Dichotomy

This weekend a new movie is becoming available. It is titled “The Homeschool Awakening” and was produced by Kirk Cameron. The trailer to it (available here) begins with various public figures expressing the idea that parents should not have a say in their children’s education. But, Cameron notes, “[Homeschooling] is this biblical concept that parenting, and particularly the education of children, is a parental responsibility and privilege. It’s not some job that God gave to civil government to do.”

But as one reads comments about this subject, it seems to me that we have a real dichotomy here – and one where the two sides are very much at odds with one another.

di·chot·o·my

/dīˈkädəmē/

noun

1. a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.

 

In a Facebook posting about the movie, Kirk Cameron says,

“It’s up to us, the parents, to cultivate the hearts, souls and minds of our children, and today’s public-school systems are not working for us, they are actively working against us. Public education has become Public Enemy No. 1.”

There are only two comments posted in the article on christianleaders.com. The first one notes [errors in spelling/grammar/punctuation from original]:

“… Listen carefully to those who want to destroy what is basic to the survival of the country, free access to education for every student. The goal is one that may be impossible but we should not stop trying. We don't serve one tribe, we serve the nation.
Everyone is free to provide the education that they feel is appropriate for their child and should but that should not include the continued attacks on the concept of public education. By defination it cannot be Christian Education, or Muslim education or any other particular education. It is public education where all people are welcome.
I am thankful for the wisdom of the founding fathers in realizing how important it was to provide free, public school education so that everyone has access. In addition if the country is to continue to be a place where all people are welcome and we are one country instead of multiple tribes we must have contact with those unlike ourselves in our developing years. We must come to appreciate that our trible can co exist with others coming together to form one nation under God. At least for today, it is America. People are free to register any idea they want. We can talk about it, disagree with it and not have to be at constant war with each other. As it stands today a Muslim student may sit next to a Jewish student who sits across from a white nationalist. I for on hopes it stays that way. The classroom must be "a safe space." I know that many want to change things so that we retribealize because it feels safer. Actually it is more dangerous. We must remain a country where there is a free exchange of ideas and people are taught critical thinking so they can judge the quality of ideas. They must learn that there are different ways to view the world and respect that fact while being faithful to their own set of beliefs. Because I welcome discussion I hope the movie creates that and not more division and attacks on the core values of the country. …”

While this writer seems to be heading in a reasonable direction and wants to have a free exchange of ideas where people are respected even when they reach different conclusions, he/she has a few things wrong. The key one is that it was not our “founding fathers” who provided “free, public school education.”

As noted here, while our founding fathers agreed that we needed to have an educated population, the concept of a free public education did not begin to take hold until the 1830s. Even then, high school attendance did not become commonplace until the 20^th century (the high school completion rate was only 14% in 1910 and only 55% by 1970).  

 

The second commenter about this movie is even more blunt as she notes:

“This kind of homeschooling is not Christian. Cameron’s documentary is propaganda for a first century cult. A cult that does NOT worship Jesus, but uses his name to further a backwards agenda and to live like we did hundreds of years ago. It serves political authoritarians and tyrants well by creating a dumbed down population that is easy to control with simplistic religious references and emotionally charged but essentially vapid patriotic rhetoric. Homeschooling like this creates an anti-science, anti-intellectual breeding ground for family dysfunction and mental health issues that go untreated and fester. When did this twisted longing to return to the first century start to pass for Christianity?”

Without even having seen the movie, this writer blasts the whole idea of homeschooling with such loaded words as “cult,” “dumbed down,” “simplistic,” “vapid,” and “twisted.” I’m not sure where her ideas have come from, or what exposure to homeschooling has led to her feeling this way, but it does not appear that she is open to any further discussion.

 

My good friend Diane Marks, who posted this link to the movie trailer, has a much more balanced view on the topic. Reacting primarily to Cameron’s phrase of “public enemy no. 1,” she said,

“… and while I’m at it - WHAT’s WITH THIS? Public enemy # 1? Yes, home schooling is good - FOR SOME - but making a blanket statement about public education is untrue and unfair! All of the public school teachers I know and have known through the years are amazing, dedicated and love our children! I am thankful for all of the teachers who have touched my girl’s lives - Katie and Carli have done well and made wise choices with their own lives. (and to be honest, I personally never felt qualified (nor desired) to home school). Public school is needed for the many, home schooling is needed for many, Christian schools are needed for many, cyber schools, charter schools, Catholic schools, Waldorf schools etc … and not one of these choices is perfect but they are choices that all parents have. Rather than slamming others, as parents we need to support and celebrate and pray for each child. Rather than slamming public education we need to support and pray that those too loud voices quiet down and help support rather than tear down every decision made.”

 

As Diane alludes, all the varieties of schools can span the spectrum. There are good public schools – and there are others which are not. These include the ones where the school boards or educators believe that the parents should not be involved in their children’s education – some even calling the parents “caregivers” instead. There are good charter schools (those who are true to their mission and very open about what they do), and there are others which mainly serve to enrich those who founded them. There are good cyber schools, and there are those who have taken advantage of the COVID shutdowns. There are parents who use the homeschool model to provide an excellent education for their children, and there are those who use the homeschool model to isolate their children from society and indoctrinate them into their form of what some might term a cult. But to paint all schools of a particular type with the same broad brush is to ignore the good and/or bad of each type.

Recently, Randi Weingarten (the president of the American Federation for Teachers, who has a reported salary package worth over $500,000/year) said of parental-choice legislation that, “This is misinformation. This is the way in which wars start. This is the way in which hatred starts.” (nationalreview.com) This characterization of education as an area where parents are supposed to simply bow to the wishes of the “professional educators” and not question what is being taught to their children or how it is being taught is part of the reason why individuals such as Kurt Cameron believe that homeschooling is a better solution.

 

For myself, my wife and I are products of public schools, we sent our children to Christian schools (where I served on the board for 18 years), and we initially sent our grandchildren to a public charter school (where I served on the board for 5 years). Most recently we have our four grandchildren here in PA officially being homeschooled (although it’s actually through a non-PA Christian cyber school and my wife and I are the “coordinators”). So we have a lot of experience in a variety of school options.

But, unlike most homeschool families, we did not make that choice because of the things we wanted to “escape” in the public schools – indeed, the local public and/or charter schools are all pretty good at what they do (with the exception of a few high school teachers I have encountered who have set themselves up as “gods” and who berate anyone who does not agree with their philosophy). Rather, we wanted to have our grandchildren exposed to things that were missing in the public schools. The “No Child Left Behind” from the federal government and its successor “Every Student Succeeds Act” are based on a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) basis (and more recently STEAM by adding “A”rt). So the PA standardized tests (PSSA) are entirely tests on language (English), Math, and Science. And since schools are rated based on PSSA scores, they all “teach to the test”. This means that the subject areas being left out include not only Bible (which one could argue is too much religion for the separatist view of the public school), but also History which is not taught until at least middle school. As a student of history, I find this shortcoming rather appalling and a contributor to many of the issues facing our society (“those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”) So our homeschooling is not rooted in avoiding the negative parts of the public schools, but rather to include the things that they have left out.

 

In summary, I agree with much of what my friend Diane has said. We need to avoid blanket statements about any particular form of education and to not deride those who make decisions that might not agree with our own. Then we need to support those families (and the students in them) as they try to make the best decisions for their family situation.