An Interview With the Idaho Homeschooling Convention Prize Winner

The Idaho Convention of States Action (COSA) was well represented at the Homeschool Idaho Association Convention earlier this year. Just for fun, COSA decided to have a prize drawing for anyone who visited our booth: a Founders' Bible. The Bible was won by Casey McKeown from Kuna, Idaho. We thought it would be fun to sit down with Casey and her family to discuss their experience with homeschooling.

Casey is a stay-at-home mom with a teaching certificate who has homeschooled all 5 of their children. Her husband Todd is an inactive Marine (there’s no such thing as an ex-Marine) with a lifelong commitment to the Constitution. As a Marine, he took an oath to defend the Constitution, and he still considers it binding.

Question: What motivated you to stop at the Convention of States Action booth at the Homeschooling Convention?

Casey: Frankly, I didn’t know much about the Convention of States movement, but I’d heard that COSA had teamed up with Rick Green’s Patriot Academy to offer training on the US Constitution. I wanted to see if the training was something I could incorporate into my children’s homeschooling. I’m excited to have the opportunity to utilize the Patriot Academy, but I was also excited to learn more about the Convention of States movement.  The COSA booth ended up being my favorite booth at the convention.

Question: How are you involved in homeschooling?

Casey: I’ve been homeschooling since our youngest son was in kindergarten. He just graduated last year, so I guess that means I’ve been doing it for over 14 years. I have absolutely no regrets. The decision to teach our children ourselves was one of the best decisions Todd and I have made for our children.

Question: How did you get into homeschooling?

Casey: We actually pulled our son out of the public school and began homeschooling when he was only partly through his kindergarten year. At the time, Todd was stationed in San Diego and our son was attending public school there. As the year progressed, we were both getting more and more uncomfortable with the school because our son kept getting into trouble for silly things like walking on a curb– in the playground! The school had no tolerance for boys being boys.

Todd: During our son’s kindergarten year, California also started imposing guidelines on the schools about how to address gender issues. They even removed all of the standing urinals from the boy’s restroom because, “it was unfair to the girls.” When we were kids, some boys didn’t like girls, and some girls were called Tomboys, but it didn’t define who they were for life. The teachers were encouraging them to choose their gender preference for life. They weren’t giving them a chance to “grow out of” anything.

Casey: We knew this was not the education we wanted for our son. One day, Todd came home and said, “Let’s do it ourselves.” We pulled our son out of school the next day and have been homeschooling ever since.

Question: What do you think about the quality of education our kids are getting in our public schools?

Casey: I have many friends whose kids are in public schools, so I’m familiar with what’s happening there even though I homeschool. One of the biggest complaints other parents have is the level of bullying that is going on. It’s rampant and increasing.

I’m also concerned about what’s happening academically in public schools. Lessons in hard science are taking a back seat to the social sciences. They can’t talk about the genetic determination of gender in biology anymore, because that would undermine the other lessons they’re teaching about it. I asked my daughter, “If your bones are found 100 years from now, will scientists be able to tell if you were a boy or a girl?” Of course, the answer is that they’ll make that determination by DNA or anatomy. But that contradicts what they’re teaching about gender being a choice.

The public schools have also stopped teaching both sides of issues. They’re withholding so much information from kids it’s bordering on lying. It seems like they’re determined to rewrite history. For example: I’ve heard teachers say that they need to teach Critical Race Theory (CRT) because they need to give children the truth. They’re telling kids all about the evil of slavery. But they’re making no mention of the fact that America pulled itself out of slavery and embarked on a civil rights movement to stamp out racism. Now they’re undermining all of the progress we’ve made by teaching our kids to judge each other by the color of their skin again.

Kids are supposed to trust adults who are charged with their care. But the adults who are teaching them are deceiving them!

Question: Do you think our public schools are teaching our kids enough about the Constitution?

Casey: NO!!! That’s why I was looking into the Patriot Academy. By the time my children leave home, they are going to understand the Constitution and American History – all of it.

Todd: When I enlisted in the Marine Corps, I swore an oath to defend the Constitution. Over my 20 years in the Corps, I was exposed to a great number of new recruits. In recent years it became apparent to me that they had absolutely no understanding of the Constitution which they had sworn to defend. To me, that’s an indictment of public education.

Question: If you could give one piece of advice to people thinking about homeschooling, what would it be?

Todd: First and foremost, don’t be intimidated by it. Anybody can do it.

Casey: Parents are uniquely qualified to provide a superior education to their kids. I have an example. Our son was placed in the lowest reading level in school. But when I looked into it, I discovered that he was only assigned to that level because the teacher hadn’t even tested him yet. He was slipping through the cracks because the teacher didn’t have the time to give him what he needed – a chance to show what he could do. Parents will always have the best understanding of their child’s needs and can tailor their schooling to those needs.

Author’s note: My original intent was to write this article as a straightforward interview. However, I’d like to break from that format briefly to provide my own observation: After spending time with the McKeown family, I’m more optimistic than ever about the next generation of Americans who will be taking their places in this great Republic.

Convention of States is honored to partner with Patriot Academy to offer this significant curriculum to all Idaho students. 

CONTACT TO REGISTER:
Scott Rider, Education Outreach Director
(208) 777-7894
Scott.Rider@cosaction.com  

OR

TeachFreedom@cosaction.com