Michael Wagner – Page 17

Which Path Will You Take?

Part of the series Questions For Home Education
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-08-25.

There are two sides to every story and two paths for every task. One leads to God, the other away from him.

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: Haggai 1:5-6

Nearing the end of the book of Deuteronomy, we are given a simple choice between life and death, blessings or curses. Jesus talks of a broad, easy way that leads to destruction and a narrow, difficult way that leads to life. There are a number of places in scripture that makes it look like life is a simple choice between two opposing positions. If only it was that easy!

The problem is that while there is a single version of the truth regarding a matter, there exists at the same time a multitude of versions to the opposing lie, some of which come very close to the truth. C.S. Lewis stated that the best lie is 98% true. Since we are constantly bombarded with “variations of the truth”, we often fall prey to things that ultimately lead us away from God, with whom rests all truth, rather than to Him.

One of the tricks to get us to believe a lie is to confuse words that appear to mean the same thing. Schooling, educating, training, teaching, and learning or curriculum, programs, and courses, are such terms. If they were the same, would there be a need for different words? Once this confusion is established, anything can be passed off as true, accepted, normalized and even made to harmonize with the Bible, when it clearly is in contradiction with what it actually says. People are lead astray by misusing words to create a replacement for the real thing and push it as the only choice. School has provided such an opportunity for parents to include error in their plan to raise children, even to the point of being fearful of not meeting the false expectations of others that had nothing to do with giving birth to your children in the first place, much less having any idea of what is needed to fulfill your child’s life.

This week’s scripture reference shows us that when we follow the “alternate” path to what God has prescribed, we may get some satisfaction, but no real fulfillment. Since God has never relinquished parental authority and responsibility for the training and teaching of children to any other agency, we can apply a practical example to those given in this passage. We can state that “we school our children but teach them nothing of value” or summarize it all by stating that God’s way fulfills, while man’s way confuses. Here again, we have a choice. Which path will you take when training and teaching your children?

Back In The Saddle!

Written by Léo & Faye Gaumont, published on 2014-08-18.

Everything is true until we learn differently!

Bible Reference: Neh 8:10

Time sure does fly! It seems like we have only begun our break and here we are, back in the saddle again!

We sincerely hope you have had a good summer and are now refreshed, renewed, reinvigorated and looking forward to a another year of leading, learning and lessons.

Our summer was less than ideal as trouble seemed to follow us through those supposed “lazy days of summer”, but then again, it is not that anyone is ever trouble free, at least not on this side of heaven. We all wish that all those negative things that seem to plague our lives would simply go away, but they do not usually do so until after we have learned our lesson from them, whether we are on “vacation” or not. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, it is said, and some of us should be feeling pretty strong by now! However, that strength is not usually as much an inner strength as it is God’s strength. Learning to let go of these issues is very difficult, especially when God has created you to solve problems and fix things, as is the case with most men, or to feel the pain, as with most women. Neither men, nor women can actually handle problems alone. We all need God to carry us through, not around, our issues. We are all in desperate need of something bigger than ourselves when the problems are bigger than ourselves!

Some of you will remember the turn of the millennium, when we said goodbye to the 1900s and hello to the 2000s. Some believed it would be the end of the world! Hard to believe that we are now starting our 16th year since then! The 2014-15 school year will continue as things were, at least for this year, as the new home education regulations will not take effect until next year, we are told. However, we must bear in mind that God has never changed His mind about who, what, where and how children are to be trained and taught to be disciples. We need not wait with baited breath for new directives when the old ones have never been abolished!

Looking forward to being of service to you again this year.

Summer Holidays

Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-06-15.

THANKS FOR READING THIS YEAR’S BLOGS. RESUMING IN MID AUGUST. HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!

Nothing to disclaim about wishing you all a good summer!

Bible Reference: Num. 6:24-26

There will be few who will take the time to read this blog, I am sure. As Canadians, we wait for eight months so we can enjoy the outside for four, two of which we can actually count on for having nice weather! So, when summer comes, most of us are outside and as far away from our winter activities as possible. Enjoying summer does not mean children have stopped learning. On the contrary, they will probably have greater opportunity to learn more interesting things about life in a real world, so go ahead and have fun.

