Posted in Reviews

I'll say it up front - the title of this book made me leary of reading it.  It has so many potential interpretations - positive and negative.  So, I was pleasantly surprised by the contents.

 

"Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschool Movement" by Mitchell Stevens is a marvelous read. 

 

However, a disclaimer before proceeding.

 

Stevens' book seems to ring true to my own experiences and observations regarding the American homeschool movement.  But much of his research (though by no means all) was conducted in the Midwest, which is also where I live.  Thus, we share observations, geography, and understanding of the values of this region of the country.

 

Stevens is an ethnographer studying a specific phenomena within American culture - the rise of the current homeschool movement.  His purpose isn't to critique it specifically, though he does come to some pretty insightful conclusions.  And he doesn't "bash" homeschooling in any way (despite the potentially negative play on the title's words).

 

He defines two primary "camps" in the homeschool world - the secular (which he terms "inclusives") and the fundamentalist Christian views (termed "believers).  Stevens acknowledges that there are all sorts of shades between these two camps and that these are simply alternative ends of a theoretical continuum. 

 

Based on these identifications, he analyzes how these two viewpoints, with their corresponding national organizations, function, promote, and act as spokespersons for homeschooling in general. 

 

I found the book useful on several fronts - primarily in that it outlined in some detail the "history" of the current homeschool movement: when it started, the major figures, the legal issues, etc.  And, I found that it generally "caught the mood" of how homeschooling is developing between these two camps. 

 

One of the more interesting points he makes concerns the "why" of which camp (believers or inclusives) seem to be "leading" the homeschool movement. 

 

He argues that the believers (whose leaders he identifies as Mike Farris, James Dobson, Mary Pride, and others) have been "more successful" in the promotion of and political arena surrounding homeschooling because as a group their religious beliefs support the concept of hierarchy - lower order members accepting subordination to higher ones in imitation of the hierarchy of God over mankind.  This makes, he argues, for a stronger, more agile organization.

 

He compares this to the inclusives - people or groups who insist on the inclusivity of everyone regardless of any social/cultural/ethnic variances.  These groups are often structured on a truly democratic scale - everyone must be able to vote and/or agree on what is to happen with the group at large.  Such forms of organization are unweildy and tend to be unable to act in a large arena due to their general structure, which is indicitive of their mind set.

 

Indeed, Stevens found that some inclusives resisted being categorized in any fashion.  "I found also that the extent to which these homeschoolers even thought of themselves as a 'group,' or wanted to be one, was very much an open question" (19). 

 

Stevens conclusion is that these groups will retain their now historic roles primarily because of their social organization.  And, that homeschoolers have been and will remain a diversified group.

 

I would not suggest Kingdom of Children for those "just starting" to homeschool or researching the possibility.  While the content neither promotes nor denigrates the homeschooling option, some of the observations Stevens makes requires context. 

 

For those who are still uncertain of their homeschooling options and, possibly, direction, the discussion it presents could make one "self-concious" about homeschool decisions.  For instance, evaluating a homeschool group requires as much consideration of the practicalities of the group in question as much as as theory on which the group is based.

 

To read the promotional excerpts, click here.