In the greatest of ironies, a recent issue of “Harvard Magazine” has condemned parents being at home with their children all day, even while the governments across America have now required it for the past several weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. My efforts to recast homeschooling in a less-threatening light are rooted in two things: teleology and practice.

In the most recent issue of Harvard Magazine, Erin O’Donnell presents Dr. Elizabeth Bartholet’s arguments against homeschooling and her radical call to ban the practice entirely.*

Dear me. My fellow 2 million homeschoolers and I must have unwittingly ruffled her feathers somehow, to be subjected to such accusations ranging from masterminding totalitarian regimes to brainwashing to (my personal favorite) just being plain stupid. Dr. Bartholet, who does not seem to have ever interviewed or even interacted with a homeschooling family, makes the spurious suggestion that homeschooling parents have never been to school, and nay, are quite possibly unable to read and write. My four children are still snickering over this one, as the backdrop of their entire childhood has been composed of the greatest literary, musical, artistic, and historical works of Western Civilization. We’ve already made great usage out of the rejoinder—well, you see, dear one, Mama can’t help you with that, because she can neither read nor write!

In the greatest of ironies, Ms. O’Donnell has condemned parents being at home with their children all day, even while the governments across America have now required it for the past several weeks. She may not see the humor, since the article was no doubt in the production pipeline before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all schools across the nation. But perhaps she may wish to issue a revised article, with a suggestion that the Department of Education visit every home across America to ensure that no parent is uttering anything but platitudes during the pandemic lockdown? This may help alleviate Dr. Bartholet’s fears that parents may be exercising too much authority and influence over their children.

It is no doubt far easier and more satisfying to cast specious claims than to define terms of the argument, since the issue of homeschooling seems to be a bit of a red herring. If intellectual honesty was on the line, Dr. Bartholet should admit to being primarily concerned with parents (rather than the State) raising their own children. Interestingly, she has not yet made the case for something like the Institution of National Orphan-ization, which would strip all children from their families and place them safely in the care of non-blood-related bureaucrats. Perhaps we can look for that in the next issue in Harvard Magazine. Regardless, after having been branded as “dangerous” to the entire American republic, surely I have earned the right of self-defense. I dare say it may be a bit of a fool’s errand to take on the Goliath of Harvard Magazine from my little study in Tennessee. On the other hand, David’s pebbles were efficacious, so perhaps my cause is not without hope. My efforts to recast homeschooling in a less-threatening light are rooted in two things: teleology and practice.

Teleology

Let me begin this way: the goals, means, and methods of government-run education simply do not accord with a classical understanding of education. Thus, I have no reason to subject my children to its futility. I stand on the shoulders of brilliant classical educators alive today and from the past millennia who have taught that education is fundamentally about repentance and the cultivation of wisdom and virtue. Any educational system without those principles in the first sentence of its mission statement is unworthy of 13 years of my children’s attention.

More particularly, instead of factory-producing students trained to mass conformity, I am interested in the cultivation of “men with chests” (a la C.S. Lewis), women with zesty intellect (a la Dorothy L. Sayers), and human beings with rightly ordered loves (a la St. Augustine).

Instead of acculturating antagonism and disrespect for authority and creating a petri dish for full-time protestors, I am interested in respect for authority, conserving all the wisdom, insight, and beauty of the past, and the promotion of human flourishing for the future.

Instead of cramming, testing, and dumping to an arbitrary test, I am interested in creating attentive lessons, precise thinking, and logical writing about life-changing truths that will become the very lifeblood of the young hearts in my care.

Instead of flashy technologies hoping (and failing) to hold the attention of children, I am interested in a slow and faithful plodding through Jane Eyre so my children can see how character is truly made.

Instead of allowing students to sink into fake and fleeting language and acronyms, I am interested in steeping my children’s minds in the beautiful and brilliant language of ages past.

Instead of letting teens fester in Tik-Tok, vulgarity, and apathy, I am interested in Bach, purity, and curiosity.

Instead of encouraging despair and fear through identity crises, I am interested in deeply rooting children in a family, a culture, and a tradition.

Instead of nurturing materialistic, narcissistic, self-indulgent, entertainment addicts, I am interested in shaping thoughtful, contemplative, virtuous, self-sacrificing men and women who raise families well, lead communities with integrity, and create redemptive culture.

Instead of embracing a reductionistic view of education that idolizes utility, I am interested in selecting books that implicitly acknowledge that my children were created as whole humans, designed for lifetimes of service, self-education, and worship.

Instead of cueing teens to mimic their peers, I am interested in cultivating young adults who absorb etiquette and habits from the wise adults in their lives, both inside and outside the family.

Instead of a shallow, derivate focus on a particular kind of technology-focused math and science, I am far more interested in language, memory, and the unity of all subjects at the expense of none.

Instead of teaching mediocrity as though the classroom is filled with soul-less numbers on a grid, I am interested in teaching excellence, courage, and self-control to the souls under my care, who will go on to create businesses, art, and families, thus influencing thousands of people over the course of their lifetimes.

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