Episode 16 features W.C. Newsom, who is the creator of The Christendom Curriculum. If you recall, Newsom was my very first guest on the show. He and his family tirelessly work to advocate for truly conservative and traditional homeschooling – a field of battle that leftists are taking a bit more of everyday. But Newsom always shows up for the fight. He returns to give us some updates about the growth of his curriculum, as well as the predictable woke pushback to his educational materials, which he describes as “pro-West, anti-social justice, anti-multicultural, and anti-globalist.”
I also get Newsom’s expert take on a few issues that may seem minor but are what I see as increasing and powerful white-guilt chinks in the armor of non-PC home education. Am I overreacting? Possibly. Or am I just seeing the puritanical-progressive writing on the wall. We’ll try to sort some of that out.
Newsom is a homeschool dad to seven children, husband of 27 years, proud Southerner, and Reformed Christian. He’s a leftism resistor, a brilliant and bold warrior for faith, family, and tradition, and an unReconstructed compatriot with whom I’m proud to be in the trenches.
Mentioned in our discussion are the HSLDA’s essay “Homeschooling: Bridging the academic achievement gap” and Newsom’s recent Battle Paper “Monument desecration and the 5th Commandment” published at Identity Dixie. Some of my related essays are “The antidote for the therapeutic state,” “Puritans, part 5: Redeeming the time,” and “Homeschooling is counter to progressive values,” and “Totalitarians, t-shirts, and tirades, oh my!“
Newsom has a professional background in writing, editing, and creating training materials. He’s written or contributed to 10 books, including “The Nicholas Book: A Legend of Santa Claus,” “Polycarp: The Crown of Fire,” and “Talking of Dragons: The Children’s Books of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis,” and created class sessions on Shakespeare, Tennyson, Hemingway, and others for another popular Western Civilization homeschool curriculum.
Comments
I don’t seem to be able to find a volume-control button on the podcast screens. So,I’m obliged to go back to the Primary Menu screen to use the general volume-control located there. As for myself,I strongly prefer your written materials over these recorded live broadcasts. And so,I’m really very glad about your “Archives ” section. Your writings are superior because of their superb intellectual qualities,their originality and their courageous boldness. The ” live-voice ” broadcasts are OK,but not remarkable,as are your writings. But,that’s just my opinion.
Howdy, try turning the volume button up on your computer. Just control it from there, or download it to your phone and then you can control it by listening to it through your favorite podcast app.
Thanks for your input regarding the interviews and my blog posts. I like writing much better than talking, and is in fact why I got into writing in the first place, but I do enjoy talking to movers and shakers on the right. Not only does it build bridges, but exposes people to smart content creators they may not have heard before. But yes, I will get back on my writing; I’ve just had a lot going on on my end family-wise, but I promise to get back to the grind soon. In fact, I have about 5 or so essays in the works, so I just need to carve out some time to finish ’em up. Keep your eyes peeled. 🙂
Well done, y’all. Mr. Newsom is an excellent
guest whose work on the Christendom Curriculum is mighty impressive from my vantage point; I’m glad you invited him back to the show. A few comments, if I may, per some of the topics y’all discussed. In no particular order of importance.:
First, our eldest son, Jeremy (34), was at the third grade level (using a standard workbook style pre-packaged curriculum) when we began the process of transitioning to a more suitable curriculum for him and for us as a family. This wasn’t, to borrow from Neal Armstrong, “one small step,” but, rather, “one giant leap” for the Morris family. I tend to be the type who loves a challenge, so I jumped into it with both feet and with a great deal of enthusiasm.
To help us out with the transition, we enrolled Jeremy (then later our eldest daughter, Michelle) in the home school satellite program of a Christian Day School in Del City, Oklahoma, called Christian Heritage Academy, or CHA. At the time CHA’s students were the highest scoring students of all schools tested in the nation on the PEERS test, if you know what that is. As part of that program – and this is the main reason I initially enrolled him – the parent(s) of the children enrolled were required to attend CHA’s annual summer classes for home school parents, which classes were designed to teach parents how to teach, or to prepare them to teach, the various and core subjects using whole-to-part 4-R notebook methodology. Given that my wife and I had both been “educated” in the public schools under Horace Mann’s part-to-whole progressive philosophy of education, we needed this “hand up” in learning how to make this transition, and as smoothly as possible.
