Since the founding of America, education has been prioritized and valued, and quite rightfully so. When children are intentionally given a quality education, the next generation will flourish and prosper, ensuring the sustained continuance of our republic and its values. Almost every American regardless of their political leanings can agree on the foundational importance of a quality education system.
Unfortunately, that may well be one of the few things agreed upon when it comes to education. Most early American schools were run by the local community or church, and it was not necessarily mandatory. In the 1830s, Massachusetts politician Horace Mann’s idea of “universal schooling” grasped a large handhold in American culture and government. Since then, public schools and the state bureaucracies have controlled the education game.
The introduction of public schools funded and regulated by the government brought a plethora of responses from a diverse spectrum of Americans. While many people benefited from low-cost public education, other parents chose to not send their children to public schools, so they had to find a different way to educate their children.
Two quality alternatives arose: private schools and homeschool. Private schools, often religious in nature and policy, are lightly regulated and often allow the patron community to have input on curriculum. Private schools are a fabulous option for many who want to have a bit of say in their children’s education, but because of the lack of government funding, they can cost thousands of dollars per year.
For many families, and especially Christian households, homeschooling is the perfect option. At little cost to themselves, parents can provide individualized quality education for their children in a safe and healthy environment. Children must meet the standards set by the community (in America’s case, the state), but in a homeschool setting, the parents have the primary role in shaping their children’s path to achieving that standard. Homeschooling is now commonplace, and almost mainstream, with over 2.5 million American students currently being educated at home and in co-ops.
Despite all this, homeschooling has come under attack. In a recent article, Harvard law and professor Elizabeth Bartholet stridently attacked homeschool parents as “extreme religious ideologues…who promote racial segregation and female subservience” and “white supremacy.” Bartholet, the head of Harvard’s child advocacy department, claimed that homeschooling is an “essentially unregulated regime” with little to no standards. As a result, Bartholet called for a “presumptive ban” on American homeschooling. She will be hosting a virtual homeschooling summit in June in tandem with Harvard.
Let’s unpack her argument. First, Professor Bartholet bizarrely claims, without providing any tangible evidence, that many homeschool families are Jim-Crow and patriarchy-supporting alt-right ‘Christians.’ She claims that “parents who are committed to beliefs and values counter to those of the larger society...to bring their children up in isolation” are simply wrong, because they “help ensure that [their children] will replicate the parents’ views and lifestyle choices.” Bartholet is arguing that the government should not allow parents to teach their children values that are “counter-cultural,” which is quite the affront to both the basis of the American founding and the Biblical worldview. The right to instill our own values in our kids, against the culture or not, is a quintessential right and God-given mandate that should never be stolen by the state.
Bartholet is advocating for education by majority rule: whatever the culture says, that is what is right for children to learn. But in assuming this, she is casting aside the inconvenient foundational Western idea of objective truth. In educating children based on the beliefs of the culture at large, Bartholet is claiming an objective truth without any foundation supporting it. According to her, culture change necessitates educational change.
Rather, the Constitutional freedoms of conscience and religion allow plenty of room for parents to educate their children safely and with their deeply held convictions. School choice must be both protected and encouraged, as it provides a buffet of great options for the many families unsatisfied with the one-size-fits-all public education.
Finally, Bartholet attacks the low regulation of homeschool, arguing that it allows for abuse, loss of education, and lack of social skills. This claim is full of assumptions and lacking research, as homeschool students have proven to be successful academically across the board. A recent homeschooling study shows that homeschoolers “typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests...regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income” (Ray). Homeschoolers are actively sought after by prestigious universities and graduate schools, and their community and civic engagement rate is higher than the general population.
The common homeschool stereotype is that of an ‘awkward’ child lacking social skills, but that is an assumption of the past. Co-ops are becoming very popular and are now more widespread. These organizations are the best of both educational worlds: they provide safe environments that reflect community values while providing children with invaluable social interactions and activities that are public school staples, such as music, sports, and even prom.
As for the question of abuse, multiple studies have shown that homeschool students have less behavioral issues in highschool (Shyers). No data points towards widespread homeschool abuse. If anything, it points the opposite direction, as “legally homeschooled students are 40% less likely to die by child abuse or neglect than the average student nationally” (Williams).
Homeschooling is a fantastic benefit to parents, children, and the community as a whole. Parents can exercise the right to educate their own children within their own worldview, children can receive individualized instruction based on their needs, and the community reaps the benefits of an educated populace. Professor Bartholet’s attack is out of line and does not reflect the foundational values of America or Christianity. It isn’t the state’s job to force the majority cultural values down the throat of every family. Rather, the government must protect the rights of everyone while allowing the community to flourish.
Read on: Prof. Bartholet's Essay, Daily Wire, NHERI, Dr. Ray Study, Williams Study