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This video is a response to several comments and questions that I’ve received and read from new homeschooling parents who are looking for a homeschool program. Several of them have said that they don’t want a religiously based program because they don’t intend to offer a religious-based component to their homeschool program. I wanted to make an official reply through this video to those families and let them know that home education is not like a teacher-directed program. In a teacher-directed program, which comes from, let’s say, a faith-based school, the program that the teacher has created and/or that the school division itself has created has a requirement for the student to attend a religious studies course. That’s because it’s a school-delivered, teacher-directed program, but home education is not like that.

Home education is parent-directed, so you, the parent, are directing and choosing everything about your home education program. That spans from the subjects you teach, to the learning resources you choose, to when you do your instruction, and all points in between. As I’ve said in some other videos, the how, when, where, and why of home education is determined by you, the parent. Just because you’re home educating through a faith-based school doesn’t mean that the school can tell you what to have in your home ed program. The school can control what the school teacher provides in a classroom, but the school has no jurisdiction over you, your school. Remember, when you’re home educating, you have you are in your own school. When you complete the notification process, the registration process, you are establishing a school that is recognized by the government and codified in the Education Act. You have established a school, so it’s your school. My school, through which the home ed program works, has no jurisdiction in your school. You are autonomous; you get to call the shots; you’re in control.

My suggestion is that families don’t use “faith-based” or “secular” as their criteria initially in choosing a home ed program because that really doesn’t affect you, the home-educating parent. My suggestion is that you look at the philosophy of the home ed program and the supports that you’ll receive from that program. Whether or not it’s faith-based or secular really doesn’t matter. A secular program can provide great supports to a faith-based family, and just the opposite is true, too: a faith-based home ed program can provide great supports to a secular family. Again, it’s all in the support that you’ll receive from the home ed program. That’s what I would recommend you using as your criteria when you go about to select your home education program.