Michael Wagner – Page 16

Who says… We Need To Learn To Socialize?

Part of the series Who says…
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-11-03.

God created man for fellowship. Therefore we are social beings. There is no need to develop what God has designed.

Building on a foundation that God is, that He created the universe and that He ultimately is responsible for our children’s being, should provide ample substance upon which to build our faith. This lengthy series will identify the secular thinking that has eroded that faith.

Bible Reference: The Bible!

At last, I was on vacation! I simply wanted to escape my hectic life for a week and determined to have nothing to do with anything, other than to simply have a good time with my wife and friends. I wanted to be free from work, but then my friend introduced me to his friend as a home education expert. Once again, I was presented with the age old home education concern about socialization! I was so tired of always having to address that issue that I just wanted to run away, but then the Lord provided a most interesting opportunity. Right in front of us a little Mexican girl, who could not speak English, just sat down to fellowship with a little Canadian girl, who could not speak Spanish. I cannot be sure that they had never met before but one thing was for sure. Even though they could not socialize by language they socialized by action. No instruction, no school, no classroom, and no peer group required. I did not have to say a thing to my friend’s friend, I just pointed to this natural occurrence!

We are social beings. We naturally desire to spend time with people and will do so any time we have an opportunity with no training required. It comes as natural as breathing. Obviously, there are some folks who are more sociable than others, but then again, some folks are also more musical than others. So what? The issue of socialization is usually brought up by those who have not given it much thought. I have even heard parents say that they are sending the children to school so they can learn to play with children. Really? Have you ever seen a child who could not play with children? I suspect that parents concerned about their children’s socialization may be more interested in sending them to school so they can work on their “socialization” while the children are away!

Before we send children to school to be properly socialized, we must ask ourselves an important question. What do we normally experience in the real world? Being in a crowd of people of the same age or being in a mix of people of differing ages? The concern about socialization is disassociated from reality. We never find ourselves with a group of people of exactly the same age doing the same thing at the same time, outside of school. By making school’s greatest disconnection with reality its redeeming strength, parents can be encouraged to unquestioningly send their children to school without considering just how socially dysfunctional it actually is. This is just good salesmanship while capitalizing on parent’s fears about socialization is simply good marketing.

Considering that the entire Bible is about relationships, it is not hard to imagine that to fellowship or to socialize is what matters most to the God of our creation. We don’t need any help from man or his institutions to learn what God has built into us.

Who says we need to learn how to socialize? Those who would normalize a “family” made up of many moms and many dads in charge of large groups of children of the same age, being directed to do the same thing at the same time, five days per week! Truthfully, a dad and a mom who were created to fellowship with others will train their children to properly “socialize” by just doing what comes naturally.

Who Says… We Have To Go To School?

Part of the series Who says…
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-10-27.

Those that would send us to school, directly or indirectly, are serving man rather than God.

Bible Reference: Col. 2:8

Going to school has become as commonplace as going to work, it is just a different job description. But it was not always this way. One hundred and fifty years ago, there was no such thing as public school. Mandatory public education was originally created by the Prussians (Germans) with the objective of creating a compliant military. American industrial capitalists, who were having a difficult time convincing workers to leave the farm and family to work in factories, brought the idea of compulsory education to the United States, with the objective of creating a compliant work force.

When first brought to America, children were made to attend school against much parental opposition, even being marched off to school at gunpoint! By the beginning of the twentieth century, compulsory school programs were becoming rather common, with few bothering to question the authority, or how education had come to be a government responsibility. Over the next hundred years, government continued to play a key role in the education of it’s citizens, which originally must have been with the objective of providing opportunity for learning, eventually devolving to the creating of a compliant citizenry. Today, every time some issue is presented, we hear calls for “educating the public”, which essentially means “program them to think in a certain way”.

How many times have we heard… but I don’t want to go to school! Why would they say that? Because school is fun? Because school is somehow connected to the reality of a child’s life? You would think that reality would be the reason for sending children to school, but who’s reality is it? Certainly not that of most children and not that of parents, unless, of course, we are in need of a baby sitting service! It is the government’s reality, which makes no attempt to acknowledge God, the Bible or the Christian faith. In fact, under the banner of tolerance for all other beliefs and lifestyles, public schools have become Godless, unbiblical and anti-Christian. Why? Because God has never appointed government to teach the children and if He has not appointed government, government is free to advance its reality rather than God’s truth.

