“Education is very powerful. We’ve accomplished wonderful things through education, but also great evils have come through the education system.”
John Stamper
Yvette Hampton recently interviewed John Stamper, an educator with a diverse background in both public and private schools. Stamper, author of Conflicted: Pulling Back the Curtain on Public Education, shared his experiences as a homeschool graduate turned long-time public school teacher and his insights regarding the conflict that these schools present for teachers, students, and parents.
Exploring The Public School Conflict:
John Stamper’s journey began in a small rural community in Indiana, where the local public school had allowed outside community groups, like the Gideons, to distribute Bibles to interested students. However, when a lawsuit challenged this practice, claiming a violation of the separation of church and state, Stamper witnessed firsthand the debates and court rulings that ultimately led to a ban prohibiting the distribution Bibles in schools. This event incited Stamper’s parents to bring their children home from school at a time when home education was considered by many to be a fringe movement.
Reflecting on this transformative event, Stamper’s mother wrote an article titled “The Absence of the Bible Leads to Moral Decay” in their local newspaper, which shed light on the significance of Biblical values in education. This article quickly received widespread attention and John’s parents were featured on national talk shows, including the Maury Povich Show and the Phil Donahue Show.
Ironically, years later John Stamper would find himself faced with the decision of whether or not he could continue to teach in the public schools in light of the degenerate moral positions that were being promoted in these schools.
Studying History and Learning from the Past:
“Hitler said in Nazi Germany that if the older generation cannot get accustomed to us, we shall take their children away from them and rear them as needful to the fatherland. So there’s this perceived moral obligation to teach children about things, and if they agree, great. But if the parents don’t agree, we’re going to do it anyway because we’re going to teach them what’s needful to the fatherland sort of mindset, where there’s just the undermining of parents and family.”
John Stamper
Stamper drew parallels between the rise of Marxism and communism in nations like the USSR, Germany, and China, and the American education system. He emphasized the importance of understanding history as a roadmap, highlighting the positive and negative outcomes that have resulted from education’s power. Stamper stated, “We need to learn from history, understand what has worked and what hasn’t during different periods. Without this knowledge, we risk repeating the mistakes of the past.”
Taking Charge of Our Children’s Education:
For Stamper, the conflict in public schools and the undermining of parental authority is a significant concern. He advocates for parents to take charge of their children’s education, emphasizing the importance of teaching the truth of God’s Word, with an emphasis on history. Stamper encourages parents to love and train their children to be warriors, equipping them with the tools necessary to navigate the challenges of the world. He believes that homeschooling provides the opportunity for parents to educate and disciple their children in accordance with their values and beliefs.
Writing a Bold Book:
“Be a light in the darkness. Show your kids and others around you what it means to have faith and praise in tough times. Your actions and words matter, so let’s model that for our children and be an example for everyone.”
John Stamper
Since leaving his public school teaching position, John Stamper has established himself as a valued teacher in the homeschooling world, offering several different programs through Masterbooks Academy. Additionally, he has written the groundbreaking book, Conflicted: Pulling Back the Curtain on Public Education. This must-read reference delves into controversial topics such as teachers unions and the challenges Christian teachers face within the public schooling system. Stamper acknowledges that it takes courage to address these issues, as they involve powerful entities. He believes that he was called by God to write the book and expose these deep-rooted problems.
Recommended Resources:
Conflicted: Pulling Back the Curtain on Public Education, by John Stamper
Answers for Homeschooling: Top 25 Questions Critics Ask, by Israel Wayne
Education: Does God Have an Opinion, Israel Wayne
Demystifying Learning Styles – Tyler Hogan on the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast
Is College Worth It, by William J. Bennett
Getting Started in Homeschooling – Israel Wayne on the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast
📚📖 Ready to start homeschooling? Download your free Homeschool Survival Kit today!
🍿🍿🍿 Stream Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution for FREE today!
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Read the Full Transcript:
Yvette Hampton:
Hey, everyone, this is Yvette Hampton. Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast. I am so glad you are with me this week. We have a IEW guest on, and you guys are going to be so encouraged. You know, on the Schoolhouse Rocked podcast, we talk about everything homeschooling. I was thinking about this this morning, and I thought it’s so interesting, the people that God brings to us, because we talk about everything. We talk about, like, how to homeschool, and we talk all the different methods of homeschooling, and we talk about questions and answers that you guys have with homeschooling and all the different things that encompass home education and family discipleship. But one of the things I love to talk about is kind of what’s going on outside of homeschooling.
