Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

One of the greatest failures of modern education is the omission of any recognizable instruction in the duties of citizenship. This week on Home School Heartbeat, Mike Farris encourages homeschoolers to fill in the gap by teaching their children to be responsible citizens.

Michael Farris:
In 1951, the National Education Association published a book called The American Citizen's Handbook which contained a virtual treasure-trove of excellent patriotic information—including Scripture verses for children to memorize.

The NEA may not care about God or Scripture or patriotism anymore, but homeschoolers need to teach the attributes of American citizenship to their children.

This week, let me suggest five principles that should be included in any program.

Today, principle number one: We should teach our children to love our country. For too long American public education has fostered a negative spirit about our nation's past. Many history courses portray our nation as a military aggressor and a racial oppressor. There is no question that we have had bad characters in our country, and our nation has made errors—some of them very serious.

However, for every deplorable act in the past, there are dozens of good things—even great things—that this country has accomplished.

We should teach our children to hold their heads high. America is a great nation because we have done what is right and good so often. If our children follow after God's law, they may be able to salvage our heritage and bring our nation into the next century as a country that does right in the eyes of the Lord. I'm Michael Farris.