May 24, 2021

Homeschooling for a Freer and More Virtuous World

By: David Collins

Homeschooling, while not a panacea for all societal ills, is one way our country can reclaim its roots. A couple reasons come to mind: students receive a diversity of educational experiences while parents simultaneously subvert the governmental school system which has more problems than I can list.  Not to mention the emphasis that homeschooling puts on students to develop their character.

To put it simply: homeschooling makes the world a freer and more virtuous place.

The very essence  of the American experiment and republicanism is individualized schooling. There is no one-way-fits-all approach to education,  and there are many different ways to homeschool that come with their own end goals. This runs contrary to the standardized approach of government-funded schools. Many American schools try  to ensure each student reaches certain academic benchmarks on a specified timeline, regardless of true mastery. Not only does homeschooling directly fall in line with free market philosophy, but it also provides parents the opportunity to teach  values that are commonly demonized by public schools.

The schooling debate is ongoing,  which is why many parents choose private schools over public schools, because private schools provide more benefits than public schools. Schooling experimentation works for millions of families across the country.

Standardization in public schools is one thing, but actively teaching values contrary to the traditional virtues of a Western classical education is another issue. Contrary to what many people think, Dr. Louis Markos believes if public schools removed virtue entirely from the curriculum, we wouldn’t be in such a dire state today. He writes, “Had our secular schools really jettisoned virtue altogether, then their students would have noticed the absence and awakened from their moral stupor.” He continues, 

“Placed in a fully virtueless zone, the human heart would have felt hunger and rebelled. However, the secular-progressive architects of our modern schools were not foolish enough to let that happen. That is why, after purging their schools of traditional Judeo-Christian — and traditional Greco-Roman — virtues, they replaced them with a set of five pseudo-virtues to fill up the virtue-shaped vacuum in our hearts: tolerance, inclusivism, egalitarianism, multiculturalism, and environmentalism.”

Homeschooling is an antidote for parents to actively ensure virtue and character formation are front and center in their kids’ lives (regardless of what those values or virtues are). It would be naive to leave the indispensable yet delicate process of virtue formation in the hands of public schools, whose ultimate goal revolves around test scores rather than fundamental development.  

There is (or, used to be) a saying, “Parents are the primary educator.” That belief is seemingly lost as the state assumes responsibility, both academically and virtuously for America’s children. Homeschooling is  seen as a viable option for friends of liberty, as it subverts the state’s persistent indoctrination and ensures an upright, virtuous citizenry, friendly to the ideas of freedom and the virtues modeled by our forefathers. This is what makes America exceptionally distinct among other nations.

The institution of homeschooling is not only a viable alternative to traditional schooling, but one that could demonstrably shift the direction of our country. Because of this, there are efforts to delegitimize homeschooling, both at the government and elite level. These efforts are ill-informed, and liberty-lovers must fight back.