by Currie Jean

Created on: May 18, 2008

Christianity is a single world-view among very, very many. "Christian homeschooling" implies a form of homeschooling that places Christian perspectives, which are not empirically verified, in the role of 'lens' and 'filter' between children and the world.

The Christian lens bends reality in the same way that a glass one distorts light, and the Christian filter blocks out important aspects of reality that children need to learn about in order to have a useful education - that is, an education that, in addition to giving them a diploma, will actually help them function in society and add true depth to their experience.

The option to choose Christian homeschooling should be rejected for a single main reason: Christian homeschooling limits children, putting a glass ceiling on the educational experience. The ways in which it is limiting are outlined below.

1) The Risk of Parent-Induced Xenophobia

One of the challenges of homeschooling children is maintaining their exposure to large groups of other children, thus helping their people skills. While homeschooling can lower children's exposure to unhealthy, negative social pressures, an important part of public school is its tendency to expose children of one cultural background to children of other cultural backgrounds, whom they would not be likely to meet through their parents' social groups. By doing this, public school actively teaches that people, as people, should all be treated fairly, no matter what they think about gods - and more fundamentally, that different ideas are out there, open to perusal by the curious.

This kind of learning is easily prevented by Christian homeschooling. Since children living in this atmosphere surely have Christian parents, and Christian doctrine implores its followers to refrain from seriously considering other religions and discourages critical thinking about Christianity, the children of Christian parents are shielded, in many cases, from healthy exposure to diverse belief systems. Such xenophobia is both inherently divisive and pervasive in families that stick exclusively to a particular religious perspective.

2) The Intentional Inclusion of Bias

The Christian lens distorts history and science, presenting events not only inaccurately, but with intentional bias. The intent, of course, is to make Christianity look better than it is, while making non-Christian perspectives look either worse than they are, or rendering them invisible to children.

Not only are lies found in Christian textbooks,

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