Conservative Christian Homeschooling in the United States: Is it Producing Good Citizens?

This thesis applies historical, empirical, and philosophical perspectives to the textbooks and curricular materials used by conservative Christian homeschoolers in order to determine whether this type of education is conducive to the goal of creating good citizens of the United States. The first chapter presents the history of homeschooling in the United States as well as the limited data available about homeschoolers. It outlines the main reasons why parents choose to homeschool, identifies which states have the strictest or most lenient regulations, and discusses the curriculum and socialization options that exist for homeschoolers. The label “conservative Christian homeschooling” is defended, and a few portraits are provided of conservative Christian homeschooling families, from the research of Robert Kunzman. Chapter two presents a brief history of conservative Christianity in the United States, focusing on the most recent century, in order to demonstrate how the growth of the homeschooling movement correlates with the growth of the conservative Christian movement in the United States. A brief discussion of ethnographic studies by Nancy Ammerman and Brenda Brasher informs readers about the daily lives of conservative Christians. The discussion of the historical, political, and social aspects of conservative Christianity come together to shape the movement’s worldview. The third chapter is an analysis of five high-school level conservative Christian homeschool textbooks that are published by A Beka Books, one of the most widely used publisher of textbooks used in the conservative Christian homeschooling world, and representative of other similar publishers, such as Bob Jones University Press. The topics of the five textbooks – biology, American government, U.S. history, health, and world geography – were selected because they are subjects important to the contemporary conservative Christian ideology. This third chapter demonstrates the religious nature of the textbooks by sharing excerpts from the textbooks and shows that the entire curriculum is taught through a conservative Christian “Biblical worldview.” The fourth and final chapter is a philosophical discussion about citizenship issues, the goals of education for citizenship, and recommendations for education policy changes. Ultimately, conservative Christians, like all Americans, should be allowed significant freedom to educate their children in the way that they choose, as long as they adhere to national minimum standards for education that are appropriate for contemporary America. Although people live their lives in different ways, there are still skills, knowledge, and values required of all American citizens. Some basic goals of citizenship outlined in chapter four should dictate the minimum standards for education in the United States of America, and no one should be able to claim religious exemption from them. It is possible that conservative Christian homeschooling can produce good citizens if done in specific ways; however, there is great potential for conservative Christian homeschooling to create citizens whose worldviews are antithetical to American values. This thesis argues that it is necessary to enforce at least minimal regulation on homeschooling in order to prevent some children from being stuck in a harmful educational situation, and that this regulation is more important than any relative imposition it may cause to conservative Christians’ unique way of life.

Keywords: homeschooling
conservative christians
christianity
education
citizenship
education for citizenship
Thesis