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    by Mike McHugh

Evaluating What Matters Most
Date Posted: March 22, 2007

Few home educators would deny that students need to be evaluated on at least an occasional basis to determine whether they are making adequate progress. The reality, however, is that students in a home school environment, just like children in traditional schools, seldom get evaluated in anything other than their academic development. It is as if the average home school parent believes that the only goal in a child’s training that matters is academic prowess. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. In addition to basic academic skill assessment, students should also be evaluated in the critical areas of their study habits, spiritual development, as well as their personal stewardship skills.

Students can often be progressing fairly well in subjects such as reading, writing, and arithmetic while still falling behind in their study habits. Each quarter during the school term, instructors should take the time to sit down with their students and determine the level of progress they are making in their routine study habits. Areas that can be examined include, but are not limited to, how well a student uses time, the status of a student’s library or research skills, how consistently he follows directions, as well as his ability to work independently. These areas of examination, and a few more like them, can help parent educators to ensure that their students are maturing properly in their study skills.

Christian home educators need little coaching to understand the importance of a regular examination of their children’s spiritual development. In fact, parents such as this may well wonder why they have not initiated this type of routine already! It just makes biblical sense for parents, preferably fathers, to sit down with their children every few months in order to ascertain how well their students are progressing spiritually. Areas of examination may include how faithful a child is in the area of personal Bible study and prayer. It may also cover how well the student responds to correction, whether he cheerfully shows respect for those in authority, and the extent to which he gets along well with family members as well as those from the outside world. Children will never be perfect any more than parents will be, however, like parents children should at least be making steady progress in becoming more Christ-like and mature in terms of being more and more under the control of the Holy Spirit.

In addition to academic progress, students must also be developing well as human beings, for they are called to be ambassadors for Christ. Parents, therefore, must set aside time to evaluate how well their children are maturing in their personal stewardship skills and characters. Some of the areas to be examined are how often a child shows godly initiative, how well he sets and reaches personal goals, as well as his ability to persevere under difficult circumstances. Other areas may include the student’s level of commitment to being consistently honest and forthright, how often he shows compassion to others, and how he uses his tongue as well as his personal finances.

The ultimate purpose for parent educators to evaluate their children on a regular basis flows out of the biblical principle “by their fruits you shall know them”; or as the Bible also puts it “ Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.” (Proverbs 20:11) Christian parents are called to be fruit inspectors. They must know the estate of their household, and particularly their children, during every season of family life. This call to parental stewardship, or to “inspect what we expect”, helps mothers and fathers to better ensure that the fruit of their household does not spoil on their watch. Another hidden benefit that is associated with the practice of periodic student evaluations, is that they tend to jump-start meaningful communication between children and parents. Surely, in this fast paced world in which we all live, any practice that promotes quality dialogue between family members should be encouraged.

Starting now, home educators must schedule time to sit down with their children in order that they might begin, as never before, to evaluate what matters most in their children’s education, and ultimately in their lives.

Copyright 2007 Michael J. McHugh

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Biography Information:
This column is written by the staff at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois. As a pioneer in the homeschool movement, Christian Liberty ministries has been operating a full service, K-12 home school program for over thirty years and a Christian textbook ministry (Christian Liberty Press), since 1985. The mission of Christian Liberty is to provide parents with quality, affordable educational products and services that will enable them to teach their children in the home and to train their children to serve Christ in every area of life. A more extensive explanation of the CLASS home school program can be obtained at www.homeschools.org.
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