Yvette Hampton:
And so we have a guest on today. His name is John Stamper, and he was a public school teacher for 13 years. He’s been in the system. He actually went to public school for the second half of his schooling career when he was a kid, but he was also homeschool. And so he has a really unique perspective on public schools and what’s going on in the public school system. He’s a coach and he is an author. He’s the author of this book. It’s called conflicted.
Yvette Hampton:
Pulling back the curtain on public education. So we’re going to talk about that this week. We’re going to talk about what’s going on in the public school system. And I love that we get to talk about these things because it’s real, I think one of those things that reminds us why we’re doing what we’re doing. And when we get that little itch to maybe put our kids back in public school and, you know, it’s going to be okay. We’re having a hard time with homeschooling. We want to give you these reminders of, okay, this is what’s actually going on in the public school system. And so I’m glad that you’re with us this week.
Yvette Hampton:
It’s going to be a great conversation. Well, John, welcome to the schoolhouse rocked podcast. I’m so glad to get to meet you, and we’ve had fun chatting. Before we get started, introduce yourself to our audience and tell us who you are and a little bit of your background.
John Stamper:
Sure. Hi, it’s nice to meet you as well. Thank you so much for having me. Hello, everybody. I am John Stamper. I’m from Indiana. I was a public school and private school teacher for 13 years. Eleven of those years were public schools.
John Stamper:
I’ve taught multiple grade levels, multiple subject areas. I currently am creating homeschool courses through master books, the Master Books Academy. They’re a Christian homeschool curriculum provider. I also wrote this book, and I host a podcast called The State of State Schools, where I kind of give a weekly recap on what’s happening in schools. But as yvette mentioned, I was homeschooled the first half of my childhood. My childhood education went to public school, was a public school teacher, private school teacher, and now am back working in the homeschool field. So it’s kind of gone, like, full circle. I’ve had a wide variety of experiences over my career, so hopefully something that we talk about today resonates with you out there, and you guys can relate to it, and you leave encouraged.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah. Tell us a little bit about your childhood with being homeschooled, because you said your mom started homeschooling you early on. Give us kind of a background on that.
John Stamper:
Sure. So this is a bit of a story, so feel free to ask a question if I go on too long. So we grew up in small town Indiana, a rural community, farming community. I’m the youngest of four, so right around 1990 is when all this started to happen. I was about four or five years old. My older siblings were enrolled in the local public schools at the time, and our local public school system had a tradition of allowing outside community groups like four H, Girl Scouts, the Gideons, to come into schools once a year and kind of talk to students to let them know what’s out there. So the Gideons had a tradition for decades where they would go to the fifth grade classrooms and talk about what the Gideons do, we distribute Bibles to hotels, et cetera. And if anyone wanted a Bible, they would give them a Bible.
John Stamper:
This had been happening, and the school board wanted this to happen. But a parent in the community sued the school board over the Bible issue, saying, you’re forcing your religion on my children, separation of church and state, et cetera. The courts actually ruled in favor of the school board, initially allowing the Gideons to come back and distribute Bibles. But the court case went on to the Indiana Supreme Court, and it was then overturned, siding with the plaintiffs. So the Gideons could no longer distribute Bibles in our local schools in our town. So that is the event that prompted my parents to pull my siblings me out of the public schools to homeschool. So this is kind of where the story gets interesting. In response to all this that was going on in our homegrown small hometown, my mom wrote a letter to the editor of our local newspaper, really small newspaper called the Renzelier Republican, and her article was titled, the Absence of the Bible Leads to Moral Decay.
John Stamper:
And at this time, my parents were new Christians. Maybe four or five years, they’ve been serving the Lord Christians with four young kids right under the age of ten. So that’s where they were. They’re about 31, 32 years old, new Christians trying to raise kids, working hard. So my mom wrote this letter just kind of citing how since the Bibles have been systematically removed in the Ten Commandments, et cetera, society’s woes have really inclined depression, anxiety, divorce, suicide, murder, all these things are just skyrocketing, and they’re linked. So she just encouraged people to pray and pray for the leaders of the country, et cetera. Well, she sent that in. It got published in our little paper.
