Unacceptable to the general population, homeschooling has the stereotype of “taboo” among our social health dimension. The life of a homeschooled student is further misunderstood with the assumption “Is there life out there?” And “These students won’t be able to face real life”. According to Merriam‑Webster, life is defined as: the form or pattern of something existing in reality. The reality facing our children is nothing short of a civil war based on terrorism to a child’s belief of whether they can successfully engage in and execute a specific behavior and ultimately impacting their self esteem.
Parents across the nation share empathy as the increasing rates of suicide, bullying, drug use and teen pregnancy invade our schools. Both parents and students are impacted by these failings, regardless of the weapons inflicted on our own, close friend of our own or an acquaintance of our child’s social circle. None the less, we lack the sympathy in the same breath with statements like “I’m thankful it wasn’t my child” or “I’m not letting my child hang out with him/her, they are heading down a wrong path”. What path do we expect from children? Are we instilling health and wellness among the next generation? Or are we leaving the molding factors up to our administrators, many in which mask their own fears within the four walls? All while spiritual health is a forbidden curriculum within a crucial course of survival. The evolution of wellness includes six (6) dimensions with an umbrella concept of mental health.
The Spiritual health dimension (a feeling of unity with a greater force and a guiding sense of meaning or value in life) goes well beyond the forbidden word of “religion”. Spiritual health encompasses a wide variety of factors needed in living a balanced, introspective and meaningful life. The concept of mental health is widely focused upon throughout our nation as the broad factors of psychosocial health contains the leading causes for one of America’s top complaint, health care and disability. What does that have to do with our children? Well, depression is the leading cause of disability in the United States as anxiety is the number one health problem, impacting over 40 million people in the U.S. Now, to give yet another disturbing fact; depression in children is an increasingly reported phenomenon.
I find it disturbing and simply a form of laziness among parents and the US population to continually complain about disability, the problems within our schools and the increasing costs of health care. What are we, as parents, doing to protect our children? We are allowing the schools to take a vital part of learning that enables our precious gifts to cope with the reality of life. The very dimension that teaches self esteem, the kind that is based on balanced, introspective and meaningful inner peace. Is this because they fear the word “religion” or the possibility God may be brought into the classroom and ultimately impact their career and pocketbook due to a “sue happy” nation? Don’t allow society to measure your child’s self worth or you just may find yourself as the one others are having empathy on.
Our choice to home school is nothing short of love and the desire to instill the spiritual dimension and mental health factors we all are terrified of. To fear or conquer, is the question. Social dimension isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Our kids are comparing themselves to society’s definition of value. Aren’t we in the middle of a depression? Even our country as a whole is suffering from a lack of self worth! Maybe they haven’t been following their credo, In God We Trust….food for thought anyways.
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