A Husband’s Role in Homeschooling

Posted by Belinda | 0 comments

Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body… Ephesians 5: 21-23

With all due respect to that most grand of days, Mother’s Day, behind us, I penned this post with Father’s Day in mind. A few years back, I was blessed to hear a tremendous sermon regarding “The Power of a Praying Father“, and I was so blessed. As we approach this celebration of the men in our lives, and as many of us approach the end of one school year and the beginning of another, I am writing in the hope that I can solicit a group that will cover fathers in prayer. Specifically, I am in prayer that fathers to receive, submit to, and then share a God-given vision for their families. In conjunction with that, I pray for myself and for other wives that we are receptive and submissive (yes, it’s the dreaded “s” word) enough to partner with their husbands in carrying this vision forth.

Let me first say that I write this with an understanding that there are men who teach in their homes. If you are a male and the primary teacher in your home, you might have to bring a different balance to my comments.

Men have a wonderfully unique, God-given power to cast forth vision in their homes and consequently change the environment. Yet, some of you will say, “My husband never casts a vision about anything!” Indeed, there are a number of women I know whose husbands are seemingly clueless as to what goes on in their homeschooling world, or whose husbands are apathetic and/or antagonistic about the whole endeavor. However, I want to challenge that thinking by saying that our husbands tell us their visions all the time, but we may have to tune ours ears differently to hear the words in light of what we strive to accomplish on a day-to-day basis. I wonder how many of us are in line with his vision for the family, including his vision for homeschooling.

As a personal example, I am blessed to have a husband who takes an active role in our studies and is genuinely curious about what we do. I sometimes will share with him stories I read or hear of other homeschoolers, and he says repeatedly, “God forbid we have to put the kids in a private or public school, I just don’t want them to be behind in any way.” I consider this a critical piece of his homeschooling vision, and if I align myself with it, I know that he is uncomfortable with learning gaps, and certain approaches to home education will simply make him uneasy about what happens in our learning environment. I could argue the value of those approaches and decide rebelliously to “do my own thing”, but why create a situation where he is uncomfortable?

In addition, he is the most likely to encounter all the not-so-positive comments from co-workers/peers/clients when he mentions homeschooling. If I go against his wishes, when asked about his kids and their education, he has to defend a decision he’s uncomfortable with to a society that is even more skeptical. Why set the stage for that? Are we in this together or what?

Romans 12:1-2 tells us to not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds. The world’s plan for our schools says to pour resources into planning, buy the best curriculum, teach, test, and start the loop all over again. God’s word teaches us order: there is a spiritual head (God), and there is an earthly head (man). We have such an opportunity through educating at home to truly pour into our children. Prior to putting any book before them, I invite you to put before them a household that is ready, through an aligned vision and prayer (more on that later) to take on the monumental task of developing God’s next world changers. Ask your husband about what he sees for the family’s future and then listen. Just listen. Then pray for God to deal with you both about the vision–if it’s out of kilter with His will, He will adjust it. If the vision is in His will but out of your will, He will adjust you. Personally, I have found myself asking the Lord, why am I hearing this? How should I use this information? It just takes a step of surrender to Godly alignment and then trusting God for the rest. I am a living witness that it works.

How important is alignment? My pastor pointed this out, and you may have already known it, but it was a revelation for me. We often think of Eve as willfully disobedient and/or disrespectful as she yielded to the serpent’s tempting regarding the fruit of the forbidden tree. When the Lord gave Adam instruction regarding the trees of the garden (Genesis 2:16-17), Eve was not even there! The scripture says that He commanded the man. We never read where Adam shared with Eve what the Lord had told him. Was Eve disobedient, or could it be that she was ignorant of instruction? In light of these thoughts, think about this: how much happiness, peace, and joy are we missing out on because we are not tuned in to our husband’s sharing of the vision?

God bless you today and always.

Belinda Bullard is a wife and homeschooling mother of three, Belinda is an author and the owner of A Blessed Heritage Educational Resources, a literature-based history curriculum featuring African-American presence in history, as well as the contributions of other races to American history. A chemical engineer by formal education, she also serves as adjunct faculty for college distance learning programs.