John Stamper:
And a few weeks later, my mom got a phone call while my dad was at work from the Maury Povich TV show. If any of you have heard of Maury Povich.
Yvette Hampton:
Oh, yeah.
John Stamper:
And they were like, we read your article in the Associated Press out of New York City.
Yvette Hampton:
Wow.
John Stamper:
She was, huh? What? How did that happen? So somehow her article got published in the Associated Press newspaper. A few minutes later, the Phil Donahue Show called inviting My Mom and dad onto the Show to kind of be a counterargument to Madeline Murray O’Hara, which, if any of you remember her, she was the president of the American Atheists, the most prominent atheist group in America at the time. She was probably the most prominent atheist in America. She was like the main guest on the Phil Donahue show. So my parents prayed about it. And I mean, my dad’s an iron worker. My mom’s a stay at home mom. They’re not activists.
John Stamper:
They’re not involved in local politics. So they’re like, what are we going to do? So they prayed, and they felt like, okay, here’s an opportunity. I think God wants us to go. So they went out to New York, got flown out there. They’re getting ready for the show, and they’re kind of backstage as you are. I remember my dad said he had to use the restroom before they went into the studio. And as he’s walking down the hall, ms. O’Hare stepped into the hall at the exact same time, and they had never met each other.
John Stamper:
And she said to my dad, you’re from Renzelier, aren’t you? And he said, yes, ma’am, I am. And she said, those Gideons are slime. She had heard about the court case in Rensalier, my hometown, about the Gideons. So Kit was not off to a good start. Anyway, they go into the studio, and it’s a largely atheist audience. Supporters of Ms. O’Hare and Miss O’Hare during Taping is talking about know, christians haven’t done much for society. What do they really do, anyway? Christians really don’t, like, know, et cetera.
John Stamper:
They hate me, and it’s kind of badmouthing Christians. So my parents were the last ones to speak on the show. And if you’ve ever seen the Donahue Show, people can call in and they ask questions, or audience members stand up and hold the mic, and they talk. So he introduced my parents. The were sitting front row, and he introduced them and kind of talked about the Gideons. And my dad, even though my mom wrote the letter, my dad was kind of the one who spoke, and he started off first thing he said was he looked directly at Ms. O’Hare and know mist O’Hare, I’m a Christian, and I don’t hate you. In fact, I love you and Jesus Christ loves you.
John Stamper:
And he basically got to give a gospel message to the whole nation. Wow. And just like he pointed to Christ and he talked about the separation of church and state, that’s not found in our Constitution, but it is found in the founding documents of the USSR. And he gave a great message, and it was something obviously, I still remember, and it’s encouraging to me. So that’s what my parents went through and kind of a wild experience, but that’s what led to us being homeschooled. So you mentioned something at the beginning here. You said, Why we’re doing what we’re doing. And that’s something that as often as I tell this story about my parents, that’s the key message is I don’t remember many projects I did when I was homeschooled, a few, but I always will remember why we were homeschooled, why we did what we did, why my parents made that decision.
John Stamper:
So as new Christians, they prioritize the Word of God, and they wanted to raise their kids in the fear and admonition of the Lord. They wanted us to have a relationship with Christ. And given what was going on in the local schools, they’re removing the Bibles. They’re shunning it. That’s why they wanted to homeschool us, so that they could teach us the Word. So I’ll always remember their example that they set that the Word of God had to be number one. It had to reign supreme. So my encouragement to parents out there, if you’re a parent and you’re wondering, maybe you’re in public schools, maybe you’re not, you’re making the decision, what should I do? Just know that you matter to your children what you do matters and why you do what you do matters.
John Stamper:
They’re going to remember the example that you set. So hopefully that’s an encouragement to you. I’m not trying to put pressure on you or a burden, but be encouraged that what you do matters. So if you take a principled stand on the Word of God, it’s going to pay dividends for your children. Here I am. This is 30 plus years after the fact, and I’m still remembering learning lessons we’ll talk about later on, maybe my experience with Chicago Public Schools and the dilemma that I face. But 30 years after my parents example, I was still remembering and still learning from their example. So parents matter now more than ever.
