Our somewhat sad homeschooling journey, began in 2017 when our firstborn turned 5 and was thought to be statutorily due for school the following year. As a conservative Christian couple, the said event found us already making conscious efforts towards a conducive godly-upbringing environment for him and his then 3 years old younger brother. These efforts included the careful picking of videos, toys, games, etc. —and we, in like manner, sought to be as cautious in our schooling system choice.
Having been aware of two local Christian schools, we endeavoured to obtain more information about each, particularly on how sound in Christian doctrine they were — as I understood that the same could not be taken for granted. While I can now only suspect that a questionable dressing of a teacher (seen on website photo) became a red flag for the second, I do clearly remember that the first one was said to have been founded through direct funding of a lottery employee — who was first a major giving member within its founding church. These dissatisfactions together led us to research a home-school option in the country —as the subject of sending kids to school had been irrelevant to us until then.
Way later in 2024, when our kids were removed from under our care (by the social workers), and we were given an option to find a school, we at some point felt justified to try the one with a questionably dressed teacher photo – especially as we then considered it would somewhat be better than them remaining in the public school they force-placed them (around the CYCC near 100KM away) – being local and thus touted as Christian oriented. It was shortly after enrolment that we found out that the said Christian school did not even use a Christian curriculum – but essentially used the same books which were used in the public school they were in (as confirmed by the kids). Well, by the time the kids went for their first class, a Letter of Demand had already been submitted to the Limpopo DBE, and they were already responsive regarding processing our home education registration – and had in fact sent someone to perform as home assessment. Shortly after which, we were informed that our applications were successful – at which we gladly withdrew the kids and commenced with home education.
It was during the months following the kids’ withdrawal, as we sought to finish off the rest of the year using the same curriculum books purchased by the trust specially for that school enrolment, that discovered the shame in the majority of them. While the details of the curriculum’s shames should be a topic of another blog post, I felt the whole was enough to confirm that the said Christian school was indeed as unworthy as we suspected it to be back in 2017 when the said photo stirred scepticism.
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