OUR BLOG
Posted 16 May 2022
Power of the First
Dad-Schoolers
By Blake Young
For me as a father, one of the greatest joys I have is knowing that I am an active partner and Shepherd of my children’s educational journey.
When we look at the role of a father classically, not only are we protectors and providers, but we are leaders and navigators.
I imagine it like this – if my family was on a journey through a dangerous forest and I was trying to lead my family to a new safe haven, I would be the one at the front of the pack, holding a torch in one hand, and a sword in the other, slashing our way through the jungle to make sure the way was safe.
It would be my job to be the one who blazes the trail so that my family would have a safe passage behind me.
The phrase God gave me when I was trying to understand the privilege of home educating is what I would call the “power of the first”.
Whoever is first in a child’s life is often the most powerful – the first person that exposes them to new information, the first time they hear a certain topic. The first time they witness something new is often the most powerful moment in their lives, as that’s what gets ingrained into their memory; and once you are first, everything else is now really competing with what was first. I don’t want to have to compete with what the world has exposed my child to. I want the world to have to compete with the principles I have instilled in my child.
As a parent, I’m not trying to hide my kids from the world. On the contrary, I feel that it is my God-given privilege and responsibility to make sure I am the first one exposing them to the world! When they hear about topics that are so contentious in today’s society – things like gender, religion, sexuality, human rights, entertainment, you name it – I don’t want to try to hide them from it, but rather I want to be the first one that exposes them to it.
By being the first to introduce these topics to them, not only can I expose them to it, but I can expose them to my worldview on the topic.
This is a big deal for me as a parent! I genuinely feel that a child’s worldview is shaped by the world they view the most; and it’s hard for us as parents to truly say that our children have a similar worldview to us, when in reality they are experiencing an anti-God world more than they are viewing a spiritual one. It always breaks my heart to see children who are saturated by the world’s view on so many different topics, for 8 to 10 hours a day whilst they’re only exposed to their Christian parents’ worldview sometimes for only 3 to 4 hours a day. In situations like this we cannot kid ourselves and think that we are the primary influences of our children’s lives.
The formative years are where we raise them into young adult leaders. I think it’s even more essential for them to have as much of our healthy worldview as possible, so that they will be better equipped to stand on their own in society when they get older. By doing this, a healthy worldview will be intact because we, as parents, as the leaders and pioneers of the family, regain the “power of the first”!
