (i) This is probably the most common objection to homeschooling which is promoted by God-hating people with an agenda. (ii) Modern public cesspools only socialize children with other children their age. (iii) The socialization amounts to other children teaching your children bad habits (1Co 15:33). (iv) Consider the kind of socialization that your children will receive in the public cesspools. (v) Most homeschooled children that I know are well socialized and can communicate with older and younger children and adults quite well because they are not segregated with other children their age all day long. (vi) If you are concerned with socialization, then make sure they get social interaction. 1. Take your children out and let them experience other people. 2. Encourage them to talk to others at church. 3. Encourage them to make friends with other children at church. 4. Encourage them to make friends with the neighbor kids (if they are decent kids). d. Objection 4: I'm afraid that my children will not receive as good of an education as their public-schooled peers. (i) Our nation was built by people who were homeschooled. (ii) "The effectiveness of homeschooling was not in question during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some of the most well-known writers and inventors were homeschooled. Thomas Edison, who attended only three months of elementary school, was taught by his mother. Other famous homeschoolers include Benjamin Franklin, John Wesley, Beatrix Potter, Charles Dickens and Alexander Graham Bell." (History of Homeschooling in America, www.sharefaith.com) (iii) Test results and college entrance exams have shown that homeschooled kids statistically do far better than public-schooled kids. (iv) "Homeschooled students score about 72 points higher than the national average on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). The average American College Test (ACT) score is 21. The average score for homeschoolers is 22.8 out of a possible 36 points. Homeschoolers are at the 77th percentile on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills." (Do Homeschool Kids Really Rate Better on Standardized Tests?, www.wehavekids.com, 9-7-2017 (v) Homeschoolers spend far less time in school and consistently outperform their peers who spend far more time in the asylum. e. Objection 5: I don't have time because I have to work. (i) Prioritize your children and cut back your standard of living so that you can live on the husband's income. (ii) If you desire to homeschool your children, then purpose in your heart that you will do so and beg God for help to provide for your family with one income. (iii) The battle is for the mind; therefore, prioritizing the development of the mind is critically important. 1. This may require some sacrifice. 2. This must be carefully considered by each family. It may not be possible in some cases, but it should be considered. 3. Don't default to the world's ways without careful consideration of the costs. 4. You will be paying for that fancy job or that second income. 5. Consider whether it's worth it or not (Ecc 11:1). D. Government (public) and private schools i. Parents can also delegate this task of educating their children to others, but the responsibility of their children's education still rests on the parents. ii. Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel and was taught by him (Act 22:3). a. Bring - v. 27. bring up. a. To bring into a higher position; to elevate, raise, rear, build up; to raise to a point or amount, etc. b. To rear from childhood; to educate, breed. b. In other words, Paul was educated from childhood by a teacher who was not his parent. iii. Samuel's education and upbringing were entrusted to Eli (1Sa 1:24-28). iv. Paul used an illustration of a child being under tutors and governors at the behest of his father to describe how the church was under the law for a time until it grew up (Gal 4:1-2). v. Delegating your child's education to another may be a necessary alternative to doing it yourself. vi. If you chose this option (public school, private school, homeschool association) remember that the responsibility of ensuring your child gets a good education is still yours. vii. Government (public) schools a. This is the cheapest solution because it's "free." b. Remember, you get what you pay for. c. It has been claimed that some government schools give a quality education. d. Even if this is true, be aware that they are going to indoctrinate your child with a plethora of propaganda and lies. e. You would do well to investigate the school they are attending, get to know their teachers, and regularly review their text books and homework to ensure that the material is high quality and that it is free of moral filth. f. Be ready to counter-teach your children if they are attending public school, as they will be taught lies such as evolution, acceptance of the sodomitical lifestyle, transgenderism, abortion, government propaganda, and false doctrine in general. g. I was recently in a local high school and the sign on the front door read: (i) This school welcomes... students of all races, ethnicities and nationalities students with diverse abilities students who are LGBT students of all family structures students who are English language learners students of all religions students from all socio-economic backgrounds students of all body types ...YOU h. If you entrust your children's education to a public school with no oversight on your part, don't be surprised if they come out spiritually, morally, mentally, intellectually, socially, and emotionally damaged. viii. Private schools a. Private schools are often run by "Christian" organizations and therefore will hopefully not pollute your child's mind with moral filth like the public cesspools do. b. But if they are religious schools, they will be indoctrinating your children with religious and spiritual filth that you will have to un-teach your children. c. Private schools are also prohibitively expensive for many families. E. One entity that you must be very careful delegating your child's education to is the TV. i. The TV will teach your children much, most of which will not be good. ii. Consider Psa 101:3 before you allow your children to watch TV: "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes..." iii. Evil communication corrupts good manners (1Co 15:33). iv. It will also teach them to have short attention spans and to not appreciate reading and real learning. v. If you use the TV as a babysitter, be prepared to face the consequences. a. Using the TV as a babysitter backfires because the child then craves constant entertainment and they don’t learn to entertain themselves. b. Consequently they are in your hair and on your heels all the time wanting you to provide amusement/attention for them. c. Lots of TV will handicap you in educating your child because it will decrease their attention span and their interest in reading and books. d. Video game playing and internet usage is similar. e. Watching TV is even worse for kids now than when we were kids because of the speed of pictures flashing on the TV screen. vi. If parents don’t let their kids watch TV, but they watch a lot of it themselves, then they are still teaching their kids that this is how to relax. vii. "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman has been recommended to me as a good book on this topic. 5. Don't limit their education to school time. A. Heed the principle in Deu 6:6-7 and teach your children at all times. B. Use situations in life to teach them. C. Point out things as you're driving and explain what they are and how they work or are done (farming, construction, advertising, cars, etc.) D. Teach your children to appreciate the wonder of the free market and its spontaneous order that produces all the products we use every day.