SPOTLIGHT: Classical Options And Hybrid Education

Written by Benjamin Smith

In this installment of Spotlight, David Smith is joined by Jennifer Burns, founder of Classical Consortium Academy. Jennifer shares how her initial experience with homeschooling and “car-schooling” led her to start H.E.A.R.T. (Homeschool Enrichment Achieved Respectfully Together) at the Village Church of Barrington. As God laid it on her heart to homeschool, He also led her in 2006 to take another step of obedience and found Classical Consortium Academy, a hybrid school that offers in-person instruction several days per week, paired with CCA-directed and parent- administered at-home learning.… Continue Reading

The Mission of a Modern Christian School

Written by Trevor Grant Thomas

A quote that is sometimes mistakenly credited to C.S. Lewis declares, “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” A clue that this was not uttered by Lewis is that it doesn’t quite capture the truth. As Lewis would well know, an education without values would be quite unlikely to be “useful.” What’s more, virtually all education incorporates some sort of values.… Continue Reading

SPOTLIGHT: It’s Not Education, It’s Perversion

Written by Benjamin Smith

Kirk Smith, executive director of Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE), wonders what will be the straw that finally breaks the camel’s back – the backs of Christian parents, even the backs of moral, non-Christian parents – when it comes to deciding to leave the cesspool of government schools? Will it be the recently passed legislation that requires availability of feminine hygiene products in both female and male school restrooms or will it be the mandate to teach hardcore sex education to public school students as early as kindergarten?… Continue Reading

Stopping Communism One School District At A Time

Written by Robert Knight

Once upon a time not so long ago, Loudoun County, Virginia, was the most conservative county in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

An exurb outside the Beltway with a high-tech corridor rivaling California’s Silicon Valley, plus the Washington Football team’s headquarters and Dulles Airport, Loudoun’s sprawling suburbia is supplanting farmland like super-charged kudzu.

The eastern part is home to more than 100 huge, gray “data centers,” through which more than 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic flows. … Continue Reading

SPOTLIGHT: Homeschooling, Anchors, and Salty Arrows

Written by Benjamin Smith

David Smith, executive director of IFA, and IFA board chairman Richard Hartian return to Illinois Family Spotlight as we wrap up our series on homeschooling. Joining them again for this final conversation is the well-spoken and delightful trio of Kenna and Eliana Hartian and Jenna Smith.

Richard and David ask several questions of their daughters, and the young women readily respond with wise and thoughtful answers based on their personal experience and knowledge of Scripture.… Continue Reading

SPOTLIGHT: Busting Myths, Homeschool Style

Written by Benjamin Smith

Every homeschooler who’s had any home education experience at all has heard the myths about homeschooling. The most familiar ones are cautionary tales about the “unsocialized homeschooler,” the homeschooler who lacks any extra-curricular opportunities, or the “disadvantaged” homeschool student who will never gain admittance to college. Here to permanently put to rest these unfounded myths are David Smith, executive director of IFI and IFA, and Richard Hartian, chairman of the IFA board of directors.… Continue Reading

SPOTLIGHT: Home Educated Teens Say They’ve Been “Properly Indoctrinated”

Written by Benjamin Smith

If you are reading this, the chances are pretty good that you know a homeschool family or two–or may be homeschooled yourself. Christian homeschooling in Illinois is a thing mostly because Illinois is surprisingly a rather free state for parents to train their children at home.

In the IFA Spotlight this week to reflect on their homeschool experience are two home-high school graduates and one home-high school senior: Jenna Smith, a daughter of IFA Executive Director David Smith, and Kenna and Eliana Hartian, daughters of IFA board chairman Richard Hartian.… Continue Reading

Teaching Kids That America Was Always Racist

Written by Dr. Jerry Newcombe

If there are riots now in America, what will it be like 20 years from now if the New York Times gets its way?

The New York Times sponsored The 1619 Project, which postulates that America’s real beginnings as a nation are when the first African slaves were brought over….to Jamestown in 1619.

Many historians note that this is a distortion of our nation’s roots. Worse, it makes young people turn against this country.… Continue Reading

‘The 1619 Project’ and the Red Meat Project

Written by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.

According to the Washington Times — also known as the Good Times — last week, the Biden administration made plans “to offer grants for U.S. history classes that teach critical race theory and the ‘1619 Project,'” which is a confection of The New York Times. Both critical race theory and “The 1619 Project” are based on the fundamental insight that slavery is, according to the Washington Times, “the centerpiece of the American narrative.”… Continue Reading

LGBTQ Ideologues’ Propaganda Brainwashing The Young, and Younger Still

Written by Robert Knight

I was saddened last month upon hearing of the death of Norton Juster, most famous for his superb children’s book “The Phantom Tollbooth.”

Illustrated by Juster’s friend, Jules Feiffer, the book takes a boy, Milo, through a fantastic journey in his miniature car into the Kingdom of Wisdom, divided into Dictionopolis, where words are supreme, and Digitopolis, where numbers rule.

Published in 1961, “Phantom” is whimsical, fast moving and, as far as I know, non-ideological.… Continue Reading