Friday, November 26, 2010

The Spirit of the (ND Homeschool) Law

This past Sunday Pastor Brad concluded his series of sermons on The Sermon on the Mount. Jesus' point in his sermon in Matthew was that the pharisees had adhered only to the letter of the law and had lost the spirit of the law. And my mind wandered briefly to our school year.

The letter of the law says we need to do four hours of school per day for 180 days in a year and pass standardized tests. The spirit of the law, in my understanding, is that children are given adequate study time to fully grasp the concepts of their grade level, which is proven by their passing standardized tests. And here, too, the spirit of the law is more important than the letter.

Now, as a Christian, I am called to the highest standard of obedience, first to God, and also to my government. And so I struggle with this question: If I fulfill the spirit of the law (their comprehension), am I obligated to meet the letter of the law as well (days and hours)?

My heart says yes, rise to the highest standard, go the extra mile, strive toward perfection, give no one room to question my integrity, keep going through all 180 days. My head says oh good grief, just wrap up the school year when we finish our books.

What would Jesus have to say about this? Sigh. I think I already know.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Legos used to be my favorite toys. Probably still would be if I had them.

http://pooreconomy.blogspot.com/

City Sister said...

We have 180 days and 7-8 (depending on age) hours a day...we tend to do our work in the morning and then "supplementals" in the afternoon for our hours (art, play outside, field trips etc) after all, going to the grocery store is math, economics, nutrition (health) and if you look at the store's fire plan (and don't park in the fire lane hahaha) is it not the required "fire safety" training?