Tag Archives: education

SkyTree Book Fairs: A Pro-Family Replacement to Scholastic

Posted on June 3, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

I remember clearly the highlight Scholastic Book Fairs were during the school year when I was growing up. I personally loved being able to get out of class early to go peruse the books at the fair. I even convinced my mom to buy me a few. Sadly, Scholastic turned down the path of radical ideology a while ago, and these days, they continue pushing anti-family, anti-God messaging.

Posted in Education, Faith, Marriage/Family/Culture, Sexuality | Tagged books, education, Kevin Sorbo, learning, Parents, radical ideology, Scholastic Book Fairs, SkyTree, SkyTree Book Fairs, students | Comments Off

2024 ICHE Homeschool Conference

Posted on May 30, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

The ICHE Homeschool Conference is not just a weekend to fill your mind and book bag; it is an experience that can change your family's trajectory.

Tagged children, education, family, Homeschool, ICHE, ICHE Homeschool Conference | Comments Off

What Once Was Can Be Again: Christian Education and the Reformation

Posted on May 30, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

We are now in mid-2017, the 500th anniversary of the epochal and world-changing Reformation. By revisiting the teaching of that era, we can gain a renewed hope for the modern evangelical Church, the rightful heir to that rich theology and history.

Posted in Education, Faith, Marriage/Family/Culture, Religious Liberty | Tagged children, Christianity, education, families, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Matthew Fox, Matthew McConaughey, Reformation, Roman Catholic Church, Ulrich Zwingli | Comments Off

Homeschooling, Part 3

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

We ended the last piece in the middle of our discussion of the biblical benefits of homeschooling. Jesus tells us that every student, when he is trained fully, will be like his master (Luke 6:40), which prompts us to ask: what kind of masters are my children being trained by? We discussed the godless ideas permeating the public school classroom, but education is more than just ideas. It also involves people. So let's also consider more than just the lessons being taught; what about the people teaching them?

Posted in Education, Faith, Marriage/Family/Culture, next gen | Tagged children, Christianity, education, Homeschool, Parents, public school, Teachers | Comments Off

Homeschooling, Part 2

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

In a recent piece together, we explored one of the major benefits of homeschooling that greatly impacted me as a student: the freedom that my parents had to tailor my education to my needs. I know many other homeschool families have reaped this benefit from homeschooling as well. Homeschooling parents are able to educate their children according to their individual needs and aptitudes, which often results in a more rigorous and productive education than the standard fare in the public school system.

Posted in Education, Faith, Marriage/Family/Culture, next gen | Tagged Brian Ray, children, education, Homeschool, Parents, public school | Comments Off

Why Should Anyone Homeschool? Part 1

Posted on March 12, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

I've been blessed to write several dozen articles for IFI on topics ranging from transgender bathrooms to sports gambling to the politically correct concept of "ableism." It's been a very fun ride. But, peering back through it all—the rants on the artificial fertility lobby and the exposés of abortion politics, the laments over the modern denial of science and the abandonment of logic—I still think back to the very first article I ever wrote for the Institute: COVID Boosted Idea of Educational Freedom.

Posted in Education, Faith, Marriage/Family/Culture, next gen | Tagged Brian Ray, children, education, family, Homeschool, learning, moms, public school, research | Comments Off

Its Nose in the Tent

Posted on March 11, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

The legislative effort to address bullying in Illinois started in 2006 when the Illinois School Code was amended. The act required schools to establish an anti-bullying policy, inform students and parents about it, and keep their updated policies on file with the Illinois State Board of Education.

Posted in Education, Illinois Politics, Sexuality | Tagged Bullying, education, First Amendment, Governor Pat Quinn, HB 4133, Illinois School Code, LGBTQ, Margaret Croke, U.S. Constitution | Comments Off

What Are They Teaching Our Children?

Posted on March 6, 2024 by David E Smith

In recent decades the quality of American education has plummeted. When you scan the headlines related to education, you realize how far we have fallen...