These classes and their instructors were, overall, very good and very helpful. There was, however, one teacher (a woman whose name escapes me) whose class was dedicated to teaching the subject of Geography from whole-to-part. She recommended to us parents Arnold Guyot’s Physical Geography as our primary text book from whence to extract and write our lesson plans. I was very familiar with the book, having procured a copy months before this class and having read it through more than once. This lady-Geography teacher enthusiastically recommended Guyot’s book while raising one major objection to it. She said that the section dealing with the different races of men scattered about the planet was “racist,” and recommended we therefore not use that portion of Guyot’s book; to find something newer and more appropriate. Which I never bought into and which advice I completely ignored having, as I said, already read the book cover to cover. But the point is of course that white racism (is there any other kind? Ha, ha.) and racial injustice was a very big concern for a Geography teacher at the top school in the nation for consistently instilling in its students a Biblical Christian world and life view according to PEERS. To my knowledge I was the only parent in that class who raised an issue with her issue over that section of Mr. Guyot’s book in question. But I was the only father in that class (or in any of the classes, for that matter) too, so there ya go.
Second, and relatedly, nothing aggravates me more than to read an article published by an ostensibly pro-Southern organization or website, which article pronounces, in no uncertain terms, that slavery, including antebellum Southern chattel slavery, is “wicked,” and everybody who is anybody knows it. This is something I harp on all the time over at Identity Dixie and other websites because I think it important that our people recognize where this “slavery is inherently wicked” line of thinking will invariably lead if embraced by Southrons who have in various ways otherwise been red pilled. One step forward, two steps back. I think we need to make it a point, whenever this doctrine raises its head among our people, to make a clear distinction between the alleged “evil” of antebellum slavery and therefore of slave holders, and the actual and very real evil/wickedness of the trans-Atlantic slave trade that Jefferson condemned in the first draft of the DoI, and that the Southern States had remonstrated against for many years prior to, as well as many years after the Declaration was written. Did any Southern ship or ship’s Captain engage in this illicit trade? The Africans were forced upon the South until the mother country all of a sudden got a conscience about it, and of course New England ships were, to borrow from Mr. Jefferson, “pretty considerable” carriers of these unfortunate human cargoes to the Southern States as well.
I’ve had comments deleted many times for “wrong-think” in simply pointing out the above, as well as pointing out that the Africans were brought here in a savage and uncivilized condition; that the only workable solution to that difficulty in and of itself (to say nothing of the toll the trip across the Atlantic took on these wretched creatures) was to take them in under conditions of involuntary servitude, and to train and educate, and slowly civilize them. There is no way in Hell (pardon my French) they could have just been let loose anywhere on this continent to fend for themselves. Those who didn’t die miserable deaths due to exposure to the elements, disease and starvation in such a case, would no doubt have been wiped out either by Indians and/or by whites. And in that case our noble ancestors would now be condemned (and rightly so) for effectively genociding these unfortunate and alien people. Indeed, this is one of the primary reasons I think (I know) our Southern forbears were good and decent and honorable men and women, who deserve a lot better than what they get from the current crop of Yankee ingrates. When I was growing up, I was taught by all adults in my life to “never speak ill of the dead.” But that kind of instruction is part and parcel of how I define “good breeding.”
