UNIVERSITY FOR HOME SCHOOLERS

University for Home schoolers
National Post - October 6, 1999
Home-schooled children get new Christian university
Parents must ok courting
Toby Harnden, The Daily Telegraph

WASHINGTON - The United States' 1.7 million children educated at home are to have their own university, where they will dress modestly and go to chapel every day and where females may be courted only with their parents' permission.

At Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va., which is to open its doors to 18-year-olds next fall, all 100 future students will study for degrees in government with an aim to lead a new group of Christians to the forefront of American public life.

The college is the idea of Michael Farris, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association and a leading figure in the conservative Christian movement.

Pamphlets advertising Patrick Henry say its mission is to help "transform America." The plan is that graduates will one day hold "the highest offices in the land."

Every evening, students will be expected to gather for a "town meeting" - modelled on colonial New England - to polish their debating and leadership skills.

The application forms state: "Please describe your personal relationship with Jesus Christ."

Students must agree to abide by a strict set of rules.

According to Mr. Farris, who will be president of the college, the curriculum will be Bible-centred and "every subject will be analyzed from a Christian viewpoint." Evolution will be covered in science lessons to "explain why it's wrong."

If a male student is attracted to a female student, he will have to telephone or write to her parents. Once they have approved the suitor, the two students will get to know each other by going out in large groups. There will no "one-on-one" dating, which Mr. Farris describes as "serial infidelity."

"We don't believe that romance should be casual and students will have to understand that romance as well as sex is reserved for marriage," said Mr. Farris.

In the 1980s, home schooling was limited to fewer than 10,000 families in the United States. Parents then won the right to educate their children and it is estimated that by next year more than two million will be home schooled.

The movement is based on the philosophy that children learn most from the people they spend the most time with and that parents are best placed to teach Christian family values.

"It is within the family that more mature and appropriate values are found," said Mr. Farris.

"There is also a deep concern about public schools in terms of academic success, morality and - these days - physical safety.

"Parents were constantly asking us, 'We've done all this, raised our kids with our values and standards, now where do we send them?'"

Mr. Farris, 48, has taught all 10 of his children at home, the eldest of whom has just graduated from university.

Christian home schoolers believe that teenage rebellion is not a natural phase of one's life but a consequence of liberal education.

The college is named after Patrick Henry, leader of the Virginians during the War of Independence.