In the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), the denomination my family is in, many families homeschool their children and are drawn in this to either Charlotte Mason, classical education, or a blend of the two. I recently learned of one possible reason--part of missiological strategy for many has been to adopt the Benedict Option or something similar. This week, I'd like to explore this strategy in some detail while contextualizing for my family's weekly life.
Why do Christian Families Homeschool?
As you read last week, there are many possible reasons for homeschooling, both specifically religious and generically secular. Due to the state of research on homeschooling, I am choosing to mix my own experience and reflection with some of the higher-quality recent quantitative work for this section.
Families, Schools, and Spirituality
I've reflected on my experience over at The Renaissance Biologist on how my parents and other influences shaped my spiritual life. My parents were similarly oriented toward home, though as active members of their (my past) congregation our family interacted with many children and families associated with the church's school, other parochial schools, and public schools.
Based on that, I generalized that the individual family is ideally the best unit with which to nurture spirituality in its members (not always with a 100% success rate), followed by parochial schools. Church-affiliated schools, by definition, tend to do a better job than public schools at formation of spirituality in their students, but only in a single tradition per school. Public or non-parochial private schools, at least in the US, permit (almost) everything, which ends up not actively nurturing anyone's spirituality in particular as a result of school attendance.
This brings us to home education, specifically in a Christian context.
Charlotte Mason and Christian (Home) Educators
Longtime readers of The Renaissance Biologist (or at least in 2023!) know that I'm attracted to the Charlotte Mason (CM) philosophy for K-12 education. Educational research is fraught with lack of consensus on best practices--although it's generally possible to find several systematic reviews supporting a particular "best" practice.
That said, CM makes intuitive sense (face validity) and is based on years of her direct experience with children. What outcomes is it trying to achieve? Per Charlotte's own writings, such an education should produce a strengthened will, solid character (congruent with a Christian worldview), well-developed personality that works in harmony with others, and an interrelated classical-level knowledge of the world past and present.
I think these goals are likely congruent with what every Christian parent considering home education would want for their child(ren). So, how widespread is actual adoption of her philosophy of education? That question has not been answered statistically, from what I can find. While some recent studies have done a better quantitative job at describing how homeschooling "looks" overall, adoption of a specific curriculum or philosophy may change year to year for a given family.
Of note in the 2020 article referenced in the previous paragraph is that most homeschooled children are not homeschooled K-12, but for several of those years ("flexischooled"). So, including schools to which some homeschooling parents send their children intermittently, there does exist one listing that I could find of schools using 100% CM, sorted by state. This list does not identify how many are Christian. (I know of at least one Christian school in the Midwest that uses a blend of CM and classical methods.)
Why do Some Choose the Benedict Option?
Before a few weeks ago, I hadn't even heard of the Benedict option. Once I learned what it was, though, it made sense why some Christians choose that as a way of life.
Views on Christ and Culture
To gain a basic background for Rod Dreher's book of the same title (2017) which is on Husband's TBR list, one must understand the various views on how Christ and culture relate to each other. The classic text on this (which I read in 2020 but then forgot that I had) is Christ and Culture (H. Richard Niebuhr, 1975).
The The Gospel Coalition article linked above describes in more detail the five major views. What are they and who tends to hold them?
- Christ against culture - Mennonites, monastics. Key: separate oneself into a culture distinct from that of the world around.
- Christ of culture - liberal Protestants, Gnostics. Key: assume that there is no true conflict, so feel free to adopt aspects of the surrounding culture.
- Christ above culture (combining "against" and "of") - Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria. Key: use the best elements in the surrounding culture and integrate into a single worldview.
- Christ and culture in paradox ("dualistic version") - Lutherans, antinomians (tendency). Key: the Christian lives simultaneously in two kingdoms; man will always be sinful, and God will always be gracious.
- Christ transforming culture ("conversionist version") - Augustine, Calvin. Key: creation is inherently good so must be transformed by the work of Christians.
"Consequently, the Benedict Option has been widely misunderstood in two ways: first, “strategic withdrawal” does not mean unmitigated seclusion from the world, but refers to internal spiritual renewal for the purpose of reinvigorating our engagement with the world. . . . Second, Dreher’s comments on the present futility of seeking to reverse the cultural forces of our time should not be understood to mean that such efforts are forever futile. Rather, he believes it will be impossible to thwart adverse cultural trends for the time being."
Opinions on the Benedict Option
Knowing the basic camps that opionions on the book and its premise tend to fall into, I curated four of the best-balanced ones that I could find.
