Twenty years ago, my then-School District’s Curriculum Director asked me what purpose any history courses served in the contemporary world. Believe me that I was just thrilled to be working for someone with this mindset.

History is useless if unremembered. For history to be of use, a person must be able to recall moments of wisdom and folly from past crises that can be used to navigate to a positive outcome. History is social memory, allowing us to leaven our personal wisdom by learning from the failures and successes of others.

History tells each of us who we are. It is history, rather than race or sex, which most strongly shapes our own identity. In addition to who we are as discrete people, we inherit and absorb a cultural self. Two identical twins would be fundamentally different people were they separated after being born; one raised in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and the other in Krasnodar, Russia or in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

We swim in a sea of culture convictions, language, manners, faith, and norms that are essentially different depending on where on Earth we grow up. Everything, from what is normal to what constitutes common sense, is determined by the history that formed the society where the individual develops.

This is why historical education matters. It tells us wisdom from folly. More significantly, it tells us who we are as individuals and as citizens of a distinct nation.

Public schools were established across the United States in the late 1800s precisely because our national identity was threatened by mass immigration. Mandatory public education was entrusted with the critical mission of acculturating the children of immigrants from all over the world. “E PLURIBUS UNUM” was our educational priority, to make one nation of many physical and cultural bloodlines.

Our educational trendsetters have betrayed this imperative. Fidelity to the transmission of our common values, the standards of our mainstream culture, and the fundamental characteristics of the Judeo-Christian West to coming generations is now mischaracterized as intolerant and even bigoted.

The inevitable result of this rejection of our schools’ acculturating mission is today’s cultural confusion. Can any of us say with any confidence what virtues, manners, and characteristics remain definitively American?

Without functional shared core beliefs, no society long remains cohesive. Without common understandings about how and why our Federal Republic should function, free citizens will fail to maintain liberty. Individuals without historical perspective cannot long resist the siren song of the demagogue.

The legacy of the West is the basis of the very modern world. The value of the individual, inalienable rights, limited government, separation of powers, dedication to civic duty, rulers held to account according to a transcendent morality, freedom of religion so that we each may discover God, freedom of speech which guarantees cultural vibrancy as well as technological innovation, freedom to bear arms in defense of all of these others: all of these and many more are utterly unique to the West.

From Abraham to Bonhoeffer, from Pericles to Reagan, from Socrates to Karl Barth, from Archimedes to Einstein, from Homer to J.R.R. Tolkien, and from Sophocles to Clint Eastwood, our shared Judeo-Christian Western Civilization alone arose from the Middle Ages and created modernity.

None of this can make the least bit of sense to anyone without a working understanding of our shared Western heritage. Unless we are taught to remember who we are as Americans, we will cease to be American.

…See to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, so that you may fulfill it.

Colossians 4:17, NASB

I just enrolled my daughter in school.

Yes, you read that right. Me, the one arguing month after month that homeschooling is the best way to educate. 

Have I changed my mind? No. I still believe that the one-on-one, relationship-focused instruction that homeschooling enables is the gold standard for kids, especially during the early formative years. So why did we make the change?

Let me back up for a moment. Last Sunday, my daughter celebrated her “Rite of Passage” celebration through CROP ministries, marking her official transition from childhood to adulthood. At 14, her physical, moral, and spiritual foundations have already been laid. In contrast to our modern era, many ancient and medieval societies would have considered her an adult even earlier. Consider countless historical figures who were entrusted with and took on mature roles at young ages — Alexander Hamilton became his own breadwinner at 13; Benjamin Franklin a published author at 15; Joan of Arc led French troops at 17. In fact, the phenomenon of “adolescence” or extended childhood is a rather new concept. By continuing to treat our teens as “transitionary” (creating a prolonged state of self-doubt and unnecessary infantilism), we enable delayed growth in maturity. Perhaps if we expected more of them, I mean, really expected it, they would rise to the occasion.

As I have said in the past, homeschooling, like any other educational approach, is not perfect. Any system in which humans interact will eventually involve conflict. My daughter, as of late, has grown weary of the “Mom as Teacher” aspect of our relationship — and to be honest, so have I. She has not been learning at her potential, and our relationship has grown more complicated, because she wants to explore her identity outside of the home. At her age, this is actually normal and healthy. The “close-quarters” aspect of homeschooling that makes it an asset can also make it, at times, a liability. Since birth, my daughter has spent the majority of her time at home with me. I have been both parent and teacher, helping guide her physical, mental, and spiritual growth. And that task is mostly complete. Although I would like to homeschool her through high school, her situation and temperament are different than her siblings. If the core purpose of homeschooling—relationship-based learning—is no longer functioning as it should, it is time to step back and reconsider.