Yvette Hampton:
I love that story of your parents. And I think one of the things that I was thinking through is we often talk about our why? Like, why are we doing this? Why do we homeschool our kids? But I think oftentimes, at least I know for myself, I forget to remind my kids why we do this. And I think it’s important for us to talk about that with our kids. Why are we choosing to do this? It’s not just for the academics. As a matter of fact, for our family. It’s not for the academics at all. Those are an important part of it, but it’s more because we want to instill a biblical worldview into their lives and their hearts and their minds, and we want to point them to Jesus. And that’s kind of that whole point of your story with your parents.
Yvette Hampton:
And so I think it’s important for us to remember, like, okay, we need to tell our kids on a semi regular basis. Just remind them, this is why we’re doing this. As a matter of fact, it’s so interesting. With our movie Schoolhouse Rocked, one of the audiences that we did not expect was kids to enjoy the movie. And so we had a lot of people who have responded and said, we watched this as a family, and our kids finally understood why we’ve chosen to homeschool them. And that’s been such a great blessing and encouragement to us with the movie. So thank you for that encouragement. Talk about your time in the public school system.
Yvette Hampton:
I know that you left your career as a public school teacher in Chicago. Talk through that with us. Why did you leave your career to do that?
John Stamper:
Sure. So prior to Chicago, I taught for Chicago Public Schools from 2020 to 2021. Just the one homeschool year, that first full school year of the COVID shutdown. Prior to that, most of my career had been in Indiana, one year in Tennessee. But most of my career, I mean, I love my career. I had been involved in good schools, great principals, colleagues, students, et cetera. I coached a lot, so I love my career. I was getting better and better.
John Stamper:
I was becoming a great teacher and coach. But when I married my wife, I was still teaching in Indiana. We were living in Chicago. I was commuting, but we moved further north, and I couldn’t do the commute to Indiana. So I looked around and interviewed for jobs in Chicago, and I took a job at a school in Chicago, in Chicago Public Schools. So we started online that school year. We were online remote until March of that school year. So almost the whole year remote, and during the fall of that year.
John Stamper:
So the fall of 2020, if you can kind of take yourself back there. Most schools were remote, some were opening. But we’re struggling with this virtual learning. And all the teachers in the school district had to complete mandatory training, which is normal. We do that every year, and it’s usually like a new state policy or like, safety protocol, et cetera. Nothing major, you just got to complete it. But this particular training session right in the onset of COVID we had never been teaching virtually before. So you would think that maybe they’re going to give us some strategies on how to manage a virtual classroom, having never done it ever.
John Stamper:
But no, all of the training slides and materials were about political radical ideologies like critical race theory, intersectionality gender theory. Right. So I was kind of like, this seems a little off base. I had never experienced this in any of my public schools before. Right. I kind of heard about it a little bit, but it was always like, never witnessed it. So this was kind of my first experience seeing it face to face. And these theories, critical race theory, gender theory, they’re being presented to us as fact.
John Stamper:
Right. This is what we’re basing our practices on, our policies. So these are the things that we want you guys to do in the classroom, right? Like, it’s a fact. So some of the topics were preferred pronouns supporting transgender students, intersectionality. Right. So some of the policies were always to affirm a transgender student. If a student says, I’m a boy or a girl, it’s best practice to affirm them. Right.
John Stamper:
As a Christian, I already had a conflict with this because I view this as lying to that child. If a child’s confused about these things, I’m compassionate about that. I understand confusion is normal, but to knowingly lie, that’s not compassionate or loving. And as a Christian, I’m not going to do that. So already there’s a conflict between what my employer is asking me to do and what my God is asking me to do. Right. So that was kind of the initial conflict. So an example of some of the materials for kindergarten, they asked us to present kindergartners with the gender unicorn.
John Stamper:
This was to teach students about gender. And it looks like Barney. It’s like a purple unicorn. And it says you can be a boy, a girl, or another gender. Right. So there are more than two genders. You can be attracted to a boy, a girl, or another gender. And that’s at kindergarten.
John Stamper:
And they’re saying they’re going to love this cute character. So those were the directives from my school. Other slides, if you’ve ever heard of the concept of intersectionality, I’ve not heard of that.
Yvette Hampton:
I was going to ask you what that is.
John Stamper:
Yeah. So intersectionality is it’s kind of like a doctrine of critical race theory. So in my book, I discuss this, but what this was intersectionality, we were given a slide called Intersecting Identities. And what Intersecting Identities means is there are two groups. There are privileged groups and marginalized groups. And based on your characteristics, you’re in one of these two groups. So the graphic that they presented us, it was two circles. On the outside circle were all the privileged groups, and on the inside circle were all the marginalized groups.