A Denver Seminary review thinks that it is worth reading, mixes fact/opinion, but in practice is likely economically unfeasible for most families. The seminary is in the Evangelical tradition, enrolling from a few dozen denominations.
A Crisis Magazine review notes that the book is easily misunderstood, though its concept is simple (ordered, stable lifestyle; liturgy as central; simplicity breeding hospitality; eventual influencing of culture; silence, contemplative prayer; mutual obedience in community). Crisis Magazine is a Roman Catholic publication, originating in the University of Notre Dame.
A review from The Gospel Coalition, referenced earlier in this post admires Dreher's strategy. He builds on After Virtue by Marxist-turned-Christian Alasdair MacIntyre; "We cannot give to the world what we do not have" (quoted from p. 19 of TBO). The review cautions (as do many) that there is a risk of people using the Option as the only evangelism strategy. TGC is Evangelical and Reformed in confession, attracting members from other denominations as well.
Finally, the Church Life Journal correctly notes that Dreher wants his readers to think rather than adopt an n-step process; common critiques of the book include "excessively-alarmist" and "unmitigated-retreat." As an aside, the title of the linked article riffs off of another of MacIntyre's books, which I found pleasantly amusing. This publication comes out of University of Notre Dame as well.
One Alternative to the "Option"
If you grasp the basics of the Option as Dreher states it, you may be thinking that it could never work in your local setting. Are there feasible alternatives? Here's one, from a book I finished a few weeks ago (on my Christmas gift haul!): Michael Bird's Religious Freedom in a Secular Age.
Bird describes what he calls the Thessalonian Strategy, based on his experience in Australia where the public square is decidedly inimical to Christians and Christianity. What are the key facets of this strategy?
- Acknowledge that militant secularism is prevalent in the West (as opposed to secular pluralism that truly creates space for anyone with or without faith-that-practices
- A cultural-Christianity veneer is not true Christianity and is rejected by others
- The Benedict Option is unrealistic when the public square is hostile (e.g., Australia)
- Instead, "wage a counter insurgency armed with peace and pluralism"
- Expose both progressivisim's and the political right's wrongs and agendas
- Be good at what you do and be willing to work toward "confident pluralism" with others of your faith (different denominations) and different faiths
Why and How do We Orient Ourselves Around Home?
How in the world do all these things tie together in one's weekly routines? Essentially, we center our lives around our home. Granted, this is much easier when two homebodies are married to each other.
Why are we home-focused? It allows us to direct energy and time into cultivating an orthodox Christian worldview and habits that nurture multiple dimensions of health and wellness. Husband and I follow, as best we can, Gottman's 7 principles for marriage, particularly nurturing the friendship undergirding our spousal relationship. So, we genuinely enjoy being in each other's company, not entirely due to spontaneously compatible personalities but also due to intentional work of maintaining humility, centering our individual lives around our faith in God, and communicating effectively.
How do we focus on home in our weekly routines, Charlotte Mason-style? Here are some examples:
- Food prep: I do most of this these days; I plan shopping trips to be at most once per week, stocking up for 2 weeks at a time if I can. The bulk of our lunches and dinners are batch-cooked from scratch (e.g., family-pack chicken seasoned and put in the slow cooker for 4-6 hours; a rice-lentil mix made 6 cups at a time in the rice cooker for a complete vegetable protein source; and hard-boiled eggs for ~2 work weeks). Simple Farmhouse Life has been a good motivator recently for me to get back into this.
- Careers: This is mostly fortuitous and sticking to what we have, but both of our jobs have lent themselves well to working significant amounts of time at or from home, at hours that work well for family life. I do most of my work while Child is sleeping, and some without computer when not; Husband is more of a night owl and uses a relatively quiet corner somewhere in the house. In this vein, we have also chosen to use babysitters and not daycare for Child.
- Entertainment: I make sure that our kitchen table is always no more than a few minutes away from being ready for guests. A cabinet of board games is adjacent if needed; otherwise, we inevitably transition into reading-based discussions and sometimes lend out a book or two. If it's just us (which it usually is, for dinner), our TV has spent the last year and a half in the basement, mostly unused, so the most screen time Child gets is part of a classic Star Trek episode interspersed with worldview commentary. Our house has beautiful outdoor spaces, so when the weather is conducive we take things outside!
What are some of your weekly routines, and how do they support the worldview you're choosing to cultivate in your household?
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