So, let’s be honest: sometimes us homeschoolers desperately want to maintain control over our kids. It is understandable to want to hold them tight with the state of our current culture. We want to protect them, and that is a good thing.  But as our kids grow, if that grip does not loosen, it can turn into a choke hold. We must never allow our well-intentioned zeal to reach a point that is unhealthy. We need to be flexible, willing to reconsider our goals when circumstances shift. We cannot try to force our kids into a mold in which they will never fit — and by the teen years, they are mostly already formed. Instead, as children grow older, we need to let them experiment with young adulthood by growing their independence in a safe setting. 

The school she, her dad, and I chose shares our values. She has three teachers who our family already knows. The curriculum is actually academic (not indoctrination). She is around students who come from like-minded families. If we must release her now, this is the place to do it.

How am I feeling about all of this? At first, it hit me like a wall: I need to find my new identity. With one graduated, one dual-credit student whom I only teach through our co-op, and my youngest now at school, I am no longer really a “homeschool mom.” That is all I have done for almost two decades, and now, all of a sudden, I need to regroup and figure out where I fit. 

There is also a sense of grieving, a giving up of all the wonderful things I dreamed of learning together with my kids. I remember when my oldest started Kindergarten: stockpiling books, expecting them to be as excited as I was to enter the worlds of Laura Ingalls, Tom Sawyer, and Mary Lennox. When I realized that my daughter was more interested in art than literature, and that she would never share my passion for books the way I had expected, it was hard. But those were my dreams, not hers. Because I love her, I am putting her in a place where her unique gifts can flourish. 

It is tempting to think that maybe I failed as a teacher, or a parent — that if I had been better at one or the other, she wouldn’t want to go away to school. But that is false. God asks us to be faithful with the task He entrusts to us, and to love our children enough to let them go. And I have done both. 

Who knows, maybe she will want to come home again in a year or two to finish high school. But for the time being, I am supporting her in the decision we made together. Because sometimes the best isn’t what is best. 

Press Release from Stop Prop 1

BOISE, Idaho — Fifty-nine Idaho physicians released an open letter urging voters to reject Proposition 1, warning that the measure would legalize late-term abortion, strip parents of consent rights for minors, and allow non-physicians to perform abortions.

The letter directly challenges the central claim of the television ad the “Vote Yes” campaign is currently airing statewide, which tells voters that Idaho’s abortion law “has no real exceptions” and that doctors’ “hands are tied” in medical emergencies.

“That is false,” the physicians write. “Idaho law explicitly allows abortion when a physician, in their good-faith medical judgment, determines it is necessary to prevent the mother’s death—including in cases of ectopic pregnancy and placental abruption. The Idaho Supreme Court has affirmed the wide latitude given to physicians. No doctor has been prosecuted for providing such care.”

The signers also dispute the campaign’s narrative that Idaho’s abortion laws drove physicians out of the state, pointing to Idaho Board of Medicine data showing the number of licensed OB/GYNs has risen roughly 20% since the laws took effect in 2022, and that maternal mortality in Idaho has fallen since then to well below the national average.

Beyond correcting the record on current law, the letter warns that Proposition 1’s text—not its campaign messaging—would go far beyond the “common sense exceptions” proponents describe:

1. It would redefine “fetal viability” to exclude a baby who needs extra neonatal support such as oxygen and NICU care, opening the door to abortion into the eighth month of pregnancy.
2. It would eliminate parental notice and consent for minors seeking abortion, making abortion the only medical procedure a minor could undergo without a parent’s consent.
3. It would remove the requirement that a physician perform the procedure, permitting any “licensed health care provider” to do so.

“Proposition 1 is extreme, deceptive, and medically unsafe,” the physicians conclude. “It does not protect women; it endangers them and strips parents of their rights while expanding late-term abortion.”

The letter was signed by dozens of physicians from all across the state of Idaho, including obstetricians and gynecologists (OB-GYNs), neonatologists (NICU specialists), pediatricians, pediatric hospitalists, family practitioners and more who strongly urge the citizens of Idaho to vote NO on Prop 1. The full letter and list of signatories is available at this LINK and physicians opposed to Prop 1 can add their names by emailing: DoctorsAgainstProp1@pm.me.