By Evan Jones
I remember staring at the young man in front of me as he chuckled while reviewing my college transcript and then quickly caught himself when he saw my face. This was a real transcript made up of four years worth of hard earned college credits, and I could already hear the familiar answer before he even had a chance to redirect into a more somber tone.
“I’m sorry,” he began, “But we can’t accept any of these credits because the college itself is not accredited.”
My face fell and he tried to ease my rejection.
“If you’ve already taken these standard classes, I’m sure it would be easy for you to test out of most of our precursory courses,” he continued, politely. But I knew from my last placement test that it was unlikely my previous schooling would be helpful to me.
I reached over to retrieve the worthless transcript. I thought, Why did I even hold onto it anymore? But that answer was easy — because there was very slim chance my former alma mater would ever send me another copy, now that I was a heretic.
At a glance, my college records might seem normal, even if they carry strong religious overtones. I had courses in English, Literature, U.S. and World History, Physics, Psychology, and other typical classes offered at a college level.
The problem lies in how the subjects were taught and who taught them.
For example, the history courses were taught through a very biased and nationalistic lens with near reverence placed on America’s founding fathers and an inference of the belief in manifest destiny. This was a consistent historical theme regardless of the course or teacher. Even in the History of Civilization I, II, & III we somehow always found a way back to discussing American exceptionalism.
Physics and other science-based academics were taught by individuals who had legitimate, accredited degrees in science, but who also believed the Earth was just over 6,000 years old and debated on the existence of dinosaurs. I don’t know which was worse, the science teacher who rejected much of science or the psychology teacher who wasn’t actually trained or licensed in psychology.
Most of the teachers and professors had never received or attended an accredited school and likely had no idea what the standard state requirements for education were at the time.
But it doesn’t take too long to realize what makes my transcript so noticeably different from others. Eventually the academic advisor reviewing my form is filled with questions about the mountain of classes focused on training me to be a Fundamentalist Christian. Subjects like Christian Womanhood I & II, Woman the Completer (how to be a Christian wife), and Marriage and Ministry, among others, fill a hefty list of required academics that had nothing to do with my field of study.
While my goal in college was to earn a Bachelors in Education and become a school teacher, the goal of my fundamentalist college was to indoctrinate and keep me within the fold of the movement. I wouldn’t realize just how debilitating a non-accredited education would be until I stumbled outside my group and fell into the secular world.
I tried to send my transcript to various colleges in three separate states but never could find any willing to take more than a handful of my 100+ credit hours. I even had an advisor at Purdue University in Indiana tell me that both my college records and my Christian high school diploma were invalid due to course subjects and the lack of accreditation. She encouraged me to get a GED and earn an undergraduate degree at a community college before pursuing other higher learning.
Two years of homeschooling, eleven years of Christian schooling, and four years in an intensive college program and now I was left with nothing but scraps of paper and disillusionment. I felt angry, and then betrayed when I realized how far behind I was from my secular peers.
In her award winning memoir Educated, author Tara Westover discusses her life as a homeschooled Fundamentalist Latter Day Saint and her later pursuit of higher education.
She makes a powerful statement in the book, “Education is not so much about making a living as making a person.”
Well, when I left my fundamentalist Christian movement, I couldn’t make a living, and I hated the person my education had made.
My rigid perceptions of those on the outside had been deliberately conditioned through fear, and I was terrified of working out “in the world.”
I had been told that the “world” was composed of liars, cheats, rapists, gluttons, and evildoers. And even though it was scary to consider working alongside such individuals, at first I felt confident that my moral superiority would give me an edge in the job market. After all, our leaders in the church taught us that we fundamentalists were generally the hardest working, most informed, and best all-around employees a business could hire. And that our exceptionalism was partly due to our “unrivaled” education, or better yet, our distance from public education.
At the heart of the Christian fundamentalist movement was the constant message that nothing was more detrimental than public education.
Based on Kirk Cameron’s recent statements declaring the public school system “Public Enemy number 1,” it doesn’t seem like much has changed. Over and over again, I heard horror stories about our public school systems. Sex and drugs filled the hallways, violence was an every day occurrence, and students were sold liberal propaganda disguised as academia.
These were desperate lies meant to showcase how private Christian schools and homeschooling curriculum provided a supposedly better education. But, these lies only distracted us from reality.