Who says we have to go to school? Government, under the pretense of wanting it’s citizens to have a good foundation of training, but in actuality desiring to program children to think like the government wants them to think and not to question anything, especially the government’s claim to authority which has never been authorized by God.

Who Says… You Are Right?

Part of the series Who says…
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-10-20.

How do we come to believe we are right? We simply trust that what we are told is right.

Bible Reference: John 18:38

Sally was born in a family of airplane lovers. The entire family was very knowledgeable about aircraft, from the Wright brothers to modern planes, makes and models. Sally grew up hearing many members of the family repeatedly refer to airplanes as ‘birds”. Her father would see a “Goldenhawk” jet and call it a “beautiful bird”. Her uncle called the “Snowbirds” aeronautics show a “flock of birds”. Her grandpa would affectionately refer to the “Tigermoth” biplanes as “old birds” while grandma referred to grandpa’s “ultralight” airplane as that “little bird”. As a matter of fact, she was 10 years old and had only ever heard of these flying machines called “birds”. To her they were “birds”.

One day, while sitting with a home schooled boy of about the same age, an airplane flew over and as Sally pointed to it, she called it “a bird”. The boy was quick to tell her that what she was pointing to was in fact an airplane and not “a bird”. Sally fully disagreed. When asked what she would call a sparrow, she answered with “a bird”, not even realizing the major differences between the feathery bird and the aluminum “bird”. A debate ensued with Sally eventually getting upset and leaving, mumbling that that boy knew nothing of “birds”. He did not even know it was a Boeing 747!

Was Sally right? In her own mind, she was. Sally had never been told that airplanes were being called “birds” as way to fondly refer to them, since aircraft and aviation was such a big part of her family. She was actually wrong in calling aircraft birds but she was sincerely wrong, having never been told otherwise. She may have sounded stupid to the home school boy, but Sally was definitely not stupid, just misinformed.

We are all like Sally in more ways than we know or care to admit. We are all told things that are not true, sometimes for bad reasons and other times for no good reason at all. It was once said that if you tell a big enough lie, loud enough and long enough, people will start to believe it. A modern day example of such comes to mind, when one considers how certain “environmental issues” are overwhelmingly presented in every conceivable fashion to eventually create “believers” in the cause.

Our understanding of education is likewise, overwhelmingly fabricated with faulty information that is repeatedly normalized, much the same way as Sally’s understanding of airplanes as “birds”. We not only advance but defend things that we have never questioned or given any real thought to.

Who says you are right? You do! But do you know for sure or are you just repeating what you have been told, without even considering that it could be a lie?

Who Says… There Are Absolutes?

Part of the series Who says…
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-10-13.

If God is and we determine to serve Him, what kind of commitment would He expect from us? Absolute commitment, that’s what!

Bible Reference: Exodus 20:1-17

Once established as the foundational part of our world view, belief in God must be accompanied by an understanding of absolute, what the dictionary defines as ultimate reality. We must come to grips with the fact that we are not the ones who set the rules about the role that God intends to play in our lives, and since He is the be all and end all, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, He is absolute and so are His expectations of us. He demonstrated His absolute love for us in that while we were yet sinners, He gave His all for us. Why should He expect anything less of us?

God is absolute. His word is authoritative and absolute. He establishes the rules and they are absolute. He is the embodiment of truth so it is absolute. He is absolutely committed to us and therefore fully expects unwavering commitment from us. His life for ours. There is no negotiation or exception. Our own “personal interpretation” of reality not withstanding. We will never, ever be able to “… yes, but…” the Creator of the universe.

The ten commandments start with “I am the Lord thy God…” and then follows with directives on how we are to acknowledge that initial statement before proceeding with directives for good conduct. The fact that the first five commandments deal directly with how the initial statement should be demonstrated in our lives leaves no room for a partial commitment. You may ask how this has anything to do with home education to which I can confidently answer, everything. Once we have been enlightened with respect to who has the authority and responsibility for the training and teaching of children, there is no negotiation or exception to His expectations in this matter. Once we know the truth, we are without excuse when we willingly, knowingly transgress it in favor of “alternate approaches” to education. If God said “you teach them”, He meant, “you teach them” from start to finish. He does not need help from government, He needs obedience from parents, who will demonstrate their faith in Him through their commitment to teach their children themselves. He does not change His mind or His directives once the children get to high school or when the going gets tough! Even if there are those who, for one reason or another, simply cannot fulfill this directive, God does not waver in His expectations, so it is up to the community of believers to be ready to assist those in need with their commitment.

