the forgotten freedoms of childhood

When we woke up this morning, the weather was primed to be near perfect and we decided to call off school so we could spend the entire day outside, doing nothing in particular and just enjoy the outdoors without any obligation to a to-do list This simple choice got me thinking......

The topic of “freedom” is bandied about frequently these days - freedom from medical mandates, masks, government overreach, indoctrination, and tyranny. And don’t get me wrong, these issues *should* be top of mind for us all - there are many concerning things happening that should compel us to stay vigilant towards what is occurring in our nation - things aren’t looking good. But I think there’s one topic that sometimes stays a bit in the background of the “freedom” discussion and it’s finally getting its 15 minutes of fame right now - and for good reason.

I’m talking about freedom for your children - educational, mind, and soul freedom.

The past few years have highlighted so many inconsistencies, failures, and inherent weaknesses in our nation’s public schooling paradigm. What’s long been a conversation that primarily centered around personal preference, has now changed to an absolutely crucial evaluation as to what our culture, government, and school systems value and prioritize. Homeschooling has often been brushed aside by some because it “removes” freedom from parents - freedom from their ability to have hobbies, careers, autonomy, dreams, quiet, their identities, and so on and so on. Aside from that assessment not being entirely correct, it’s also making the rights of the child secondary. Educating your children divorced from the government gives you so much freedom that I think if people actually experienced it, their heads would spin...

Freedom from time constraints, freedom from peer pressure, freedom to give your kid that extra hour of sleep, freedom to vacation when you want, freedom to opt out of absolutely unnecessary and backward curriculums, freedom to carefully select cherished friends for them, freedom to spend hours on an instrument or art project or book, freedom from drop-off lines and PTA meetings, freedom from bullying, freedom from learning apathy because you are selecting texts and subjects that make your child shine, freedom from labeling, freedom from grades, freedom from arbitrary assignments and expectations, freedom from mean girls and freedom from stolen innocence and the list goes on and on.

Most importantly for us Christians: freedom to raise my children, day in and day out, in the admonition of the Lord and his truth. A truth that is not defined by the world and its ever-changing beliefs on gender, sexuality, justice, self-care, race, biology, love, and natural law. Every freedom carries with it the sacrifice of something - so yes, homeschooling will require us parents to lay down some of our own desires....but that is no different than any other choice. But think about this....what other sacrifice comes with so many freedoms?! I can’t think of many. Freedom is valuable and freeing your child to live holistically and uniquely unbound from any government union or system is such a beautiful right to exercise.

Here’s to the children and their rights.