John Stamper:
And the so the privileged groups were guilty of using tactics of abuse on the marginalized groups. So I’ll give you some examples. I’m looking at it right now. I’ll give you some examples of the privileged groups. That was in my teacher training that all the teachers in Chicago were presented with. So white people, you’re, privileged boys, men, cisgender people, which means I identify as a man. I was born a man, I’m still a man. I’m cisgender.
John Stamper:
That’s the language. If you’re wealthy, if you’re a homeowner, if you’re middle class, you’re privileged. If you’re straight, if you’re an adult, if you speak English, if you’re a Christian, if you don’t have a disability, these are all privileged groups. Now, what’s really interesting is wherever two of those identities meet, they’re intersecting. You have an assigned tactic of abuse. So I’ll show you what I’m talking about. If you’re a Christian and you’re not disabled, you’re a healthy body and you’re a Christian, you are also guilty of emotional abuse on non Christians and people with a disability. So they’re just assigning these allegations because I’m a Christian.
John Stamper:
Wow. Not based on my behavior or my record, but I’m abusive. And then they go on to say, for example, if you’re white and you’re a man, where those two intersect, you’re emotionally abusive toward people of color and girls. Just because I’m a white man, I’m emotionally abusive and I’m a Christian, I’m emotionally abusive. And this goes on. And this is their training. This is not theory. This is what they’re saying is true.
John Stamper:
Wow. And we’re going to set our policies based on these facts. So to put it mildly, this was a big conflict for me. I was not going to implement that or comply with that. So that was kind of the basis of my decision to leave. So my initial response was to file a formal complaint with the school board saying, look, these things that you’re putting in these trainings, they are prejudiced. They’re discriminatory, they’re dividing. What this actually does is it pits classmates against each other, turns them into enemies, colleagues, turns them into enemies.
John Stamper:
Here I am in my school. I feel like an enemy in my own school. Based on what my school district is saying about me. I filed this formal complaint, and basically everything in that complaint is I include in my book. But the did reply. They did reply and say, we’ve chosen not to investigate this. Just not even going to look into Kit. Of course it’s against the school board, and so the school board is not going to investigate.
Yvette Hampton:
Right.
John Stamper:
So sorry. See you later. And that was it. So that’s why I was like, they’re not even going to consider this. And then so that is what caused me to resign. I prayed about it. I didn’t want to leave my career. I was kind of stuck in a struggle.
John Stamper:
I have a serious conflict with these directives that are being given me. But this is my career. I worked hard for this. I feel like God has blessed me in this career. I’ve learned so much through my career and so many relationships, and I believe God’s given me a set of skills. And it’s a privilege to be in front of children every day and to be a witness like a christian example to them. So it was a real struggle for me. So to any teachers out there who are going through this, and you’re most likely going to experience this if you haven’t, it’s a real conflict.
John Stamper:
So the bottom line is you got to be in relationship with God and you really got to seek Him and communicate with Him daily and be in the Word and seek his guidance. Because my ultimate decision was, and it wasn’t an easy decision was I felt the Lord was asking me to leave and to move on. What kept coming back to me was like lot leaving the city before destruction. I was like, I tried to warn the school board of the wrongs in these trainings. They didn’t want to hear it. They refused to listen. They refused to look into it. So I feel like I need to get out of here before destruction comes.
John Stamper:
But that’s what God was telling me, what he’s telling you. Maybe he wants you to take a different stand, I don’t know. But the point is, be in relationship with the Lord and communicate with Him here for yourself.
Yvette Hampton:
I can’t imagine how hard that would be. And I really do. I admire you for your willingness to step down and step away. I know that was a really hard decision. And we’re faced with these decisions, kit seems like every day, whether it’s with our jobs or we had a situation recently with our girls where there was something, a movie they wanted to watch, and it was a movie that was not acceptable to our family. And we just said, you know what? We’re just not going to do this. We have standards for our family, biblical standards that we live by. And even when it seems like the whole world is doing something else, we’re going to stand different.