Who says there are absolutes? God’s stating that “I am the Lord thy God” makes Him and all that He has established as true and therefore, absolute. Those who would say otherwise are probably not as interested in your eternal, as much as in their temporal, well being.

Who Says… There is a God?

Part of the series Who says…
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-10-06.

Who says there is a God? He does!

Bible Reference: Deut. 20:2-3

The most important element of any world view is the part that deals with the existence of God. Some may say “who says there is a God?” while other may say “who says there is no God?”, but neither question can be answered using human measures. Those that believe in God also believe in heaven and hell while those who do not, believe that death just ends with nothing. A wise man once said that believers were not near as brave as non believers since if believers are right they get heaven but if not, they get nothing. Unbelievers, on the other hand, get nothing if they are right and hell if they are wrong. The wise man must also have been a brave man!

Greg Koukl of Stand To Reason (www.str.org) has recently defended the existence of God by exposing three problems with the atheistic or unbeliever’s perspective.

The first is the fact that nothing cannot produce something. The world coming into existence from nothing is a difficult position to defend! As Koukl is fond of saying, “even a big bang requires a big banger”!

The second problem is the question of evil. Even though most people seem to have a natural ability to determine what is acceptable or unacceptable, it is difficult to project this as a naturalistic cause. Moral law cannot be adequately explained outside of a moral law giver.

The third “bump” that Koukl describes is the fact that we “are” and conscious of it. If we were but the product of a natural cause, our consciousness should not exist. Stuff has no consciousness so where do we get it? And where did we get the idea that we are broken, not just physically sick but morally corrupt? Only through an external reference point can any of this make any sense.

So, who says that there is a God? “I Am” says He does! And He has revealed himself to us in three ways. Through his word, through His son Jesus Christ and He has left his fingerprint all over His creation. Just look at your beautiful child!

So, How Do We Sum It Up?

Part of the series Questions For Home Education
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-09-29.

The which, where, how, when and what of home education is actually determined by one simple thing, our faith.

Our world view is shaped by everything we have experienced, whether true or false. We tend to trust what we have come to believe as true and may even defend ourselves when presented with opposing thoughts. This series is meant to challenge your world view.

Bible Reference: Luke 16:15

I find that whenever I am asked to summarize my thoughts about a subject, I usually come up with the same answer. The way we do things is rooted in what we believe. The Bible is clear on this issue, calling belief in what is true, faith and in what in not true as, a lack of faith. The world seems confused on this point, mixing up faith and lack of faith under the banner of “world view”, which can be defined as the sum of all that we have come to believe to be true and accurate, regardless of whether or not, it is in fact, true or accurate.

Jesus questioned whether He would find faith on earth upon His return (Luke 8:18). He was asking if there would be people who believed more in God than human institutions, who trusted more in God than human accreditation and who would follow God rather than pursuing money? Faith or lack of faith? Trust or fear? Confidence or confusion?

While we all demonstrate some degree of faith in our lives, we also demonstrate a clear lack of faith at the same time. Take home education for example. While most may believe that God created the children, most are also fearful that God has no interest in their futures! Somehow, we believe that the creative genius of God ends when the children are born and that their futures depend on us! Our actions demonstrates more of a belief that God creates and abandons than in His ability to create and direct, especially when it comes to the “high school” or secondary level education. Until our children reach puberty, it is easy to have faith in God, but when outside influences start whispering in our ears that God doesn’t care and that we have to do something, our fear takes over and our faith disappears. We try to appease these fears of the unknown, particularly the future of our children, by putting our trust in the world and its system of accreditation rather than in the all-knowing power of God. Faith in God yet fearful of His failing our children. Faith in God but uncertain of His abilities. Faith in God but following the constructs of man. Is this really faith? Small wonder Jesus doubted He would find faith on earth at His return!

