c. 1997 Religion News Service
ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Mary Schofield was adamant.”We don’t believe that God instructed us to have someone else raise our children,”said Schofield, a conservative, non-denominational Protestant who homeschools her three children in Placerville, Calif.”It’s not that we want to be removed from society. The (public) schools are not doing a great job,”said Schofield, citing liberal beliefs she believes have led to a public school culture of violence and open sexuality.”They do not teach the truth in areas of science, of history, of literature.” Schofield is a board member of the Norwalk, Calif.-based Christian Home Educators Association, which attracted more than 6,000 parents to its 14th annual convention July 11-13 at the Disneyland Hotel here _ despite the Southern Baptist Convention’s boycott against Disney.
The evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants who dominated the convention walked upon carpets decorated with images of Mickey Mouse as they discussed such topics as teaching disabled kids and why math is a Christian subject.
Seminars covered the historic Christian roots of the United State and more practical matters _ including where to get good deals on used textbooks for youngsters learning through homeschooling, also known as independent study programs.
Permeating the convention _ attended primarily by California homeschooling advocates _ was a libertarian sense of maintaining distance from the educational establishment. Even grade levels were suspect.”I don’t use grade levels with my children,”said homeschooler Susan Stewart of Kern County, Calif., who dismissed such groupings by age as the artificial constructs of education bureaucrats.
Rather than selecting books in accordance with publishers’ grade recommendations, texts should be chosen based on a child’s abilities, she said.”(Grade levels) can be a guide, but don’t stick to it,”Stewart said.
The contemporary homeschooling movement, which began in earnest in the early 1980s, is popular among conservative Christians. During the past school year, more than 1 million children were homeschooled, and nearly one-third of homeschoolers identified themselves as independent evangelical, fundamentalist or charismatic Protestants, according to a study in Christianity Today magazine. Nineteen percent of homeschooling parents identified themselves as independent Baptists.”If you’ve got a good library and papers and pencils, you can accomplish a lot,”said Susan Dinwiddie, 38, a Presbyterian mother homeschooling her brood of six in Oxnard, Calif.”We’re not weird. We’re just accomplishing (educational goals) through different means.” Practical homeschooling tips shared convention space with more political matters, such as daytime curfew laws that have been adopted by some local governments to help stop student truancy.
In California, Los Angeles, San Diego and several other cities have adopted daytime curfew laws, which generally require youngsters under 18 to stay off the streets during regular school hours on days school is in session.
Some laws also target parents who knowingly permit their children to skip school, or do not sufficiently monitor their childrens’ daytime activities. Penalties may include fines and even jail terms.
Though meant as a weapon against loitering gang members, homeschoolers say their children are improperly subjected to arrest if they leave their homes during curfew hours.
Homeschoolers were urged to fight daytime curfew laws as unconstitutional and to train their children how to respond to police if stopped. “Daytime curfews will condition children to become easy targets for criminals posing as police officers,”said a flyer distributed at the convention by a Christian homeschooling political lobbying group.
About 140 vendors lined the convention’s exhibit hall aisles. Among those on hand were individuals selling instructional materials and Christian college recruiters.”Because God created the universe, Christians need to be aware that God created the universe in a pattern that fits mathematically,”said Leonard Firebaugh, a Baptist and ex-math teacher promoting his non-denominational, 36-hour, learn-algebra-by-video series.
Nearby, Kati Rosten of Redding, Calif., a 47-year-old Church of the Nazarene homeschooler, explained how teaching Latin to her four children has meant higher language exam scores.
Rosten, who helped represent a publisher of Latin instructional materials at the convention, said homeschoolers favor Latin because”they generally are interested in getting back to the basics of education.” James Stobaugh hawked his Scholastic Aptitude Test prep courses designed specifically for college-bound Christian kids. Stobaugh, from Downingtown, Pa.,dismissed secular SAT prep courses because some include relaxation exercises that he termed”a veiled form of transcendental meditation.””I’d rather they memorize Romans 8,”he said, referring to a chapter in the New Testament.
Stobaugh also said he likes to see homeschooled Christian youngsters attend non-Christian colleges and universities to spread their view among the mainstream.”I would like nothing more than for Christians to go and to capture again, in American culture, the elitist (academic) element, transforming and conquering American culture for Christ,”Stobaugh said.
MJP END FINNIGAN
