By Jane Butterfield
There is a silent army loose in the Nation. It numbers more than 4-1/2 million strong. This army marches to a different drummer, but with greater discipline, power and enthusiasm than can be imagined. In a few years this army will reach Washington, Atlanta, New York and Chicago: all the places where liberals extend control of the culture.. These soldiers are Christian home-schoolers- and this army will turn the world upside down.
That is why columnists like New York Times maven Maureen Dowd are so scared. Dowd see them coming- an army of young people who do not buy into the liberal lie. Delaine Easton tried to stop them in California. Eastin knew this army was beyond the reach of state- run government schools and their propaganda. Eastin fears these students, because she knows they think for themselves.
Home-education has been likened to a plant in a greenhouse. One day the gardener decides its time to transplant. By then, the plant has thrust down strong, hardy roots, and has established sleek, healthy, nourishing leaves. The plant hardly notices when it is moved, because it is so healthy. In the cool, dark earth, its roots burrow deep into the soil, while its shiny leaves reach for the sky.
The Christian home-schooler is just like that plant. Raised in the safe, secure haven called home, development progresses unhindered. There parents teach, admonish and encourage their child to be confident, optimistic and knowledgeable as well as discerning.
The child will not have to deal with the shame and emotional abuse so rampant in the government schools. They will not be trained e to stop like sheep, every time the bell rings or buy into foolish lies of men rising from primordial soup. Instead the child can spend countless uninterrupted hours reading, studying, hiking, working or serving others with joy.
There is a myth called socialization that was intended to stop this army. The question arose: socialized to what? The average home-schooler interacts with caring people from sun-up to sundown. They learn to cope with conflict in the context of family and community, where authority is respected and obeyed.
If its a boy, he typically plays sports on a private or city league. Most likely he is a Boy Scout headed for Eagle. This young person attends camp in the summer- often including an annual missions trip to a poverty stricken town south of the border. He helps with construction or works alongside his sister and her friends in a Spanish version of Vacation Bible School. The typical home-schooler has more opportunities than time in the day.
Years of reading, critical thinking and steady academic development culminate in High School graduation. If the student is associated with a Christian Day School, they will graduate in the gymnasium and go on the senior trip to Hawaii. The average home-schooler will score 1200 or above on the SAT, and be accepted to the college of their choice, often on scholarship.
Some will not go to college, but many will. That is why schools like Patrick Henry College in Virginia are proliferating. Patrick Henry was started by attorney Michael Farris. When Farris failed in his bid for State Attorney General in Virginia, God gave him a different vision. This vision was to cultivate civic-minded young adults who would gain a hearing in the public arena.
So Farris, a home-schooling father of nine, started Patrick Henry College. He built the
school entirely debt free, on 106 acres of rolling hills at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Farris understood the need for a college that would prepare young adults for the future. He also saw the need to aim these students at the power centers of America where liberal ideas were destroying the integrity of the nation.
No more separate but equal. These students would ascend to the secular strongholds of the Nation and take them back. They would be the best and the brightest of their generation. The home school movement is supplying an endless source of energy, ability, knowledge and enthusiasm. Things are going to change.
Today, in its 5th year of operation, Patrick Henry offers the finest classical education available on a college campus. Latin, rhetoric and debate classes are taught by some of the brightest teachers in the country.. Patrick Henry College is also producing the largest percentage of White House Interns.. It regularly hosts world-class speakers such as Kay James, Dick Cheney and even George Bush. Its students spend their school breaks campaigning for conservative candidates up and down the east coast.
But Patrick Henry is just the tip of the iceberg. Christian home-schoolers are coming of age all across the country. Eventually millions of them will graduate from Universities as diverse and challenging as Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard and Georgetown. Once this army earns its credentials and gets its marching orders, it wont be silent anymore.