This blogger, being a true Canadian, has also determined to enjoy a bit of time off for the summer, so I will resume blogging when our office opens again in mid-August.

At Year’s End

Written by Léo & Faye Gaumont, published on 2014-06-16.

A heartfelt appeal to families registered with Education Unlimited to examine our hearts in light of a few rather unpleasant situations regarding “money”.

Honesty is always the best approach, even when not appreciated by everyone. Sometimes things just have to be stated, even at the risk of offending those whose guilt causes them to object.

Bible Reference: Matt. 6:24

As we close the office for the season, I am compelled to share a summary of what we observed over the past year. All in all, it was a good year, with many opportunities to help and encourage families, first, within the Province Of Alberta through Education Unlimited and hopefully beyond its borders through our web site and this blog. However, as with anything in life, some negative things also occurred. Besides the constant concern for the few families that are tempted to follow the trend to complete secular programming and accreditation, the biggest disappointment this year had to be the fallout from a decision we were essentially forced to make regarding parent resources funding.

After resisting for ten years, we had to stop the indefinite carryover of parent resources funding five years ago, as it became impossible to manage. We then instituted a new carryover policy of one year which was a lot of work for us, but we did it as a service to our families. This year, as a consequence of retroactive changes enacted by the government, we found that any carryover of unused funds created a logistical nightmare for both our school and accountants, so we were forced to put an end to parent resources funding unused in one year being carried over into the following year. It was our sincere hope that everything would carry on as before, but our worst fears were realized once we announced the discontinuation of carryover. Even after clearly stipulating that any unused funds was not going into our personal pockets, nor was it returned to the government, but assumed by our school (to whom we are eternally grateful for the privilege of working with, since they are not in a compromising position), we initiated a “greed stampede” that we could not have imagined coming from our group of mostly dedicated Christians!

Funding paid to the school for the delivery of home education was suddenly “my money”. By far the most frequently asked question asked of our office this spring was “how much money do I have left?”. How money sent to our school suddenly became “the parents’ money” is hard to imagine, unless one considers the insidious power money has over people. If this funding belonged to parents who could spend it as they wish, would not the government have sent the money directly to them? The truth is, perhaps the government knew that to do so would initiate the kind of thing we witnessed this year, so they send the money to the school rather than to the parents so the school could properly mange the funds on the parents’ behalf. I must now admit that the government has probably acted with more wisdom than those parents who were so obsessed with spending “their money”, that they were more than willing to sabotage relationships we have had with them, some for a very long time. When money becomes so important, we are willing to accuse, insult or abuse others, we have a serious problem that is bound to have long lasting negative consequences for home education in this province. But then again, maybe that is what the government had in mind when they made the money available in the first place! Throw a little money in the ring and watch the “Christians” destroy each other over it! Sad, but we can always count on the misinformed and the greedy to wreck it for the disciplined and principled. Perhaps there should not be any funding for home education. Maybe then, we could switch our efforts to more meaningful tasks, like modeling an eternal vision for our children, rather than focussing on the temporal.

What is Our Life’s Ambition?

Written by Léo & Faye Gaumont, published on 2014-06-09.

Where we are focussed in life will determine the future of our families.

Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the blogger which, although based on a personal knowledge of the scriptures can be in error, as no one has a corner on the truth. We simply and sincerely search for it.

Bible Reference: 1 Cor. 10:31

While on a vacation, we had the opportunity to visit a grand old house that had been built by a well to do individual who lived and died in the late nineteenth century. More of a castle than a house, it provided us with several thoughts regarding life and why we live it. It was made clear that the individual who built this house, wanted to make his mark in the world. He wanted to show the “old money” establishment that “new money” could do as much as the “old”. He was seeking recognition from his fellow men in building a house he would never live to enjoy, as he died two years before it’s completion. Having focussed on the things of this world, he left a lot of money he likely discovered he could not take with him, as well as a large family that he had neglected in order to amass the money. His castle, intended to impress the world, was eventually viewed as an out of place monstrosity, that not even his family wanted. Twenty years after the death of this man, his only mark was actually nothing more than a marker for his grave. Nobody could answer our questions regarding what happened to the family or the big pile of money. What a sad story!

