It's big news: homeschooling is a growing movement.  North Carolina adopted common core, and homeschooling grew 14% - reportedly in response.[1]  Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) responded to the recent SCOTUS marriage ruling, pointing out that public schools will have "legal and social pressure" to be "philosophically compliant with the decision" - teaching only the unnatural, pluralistic definition of marriage.  The ultimate result? "Consequently, homeschooling will grow."[2]  A recent law passed in California disallows students to attend public schools if their parents do not vaccinate exactly as the government prescribes at the moment. The prediction is familiar: the vaccine law pushes parents into homeschooling.[3]  It's a safe prediction.  Homeschooling will continue to grow.  

It's not really a surprise.  As the humanism in the state education system becomes more overt, all parents are marginalized. Educational content they care about is crowded out, and propaganda becomes easier to recognize. Christians have long recognized the great academic and moral decline steadily progressing since John Dewey and company instituted their religion as the central philosophy of public education. All education is fundamentally religious, and secular humanism is the new state religion preached through public school. [4]  Dewey was an ardent secular humanist, atheist, and original signer of the humanist manifesto; and he makes no bones about the religious nature of his designs for public schooling calling it "a common faith" [5]. He and his followers, replaced the teaching of history with "social studies" - treating the current social consciousness as an ethic unto itself.  Parents of all other faiths are left out, while still being forced to fund the institutions whether they patronize them or not.  Dewey's followers call their philosophy "progressive education," meanwhile C.S. Lewis pointed out, "If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man."[6]. Strikingly, the undisciplined and increasingly ignorant products of humanistic education are not an evidence of the failure of the system; they are evidences of  it's own realized objectives.  Students are increasingly conformed to the relative image of humans, and less conformed to the image of God.  A recent book "Crimes of the Educators" points out, by using the words of Dewey himself, that this dumbing down of the American education system has been purposeful - a stated objective - a crime against children.  The case is solid and condemning.[7]  The statist educators have also been a smashing success at masking the downtrend by redefining achievement relative to a declining standard.  But the decline is obvious when comparing results across generations - each one further removed from the influence of absolute standards and Christian thought.  In the absence of other options, whether they understand the whole picture or not, parents are flocking to homeschooling.  

But the continuing exponential growth of homeschooling is a concern for homeschool freedom.  Recent additions to the movement are "refugees" from the failing public system.  A marked difference in these newcomers from their earlier counterparts is the lack of a cohesive philosophy of education.  Often, these new refugees are characterized by little more than their reaction to the failing public schools.  The reaction is often sudden, kneejerk, not informed by a distinct positive vision of any kind.  Naturally, these newcomers find comfort in their status as members of the movement that has previously evidenced good results.  But how can these results continue when the positive vision of the homeschooling pioneers is jettisoned?  With great freedom comes great responsibility.  Are we organized around "play dates" in the park or around parents - including fathers - deciding together and dedicating themselves to training up their children with humility, fear of the Lord, and some trembling over the gravity of this momentous and counter-cultural task? A homeschooling movement that only looks good in comparison to the drastically degraded and continuously declining state system, is missing the much greater Christian vision - that our children would dominate life and thought in the area of their giftings, justifying their calling in terms of the Kingdom of God.[8]  

But aren't Christian homeschool groups standing by to help people get started with this positive Christian vision of academic excellence?  Not really.  First, there's so much information it's overwhelming.  Precious few groups make specific recommendations.  Advocacy groups share some general help and motivation for getting started.  But for all practical purposes, you're very much on your own.  So people adopt what their friends are doing - usually the trappings of education similar to the schools they rejected.  They select curriculum and gauge progress against the grade-level criteria that the degraded school systems use. At the recent homeschooling conference put on by Texas Homeschool Coalition (THSC), attendees were given nametags on a lanyard promoting TTUISD (Texas Tech University Independent School District) - an online public school!  We have so lost our way that even groups with Christian "statements of faith" promote homeschooling of any ilk, including schooling at home with humanist curriculum.  Devoid of a clear philosophy of education, we have come to call anything "good" that claims the name homeschooling.  We find safety in numbers, and bigger numbers are better.  We ignore the internal threat and even our own calling, as we focus on the external bogeyman.  Is this a cause we should serve?  Let me ask it another way: what does the total number of homeschooling parents have to do with the education your child will receive if you homeschool them?  Nothing.  What does being a part of this "movement" or inclusive groups profit if we do not repudiate lackadaisical, irresponsible approaches to education?  Are field trips and socialization good?  Park meetups and co-op groups?  I'm going to call the emperor naked, and say there is not as much value in organizing around events as one might suppose. Even the field trips are often opportunities a single family could enjoy - and get more out of - by themselves. 

