Thread by @CarisAdel

I’m going to talk about #ExposeChristianHomeschooling from a slightly different angle. I was homeschooled for 3 years, and have homeschooled for around 15 years; 3 of my kids are now in public schools.

Homeschooling in some ways was damaging to me because Christian homeschooling is so tied to the identity of being an appropriate mother. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

And it was hard, and there was never any discussion about too hard, because so much of being a woman is about enduring. Quitting homeschooling was seen as giving up on the best for your kids. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

But I should have put most of my kids in school when we moved here 3 years ago, and I regret that I didn’t, that it took nearly a complete breakdown before I realized that different could be just as good. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

But there are many things I love about homeschooling, and my kids are fucking amazing and independent because of it. But that also is bc I decided to stop treating them as things to be controlled, and instead treated them as autonomous human beings. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

Christian homeschooling is largely a very white, anti-intellectual and patriarchal experience and I feel awful for the kids who are caught in that system and don’t know any better. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

Over the years I switched from being a conservative Christian homeschooler to a liberal secular-type, and it was largely due to how, ironically, anti-intellectual Christian homeschoolers and the curriculum was. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

When I started homeschooling, I wanted to use old history books because I thought they were the most accurate, as opposed to ‘modern, liberal, revisionist’ books. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

I did a major sort through all of my kid books for school this summer and was appalled at how many colonialist and racist books I still had on the shelf. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

(because who doesn’t love bookshelf pics)

There was never anything in the Christian curriculum I used that challenged me on racism or social justice, etc. Zinn might be a simplified version, but he is also a powerful corrective. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

My homeschooling goals were largely based on a neo-classical curriculum, and while it’s not entirely terrible, it also needs to not be the sole focus of learning, but they don’t tell you that. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

3 years ago I took a college class in environmental geology and it was the first time I realized that climate change was real, and I was stunned to see how much science was behind it, and that the scientists had debunked conservative opposition. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

When my middle son was 6, he wanted to be an archaeologist, and I knew I couldn’t send him to college being a creationist. Reading science with an open mind is a dangerous thing 🤣. Everything changed after that. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

Christian curriculum is based around the idea of Genesis being literal and/or Calvinism, and this seeps into everything. Manifest Destiny seemed to be still a mainstream idea in Christian humanities curriculum. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

Thankfully, over the past 5+ years, secular curriculum has really come along, in every single subject. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

My experience being a Christian homeschooler was very isolating. I have always refused to sign statements of faith because even as a conservative, I thought the exclusion was wrong. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

And then when I started disagreeing with creationism, my goodness. It was Christian homeschoolers who were the most judgmental of me when I became more politically liberal. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

It took moving to Virginia to find good secular co-ops and friends. Moving to Virginia was also the first time I was required to have any accountability by the state. Not cool. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

I am obviously, with 2 kids still at home, not anti-homeschooling. And in some ways I think the process of educating can be done much more effectively at home. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

But the system of Christian homeschooling; it’s conferences, it’s curriculum, it’s speakers and magazines; is very white and patriarchal, and anti-intellectual. It is exclusionary and isolationist. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

*its, fucking hell.

The environment that surrounds christian homeschooling is ripe for abuse and for setting kids up to fail academically at college and in the real world. It stunts their maturation.
#ExposeChristianHomeschooling

And by refusing to hold itself accountable, by fighting any form of rules and regulations, it maintains a space for toxic theology, harmful politics, and actual abuse to take place. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

For example: a well-known classical curriculum publisher still sells books by the confederacy-apologist Doug Wilson veritaspress.com/store/omnibus-…. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling

And this was another big part of me questioning what I was upholding with my money in this system - homeschoolersanonymous.org/2014/06/24/pau…

#ExposeChristianHomeschooling