Christian Unschooling Oxymoron

I've recently been exploring unschooling as an option for my children. So I joined an unschooling group. What I found there was what seems to be absolutism, and humanism. The way I live is wrong absolutely. This does not happen everytime I post there, but my post became chided and criticized, and twisted from what I originally meant to serve what someone else felt was right. I've yet to get the kind of feed back I was hoping for. I would have appreciated a more open minded look at things. On the other hand when I looked for Christian unschooling--thinking that perhaps my moral beliefs were inhibiting me from seeing and really understanding what these families were saying--I was slapped with my bible. I found in one instance, which I'm going to address here, that scriptures were quoted which seemed to lean towards a way of educating our children. However, I felt that perhaps the interpretation was taken too literal in one area. The post I'm going to quote and write on was written by Theresa White, and may be visited by a link at the end of this post.

"Isaiah 28:9ff "Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little." My unschooling acquaintances advocate letting that child discover truths for himself, and only those truths he chooses to discover. Yet clearly we are to teach our children from the time of their weaning, and to teach them concept upon concept, precept upon precept, building from one level to the next."

I have found it true that unschoolers do seek to allow their children choice in knowledge discovery. Yet the bible verse is taken out of context. When you look at the whole of Isaiah 28, you can get a more vivid picture of what is being said. This verse is about the Lord's judgement over Israel who has defiled itself. It is about how God's judgement will come against the Israelites who have allowed themselves to be governed by the "wreath on the head of the fertile valley-" wine and beer. The NIV shows the quoted passage as a question. Who is God trying to teach? Is he teaching the babes who've just been weaned? I see a sort of sarcasm in these words. 'Am I talking to babies? Do they need constant reiteration as children to do and do and do, or have rules upon rules?' Isaiah 28:11-13 continues thusly: "Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people, 12 to whom he said, "This is the resting place, let the weary rest"; and, "This is the place of repose"— but they would not listen. 13 So then, the word of the LORD to them will become: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there—so that they will go and fall backward, be injured and snared and captured." This passage had nothing to do with children and how they should be taught.

Here again is another passage that seems to back up the author's point "Deut 6:7 "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."
Notice that it does not say "Provide a stimulating atmosphere filled with the things you want them to learn, or that they are interested in." TEACH THEM DILIGENTLY (diligently = characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort : painstaking). Is not that the opposite of the unschooling definition?' "

Let me first say here are two definitions I've found on the internet (first two in the search results) for the word diligent.

• quietly and steadily persevering especially in detail or exactness; "a diligent (or patient) worker"
• characterized by care and perseverance in carrying out tasks; "a diligent detective investigates all clues"; "a diligent search of the files"

Teaching them diligently does not mean inculcating. Unschoolers though they do not say they teach, rather they use the word facilitate, they do in a sense teach/mentor. It seems to me, that they use discussions, debates, and stories to help their children "learn" things. The difference is that there is no force to learn a particular doctrine unless the child has interest in said subject.

What I have found in my own children to be true is that they do express interest in the things they see me interested in. They are interested in my faith because through discussion I express it to them. Hopefully they are also interested because I live it unhypocritically before them. (Though of late I feel this is not so much the case.) Then if they ask questions I answer them, and even read the bible to them if they ask me to. They attend church with us because they are not old enough to stay home by themselves mostly because we the adults are following a command to fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Not because they must be taught to love and know Jesus. Eventually the children will need to make a choice concerning their faith in Christ anyhow. My hope is that they will freely choose to be followers of Jesus. They'll only choose that if they see that my walk, and my faith is something to be desired and chosen. There are people all over the world today who chose to leave Christianity because they were inculcated by unforgiving unmerciful doctrines. They were spoon fed Jesus, cajoled to keep Jesus, and were made to feel less than human if they had doubts or questions. That will not be the case for our children.

I am not professing to be a Christian unschooler. I actually consider myself to be a relaxed home educating . There are subjects I do expect a certain degree of work in. I guess I just did not like that Ms. White was using scripture to put down an entire movement or to pigeon hole a large group of people. Is it a true statement that there are non-believers in the movement? Yes. Is it a true statement that many of those within the movement are humanistic? I'm sure. However it is unfair and unfounded to say that unschooling is mutually exclusive of Christianity and vice versus. It is also unfair to use scripture out of the context in which it was intended.

If anyone is interested in reading Ms. White's full argument you may visit it here.