My first treasure for you is from  Great Commission Films with a DVD titled IndoctriNation .  This movie has been a timely for our home. I have a son now in full time community college and is enrolled in the local High School for their expanded options program.  My other son is in the 8th grade and we are constantly questioned as to why he is not planning to enter into High School next year with our local small town public school.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this film – strengthen my resolve? Teach me something new? To be honest I wondered if I’d be embarrassed by an attack on good teachers and administrators just trying to do their jobs.

The film starts out with a family purchasing a bus with the intent to travel around the country checking out the public school system. We follow them, documentary style, as they interview several teachers and administrators. We get to know their stories, and I for one enjoyed meeting them on film.

Throughout the movie we are given the history of public education, on education as a whole. Not only in the US but other countries. The written intention of those creating the educational framework. How it started, how it has morphed, and how public education has grown.  We are given timelines of the changes.

It was interesting to me to hear, many times, of many people – how one person could have an agenda, and shift the educational goals, and it became standard across the country. Time and time again. I hear the word Sheeple playing in my head. We are like sheep. – but that’s a different post.

The film kept up on a few of the people interviewed for over a year and I was surprised to see how their lives had changed in that year. I won’t give a spoiler, but I suspect you’ll be surprised as well.

I watched the film with my 17 year old son. It opened conversations of why we choose not to use government schools for his education. Most of the film content we have discussed at the dinner table many times over the years. He was able to share many stories from the past year that separate him from his college mates. He thinks differently. Does math differently. Participates differently. And so far – it has been a good thing. His professors have enjoyed him in the class, enough to send him emails and written notes expressing their opinions and encouragement.  This week it was “Where did you learn math like that?”  as his genetics homework was done within 15 minutes in class while the rest of his mates struggled.

The movie addresses Common Core, teaching to the tests, drill and kill. (Not sure they used drill and kill as words in the film, but that’s my description.) I feel so very badly for the kids who are stuck behind a desk for hours getting ready for the next test, and then the next ….  We have used products, like Math U See, that covers more than Common Core. Same with our Institute in Excellence of Writing.  We have been free to learn – with a full scope – without boundaries of age or grade levels – to pursue interests. My son gets to come along on the final year, take a college entrance test – and pass it with flying colors. Without a thought to common core while I taught him.

I am not afraid of CC in my home, but I am saddened for the years ahead of the poor kids who will continually be taught, only for the sake of measuring up to a test. When I see so many self directed learners pursue passions – and learn with a far greater scope.

This movie does have Christian origins, the family is Christian. There are stories about how you can be a light in the schools, but you are not allowed to say Jesus in class. However, the school system, and my turning from it isn’t really about religion. Or Jesus. It’s about their desire to control how we think, frame our ideas. Change our ideology. Take away parental involvement. Turn the families to rely on the government instead of each other. This film talks more about the change, the shift, from families to the government.

I think that all families should watch the film, homeschool/private/public/ government/charter, etc.  Either it will gird you up to keep you in your position, or it will open your eyes to see what your child faces in the classroom and the intentions behind what is happening.  I wondered what I’d get out of it – I definitely got my resolve cemented for why we will not use government schools for high school. I was not embarrassed and did not feel like this film was a Christian Dad attack on Evil Public Schools.

If you’d like to join the conversation and watch some of the trailers – check out these links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IndoctriNationMovie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/indocmovie
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/indoctrination
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/IndoctriNationMovie