Home Schooling:  Our Story

by Gayle Anderson

It was 1984. Our son and daughter, then twelve and ten, had endured our last military move. They had gone to public schools in the states and an American public school overseas.

According to their teachers in the different schools, our son and daughter had done well. One had been in the gifted program called "GATE." Both were prolific readers due to having no television in the home. Both had been well behaved in the classroom.

Already, though, we had kept them back a year. Earl and I knew at that time that they were not doing well, despite teacher reassurances. And that year of 1984, our parental instincts shouted that they still were not doing well.

We would return them to public school, it was decided. But why not keep them out for a month or two for some tutorial cramming? That, we figured, would give them all needed to do well for that year and onward.

Things did not go well, though. Both children struggled with problems we could not comprehend. Was there defiance to our educational abilities? To our authority? Or, was there something else going on? Despite the hit to a weak checkbook, we paid out for a professional evaluation from a firm specializing in learning disabilities.

"Your children have dysgraphia," the caseworker explained. "It is severe with both. This should have been evident when your children were five-years-old and certainly by six. At this late stage, they have a problem."

Indeed, they had a big problem. The specialists continued testing. And their evaluations were not encouraging. "They have big holes in their learning. They got behind, and they never caught up. And the holes are significant. For example, your son does not know a third of his capital letters. Your daughter is incapable of processing information from a blackboard and putting it onto paper."

We were angry. We felt betrayed. Why had the teachers been so utterly unaware of our children’s needs? But why hadn’t we been more aware of our children’s needs?

We had, however, trusted the teachers. They were the professionals. Our generation had been taught to trust professionals. Years later, cynicism would come to my generation. But the young adults of the seventies and eighties revered those who held the pieces of paper. Professionals always knew better for they had been trained to know better. My mother had especially fostered this thinking. Throughout my youth, I had heard her disdain for parental interference. Neither Earl nor I ever wanted to be anything but a compliant parent.

Broken and heartbroken, we took our children before the Lord. We began to research the Scriptures. We had failed, and we wanted to know why we had failed. And God showed us the painful truth. He had given our children to us to train. And we had abandoned them to others. Later, we learned that parents can delegate educational responsibility to others, but parents are ultimately responsible. God showed us that we were the ones who had failed.

Earl and I decided that God wanted us to go back and do what we could to make things right with our children. Later we would apologize to them for our failures. At that point, we took them all the way back in their education to first grade. Step by step, we worked with them to fill holes. Their days of traditional schooling were over.

God was abundantly gracious to us. The first year required a lot of one-on-one tutoring. The second year, our son and daughter had discovered interest areas that drove their desire for learning on their own. Two years of home education and they were past high school in most subjects.

At fourteen, our son took his first college course. At fifteen, our daughter started hers. Today, our son is a programming consultant with his own business. Our daughter holds a Juris Doctorate amongst other degrees and certificates. She, however, mostly taught herself the skills needed for her present position as a specialist with computer servers.

What we most appreciate about our experience with home education is that we got the privilege to get to know our children and learn with them and grow with them. We, also, got the privilege of molding their character instead of permitting a jaded society or an anti-Christ educational system to do so.

What God revealed to us is that He is the great Redeemer. Whatever we put into His hands—whatever you put into His hands—He can turn around for good. We serve an awesome God.

  

  

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