Matthews Family Herald

Thought I would share what our educational goals are for our family. Some people have asked and many more wondered I’m sure, “Does this educational style really prepare our kids for the “real” world, for college, for being a productive member of society in their well-paying 9-5 job to provide the American Dream for their children?” The answer is a purposeful, resounding “NO!”

We are anti- “real” (pseudo) world, anti-college, and anti-American Dream 9-5 lifestyle. When one’s ultimate end goal and priority is Not the American Dream then the educational paths and vehicles taking us in a different direction will look very different from the traditional, mainstream educational methods. We believe that this world and its system, including college and a material lifestyle are contrary to the Christian faith and biblical principles. Not only that, but scripture makes it clear that it will only become more hostile to Christians, so much so that one won’t be able to buy or sell without the “mark of the beast”. This is perhaps a shorter time away than we might think. Why would we prepare our children to fit into an anti -Christian system that is faulty and harmful in every way? Wouldn’t our time be better spent learning the skills necessary for survival ; (food ,clothes, shelter, and herbal medicine) and preparation for the furtherance of God’s Kingdom through outreach, service to each other in a community of faith, and preparing them for marriage and parenthood?

I have been appalled to realize the many years wasted preparing my children for the world’s system by pumping them full of facts that the “world” says are important to know with methods that the “world” approves of. Much of homeschooling, even by Christians is nothing more than secularized education geared for success in a secular world- which makes for very unhappy , and unhealthy families and relationships. Not our idea of success. You can put a Christian label on it, have a curriculum full of Christianese lingo, refute evolution, but basically the end goal is the same: to prepare the children to become successful in this world, servants to an un-godly , materialistic, self-serving society.

Our picture of success looks more like this. We want our children first and foremost to have a totally devoted and intimately personal relationship with God, demonstrated by Godly lives of obedience and service to others. This alone would be enough. With God’s leading, they would become and do everything God wanted them to be and do, whether it is a doctor, or pilot, or sanitary worker, farmer, homemaker, entertainer, artist, teacher or hamburger flipper . They would hear God, know and be submitted to His plan for their life and He would equip them through whatever methods He chose. We tell our children, that they don’t get to chose whatever they want to be, but that God already chose and wrote the days of their life designing inside of them the desires and talents necessary, before they were even born. (That is another worldly lie- “you can be whatever you want to be if you just believe in yourself!”) That is totally unbiblical. The Bible says to believe in God- not yourself. That is humanistic, “We don’t need God, we can build a tower to the sky ourselves” kind of thinking. This kind of thinking is very prevalent, not just in public schools and public educational television, but even among Christian homeschoolers. We don’t even tell our children that it is their job to find out what God wants them to be or do. We don’t want our children identifying who they are by the job they do- those titles are not who they are. They are a redeemed; second Adam generation, new creations. They are only to identify with their new life and identity in Christ (being crucified and raised with Christ, hid in Christ, no longer they that live, but Christ who lives in them). They may “do” many things throughout their lives to provide food, clothes, and shelter for themselves and their families.
Learning how to provide these things without being dependant on others is ideal and gives them more freedom, especially as Christians. These are the practical skills we wish to teach our children. The journey, the purifying of Christ’s Bride, each and every step or moment walking with our God, being a light to those around us furthering the kingdom of God to which we are loyal citizens, IS our mission here on this Earth. In contrast to society’s mindset of preparing one’s whole life to reaching a pinnacle of occupational height or wealth, material goods or reputation (which are usually unreachable and at the cost of much family destruction and misery.) Man’s nature is such that it is never satisfied; not with these things anyway. God designed man to only have satisfaction and total contentedness, peace and Joy when being restored to Himself. Farmers, on the other hand, experience less divorce and health problems, and live a generally longer, healthier life with strong family bonds.

The other goals/skills we wish to train or teach our children are relationship skills, such as pertains to marriage and parenthood. Much of a successful happy life depends upon these two factors. Society does a good job at downplaying the family (which is their goal), but ask any married person (or divorced) or parent. They will tell you the largest bulk of their woes are related to their children and/or spouse (or lack thereof). We aren’t the perfect model of parenthood or marriage at all times, but when we blow it we acknowledge that to each other with apologies, and tell our kids that that is Not the right way to behave. As we grow in Faith to Walk more and more after the Spirit, these things take care of themselves, so everything, really, relates back to that walk with God. The children are trained in and practice daily with one another very vital skills, like: selflessness, preferring others above you, forgiveness, not returning evil for evil, self-control, patience/longsuffering, kindness, not being envious or jealous, generosity. These are the skills that will make for a happy, successful life as it pertains to all relationships whether it be your children, spouse, boss, co-workers friends, or neighbors. This is the “socialization” we prefer to give our children. Not the dog-eat-dog, cliquish, competitive, cruel, me-first, sexually saturated, foul-mouthed, disrespectful to authorities, governmental/political; brainwashing and often violent socialization that the world has to offer( I know , I went to public school and things are 100 times worse now.) This is how children are trained in relationships in the world. Is it any wonder that more than half of marriages end in divorce and children are rebellious and estranged from the family? Well, I’ll get off this soap-box for now.

Do we think all other book learning is irrelevant? NO. Of course not. Reading , writing , and arithmetic, as well as history and science, all play a very important role in everyday life ( especially rural living). For example, when we were picking apples yesterday at an orchard, Micah, found too kinds of flavors he liked to eat together, came home and decided to plant some seeds, and got very excited when I told him how farmers breed two kinds together to get hybrids ( this is NOT genetical engineering , mind you!) So we will get books about how to do that at the library today hopefully. Jacob has a renewed interest in navigation( stars , compass, etc.), and Hannah, is enjoying her newfound freedom to make all kinds of projects and write letters to friends, now that she is writing independently. I mean, come on, deep down in every man, they long to build a log cabin with their own hands- it takes quite a bit of math and science there to do it properly. (Micah is itching to build his own skateboard ramp! I see a great geometry opportunity.)

WE love discovering how the gospel message, is hidden in all of nature, including every system of our body/ math and the sciences that have math and formulas all contain spiritual truths in them as well. Literally, EVERYTHING (in this natural world (natural laws included) SCREAMs to us “ILOVE YOU” from God. The Bible tells us this about nature as well in Romans 1:19, 20; “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them: for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His external power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”

Generally, as a guideline our learning choices are based upon these three goals/priorities:
(a) To know God
(b) To be known by Him
(c) To make Him known to others

These are the reasons we learn anything that we learn: it keeps us on target, constantly vigilant to weed out the worldly, unnecessary things (there are many, many things to learn out there). We select only the best that line up with these priorities and the Christian Faith ( biblical, God-glorifying truths.) Truly, all the subjects can/are, used to fulfill these three criteria. I could list many specific examples; if you’re truly interested, just comment to this blogpost.

So we don’t learn “just for the sake of learning” or just because society says it is something you should know. We don’t learn for the end goal that most people get an “education”. Education being the cure-all to all man’s ills, is another very popular deception out there (even among Christians, sadly). WE learn to learn more about God and how much he loves us, this in turn, leads to the second reason we learn- to grow in our relationship with God, and this in turn, leads us to the third reason we learn, to further God’s kingdom here on earth. We also learn, to be able to sustain life on this earth (independently of society, if need be) so that we can fulfill the first three goals. So there you have it- Our educational goals.
Hope this blesses and encourages someone or at least clears up some confusion. Happy Whole-life learning!