Be Not Conformed

From TOS Schoolhouse Support e-newsletter dated March 2009


Peer Pressure. Just the thought gives me the willies (whatever those are!). I have enough pressure coming from my own expectations, let alone other people's expectations of me. How I behave under pressure is not always pretty, either. I can become frustrated and angry when I don't meet my or other's imposed expectations. It becomes even worse when I have expectations of my children to perform like others. They'll never meet everyone else's standards, and we shouldn't desire them to. The eternal standards we should desire our children to meet are those set by the Word of God. The academic standards should be individualized for each child to help him achieve excellence in all he does, where he is, not based on where others are.


There are actually two kinds of peer pressure: negative and positive.

Negative peer pressure is the kind of pressure from outside influences that causes us to want to conform to this world. It is especially difficult to resist this pressure the younger you are. That is one of the beauties of home education. There is little pressure within the home to conform to the world's standards. In fact, quite the opposite. Training children up within the home setting avoids nearly all negative peer pressure. Instead of conforming to look like, act like, or speak like the world and do the things this world deems valuable, there is value placed on each child because he knows he is his Father's son and lives for a different world and set of standards. Beware of negative peer pressure even within your church's youth or children's programs that try to look like, act like, or speak like the world.

Positive peer pressure is the kind of peer pressure that happens when we allow our children to see good, Godly examples of what it looks like to be a child of God and a person of excellence. Knowing like-minded homeschooling families is a big plus. Our children see that there are other children living up to the high standards of God's Word and succeeding, thereby causing some needed encouragement for our child to conform to the Word of God as well. There are times when I have looked around at homeschool friends and have seen desirable character traits that I might have neglected teaching my own children and begin to start working on with mine. Or I have seen academic studies that might benefit my little schoolhouse, and I have adopted those ideas, too.

Whether negative or positive, all pressure should be brought before the Lord as we seek His guidance for ourselves and our children. What are we supposed to be doing? What is our reasonable service? His Word gives us the answer:

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12:1,2

By God's mercy,

~ Deborah

SeniorEditor@TheHomeschoolMagazine.com

Deborah Wuehler is the wife of Richard, homeschool mother of eight beautiful and challenging children, and the Senior Editor for The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine.

Standardized Testing

I decided to give my dd a "standardized test" just for the fun of it.  I found one at Internet4Classrooms.com.  It was from 2002 and available to print for free.  You know me and free!!!!

My dd hasn't been doing as well as I had thought, so it made me analyze what is going on with the test.  After all, it can't be my dd!  Here's some insights I've been gleaning from this process.

1. There are 3 sections to each subject (Reading, English/Language Arts, Math).  She gets gets better scores with each new section she takes.  My dd has never taken a test before, so this shows that she's actually learning a new skill as she gains familiarity with test taking. 
2. Verbage.  I have been teaching dd using correct terminology while this test simplified things.  For instance, "syllables" became "word parts."  "Alphabetical order" became "ABC order."  "Verb" became "action word." 
3. Subject matter.  This is nothing new.  I dealt with this issue when I taught in Christian schools, as well.  Standardized tests are geared to the public school system which they serve.  Therefore, when a Christian school or homeschool student takes the tests, there may be things they didn't cover that year because of the different curriculum used.  For instance, First Language Lessons doesn't cover comma usage, using the dictionary, or adjectives, so those types of questions were more challenging.  However, proper & common nouns and pronouns which were covered in the book were not tested.

So, there are my thoughts.  Would love to hear some other thoughts on the issue!

Teachers as Truth Brokers

This is from God's World News e-newsletter 4/12/10


Teachers as Truth Brokers


Just before he was crucified, Jesus had an eye-opening confrontation with Pontius Pilate about truth. In response to one of Pilates's questions, Jesus said, "I come into the world to testify to the truth, and everyone on the side of truth listens to me." What an amazing statement!

Pilate's cynical response, "What is truth?," sums up the attitude of our current generation. We are living today in a culture which has become cynical and sometimes downright hostile to truth.

According to a recent survey, 73 percent of Americans no longer believe in moral absolutes. Truth is no longer a universal concept. Few people dare testify any longer to knowing the truth, leaving us only with an individual's personal belief in what's true for him.

Living in an age stripped of absolutes--an age where, according to the prophet, "Truth has stumbled in the streets" (Isaiah 59:14), it has never been more important to answer the question, "What are we doing to help our children develop a love for the truth?"

See That No One Takes You Captive

The Bible teaches that we are constantly under the threat of being taken captive by the hollow philosophies of our age. Colossians 2:8 says, "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."

These empty principles get a foothold in our children's lives through deception. They appear to be good. They mask themselves as neutral or harmless, but ultimately result in taking our children captive--making them slaves to the world.

The Bible also tells us how to resist being taken captive: "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Christian teachers unmask the lies that would undermine the knowledge of God in our children by taking every thought captive to Christ. We keep our children free by teaching them how to take every idea captive to Christ. Otherwise they are vulnerable to being taken captive by the lies of the evil one.

Teachers as Truth Brokers

So how important is the role of Christian teachers in helping our children develop a biblical worldview? And will the sweeping technological revolution make their role obsolete in the future? By no means! In fact, it's just the opposite.

The explosion of information available to students today makes the role of the Christian teachers more indispensable than ever. Christian teachers are truth brokers, accomplishing their task by helping students interact with truth in four progressive ways:

 Encountering the Truth

In classes studying math, science, the Bible, or art, Christian teachers help their students encounter truth on a daily basis. They employ a variety of means to stimulate students to search for the truth, uncover it, and understand it in all its manifold expressions in God's creation.

· Engaging the Truth

After helping them encounter truth, teachers spur students to engage the truth with their minds. They devise creative activities that get them working and wrestling with it--activities that magnify the power, beauty, and reasonableness of the truth.

· Endorsing the Truth

Relying on the Spirit of truth to make it clear, teachers encourage their students to endorse the truth with their minds. They commend the truth in such winsome ways that students approve it, submit to it, support it, and endorse it. Thus teachers equip students with the ability to defend the truth as they are confronted by the various deceitful elements of our culture.

· Embracing the Truth

Finally, Christian teachers lead their students to embrace the truth with their hearts. Setting a persuasive example, teachers inspire students to integrate gladly the truth into their daily lives. In this final stage, students are brought to love, treasure, and obey the truth.

In All Things

A child's education may have many commendable qualities that provide an appearance of excellence. But like a house of cards, even the best looking education will come tumbling down if it is not built on the foundation of God's truth. Praise God for the truth. And work daily to foster in tomorrow's leaders a lifetime of treasuring the truth of God in all things.

- Russ Gregg