On the same vacation, we also got to visit an incredibly beautiful garden. This garden was also originally created by a well to do family that lived about the same time as the builders of the castle, but this family had a different focus. They apparently were also interested in leaving their mark in this world, but that mark was to glorify God rather than man. They saw beauty in what God had created and did a marvelous job of displaying that beauty. Focussed on God rather than man, they left a world famous garden that is still owned and operated by descendants of the original family. Their name has been preserved in the garden they constructed with what God had created. The family is still connected.

Two families living at the same time. Both in very prosperous businesses. Both wanted to leave a mark on the world. One wanted his name immortalized by man, the other just loved God’s creation and wanted to share it’s beauty with others. The one who was focussed on his accomplishments has all but vanished from the history books. The other, who was more focussed on God and His creation, lives on as the namesake of a beautiful legacy known as the Butchart Gardens.

Learning is Natural

Written by Léo & Faye Gaumont, published on 2014-06-02.

Learning as a natural a coughing and sneezing. It cannot be developed but it can, and should be, directed.

While having breakfast at a restaurant the other day, we had the good fortune to be sitting near enough to a young family to be able to hear the conversation of a very young girl with her parents. Although she may have been under two years of age, she communicated intelligently with clear articulation, that left no one in doubt of what she intended to say. While being entertained by her expressions and demeanor, we started discussing the the complexities of language and the ease with which most children simply cobble together the ability to communicate.

While animals have a variety of forms with which they communicate to each other, only man can truly share in abstract ways. Starting by simply crying when there were needs, this little girl must have quickly got the attention of her parents, who although they were mostly guessing, could determine what was required. This basic foundation eventually included hand gestures and body language, leading to the first word, then words, sentences, and thoughts. One of the most complicated things the child will ever learn, learned without the need for a guide, curriculum or program. When did God appoint professionals to direct this learning program? How did we do before these programs were invented. Did we learn to communicate, think and live? How could that have been possible? You would think the way people, government, church and society behaves, that learning was only invented when schools were created. Learning is natural. Education is not. Scripture directs us to train, not educate, our children. All of us were trained to do what we do, with or without the help of programs and professionals. How we were educated will determine the how and why we do what we do.

Learning comes as naturally as scratching, sneezing, and coughing. There is no need to break it down into subject parts and subparts over a twelve year period. Provide the opportunity and they will learn. Direct the program and you direct the child.

Graduation?

Written by Léo & Faye Gaumont, published on 2014-05-26.

Graduation from what? Have we stopped learning? Time to rethink what we are celebrating.

We often refrain from being honest because we do not wish to offend those who need to hear the truth. Opinions expressed in this blog are intended to offend those who would advance anything, other than the truth, in order to benefit themselves.

Bible Reference: 1 Cor. 9:24

How quickly and easily do we accept things as normal. All that has to happen is for something to have occurred once and it can quickly become an unquestioned habit. Take graduation as an example. School graduation is a celebration, when a piece of paper of questionable value is given to students as a reward for having completed or endured the prescribed 12 years of programming. I attended over twenty such celebrations but I never really saw a celebration of accomplishments as much as an implication that the learning program was now over. Usually, the graduation took on more of a celebration of having been paroled! I cannot say with confidence that teachers and parents, who must have been questioning what, exactly, their children had learned in school, really liked these events, but girls generally liked it because they could get dressed up in nice gowns and be the center of attention for a day and guys generally liked it because the girls were attractive. I believe most of them were looking forward to the follow up graduation party at which time they could demonstrate the level of maturity they had reached after twelve years of preparation for the “real” world!

