Spring 2017

SPRING 2017

HOMESCHOOL IOWA 17

tude, disciplined study habits, better character, and

greater leadership potential. So we need not worry.

We do, however, have to keep our eye on the larg-

er goal. Yes, the country may need more well-edu-

cated citizens, and the world probably needs better

thinkers and problem solvers. Even Bill Gates sees

that. But we know something that he doesn’t; we

know that what the world really needs is more good

people. The last thing we need is another atheist

Ph.D.; what we most desperately need are thought-

ful and ethical people, wise and just, with faith

grounded in reason. Truly, the confusion in modern

education stems from a profound misunderstand-

ing of what education really is. Although the world

around us shouts loudly and clearly that schools

are for socialization and job training, deep down

we know that isn’t what education is meant to be.

How about a much older, better idea—that educa-

tion is actually about the cultivation of wisdom and

virtue? I like that. I liked it the first time I heard it, and

I still do. If we can, as energetically as possible, help

build a generation of wise and virtuous, God-fearing,

articulate, faith-filled thinkers, what greater calling

could we ask for? What greater work could we find?

Then, of course, we must ask, how can we best

cultivate wisdom and virtue? Again, going to the

ancients as well as the great Christian theologians,

we see this is accomplished by filling the soul with

Goodness, Truth, and Beauty. Fortunately, the home

is well suited for this: the training of the will (to do

the good), the mind (to know the truth), and the

heart (to love beauty). It is ideal for the development

of character, knowledge, and skills.

With home education we see abundant opportu-

nities to serve one another in the family and in the

community, thereby developing the will to do what

is right, when it ought to be done, even when it is un-

comfortable and inconvenient. Selflessness and ser-

vice develop character and properly order the will.

Ideally, education should be individualized, with content and

pacing appropriate to the student, which is one area in which

even the best schools cannot compete. The small home or cot-

tage school, with each student working at his or her natural

pace and free to pursue, more or less, his or her interests, is an

ideal that even professional educators will usually affirm. Fur-

thermore, parents have the freedom to choose content based

on God’s truth, not the relativism of modernism so ubiquitous

in science, history, and literature taught in public schools today.

Lastly, we know that homeschooling is a perfect environ-

ment for developing skills— the way beauty is brought forth

into the world, whether through music, art, writing, speaking,

photography, or film. Home-educated students are blessed

with the freedom to pursue a passion, the discipline to at-

tain excellence, and the desire to do so for the glory of God.

Put in that perspective, what we are doing is indeed the

most important work on earth. Let us not become weary of

doing good.

ANDREW PUDEWA

is the founder and director

of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Present-

ing throughout North America, he addresses

issues relating to teaching, writing, thinking,

spelling, and music with clarity, insight, practical

experience, and humor. He and his wonderful, heroic wife, Robin,

have homeschooled their seven children and are nowproud grand-

parents of eight, making their home in Northeastern Oklahoma’s

beautiful green country.

WORKSHOPS

•

Leadership Education: The Seven Keys of Great Teaching

•

Teaching Boys & Other Children Who Would Rather Make

Forts All Day

•

Fairy Tales and the Moral Imagination

•

The Four Deadly Errors of Teaching Writing

•

The Four Language Arts

LET US NOT

BECOME WEARY