Nichol Starr

An attorney-turned-homeschooling mom and rhetoric teacher, I have more than 20 years of experience working with private schools, co-ops, and homeschool families. Not only have I taught many humanities, informal/formal logic, composition, theology, and advanced thesis classes, but I also have been honored to come alongside many students and parents as they plan for high school and college. I ask the hard questions, engage in planning out high school courses, narrow college lists, and help students put together applications and essays that shine.

Teaching Philosophy

As far as educational philosophy goes, I tend to embrace two maxims, the first from probably too many sources to count and the second from a true friend to classical education, Charlotte Mason.

The first? “The enemy of the excellent is the good.” It recalls a principle of Pliny the Younger: multum non multa, meaning “not many, but much.” As a culture we are convinced that more is better, and as a result we tend to invest—with the best intentions—in too many classes, too many activities, too many THINGS to allow our children to dive deep into any one idea or passion, or to breathe and enjoy the process. Given our limited time, we should rather slow down whenever possible, resisting the temptation to add one more class, one more experience, if those good things compete with the things that matter most.

The second comes courtesy of Miss Mason, who wisely reminded us that “Children are born persons.” Because each child is an individual—with different interests, abilities, passions, etc.—no one curriculum, no one approach, no one philosophy is necessarily going to work best for all children…even children who have the same blood flowing through their veins. The path our oldest took to college looks a bit different than our second, radically different than our third, and a world away from our fourth. As homeschoolers, we have the opportunity to structure our children’s education to meet individual needs and aspirations while still spreading a gentle and varied feast before them.

Statement of Faith

I know that I am not my own, but I belong to Christ...and I lay all that I am—my sin, my loves, my dreams, everything—at the foot of His cross, for Him for His glory. Raised in the evangelical church, my husband and I embraced Reformed theology early in our marriage and have served in the PCA and now URC for almost 25 years. We currently attend Providence Reformed Church, a congregation recently planted by Christ Reformed Church (Nampa, Idaho).