You may have heard about the recent article published in Scientific American. It has gained a lot of notoriety because the article suggests that homeschooling parents should have background checks, in the same way that teachers are given background checks.[1]
Scientific American is a popular magazine. I want to get that out of the way right at the beginning. Some people have noted that the article does not provide any science to back up their claims. After all, the article appears in a magazine with “scientific” in the title, shouldn’t the editors keep their focus on science topics, rather than on schooling? Yes, but also, no. Scientific American is not a journal: it is not an academic publication designed to share research between professions. Rather, it is a popular magazine designed to bring science, and science issues, to the public. Since the editors of Scientific American are concerned with the public’s view of science, it is no surprise that they would take an interest in the teaching of science to students. Indeed, the article concludes with:
Education is a basic human right. We need to make sure kids have chances to investigate what makes them curious, study history and science and reading, and ask questions and learn from others. We want them to reach adulthood ready to take on the world.[2]
There is a lot to unpack in this paragraph, and I plan to do just that, but for now, note how the chance to study science is one of their concerns. This is why a non-science related article appears in a popular science magazine: the editors are intent on ensuring that all children get a chance to study science, so that they may grow up well educated and capable of exploring the world using science.
In a sense, I agree with them. I have taught science my entire career. I delight in seeing students learn something new in science, to see their expressions as a new revelation dawns on them. I also agree that a good education in science will greatly improve a student’s ability to navigate the world around him. Where I differ from the editors of Scientific American is how that education should come about. More specifically, I disagree with their idea of whose job it is to educate children.
The opening problem that the article addresses is: how do we know that these homeschoolered students are getting an education? To their credit, the editors admit that homeschoolers have succeeded and exceeded at several standards of knowledge and intelligence. However, after noting that there are 1.5 million homeschooled children in the United States, they state the following:
Eleven states do not require parents to inform anyone that they are homeschooling a child, and in most of the country, once a child has exited the traditional schoolroom environment, no one checks to ensure they are receiving an education at all.[3]
After noting the success of some homeschoolers, they then say:
But others do not receive a meaningful education—and too many have suffered horrific abuse. The federal government must develop basic standards for safety and quality of education in homeschooling across the country.[4]
They are clearly setting up that homeschooling parents need to be held accountable. And the solution is given right there in the last quote: “the federal government must…” To ensure that homeschooling parents are adequately and safely teaching their children, the federal government must step in and act as a referee. Such an idea gets the education of children completely backwards.
Throughout scripture, parents are given the duty of teaching and educating their children (Ephesians 6:4, Deuteronomy 6:6-7, Proverbs 1:8-9). The very first human institution created was marriage (Genesis 2:22-25) and one of the first commands to the first couple was to have children (Genesis 1:28). In short, God created parents to be responsible for their children, not civil governments. Whether parents decide to homeschool their children, to send their children to private schools, or to subject them to indoctrination in public schools, the parents, not governments, are held responsible by God for how their children are educated. Therefore, simply as a matter of authority, governments have no right to tell parents how they should or if they can educate their children.
As a quick aside, people may counter what I am saying with the abusive parent argument. If parents are to be solely responsible for their children, should children be left with abusive parents? After all, this was one of the subjects in the Scientific American article, how homeschooling can be used as a veil for child abuse. I am in no way saying that a child’s life should be left in danger if the parents are truly abusive. What I am saying, however, is that it is not normal for a civil government to step in and rescue children from their parents. That is an exception, not the rule. But requiring homeschooling parents to take a background check to prove that they will treat their own children safely, which is what the article suggests,[5] is taking that exception and treating it as the rule.
In contrast to how God created things, the editors of Scientific American believe that society gets to govern families in order to better the society itself. In this view, families become a tool of society. They do not say this explicitly, but they imply it when they call education a basic human right.[6] If education is a human right, then someone, namely society, using the force and authority of civil government, gets to enforce that right.
To me, that is the scariest part of the article in Scientific American. How far do they want governments to take their supposed authority over parents? If homeschooling parents need to have background checks, in order to ensure that they will not abuse their own children, at what point will these same people suggest that all parents get background checks? After all, abuse can be hidden by more than just homeschooling.
Even though Scientific American had an article about a non-science topic, they were well within their interests, as promoters of science, to talk about schooling. The notable lack of science in their article just highlights that the difference between the editors of Scientific American and us in the Christian, creationist community is not an adherence to science, and not even how we interpret science, it is a difference in worldview. Which only highlights how important it is to have freedom to homeschool. Parents must be able to teach their own children their own convictions and worldviews. If us parents are ever subjected to scrutiny by the federal government, then we can easily be forced to teach their worldview and their convictions. In a round-about way, the Scientific American article only highlighted why free choice in schooling is important.
Thoughts from Steven
[1]Editors (2024) “Children Deserve Uniform Standards in Homeschooling” scientificamerican.com, retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/children-deserve-uniform-standards-in-homeschooling/ on June 22, 2024. Some reports about this article can be seen by Knudsen, Hannah (2024) “Scientific American Magazine Calls for Federal Homeschooling Regulations” breitbart.com, retrieved from https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/06/18/scientific-american-magazine-calls-federal-homeschooling-regulations/ on June 22, 2024 and Macek, Molly (2024) “Scientific American Takes Aim and Homeschoolers” mackinag.org, retrieved from https://www.mackinac.org/blog/2024/scientific-american-takes-aim-at-homeschoolers on June 22, 2024
[2]Editors (2024) “Children Deserve Uniform Standards in Homeschooling” scientificamerican.com, retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/children-deserve-uniform-standards-in-homeschooling/ on June 22, 2024
[3]Ibid.
[4]Ibid.
[5]Ibid.
[6]Ibid.
Heart of America Science Resource Center 