Yes, it is true that home education can be summarized as being a question of faith. What do we believe about God? Can he finished what he started or as the Apostle Paul so clearly put it, “having begun by the Spirit, will we seek to be perfected by the flesh”? Faith or lack of faith? Trust or fear? Confidence or confusion? No matter what, it is faith, or a lack thereof.

What Will It Look Like?

Part of the series Questions For Home Education
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-09-22.

This one is bound to hurt a little!

Bible Reference: Prov. 19:21

Only God knows the answer to that question!

If we have focussed our attention on the eternal, we need to remind ourselves that that includes both the present and the future. We cannot predict where our children will end up, even if we have, to the best of our knowledge, done all that was required of us. Since there are no perfect parents, we can predict with certainty that there are no perfect children, perfectly following God’s will in their perfect careers and lives. Although it is a proven fact that home educated students do fair better in jobs and careers when compared to the average, it is foolish of us to expect perfect results of these imperfect children. Good results we should strive for but we are not always rewarded with what we expect. Every child has a mind of his/her own. Things can and do go wrong. What if they do?

Much as we may be tempted to blame ourselves for our children’s failures, those failures are usually more a matter of living in a sinful world than our having neglected to prepare them. Actually, we have all neglected to properly prepare our children because we are still in the process of learning ourselves. I personally believe that if we were given a chance to raise our children over again, we would all change at least some of the methods and techniques we employed. Sorry, we don’t get that chance, unless we help our children do a better job of raising their children than we did with them, and then, they will go ahead and invent brand new ways of failing their children, while we watch in dismay at how crazy this world really is!

Shocked that I would suggest things could go wrong? Wondering how you can cover their sin? Only Jesus has that ability! Busy trying to look good for the world? Sorry, it will not be the world who has the final say and we can hide nothing from Him. Best to be real, genuine, human in all our frailties. Nobody has a phenomenal family! Those that claim so are usually lying, if not to themselves, than to those who just might be able to learn and be encouraged by openly sharing the truth. We can only help others when we are willing to share with them, from our negative experiences as well as from the good ones.

What am I saying? Home education does offer a better chance of better results than sending them to be trained by strangers in Caesar’s system, but there is no guarantee, written or implied. Bad things do happen to good people, just as they do to bad people. However, preparing our children to be followers of Christ and citizens/servants within His Kingdom will at least prepare them for the inevitable bad time. Training and teaching them within the world’s failed system will only encourage failure with the potential disappointment of separation from God. Look for God’s accreditation and certification rather than man’s. It may not look normal, but normal is what we should all be striving to rise up above.

When Are You Done?

Part of the series Questions For Home Education
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-09-15.

Alas, all things must come to an end, but the end of one thing usually means the beginning of another.

Bible Reference: 1 Cor. 9:24

Good question! Never, really! At least not until we step off the planet.

The secular world has trained us to believe that education starts at age five, or once children have entered school and ends once they have “graduated”. Learning starts before we are even born and, I believe, will never end, as I presume there will be much to learn on the other side, no matter where we end up!

While we are alive in this world, we are teaching whether we know it or not. Someone is watching us. As parents, our roles change as the children grow up. Our job as parent/teachers has a few stages that tend to overlap. A child must be trained, starting with the ever present need to remind them that they are not the center of the universe. Parents have to be a bit more “authoritarian” at this stage and be the ones making the major decisions since children lack the wisdom to do so.

Teaching starts before puberty, but takes on a much more serious nature once past it. Increased demonstrated levels of responsibility should bring corresponding increased privileges. To extend adult responsibility too early is not good. Neither is retarding them as infants, as schools so often do. Eventually, your role becomes more of a mentor, an older person offering wisdom to a younger person, who should question you, not disrespectfully, but sincerely in their quest for knowledge and understanding.

God desires us all to grow up. Children are no different. Although it is a difficult transition, we must eventually “hand them off” to their heavenly father. This does not disqualify us as parents, but it changes our role, reducing our responsibility as children assume more responsibility for their own lives. This is a challenging time for everyone. The parents are concerned about having done a good job and the children are stepping into the frightening world of unknowns.

If we have directed our children to the real Center Of The Universe who not only created them, but endowed them with all that is needed to be successful in His kingdom, our job is reduced, but His job continues. This flies completely against the common knowledge that only man can truly prepare your child for a career of THEIR choice. Man’s way says that after eighteen, your job is done. God tells us that our job is never really done as long as we are aiming for eternal results. It just changes.