Posted in Education | Tagged Booker T. Washington, Brown, classroom, Cornell, Dartmouth, Dennis Prager, drag queen, education, Georgetown, Hamas, Harvard, James Madison, John Adams, Joyce Burges, Mike Huckabee, National Black Home Education League, New England Primer, non-binary, Notre Dame, PragerU, Rev. John Harvard, the fear of the Lord, The Old Deluder Satan Act, Thomas Jefferson, William and Mary, Yale | Comments Off

Illinois Youth Survey Warrants Caution

Posted on February 2, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

Every school has to know at least a little bit about the students it is teaching, and every school has to provide at least something of value to its students. But there's a flipside—in pursuit of these goals, schools should not pry into areas of family life beyond their proper purview. While every family will have slightly different standards about what is appropriate for schools to inquire about or provide for their kids, I think that concerned parents and observers of the education system may soon sound the alarm that schools are becoming too intrusive.

Posted in Education, Faith, Marriage/Family/Culture, next gen, Sexuality | Tagged Awake Illinois, children, education, Illinois Youth Survey Warrants Caution, Parents | Comments Off

Unsafe

Posted on January 31, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

There are 341,000 students in the Chicago Public Schools, divided among 638 schools—476 elementary schools and 162 high schools. According to the recent report by the Chicago Public Schools Office of Inspector General (OIG), there were 446 sexual misconduct allegations reported to the OIG during the calendar year 2023.

Posted in Child Exploitation, Education, Marriage/Family/Culture, Pornography, Sexuality | Tagged abuse, Boston Globe, Catholic Church, Charole Shakeshaft, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Public Schools Office of Inspector General, children, education, Educator Sexual Misconduct, Elizabeth L. Jeglic, Hofstra University, John Jay College, OIG, Parents, public schools, school, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, sexual misconduct | Comments Off

Chicago May Soon Remove Police From Schools

Posted on January 18, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

At the beginning of January, the news began to buzz with the report of Chicago alderman Nicholas Sposato, who told journalists that the city's school system is looking into removing all police officers from high schools.

Posted in Education, Illinois Politics, Marriage/Family/Culture, next gen | Tagged Chicago, Chicago Principals & Administrators Association, education, National Education Association, Nicholas Sposato, public schools, school | Comments Off

The Transgender Trap, Part 2

Posted on January 9, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

In part one of this article,, we looked at a brief recently filed by 21 attorneys general from around the country. The attorneys general are urging the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down a commonsense Idaho law that would keep boys out of girls' bathrooms, and among the brief’s signatories is Illinois' own Kwame Raoul. One sentence in the brief stood out in particular, as it compared "transgender" youth to their "cisgender counterparts."

Posted in Child Exploitation, Education, Faith, Federal, Marriage/Family/Culture, next gen, Sexuality | Tagged Bathrooms, education, Kwame Raoul, Part 2, public school, school, The Transgender Trap, transgender | Comments Off

Race to the Bottom

Posted on January 6, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

It is a sad truth that the United States, the wealthiest nation in the world and the one that spends more on education than any other, continues to see a decline in academic performance. Schools in Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C. now spend $30,000 and more per student. Only in a government-controlled system could spending rapidly increase while performance continually decreases.

Posted in CRT/Racism/BLM, Education, Marriage/Family/Culture | Tagged Bill de Blasio, Brandon Johnson, children, Christian school, education, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx, Parents, President Obama, public school, Race to the Bottom | Comments Off

Dr. Dorothy Tillman: An Example of Homeschool Success

Posted on December 29, 2023 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

Some of the best parts of being homeschooled are the flexibility of your schedule and the ability to tackle subjects at the pace you need. This not only ensures that you understand what you are learning but gives the opportunity to do things that the stringent schedule of a public school doesn’t allow.

Posted in Education, Marriage/Family/Culture, next gen | Tagged Dr. Dorothy Tillman, education, Homeschool | Comments Off

Whom Should We Distrust: Parents or the Government?

Posted on December 13, 2023 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

This past week, I’ve been dealing with a lot of media being interviewed by publications like The Washington Post, The Detroit Free Press, a CBS TV affiliate, an ABC radio affiliate, etc.

Posted in Education, Faith, Federal, Marriage/Family/Culture, Religious Liberty | Tagged Catherine J. Ross, children, education, Elizabeth Bartholet, Founding Fathers, government, James Madison, John Hancock, Kimberly A. Yuracko, Noah Webster, Parents, Patrick Henry, public schools, Robert Reich, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Risley, Whom Should We Distrust: Parents or the Government? | Comments Off