Homeschooling and Religion

Part 2
Part 3

Religion plays a large part in homeschooling. Whether you are a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Humanist, Buddhist, or Atheist, religion affects your homeschooling family in some way. For some people, religion is the reason they homeschool. For others, religion becomes a stumbling block in the road to the "all important" socializing of their children. Religion has made and is still making far reaching ripples in the homeschooling pond.

The first ripple I want to explore is religion as a reason for homeschooling. There are two schools of thought in this ripple. There are many families who believe that God has said that they must homeschool. It is not a choice. They made their choice when they chose to follow all God's commandments, not just the Big 10. Homeschooling is just one of the many commandments they follow. For others, homeschooling is a way of protecting their children from the wickedness that prevails in public schools. They do not like the teachings, nor do they like the bad examples of other students. While the first set of parents would not consider private schools, many of the second group would willingly send their children to a private church school. Unfortunately, there are two problems with this solution. The first major problem is cost. Many families who choose to homeschool do so because they cannot afford to send their children to private schools (thereby killing the notion that homeschooling is for the rich elite). The second problem is more disconcerting: many of the church run schools are just as bad as the public schools. So, these parents homeschool because they feel they have no other option. Most of the people homeschooling for religious reasons seem to be Christians. These people make up the most vocal group of homeschoolers. This causes the second ripple.