What is the point?  What is the answer?  First, effective Christian homeschool support starts as a function of the local church, not para-church advocacy groups.  Surely, there is value in organizing at county, state, and national levels. There is still much work to do.  It should anger all of us to hear of Christian families who pass up a good book or curriculum because they can't afford it, while paying thousands in property taxes to a school system they are actively choosing against. This is a great systemic evil!  And there are other reasons besides politics (can a single church organize a sports league?).  But it is the very purpose of the Christian church to "not forsake the fellowship" SO THAT we may "consider one another how you may stir each other up into love and good works." (Heb 13)  Responsible Homeschooling is just one good work that God has prepared beforehand for some of us to walk in (Eph 2:10). It is the good work of Christian Education, and it's one that many of us were not prepared for. The church must have the discernment and vision to recognize, reject, and expose the idolatrous, state-funded, humanistic religion that hides behind a pretense of neutrality and supposed objectivity (Eph 5:11). And not only to expose, but - even from our disadvantaged position - to support and raise the standard of Christian education high.  Lastly, we parents - especially fathers - must cast a vision of excellence and provide Christian education to our children.  We must recognize that irresponsible homeschooling is just as unproductive to the Kingdom of God as public schooling. We must stop thinking about ourselves as a movement of homeschoolers, and think of ourselves as Christians - serving our children and our brothers and sisters as unto the Lord. As R.C. Sproul Jr. recently stated in his list of concerns about homeschooling, "The church exists for a reason, and too often too many homeschoolers have forgotten that reason."[9]  

If we focus on our responsibilities as Christians, the movement will thrive without much attention.  Christian Education will shine and dominate.  If we do not do this, we will find our advocacy groups defending a sham of godless freedom by parroting dated statistics without the benefit of the Christian responsibility that caused the reported results. We should not defend or enable irresponsible homeschooling. No one has a God-given right to homeschool in a godless fashion.  Think about it!  

 

References - 

[1] Chiaramonte, P.  (2014, November 30)  "NC common core spurs homeschooling growth."  Fox News.  Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/11/30/opposition-to-common-core-spurs-jump-in-homeschooling/

[2] Farris, M.  (2015, June 26)  "Supreme Court Marriage Ruling."  HSLDA. Retrieved from http://www.hslda.org/elert/archive/elertarchive.aspx?7560

[3] Szabo, L.  (2015, June 30)  "California governor signs strict law requiring vaccinations for most kids"  USA Today.  Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/06/30/california-vaccine-bill/29485063/

[4] Rushdoony, R. J. The Messianic Character of American Education. P & R Press, 1963. 

[5] Dewey, John; A Common Faith.  Yale Press.  1935.  Retrieved from http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/excerpts/dewey_excerpt.pdf

[6] Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. New York: Macmillan, 1960.

[7] Blumenfeld, Samuel and Newman; Crimes of the Educators.  WND Books, 2015

[8] Rushdoony, R.J.; The Philosophy of Christian Curriculum.  Vellacito, CA: Ross House Books, 1981.  

[9] Sproul Jr., R.C.; (2015, June 23) "Ask R.C.: What are Some Concerns You Have With the Homeschooling Movement."  [Blog Post]  Retrieved from http://rcsprouljr.com/blog/ask-r-c-what-are-some-concerns-you-have-with-the-homeschooling-movement/