“In honor of R. C. Sproul Jr’s upcoming London debate with Robert Reich on homeschooling I thought I would re-post a couple of exchanges I had two years ago with the honorable Dr. Reich.”
“If parents can control every aspect of the kids’ education, shield them from exposure to things that the parents deem sinful or objectionable, screen in only things which accord with their convictions, and not allow them exposure to the world of democracy, well the children grow up then basically in the own image of their parents, servile to their own parents’ beliefs.”
Robert ‘The Fourth’ Reich
Ph.D. Education “Expert”
This quote comes from a recent radio conversation roundtable on home schooling of which Reich was a part. The first thing that should jump out and strangle the reader is the understanding on Reich’s part that educations purpose is to insure that children are not allowed to grow up in their parent’s image. For Reich the only time that a child is allowed to embrace their parent’s image is if the parent’s image is the same as the schools to which they are sending them. Reich’s problem is not that children grow up in their parent’s image. Reich’s problem is that some children don’t grow up into his image, which he believes all parents should share and which is inculcated in the government schools.
Second what should be noticed is the covenantal character of this quote. Reich’s desire is the production of a uniform product, which can be achieved at the local educational factory, where conformity to the religion of humanism is the manufactured product. Reich’s desire is to mass-produce little adults (children) who will think in ways consistent with his statist ambitions and in the image of their Father in Washington. One must see through Reich’s euphemistic ‘world of democracy’ to understand the desire behind that phrase is to create a covenantal unity that is based on non-Christian thinking.
Third, note the incipient disdain that Reich has for parents. If children share their parent’s convictions then those poor children have become servile to their parents beliefs. Oh, the horror of it all that children would grow up to live lives with beliefs consistent with their parents. Surely, this is child abuse of the most grotesque nature. Also note the implicit disaster that Reich finds in parents actually taking parenting seriously. How dare parents shield out that which is sinful or objectionable while at the same time screening in that which is pure, noble, just or of good report. The contempt and disdain for home schooling parents that Reich has is the reason that many people like me become like snarling junkyard dogs in the presence of these people. They can have my children when they pry them from my cold dead fingers.
Fourth, such a quote should forever disabuse Christians from thinking that the schools are happy places of neutrality that have nothing to do with religion but are ‘only about education.’ Reich, in that quote, has told us that the intent of government education is to separate the worldview of children from the worldview of their parents. Let us speak plainly. If you as a Christian send your children to government schools the government school is going to work to subtly sanitize from your children’s thinking the idea of a personal Creator God to whom we are responsible and to whom we must give an account and replace Him with notions of ‘World of Democracy’. Now, the only reason a Christian parent wouldn’t find that particularly threatening is if they themselves weren’t particularly Christian, or if they didn’t yet understand the stakes.
Fifth, let us not delude ourselves into thinking that Reich’s mindset isn’t reflective of most of the epistemologically self-conscious educational establishment in America. America’s schools, by design, are geared to steal America’s children from America’s parents by rewiring them from the wiring they might otherwise get in the home and in good churches.
Sixth, and finally, as Christians we must be named vigilant and not take our home schooling freedoms for granted. Reich’s quote serves to reveal that the success of home schooling will not go unchallenged. I would contend that the State cannot forever allow home schooling to mushroom. If I were a Statist I would see home schooling, by epistemologically self-conscious Christians, to be an incredible threat to my dominion. If I were a Statist I would prioritize the destruction of the home schooling movement realizing what a threat that a citizenry of critically thinking people would be to my agenda. If I am smart enough to figure out that threat then you can rest assured that many people in the statist educational establishment are aware of the threat that home schooling is.