1. Why We Home- Educated and Why We’d Do It Again Michael Goheen Burnaby, B.C.

2. Introduction Background –Home educated four to end of secondary school –Lecture worldwide in education Why did we home-educate? –Not: academic excellence, character building, moral training, protection from wicked world –But: Christian education Why would we do it again? –Fruits and results we never anticipated

3. Academic Reasons Excellent education Read/write/think creatively and critically Able to foster strengths of each Breadth of subjects: e.g., able to teach intellectual history, art history Extracurricular activities and subjects. String quartet. Important foundational studies: Biblical and western worldview. Explicitly Christian: most important consideration. Kids enjoy learning; curiosity remains. Verbal skills Flexibility

4. Social Reasons Develops leaders Not primarily peer-oriented or dependent; ‘lemmings’ or clones Boundary breaking: Age; gender More positive interactions per day Contribution to broader community Relationships: kids at home are forced to work through problems when they disagree, argue, or fight Support group. Family relating to family not just kids. More wholistic.

5. Family Reasons Friendships: Kids and parents Flexibility in schedules: enabled us to be involved in other creative things Marnie continued to learn as she prepares and reads. Marnie really knows our kids Fathers are able to play bigger role in lives of kids. Learning same subjects at different levels Kids learn from each other. Older teach younger. No homework! Have evenings together.

6. ‘Spiritual’ reasons Family worship. Single most important dimension of our family Many spinoffs have come we did not anticipate

7. Moral reasons Able to develop moral maturity. Following scenario common: kids learn from peers, learn things not acceptable to parents, parents lay down law to curb behaviour, legalism, friction Moral fibre and convictions; peer- orientation not factor.

8. Aesthetic Reasons Kids able to develop insight and discernment in: –music –art –drama.

9. Emotional Reasons Develop more healthy emotional stability. Not peer and social pressure. Security –bullying rampant in (also Christian) schools; –pressure for ‘romance’ ‘Adolescent angst’: Comes from grouping together kids who struggling with identity

10. Learning/Life Integration Ongoing connection and discussion between life and learning. No artificial (‘rational’) structures. Better prepared for so-called ‘real world’

11. Public Life Able to criticize and analyse current events Analyse critical areas: e.g., media, globalization, economics, technology

12. Challenge Challenge each of you to list some categories and list/talk about benefits Tell stories Talk about struggles