The Right To Teach Your Child Your Worldview

Not having enough to do trying to brainwash all the public school children to only believe one worldview, the press believes that it now has the right to dictate to the makers or home school curriculum what worldview they teach as well.

Never mind that the article itself states that the textbook writers are giving what a majority of their clients want—it focuses on how “unjust” it is that non-Christians do not have many text book options as homeschoolers where they can learn their preferred beliefs.

The History of the Home School Option

The Home School Option was pioneered by Christian parents that did not like what was being taught in the public school and didn’t have the option of a private school.  For many years, they were judged as backwards, under socialized children that would not do well in society.  They were the subjects of exposes, showing the worst: parents that claimed they were homeschooling and yet were neglecting their children¹.

But as more people saw that these children were not backward, but turned out smarter, better able to communicate with adults, and more involved in their communities, the number of homeschooled children grew.  Soon there were multiple different textbook venders.  They starting having groups that would have sporting activities.  Co-ops and guilds were made that allowed people with expertise to teach specialized topics.

Homeschooling grew beyond it’s original purpose, and it began to appear to be a superior form of education.

Christian Roots vs. Secular Roots

However, with those Christian roots comes a Christian worldview in most of its textbooks—and not just in the Bible textbook.  Science textbooks are the flashpoint for this discussion because science textbooks teach origins (though I personally believe that origins is a separate concept from science in general).

The truth is that it’s a battle of beliefs and worldviews.  The Theory of Evolution via Natural Selection isn’t something that can be tested and proven—it’s a logical extrapolation based on the idea natural processes that are currently seen happened uniformly throughout time to some point at which something happened, that initial event is still up to debate.

Creation claims not only to have the answer to the initial event, but also describes how we got to the current point.

Both worldviews use science and evidence.  Both use the same set of facts and have explanations and interpretations of things that can be observed and tested.  And both believe that they are the truth and the other is a lie—and it’s more than that your worldview dictates which one you believe.

Parent’s Rights

If a person were to tell me that a school curriculum taught that 2 + 2 = 5² then I would be behind you all the way.  But when it comes to worldview, the parent should have the choice of whether to have their children brought up in a secular worldview, a Christian worldview, etc.

And if you’re really upset about the lack of curriculum for secular homeschoolers, create your own company (it seems like there’s a underserved niche here that someone could capitalize on!) or pressure that big book distributors to sell to homeschoolers.

Better yet, allow home school families of any stripe to buy used textbooks from schools of their choice.

1. While the same types of parents that had their children in public school never had their parenting style linked toward their choice of schooling. [↩]
2. Unless they are very large values of 2—but I wouldn’t expect that in First Grade. [↩]