So why do home educators think they need to have a graduation? Did something come to an end? Certainly not learning, I hope. Since we are doing our own thing, why do we need to have the same conclusion as the world we left? Maybe it is something like Halloween. Instead of exposing it for what it is, we create a “Christian” version, which is then normalized because we celebrated with candy and gifts in the church rather than by going door to door. We do not have to do the same thing as the world! If we are doing something different, like home educating, lets do something different to mark the transition from learning at home to learning away from home. If it is necessary, why not simply have a family celebration when the child turns sixteen, at which time most home educated students have completed curricular work, are old enough to drive and go to work. Home educated students are better educated, more mature and adept at getting along in a real world, so if we are to celebrate, why not celebrate a coming of age? Something that includes the fact that God is part of every child’s future, even if they don’t know it. Something that celebrates life, independence and faithfulness, not just something stating the program is over and that you will now have to learn how to get along in world you were not really prepared for. There is only one graduation that counts and that is the day we graduate from this world into God’s world, unless, of course, there is no cause for celebration. Most of us kept our children home so could celebrate, in the end.

We Don’t Need Credits

Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-05-19.

Greater faith in man than in God will lead us in lots of directions, but probably not the best one.

Bible Reference: Galatians 3:3

It is simply amazing how parents can throw away everything they have done to properly prepare their children for their future, as soon as post-secondary options are considered. Students go to an institution and, without making any reference to having been home educated, ask what is required to gain admission. They are shocked when they are told that they need government accreditation! What did they expect? When 95% of the students making application to the post-secondary institutions are coming from public schools (including separate, alternative, charter, online, private, home school providers, etc.), where they get government accredited programming, it should not surprise us if the expectation is government accreditation! Home education is not about having someone else take responsibility for the education of the children, but an opportunity to to take control of that education. Students and parents would do well to at least inform the admissions people of the fact that they have been home educated and then to help them understand that they do have an excellent foundation from which to advance to the post-secondary level. Instead, students leave disappointed and discouraged, often blaming their parents for having directed them to failure! Parents are tempted or simply forsake home education and go where credits are offered. There are no shortage of places willing to help the parents get those credits as this process does result in extra cash to the provider. Besides, can we not be as foolish as the Galatians who, having begun by the Spirit, were seeking perfection by the flesh!

God does not need accreditation and neither do his children. Secular thinking, that assumes all children are the same evolutionary product, will program children and accredit them. Institutions have long taken accreditation for granted as they normalize the process. Faith in God means working hard while trusting Him to direct us in our lives. If He wants us in college, we will get there. But, if we put our faith in man, don’t be surprised if at the end of the day, you find that you have made a mistake. No problem! God will still be there and still be directing you, after you discover that you decided to go backwards in order to advance.

Unwitting Advancement of Secularism

Part of the series Friendship With The World
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-05-12.

The bottom line in the believer’s credo should be, “is this God’s will?”. No need to add “for me” as He is the same God for you as for me. This simplifies our faith as there are only two options, for Him or against Him.

Bible Reference: James 3:14-16

“Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law”, the officer told me, after pulling me over for pulling a u-turn at a lighted intersection, over thirty years ago. He made a real impression on me. If he, the representative of the government, could scare me out of my wits, what excuse could I present to the Creator of the universe when that time came? Sorry God, I didn’t know lying was bad? I’m afraid I was not aware of exchanging your truth for a lie? How about, gee whiz, I trusted my councilors to give me good advice since I did not have time to read the Bible for myself? Not likely!

If there was one pivotal experience that caused me to grow up in a hurry and to reevaluate all that I had come to believe to be true, it was when I held my newborn baby daughter in my arms for the first time. Where would I lead her? What would I tell her? How would I direct her? I clearly understood this much. She was no other’s responsibility but my own and I alone would stand before God someday and answer for the job I had done in raising her. Although I had a rudimentary faith in God, I did not understand who I was in His eyes, nor did I comprehend the depth of His love for me as demonstrated through His Son, Jesus Christ. But I did believe there would be no “yeah buts” or negotiation when the inevitable time came. I began to diligently search for the truth that I would use to raise my children and I found it as I read the bible over and over again. I came to clearly understand that truth was truth, that if it wasn’t true, it was a lie and that there was no room for compromise. I also eventually came to believe that most of what I thought was true, was in fact not true at all. Truth was not what I invented. It was not something that was democratically determined or agreed upon through consensus. It was because God said so. End of discussion!

