Farewell, from Dr Terry Harding

Dear Friends,

I wanted to write this farewell as an official farewell both to you and to Australian Christian Home Schooling.

Testimony

Most of you would know that I had an ischemic stroke in late October last year. Following this, I was blessed in that the leaders of my church came to my home after I had been released from hospital, to anoint me with oil and pray for me.

I give God the glory for my recovery of health and wholeness following that experience.

I did return to the ACHS office a few weeks later, however, I eventually felt that God had shown me my limitations, and that it was now time for me to retire.

History

So, I wanted to give God the thanks and the glory for allocating to me the privilege and blessing of a career in education, and in particular, for my 31 years of work in ACHS.

I commenced at ACHS (formerly known as the Australian Christian Academy {ACA}) in March 1994. My boss was Pastor John Gollan, a wonderful pioneer of Christian home schooling in those very early days. John asked me to travel, over the next two years, to conduct a week of home schooling seminars, in each of Australia’s states and territories. As a result, by God’s grace, the word about home schooling quickly spread and the number of ACA families and their students grew, as parents realised their need to train up their children in the way that they should go (Proverbs 22:6).

As governments (state, territorial and Commonwealth) continued to introduce anti-Christian ideologies, and unacceptable values into the Australian educational landscape, many parents became determined to educate their children themselves, at home, and around their local communities. Deuteronomy 6:5-7 became their rallying cry, such that:

1. they themselves were to love the Lord with all their heart, all their soul and all their strength and that:

2. they were to teach their children God’s Words and His Ways, diligently during the day, morning, noon and night.

As the Scripture says to us parents:

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” Deuteronomy 6:5-7

Further, Psalm 1 became a treasure to us home educators as it promised that a man, woman or child who focussed on God’s Word, would be “blessed”.

Who wouldn’t want to be “blessed” by God? This blessing included the prospect that a home-educated child who included God’s Word in his or her formal, academic education, would prosper educationally and spiritually in the same way that a tree planted by a river prospers, being healthy and bearing its own fruit in its own time.

With all of this growth, we had become a fellowship of committed parent-educators, across Australia and overseas, who had dedicated their lives to the education and development of their children.

ACHS has assisted parents by:

• training them to use and to get the best out of the ACE curriculum;

• diagnosing their children’s academic levels in maths, English, reading and spelling;

• analysing these results and prescribing Christian curriculum for their children at their correct academic success level;

• supporting parents with good documents as they applied to their state governments for home schooling registration;

• supporting children with educational assistance, and tertiary education pathways and

• much more.

And this story continues to this day.

Over the years, we have championed the truths of the importance of the responsibility that parents have for their children’s education. We have made it clear that the parents are responsible, in the first instance, for their children’s education, growth and development. We have explained to education ministers, bureaucrats, government inquiries, universities, TV, radio and print media organisations, that parents are the primary educators of their children and that they should be recognised as such.

In the early days, we stood with parents in various tribunals and courts to present the evidence that home schooling is bona fide education. In those early days, many pioneer home schooling parents were subjected to brutal treatment by educational bureaucrats and even sometimes by the police because home schooling had been viewed by governments as unacceptable. Thankfully, those days of ignorance and fear are over, and all state and territory governments now recognise home schooling/home education as a bona fide mode of education in Australia.

ACHS staff have been leaders in pioneering the opening up of our universities and colleges to home schooled students. In the 1990s, we had to work hard to convince university registrars, and heads of academic departments that our graduates had already developed independent study skills, required for tertiary studies and that they would survive the demands and rigours of university life.

By God’s grace, the walls of misunderstanding and bias against home schooled graduates, in Australia’s tertiary institutions, came tumbling down. Nowadays, our Year 10 graduates can gain entrance to apprenticeships, traineeships and courses in various colleges, and TAFE institutions. Further, hundreds of ACHS Year 12 graduates have gained entrance, on a merit basis, to all the 43 universities in Australia and into their various courses, too many to mention. Several ACHS graduates have obtained scholarships to universities overseas.

However, the most rewarding pleasures that I have experienced at ACHS have been when parents who have told me about the blessings that their children have experienced as they home educated with us, using Christian curriculum.

Many parents have stated that their children have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour through home schooling. One parent of a year 4 young lady told me that her child had made her decision to follow Jesus Christ as a result of the mum reading out the questions in a Word Building test! God does work in mysterious ways!

Another mum who was a medical doctor in NSW stood in one of our seminars and stated publicly that the greatest thrill of her life was to teach her daughter to read, using the ABCs of ACE! Giving her daughter the gift of literacy had given her greater satisfaction than the many wonderful experiences she had had during her medical career!

Another mum tapped my shoulder in church, one Sunday, when my wife and I were travelling interstate. She told me that her son had gotten to Year 5 in their local primary school but could not read or write. They joined ACHS for two years. He returned to high school and was now successful academically and had been recently voted as class captain by his high school classmates.

One fine young lady saw me at the Canberra airport. She introduced herself, stating that she had been home educated with ACHS. She was now the political advisor of a federal parliamentarian!

Only God knows the multitude of wonderful outcomes that have resulted in parents educating their children at home with Christian curriculum. There are thousands of such stories relating to the blessings that parents and their children have experienced during their home schooling journeys.

As I look back over three decades of working as a teacher/principal/manager of ACHS I am amazed at what God has done in the lives of husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles etc. and of course their students, their children.

I know that ACHS has assisted thousands of parents to raise their children in a loving, safe home environment. Home schooling, a road less travelled has supported families to live spiritual, God-focussed, freedom-loving, lives that has enabled the development of children intellectually, academically, spiritually, physically, and socially.

I have been privileged to have been part of this great move of God. I am very pleased to leave the guidance of ACHS to the current ACHS staff under the leadership of Mr. Matthew Cannell. I know that the ACHS team will continue to support you the parent-educators in your high and holy calling to raise the next generation.

May God give increase, favour, and growth to every person associated with ACHS, past, present, and future. They are far too many to mention, but I have been blessed to have had a small connection with every parent, relative, student and ACHS staff member over the past 31 years. Thank you for being part of this wonderful move of God.

For Christ and Christian Home Education

Dr. Terry Harding BA DipEd DipCDP MEd PhD (Retired)