What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder...

On St. Valentine's Day this year, I'm grappling with decisions about schooling the children. I really should say "we" are but James agrees that for the most part, I'll be making the day to day decisions. He simply feels strongly about the children not going to public school. Ever. As someone recently said, "Mom is the teacher and Dad is the principal." We might just stick to that adage around here. 

My mind, though, is also dwelling on how often man does put asunder what God has joined together. St. Valentine, as we all know now, was a priest who got couples married even when there was a national ban on marriage when King Claudius hoped to get more men to fight his wars in ancient Rome. For this, he was martyred. Married people don't like to be away from their spouses, well, ban marriage. 

What does this have to do with homeschooling? A lot, John Taylor Gatto would say. 

My introduction to homeschooling has been different from the typical path. For whatever reason, I was drawn to it when the idea first entered my head when we left Pollock Pines. I was still pregnant with Hucksley and Bombie was one. Then I was picking up books at the local library when a homeschooling mom stopped to chat with me because she saw the books I was buying. She had her totally unselfconscious and confident children with her. She encouraged me to read Gatto and join an un-schooling network.

I hadn't the faintest idea what I was getting into.

Here we are about a year and a half later and I'm now trying to decide between charter schools or "pure" homeschool. Some places go as far as to say that if you're using a charter, you're not homeschooling, you're doing "independent study." I'm beginning to lean that way as well. Something inside me completely revolts at the idea of someone from a government agency walking into my house and "letting me" buy only what is according to certain guidelines. While the money is nice to be able to buy curricula, if I can't teach my children anything Christian unless it's "over and above" their usual coursework, then what's the point? 

I also read while browsing various Charter School websites that the education specialist / teacher / state representative stops by to give you your ordered material and talk to your children about what they're being taught. I know, I know. I'm sure it's done in a completely non-threatening way and the representative is not personally the mean guy, so to speak, but the very idea of it gives me a visceral reaction. 

So, I guess it makes me one of the others. 

The truth is, my husband and I is very much aware of man putting asunder what God has joined together on every level - marriage for one and education for another. I read in a great article in a homeschooling magazine yesterday that the first family of Adam, Eve and God is the true model for education of children. That is how education was to be imparted. From the parents to the children. I had a reverence for my teachers that rivaled my reverence for my parents. Guess who won out in the end? By the time I was a teenager, what my parents said didn't matter a whit. Maybe if I had been home schooled, the story would have been different. 

So we're going to do it. We're going to step out in faith and really, truly do it. We're going to homeschool. The Christian way. The way God intended. 

I can't wait!