If it is not true then it is not true. Secular humanism makes man to be his own god, but he isn’t, no matter what he thinks. His religion is to make every other religion, wrong. Christianity should boldly state the truth. Let the chips fall where they may. Giving birth to children has never been duplicated by any other means, than that ordained by God. We gave them life and we need to raise them in keeping with where this life comes from. Man’s explanations are ludicrous at best. They try to make God as god and god as God. There is but one God and there are simply no other gods, at all.

To advance man as god is secular humanism. It is the enemy of truth and should have absolutely no part of anything claiming the be advancing the Christian faith. How we have come to a point of normalizing this false faith within the Christian home education community is no mystery. A greater faith in man than God, mixed with the wonderful opportunity to make money and a belief that God will forgive us our indiscretions, has made parts of this community a painful example of unbridled compromise. It is time true believers take back the reigns from the mercenary organizations and do our part to help the fearful, ignorant, greedy, along with the compromisers, to enable them to see that God is an exacting yet merciful God who simply wants to bless us within His Eternal Kingdom. This Kingdom existed before us and will continue to exist long after we have left this world. This is what we are to teach our children.

The Problem is…

Part of the series Friendship With The World
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-05-05.

God’s will, God’s way should be the desire of professing believers, but sometimes money, power or ignorance, leads us to make questionable decisions.

Bible Reference: Psalm 127:1

Over the last two weeks, I gave two examples of how a little compromise here and a little bad decision there accumulates over time, resulting in our arriving to where we would not have desired or predicted in the first place. Both examples involve how funding directed education. It should not come as a surprise, that he who pays the piper, calls the tune! None of us would pay to have something we disagree with advanced on our dime. Similarly, the state that pays the schools to deliver educational programming is fully within it’s right to demand the delivery of that programming, on its terms. The issue, therefore, is not whether the state can or cannot make demands of those it pays, as much as what will the citizens do with the options provided? Yes, there are options available. Do we acknowledge the claims, made by the state, that the authority for the training of children belongs to them, or will we acknowledge that God has perpetually given that authority to parents, fathers in particular? If we choose to follow God’s directives it follows that the state’s Godless, secular humanistic, anti-Christian programming, that is largely antithetical to biblical authority, has no place in the education of Christians’ children. And, if the state programming has no place, then the secular philosophies, assumptions, methodology, pedagogy, applications, standards and evaluations should also have no place in their education. Either we advance what is acceptable by God’s standard or we don’t. Either we employ things that are for God or they are working against Him. This is what we should know, but most of us don’t.

Public state programming works completely opposite to biblical directives in most, if not, all things. There are many who would advance the program as neutral, harmless or fixable, but can it serve both God and man? A rudimentary understanding of scripture should direct us otherwise so why do private Christian schools and home education providers advance it? Three possibilities: money, power and ignorance or any combination thereof.

We need not talk about the money as we have dealt with that many times in the past. Leaders focussed on money are simply mercenaries that don’t care about how the outcome of their decisions will affect others.

Leaders willing to sacrifice the welfare of their people to maintain their position in leadership are corrupted by a need to be in control. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it. If a leader is only interested in maintaining leadership at any cost, anything can or will be advanced as acceptable, even so far as to normalize or “Christianize” secular philosophies.

What about ignorance? It is shameful that people in leadership positions should be ignorant, but it happens. Three groups of people come to mind when discussing ignorance. Traditional home educators, in varying degrees of understanding, are generally not ignorant of the dangers of public programming and avoid it. Others are truly ignorant and see nothing wrong with the use of public programming. Then, there are those who choose to be ignorant, knowing that the state programming is not acceptable by biblical standards, yet choose to advance it anyway. Purposefully leading those who are unaware of the dangers of state programming to follow them in their folly demonstrates a lack of understanding, a short term vision or even, perhaps, a diabolical agenda.