Assessing the Arguments Against Christian Education: Indoctrination

“A very large proportion of homeschooling parents are ideologically committed to isolating their children from the majority culture and indoctrinating them in views and values that are in serious conflict with that culture.”
- Elizabeth Bartholet

Indoctrination is a scary word. It makes you think of brainwashing and mind control. In 2019, right before the pandemic and lockdown, the faculty director of Harvard Law School’s Child Advocacy Program, Elizabeth Bartholet, argued that homeschooling was essentially unregulated, and the students were being raised and indoctrinated by white supremacists and religious fanatics. She wanted a default ban on homeschooling that would only be lifted if the parents could prove a particular need. In a glorious example of irony, the 2020 lockdown sent students across the country home, and millions of parents were introduced to not only homeschooling but also to what the public schools had been teaching their children. 

What is indoctrination?

According to Oxford Languages online dictionary, “indoctrination” was once defined simply as the act of teaching or education but is now defined as “the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.” I don’t know a single parent who wants their child to be an uncritical thinker, so of course, this assertion gives us pause. 

Does this mean Bartholet thinks students should be given a multitude of views on a subject and allowed to choose for themselves? Further reading of her 80-page article shows that is not her belief at all. She states:

And in another case, the Court described the fundamental purposes of public education as including preparation “for citizenship in the Republic” and inculcation of “the habits and manners of civility as values in themselves conducive to happiness and as indispensable to the practice of self-government in the community and the nation.” Commentators agree that the Court’s cases support the state’s right to promote important public values.

Bartholet is not worried that your child is being taught what to think, she’s worried that she doesn’t get to choose what that is. She discusses tolerance and differing viewpoints as if these were questions of taste and not truth claims about human nature, the use of power, and the purpose of the universe. Is there no authoritative voice answering these questions? Is it indoctrination to claim that there is such a voice?

How does the Bible describe education?

As it’s impossible to know if you are doing something wrong if you don’t know what doing it right looks like, let’s review biblical principles on education and child-rearing.

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov 22:6, ESV)

Parents are given a direct command to train a child in a particular way. The image is that of a path with clear edges and boundaries. The father and mother have learned this path and now they teach it to their children, showing them where the ditches are and how easy it can be to leave the way. 

But what is “the way?” Far from an empty placeholder, the author is pointing back to Proverbs 9:10, which reads, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” The ramifications of this verse go far beyond simply teaching Bible as one of many subjects. The world is the Lord’s and everything in it (Psalm 24:1), which means that every subject is impacted by the fact that there is a Sovereign, Holy God in the Heavens who made you and has called you to live in relationship with Him. 

Educating and discipling our children is an act of passing down wisdom previously learned and revealed, whether it’s the Word of God and the Gospel message or how to plant a garden. Wisdom and experience come with age, and we love our children enough to pass along this wisdom so they don’t have to learn everything through the experience of their mistakes. 

So with the Bible’s emphasis on staying in the old paths, does this mean we are raising children who are unable to interact with people who think differently than them? 

Does Christian homeschooling lead to intolerance? 

We need to take a moment to define tolerance. I’m going to define tolerance as the willingness to tolerate views or beliefs that you do not agree with. You can tolerate something without celebrating it, without encouraging it. You can tolerate something while crafting strong arguments against it. 

When the foundation of everything we teach our children is the fear of the Lord, we will by necessity also give them structures for understanding those who think differently than them. You cannot speak of the glory of salvation without describing the implications of the fall. You cannot talk about Christ’s authority without also teaching man’s rebellion. 

Far from making children intolerant, a truly Christian education gives your student a framework to understand and interact with the world around them. A study by Albert Cheng has shown that the more time a student is exposed to Christian homeschooling, the more politically tolerant they are likely to be. In fact, the more “secure in their identity” a student was, the less likely they were to quell disagreement. Insecure people are more likely to shut down ideas that threaten their viewpoint. It appears giving students a firm foundation really does allow them to be the best type of citizen. 

Bartholet’s accusation of indoctrination was less about outcomes and public values than it was about power and her desire for the state to have governance over your child’s education. The Bible is clear, it’s the parent’s responsibility to govern their child’s education, and they are to raise their child in the fear and admonition of the Lord. How that looks in practice will change with the family and community.
We know every Christian won’t apply this the same way. That’s why CHI puts so much emphasis on self-governance in our private Christian Halls. We want you to have the tools and support necessary to live out the commands of Scripture in your local communities and families.