Stephen Owens was raised in an evangelical Christian family. He writes a blog call Common Grace, Common Schools. He is the Education director at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. He sends his own children to public schools. In this post, he explains why many homeschooling Christians fear public schools. I posted only half the essay. Please open the link to read the other half.

Owens writes:

The Washington Post had an article that feels tailor-made to produce schadenfreude in progressive circles. Titled The revolt of the Christian home-schoolers, the reporter detailed the experiences of a couple that chose to send their kids to public school after rethinking their own upbringing in closed, homeschool Christian communities. White evangelical readers will not be shocked by most of what’s written, as I believe most of us worshipped next to families that tsk-tsked mundane cultural experiences such as Halloween, dating, or public education.

Some folks almost gleefully shared the summary quote from the father, Aaron Beall: “People who think the public schools are indoctrinating don’t know what indoctrination is. We were indoctrinated.” After reading the piece I’m struck by my own ignorance of how many people’s experience with homeschooling is similar to the Beall’s. I’ve encountered dozens of (current and former) homeschool families in the churches I attended, the private school where I worked, and even in the real world! (That last part is a joke—homeschooled children become adults and usually don’t want to be labeled with the mean stereotypes of the schooling any more than those people who went to private or public school). The families I’ve encountered fall on a spectrum ranging from “act typical of any public/private school people” to “believed Song of Solomon was smut” but I’ve yet to meet anyone as extreme in their beliefs as who this article is describing.

Now you might say that the close-knit nature of these communities would explain both the siloed thinking and the reason that people like me haven’t met many of them, and that’s fair. I want to, however, make sure not to paint with too broad of a brush even as I think through some of my own concerns around homeschooling. If you’re considering keeping your children from communal schooling, I’ve framed this post as a series of questions for you.

What are you scared of?

Like the article’s subjects, at the root of many people’s decision to homeschool is the desire to limit exposure. On some level every parent practices guarding the minds of their children—oh that I was more aware of this when I took my then-four-year-old on the Monster Mansion(née Monster Plantation) ride. The tricky part is that just because some things seem scary it doesn’t make them evil.

So what are we scared of? Curriculum? Other people? The story people like those in the WaPo article tell about public schools is that they’re filled with Godless liberals who push students (purposefully or accidentally) into leaving the faith of their parents. Children, by comparison, are treated like clean sponges that will soak up any and all ideas without discrimination. I think the both conceptions are comically far from reality and the second specifically runs counter to scripture.

There are enough public schools in the U.S. that I’m sure you’ll find individual instances of a teacher preaching some faith other than Christianity, but I would bet $1,000,000 there are many more instances of Christian public school teachers influencing students. The teachers (Christian or not) I have met are, to the person, unwilling to use precious minutes of class time trying to evangelize to students—jeopardizing their jobs at the same time.

The pupils of these teachers are also not clean slates waiting to be written upon. The Bible states clearly that we are all born wicked. From that birth we spend the first few years developing rapidly—physically, mentally and spiritually. By the time your child enters kindergarten their brain has already developed 90 percent. They have deep imprints of how to handle stress, joy, want and plenty. The idea that your child’s school teacher will be able to quickly undo what your child has learned in the home makes no sense.