School Choice

Last week my wife and I got to “Babysit” (youngest is eight), three of our granddaughters, while their parents took a well deserved vacation to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. It was eye opening!

Part of the regimen was to take the two youngest ones to school each morning. As I dropped them off, I found myself uttering a short prayer: “Lord, teach them everything they need to know and nothing they shouldn’t know. That prayer was not only based on what we hear in the daily news regarding the direction our schools are trying to push our children, but also on the major trouble I barely managed to avoid when I was in school 60 years ago! If we’re honest with ourselves, seniors, schools weren’t the bastions of morality even when we were there half a century ago. Do you think they’ve changed for the better since then?

Based on what my wife and I experienced ourselves in school, we decided almost 40 years ago to homeschool our kids, starting in 1983. Back then there weren’t many choices like there are now. But, we still agree that we’d do it all over again if we had to. Yes there are lots of sacrifices to be made and no, it’s not for everyone, but it is a choice to be considered by parents today. So why mention homeschooling here in a seniors column? Because if your kids want to go this route for your grandkids, you may be able to help make it possible for them by pitching in with transportation, some teaching and even financially if you can.

One of the choices that have intrigued me lately is the offering from LIberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, with a university enrollment exceeding 130,000 students. They have programs to take kids from kindergarten through graduate university programs. If you want to learn more about the online homeschool program, here’s a website to try: www.liberty.edu/online-academy/curriculum-preview/. That’s just one of many resources available today. All you have to do is Google Homeschool and you’ll find more than you could ever imagine considering.

The biggest thing to consider is that our kids and grandkids are the most precious gift and the biggest responsibility that God has given to us. We don’t get multiple chances to get it right.

Remember, no matter what their school choice is: “Help them to learn all they need to know and nothing they don’t.”

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