Hello fellow educators welcome to podcast #160. I want to thank all of you that emailed your warm regards for my return to the podcast cyberwaves. I think I have missed doing the podcasts as much as many of you missed listening or reading them. It is a privilege to engage our staff, families, fellow educators and friends in this innovative fashion. Remarkably it was four years ago that I began my first podcast this very week in 2008. Just this December I revisited one of my past podcasts, #3 Dual Citizens and published the written version in our school newsletter.  In September’s newsletter I did the same thing and republished, #2 Defining Discipleship Based Christian Education.  The first 10 podcast have been the foundation of the 150 podcasts and publications over the last four years. I will often tell new staff that they need to listen to the first 10 in order to capture our thinking on Christian Education and I have had an editor working on these for a booklet on the Heritage way of education. Just after the holidays I received one of those emails that I would frame if I had the room in my office. It came unsolicited and without any cajoling. Most impressively it came as a response to the newsletter article taken from podcast number three. Here is one of the best podcast letters I have ever received from one of our Heritage Christian Online School parents:

Hello Greg,

Diane Down here. Homeschooler since 2000. HCOS parent since 2006. Mom to Girl 16, Girl 14 (in public school) and Boy 12.

I want to thank you for your December article.  I don't always read the articles because I simply do not have time - I'm too busy discipling my children and participating/leading ministry. But this one in particular resonated with me.

In my years of homeschooling I have encountered a lot of families with different motivations for homeschooling, most of which, upon inspection, I wouldn't say were healthy.

There is the protection motivation. The character motivation and focus. There is the curriculum content motivation. There is the Christian feminist motivation (aren't all good Christian moms homeschooling their kids?). There is the fathers-turning-their-hearts-toward-home motivation (aren't all good Christian dads homeschooling their kids?). The "I'm too broke to send my kids to private school, so I'm homeschooling" motivation.

Certainly there are folks out there whose desire is to raise well-educated (knowledge), mature-in-their-faith (discipled), kids of integrity (character).  But far more often than not I find homeschooling Christian families raising their kids for the zoo, not the jungle, as it were. They have sheltered their kids beyond what perhaps their age might indicate for sheltering, and their kids have no cultural context in which to practice faith.  And how many of these families in their well-intentioned quest for character are actually looking forward to how their kids might apply their faith with their God-given talents?  And will they have a good education with which to apply their character in a meaningful and productive way?

I listen to a lot of podcasts and one I listened to a few months ago by Marcus Buckingham (of Strengthfinders) really hit me.  The  topic was on strengths and how a raw talent is turned into a strength.  This quote is brilliant: "School should be a focused hunt for a child's area of greatest potential."

This perhaps doesn't seem to be earth-shattering. Except that it is. If we consider discipleship as the foundation, and then lay on bricks of naturally endowed talent to which we add factual and conceptual knowledge, experiences and training, we can build a house of great strength.

I really believe most homeschooling families are doing well at one or two areas, but failing to recognize the power of the combined total.

I've been wrestling with how to raise the vision level for a long time in my own sphere of influence.

I want to encourage you in your leadership of HCOS on that front. I think for sure you have a big vision of what innovative, creative, talent-hunting, discipled, exposed-to-fantastic-God-adventures homeschooled education can look like.

Blessings in 2012,

Diane

 Wow, Diane hit the mark. Here is a parent that understands the deep reasons for doing what we do and she is very timely in her letter as I wanted to revisit the idea of Discipleship-based Christian Education in these upcoming weeks. Her challenge is compelling: why are you Home Educating? Why you are choosing a Christian education? Her categories hit the mark and I can add nothing except to quote her again: “There is the protection motivation. The character motivation and focus. There is the curriculum content motivation. There is the Christian feminist motivation (aren't all good Christian moms homeschooling their kids?). There is the fathers-turning-their-hearts-toward-home motivation (aren't all good Christian dads homeschooling their kids?). The "I'm too broke to send my kids to private school, so I'm homeschooling" motivation.” Her quote from Marcus Buckingham was also timely. Just this November our School leadership team took the Strengthfinders assessment and spent an entire day exploring each other’s strengths and differences.

So I have an extraordinary treat for you today. Diane was willing to take my call today and let me record her pithy, sharp and searing wisdom over the phone. She was very happy to share her thoughts with you and I. On one point I will say that I would almost always challenge any Christian parent as to their reasons for a public school education as part of the process but in Diane’s case I think she has found excellent direction for her daughter and will explain herself well on this. Here is my chat with Diane Down:

Thank you Diane for taking the time and being willing to share this with everyone. Like Diane I would love to hear from you whether you are a parent, a teacher, in the Online school or the Campus. Maybe you are one of our educational partners or simply someone that has stumbled on to this podcast. Help me continue the dialogue as Diane has done so today. Email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for listening and thank you for your commitment to Discipleship Based Christian Education.