Mission Statement for a Home-based Education

Education Forum
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@Homeschool_Forum

I’m interested to learn if any of the homeschooling families here have developed a mission statement to guide your children’s education.

As some who have followed my story here may have gathered, I’ve had a lot of uncertainty about the way forward for my son’s education. For several years I’ve also anticipated moving away from the DC area. Consequently, I’ve looked at the web sites of many schools—mostly, classical Christian academies. These typically include a mission or vision statement or something similar that provides guidance for the educational program, and I usually make this one of the first things I read.

Several weeks ago as I was thinking about plans for second semester, it dawned on me that in all our years of homeschooling my wife and I had never composed one of these for our family. I don’t see this as a panacea for our situation, but it seems a worthwhile endeavor, and perhaps if we can agree on a guiding mission statement, it will make it easier to establish priorities for Soren’s academic work and more productively discuss some of our disagreements on the way forward.

Have any of you undertaken something like this? If so, do you have any advice on the process?

I’d be interested in reading an example of a homeschool mission statement if anyone wants to share one. I’ve got a draft that I’m working on that I’d be willing to post here if anyone wants to give some feedback or is otherwise interested.

Thanks so much!!

Bruce

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My husband and I wrote one at a conference we attended before we started homeschooling. It’s in a notebook somewhere. (Shows how often we have referred to it since ; ) ) Maybe it was more a philosophy of education statement than a mission statement. Writing it was a good exercise though. And I think the thought process we went through helped us clarify some of our goals and priorities, which in turn helped us rule out and focus in on different curricula and resources. If this thread is still going on when I get back home in a week, maybe I’ll dig it up out of curiosity and see if we would still agree with it.

I’d be interested in seeing what your draft looks like.

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Hi Bruce,

funny how this works - my wife and I just came up with one. I’ll write it out below, and we can compare :slight_smile:

Each day, We Remember the Reason

When our children leace our home, we want them to:

  • Understand, ask for and extend forgiveness
  • Have confidence to pursue their dreams
  • Trust God dangerously - know His voice and obey
  • Have confidence and ability to tackle life - the basics and emergencies
  • Have financial literacy and understand stewardship
  • Work hard to accomplish a goal
  • Know that they were created with a purpose, have a destiny, and be prepared to do battle
  • Leave the world a better place than they found it.

Your turn :grin:

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Well, four months later I’ve been tinkering with this here and there, but I still haven’t discussed it with my wife. But Soren is at the beach this week with friends, and we really do expect to move this summer, so it’s probably as good a time as any for us to try to work on this together.

Following is the working draft. I’d love to hear what anyone thinks.

Mission Statement for a Home-based Education

Guiding Conviction:
The pursuit of learning is a response to God’s self-revelation—specifically to the Biblical calls to love God with our minds, to wisely and faithfully steward the earth and its resources, and to serve as ambassadors of Christ in God’s Kingdom.

In view of this, we seek to provide for Soren an education that accomplishes the following:

— Guides him towards a personal knowledge of God, the practice of spiritual disciplines for seeking and serving God, and the formation in him of Christ-like character
— Fosters a lifelong love of learning and builds in him skills to pursue this
— Trains him to seek, understand, and appreciate the connections between various academic disciplines
— Pursues the integration of knowledge gained through various means, including study of the Bible and other writings, observation, research, conversations, and quotidian experiences
— Grounds his academic studies in belief in and pursuit of the classical virtues of love, truth, goodness, and beauty
— Trains him to communicate clearly, intelligently, and courteously in English and functionally in at least one other language
— Encourages him to understand and constructively engage with varying perspectives
— Prepares him for further academic study at the collegiate level
— Equips him with practical skills for service in the home, neighborhood, church, and world

1 Like
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Michael,

I like it! And thanks for the push to move forward with mine.

Inasmuch as my statement my be more academically- and pedagogically-focused, that is largely reflective of where we are in life, with Soren being on the cusp of his high school years and my thinking a lot about how to prepare him academically for what may come next. If my wife and I had done this eight years ago, we likely would have come up with a list quite similar to yours.

I hope your first year of home-schooling has been rewarding for all and pray that the years ahead will only get better.

Warm Regards,
Bruce

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Bruce,

sorry for the late reply. Yours definitely sounds more appropriate for where you are in your journey, and I might steal some of it for the future.

Our first year if homeschooling has been an eye-opening adventure, but, yes, very rewarding despite the roller-coaster.

Thank you for your prayers. Having previously navigated a step-child through high school, I will add a prayer for you and your wife as you strive to build a young man after God’s heart and equip him to be unleashed upon the world!

Regards,
Mike