As fundamentalist leaders spoke about violence in public schools, their own principles taught them to take children as young as five years old and hit them with wooden paddles, rods, and the occasional belt. Male leaders slapped and punched teenage boys seen as troublemakers and turned a blind eye to bullying and harassment.
As our leaders warned about the dangers of premarital sex, they hired known child molesters onto school and church staff and ignored complaints about sexual assault. They were merciless to teenage and young adult students who broke their purity standards about dating and sex, yet always found restoration for adults who had done the same.
While preachers decried the harms of “liberal” teachings from the pulpit, they also refused to let us read anything that challenged our own beliefs and discouraged us from social media and too much internet access. Homeschool was often declared a safe alternative, but there was far more focus on avoiding government oversight than the quality of education or the safety of the children involved.
We were supposed to be receiving an “unrivaled” education, but we were only receiving a life-long conditioning.
In navigating this new world outside, I soon realized that “the world” was not nearly as cruel and unforgiving as my former home in the Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement.
My confidence plummeted, and I found myself feeling stupid and ill-equipped. Every time I tried to use my education to find work on the outside, it somehow backfired. My resume was a series of religious volunteer jobs and short-term jobs that I had received through our church connections.
At the age of 22, I had never had a real job interview or worked for anyone outside our religious movement. I had worked in secular businesses, but always through a connection and always with a group of “like-minded” individuals, meaning people who were associated with our group.
Eventually I did find a job, three in fact. Small, part-time positions that I worked tirelessly in order to make ends meet. Through the years, I managed to work my way up the corporate ladder in retail and consolidated down to one, full-time position.
Later, I took a pay cut and left retail to pursue a newfound passion in serving survivors of domestic abuse. Along the way I dropped most of my education from my resume, since I found out my education brought more questions than clarity and created a distraction during job interviews. But I kept my high school diploma listed so potential employers would know I had graduated, and I worked to add new certificates and training to boost my career opportunities.
Of course it’s common for people in their 20s to juggle multiple part-time jobs. It’s almost seen as a rite of passage in America for young folks to go without food, medicine, or basic necessities as they try to obtain a livable income. However, my point is not to focus on that issue, but instead the additional burden that educational neglect in fundamentalist Christianity places on people.
This not only impacts young 20-somethings starting out on their own, but also greatly hinders those who are in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, and are having to start over after leaving an abusive religious environment. Teachers who taught in Christian schools for 20 years suddenly find they can’t obtain a real license with their non-accredited college degree. Church employees who are fired for changing their faith struggle to find a job outside their group or movement.
Accreditation in education requires oversight, which limits the control of those in charge. When we look past all the reasons given for refusing accreditation, at the root of it all we see a desire for control.
Desire by church leaders to maintain control over the information their followers receive. Desire by parents trying to control their children’s exposure in some failed hope that it will keep youth in line with their faith. Desire by extremists who are attempting to undermine our systems in order to gain more political control. Abuse is always about power and control, and educational neglect is one piece of that wheel.
I am not challenging the legitimacy of all religious-based schools or homeschooling in general.
There are certainly many paths to education, and some of our best schools in the country have strong spiritual ties. But they also have outside oversight, and they are compliant with national standards, and their students are given an education that is not limited or constricting to one group or belief system.
Children who are homeschooled in ethical environments receive quality supervision and education and their health and safety are prioritized.
While parents in high-control religions would argue that they have a right to do what is best for their children, I would argue that their child is the one who lives with this decision for the rest of their life.
Therefore, a child has a fundamental right to a legitimate, standardized education in order to give them the opportunity to pursue the life they choose. By restricting their options through non-accredited education and non-licensed and uncertified teachers, a child’s wings are effectively clipped and they are bound to the flock.
This abuse is called educational neglect and there are long lasting impacts.
There are many ways we can address educational neglect in our country, including advocating for state laws that set oversight around homeschooling, requiring accreditation for K-12 curriculums and proof of teacher licenses, and demanding more transparency from higher learning institutes that refuse accreditation.
And though I won’t get into exactly how we do these things, I hope this at least starts a conversation and more thought on the future limitations we are placing on our children.
If you are an individual who is struggling to find employment after exiting an adverse spiritual environment, then I encourage you to attend our upcoming workshop, “How to Work for Heretics”. We are offering three free training sessions focused on building a resume, warning signs, workers rights, and careers without degrees. You can reserve your spot today on Eventbrite.
The Vashti Initiative 