You CAN Teach Worldview

Back when I was a homeschool student, there was no such thing as worldview class. Parents were consumed with academics, testing, and legal battles. There was no talk of worldview.

But ironically, worldview was top priority to first generation homeschoolers (as those families in the first wave of homeschooling’s revival in the 1970s-1980s are often called. We know they were hardly the first parents to ever teach their own children). I would even go so far as to say they all did teach worldview. It was their very reason for pulling their children out of public and private schools in the first place.

But no one used the word worldview then. At least, not enough for it to become fashionable. We all talked about religious reasons, or morality, or values, or priorities. And that is what parents – mine, yours, your homeschool grad friends – were consumed with passing on to their children.

Parents simply want to instill in their children both the values, beliefs, and priorities unique to their family and the ability to, in turn, pass those same values to their own descendants.

In other words, we simply want to “pass it on.”

And even though the number of homeschoolers who home educate for religious reasons is currently at an all-time low, I would still like to point out that these secular, gifted, special-needs, and other new demographics of home educators are still leaving institutions for the same reasons.

They want to “pass it on.” The only difference is the “it” is different. Different values and priorities. But that is what constitutes the parents’ worldview.

And here is your encouragement for today:

You are teaching worldview. Already. You always have been.

Your choice of read-alouds, your math examples, your instructions in how to do chores, your history lessons … they all communicate to your child your worldview, your priorities, your values.

Continue on! You can do it!