Third, and to wrap this already lengthy comment up. I have written before about infiltrators like Karen Swallow Prior – an unsexed Yankee woman who, fresh out of college, wormed her way into a professorship at that bastion of “conservative” Christianity in the South, Liberty University. She taught her subversive doctrines there for 21 years, evidently under everyone’s noses, yet in plain sight. When the takedown of Paige Patterson got underway, it was Swallow Prior and about twenty other “high-profile” Southern Baptist female infiltrators who took it upon themselves to see to it that Patterson be removed, and that the SBC become a larger, more influential tool for their subversive feminist activities. It seems that we can’t have any of our own organizations, by us, for us, without them being subverted by Yankees and their polluted way of seeing things. Somehow we’ve got to find a way to change that.
I’ll probably have more to say later.
Terry, your comments are always so appreciated. I find your knowledge of the slave trade and Southern chattel slavery refreshingly forthright and right on point. I guess this is why I like you so much. 🙂
The Liberty thing is so interesting to me. I know a few folks whose kids go there and guarantee me that the Falwell Jr. fall isn’t going to create a power vacuum which will be filled by the evangefeminists and their critical-theory cohorts. I am skeptical to say the least. Like you said, subversion is everywhere and “conservatives” are usually too naive spot it and or too afraid to call it out.
Yes, we need alternative systems, parallel institutions, and non-leftist networks but How? Who? Where? And What will we do when we actually pull something off, and the law tries to shut us down and the media cancels us because they deem that we are the subversives. That is one of the very real problems. And “big tent” ain’t gonna cut it either. Indeed, much work to be done, just not sure where to start.
Hello all! So, I was pleased to see that Mr. Newsome had returned to the Dissident Mama but immediately concerned about the C.C. site being shut down. Mr. Newsome will know my name and why this situation is concerning me so much. About 2 weeks ago I engaged with a commenter who was most definitely looking for a fight… He got it. Mr. Newsome was more academic than I was. There are so many derisive persons out there trolling Christian sites, especially homeschooling sites, in order to lure them into a defensive conversation in which they will poke and poke until they can coax out a White Christian comment and then they claim racism and hate speech to condemn the site and shut them down. Long story short, I regret my involvement in the discussion with the individual whom I will not name but who is emblazoned on my brain.
Whoa, that sounds crazy, as I’m sure it was. I have a few rules when engaging trolls, subversives, and infiltrators. Only engage if you have the time and are ready to kick butt and take names. They are out for blood and do not have the pursuit of wisdom anywhere on their radar. They get their rocks off on triggering normal, nice people because they have no life. Hate is their life, so stay on the offensive. Always. We have truth on our side; they don’t. Question them. And use their own language against them. It’s fun and their illogic is easy to break if you don’t try to be super-logical. That’s weird to say, but you can’t really have a logical win with brainwashed neanderthal. It’s about shaming them into silence and back into their caves. Take command of the field and raise the Black Flag on their nonsense. Never let them push you into disclaimers or giving them the moral high ground. They do not have it. They do not deserve it. They should be knocked down and smashed ceaselessly, either through trolling right back at them, humor, or unapologetic rhetorical warfare. My guess is you did better than you think, but as Christians, we are an altruistic bunch. We have a hard time realizing that this is truly spiritual warfare. But I bet you, like me, are not prepared to lose, no matter what. Stay tough, Gigi, and welcome to the DM crew!!
7 children? Legend. It’s awfully blackpilling, though I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising, to hear that the genocidal Bolshevik lunatics are even infiltrating homeschooling. The only thing that American children should be taught about African history is that Africans were savages, some of them were captured by their fellow Africans and sold into slavery all over the world, the ones who travelled in jewish slave ships to America were the best treated of all the slaves in the world, and their descendants have caused crime, societal decay and been a burden on America ever since they were liberated by the traitor and bloodthirsty tyrant Lincoln.
JF, Chad’s the man! I couldn’t imagine being the creator and administrator of a homeschool curriculum if I had 7 kids, much less doing much of anything else other than disciplining them and sleeping, lol. And yes, it is horribly sad that even “conservative Christian” homeschooling is susceptible to the cancer of nihilistic wokeness. But alas, Murican Christians aren’t really known for their bravery, nonconformity, or knowledge of true history. I pray that Christendom Curriculum will help to change the PC tide.