Although few people give the future of a newborn child much thought, as they grow and mature there is a greater temptation to want to assure that future. Worth repeating is that parents are not responsible for the children’s future other than to prepare them in a general way so as not to limit their possibilities. This is where unschooling has an enormous advantage over any kind of school.

Understanding the homogenizing nature of school allows you to see how unschooling is so much better at preparing students for the future: we develop each child in keeping with who they are as compared to what schools do which is to move them toward what they “should” be. There is a very big difference between these two objectives.

Considering that there is no faith involved in school-based approaches to education, it is easy to see that their aim is to develop children toward what man desires rather than what God has ordained. This is why the biggest outcome of a twelve-year school education is likely to be generally confusion. Not so with the unschooled who have been loved as they are, encouraged to learn what interests them, and entrusted with the responsibility for their lives. Making children comfortable with who they are and confident in themselves and their faith is the aim and purpose of unschooling.

So why would any loving parent willingly sabotage their children’s well being by sending them to school or forcing them to post-secondary training? Truth is no loving parent would do that, but misinformed and misdirected parents could. The world has wholeheartedly adopted a government-knows-best attitude that is not boding well for the future. Most people have internalized this mindset, even going so far as to Christianize it in private schools. When the world is on this trajectory, it is extremely difficult to avoid falling into the vortex of unquestioning obedience to government fiat. Add peer pressure to that and you have a formula for delaying children’s God-given futures.

Twenty years ago, an article I wrote for the provincial home education association was rejected by the board when I boldly stated that Christian home education boils down to a question of faith. Repeating what Joshua had asked of the Israelites, “Choose this day whom you will serve,” the article was deemed offensive and was never published. Twenty years later, I am more convinced than ever that the success of Christian unschooling is directly proportional to the level of faith involved. Those who love and trust God intrinsically know He has their children’s best interest at heart. After all, He picked mom and dad to be His vessels in preparing His children for their futures, something He happens to know about! This is Christian home education.