How Will You Get There?

Part of the series Questions For Home Education
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-09-08.

Is there a difference between training and teaching? Must be, since they are spelled differently becoming different words with different meanings.

Bible Reference: Proverbs 22:6

Many home educators have determined to do so in obedience to the directives given us through the Bible, with Proverbs 22:6 and Deut. 6:4-6 being the most quoted passages. Although these verses are instructive, it is the entire Bible that directs us to teach our children at home. However, let’s focus on these verses for the time being.

There are some things that people read into the scripture that are simply not there. We tend to use words interchangeably, thinking that they have and convey the same meaning, when they don’t. Proverbs 22:6 for instance directs us to TRAIN our child, not school them, or educate them or teach them for that matter. Deuteronomy 6:6 is often quoted without the preceding two verses that gives us what we should be TEACHING our children. Training is not the same as teaching. Training is more of a process while teaching is more of an event, something that is delivered while the training is the way it is enforced.

Training a child in the way that he should go is a process that directs children to the truth while honoring the unique attributes of the child and it is mostly accomplished before the child reaches puberty. The way that he should go has everything to do with what God has already created within them as well as the direction in which you are to lead them. Training requires consistent repetition, reinforcement and discipline to children who have not yet reached the age of accountability and therefore require parents to make decisions for them.

Teaching on the other hand is the direct or indirect input of knowledge within children at any age. It is important to note that Proverbs 22:6 refers to the individual child, which highlights their uniqueness while Deut 6:4-6 directs us to teach our children, which I take to mean our entire family. So what is the difference? Simple, really! The training will vary with each child while the teaching will be more of a family affair. It is true that different children learn different things at different times and in different ways, but Deuteronomy 6 addresses what they all need to learn.

Believers should see their children as special creations, a gift from God that must be trained and taught with the objective of leading them to be disciples of Jesus Christ. This should be the primary purpose of Christian home education. “Schooling” or “educating” to be productive members of society then becomes a product of the training and teaching as a secondary objective and not a goal in and of itself. Only then will the post secondary fall into place as the child begins his or her own walk with The Creator who will guide them to fulfill their life’s calling.

Where Are You Leading Them?

Part of the series Questions For Home Education
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-09-01.

We have all heard the first line of the Bible which reads, “in the beginning, God”, but how often do we consider that in the end, it is still God?

Bible Reference: Deut. 6:4-6

Raising children requires a lot of things, not the least of which is parental leadership. Since those in leadership positions are, supposedly… leading, it might be a good idea to ask them, exactly where they are leading us. Children would never ask such a question of their parents so it must be asked by parents of themselves. So, where are you leading your children?

Leadership requires a direction, otherwise it becomes whatever it has to be in order to survive, eventually taking on a life of its own. Leadership takes a variety of different approaches, not all which lead to life and truth. Leadership that makes sure nothing is ever challenged or questioned is not leadership but a way of maintaining the same old thing or encouragement to live in a rut. Leadership that is showing others how to do what everybody else is doing, is not leadership either, but simply a matter of being at the beginning of a line of followers. Leadership is showing that you know where you going and how you are going to get there. Leadership is not as much spoken as it is demonstrated by example. Once a path has been chosen, leadership does all it can to make that path available to all those who are following. Children follow parents, whether or not those parents have a plan. Good parents do. Bad parents don’t. Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Not good!

If the beginning is marked by God creating life, the end should be obvious. There may be a long time between the beginning and the end of your child’s life, but if there is no clear vision of where it all ends, nothing they will do in life will ultimately have any meaning. When parents focus on the temporal, there may be an appearance of success, even if only “temporarily”, but if the eternal becomes the goal, life takes on a meaning and decisions become thoughtful.

The beginning of home education is the realization that nothing can take the place of parents or of the God-given learning environment of the home. Parents ultimately will answer to an eternal God, not to man, so we need to pay more attention to the bigger picture. To acknowledge God as the beginning should lead to God in the end. If we train our children to see the end, then and only then will they be able to clearly see the path they need to take to get there. Parents, therefore have a relatively “minor” role in leading their children to the eternal God, who in turn assumes the larger role of leading them in their lives.