Yvette Hampton:
We’re going to do something different. And several weeks ago, we replayed a message from Meeke Addison from our Homegrown Generation Family Expo. It was an online conference that we did. And we’re talking about this very topic of standing against what the world is telling us to do. And sometimes it’s so hard as Christians to do that. But God is worthy. He is worth it. He is worth us standing firm on our convictions.
Yvette Hampton:
And so I love that you did that. Let’s talk about a little bit about your book. But I want to talk about how in the book and I think you said it was maybe somewhere around chapter eight where you bring attention to Marxism and even communism and how they were related to what you witnessed in the public school. And you got a little bit deep into that in episode one on Monday. Talk about that, right?
John Stamper:
So I believe it is chapter eight of my book, but I talk about the rise of Marxism and communism in the 20th century. The USSR and Germany and China, et cetera, and the are believe it or not, many parallels between the education systems in those countries and those regimes and our own education system here in America just parallels. So education is very powerful. We’ve accomplished wonderful things through education, but also great evils have come through the education system. So history, we should always learn from history and use it like a roadmap. Throughout the Bible, God admonishes parents and grandparents to teach their children about how God delivered them and the wonderful works of God. And we should pass these lessons down. So history is very important, and we can look at the stops throughout history like a roadmap and learn what happened, what they tried and what they learned and what worked and what didn’t work.
John Stamper:
So we can recognize parallels, like I mentioned, between our education system right now here in America and those of the past. All right? Now, I’m not here to label anyone. You’re Hitler, you’re this, you’re that. My whole point is just to share this information, see the parallels, identify it, and say, hey, whoa, this is not good. We should not be on this path. Let’s change course. Okay? So some of those parallels that I point out between the USSR under Lenin, Germany under Hitler, communist China under Mao, Cambodia under Pole Pot, North Korea, and the Kims. So here are some of the similarities, just the general similarities.
John Stamper:
They all had an absence of the Bible and Biblical values. That’s one. Two, education was politicized, meaning activism was the focus. Politics was the focus. Academics were kind of pushed to the side. Three is revisionism. The history was being changed. Number four, parents and families were undermined.
John Stamper:
And number five is society was just divided as a whole oppressor versus oppressed, privileged versus marginalized. I just talked about that from some of my trainings. So I’ll give you a couple of examples of each, just a few. So, for the absence of the Bible, marxism itself is an atheist ideology. Karl Marx was quoted by saying, my objective in life is to dethrone God and destroy capitalism. That was Karl Marx. Lenin removed Bibles from schools. And Mao and the Kim family both portrayed themselves as gods, right? So they know the biblical model is corrupted.
John Stamper:
So in America, Bibles were once the principal text. But as I discussed in my hometown, they’re know we don’t see that anymore in America. So there’s a removal of biblical the politic. Education is politicized, meaning activism is encouraged, politics are encouraged, and academics are neglected. So the Soviet Union under Lenin, they focused on collectivism and playing your role in society. Lenin tried to politicize education as young as possible. He said that kindergarten classes were the sprouts of communism. That’s how important politics were in the young ages of school.
John Stamper:
Pole Pot in Cambodia rewarded teachers for promoting communism. Anyone who questioned it, they were labeled as traitors or oppressors. Revisionism select the changing of the country’s history. Get this one in 1967, Mao in China shut down schools and colleges during a cultural revolution. Sounds kind of familiar to maybe what we’ve gone through recently. While schools were shut down, he did a number of things. First of all, he trained teachers, trained them on what to implement a new curriculum that emphasizes activism and politics. So we should start to see some parallels between that education system and our own.
John Stamper:
Now, in North Korea, I mean, they teach that countries like America, the capitalist countries, that we are responsible for the problems of society and all the poverty in the world. Right? So there’s like this revisionism of history changing history, parents in the family being undermined. I think this is a really big topic in America, right? Very, very important. Parents being undermined in school board meetings and what kids are being taught in schools. Hitler said in Nazi Germany that if the older generation cannot get accustomed to us, we shall take their children away from them and rear them as needful to the fatherland. So there’s this perceived moral obligation to teach children about things, and if they agree, great. But if the parents don’t agree, we’re going to do it anyway because we’re going to teach them what’s needful to the fatherland sort of mindset, where there’s just the undermining of parents and family. Mao was an open Marxist, and he was very anti family, so he viewed families as oppressive toward the lower class, similar to what I talked about in the intersecting Identities graphic, where if you own a home, you’re right.
John Stamper:
You know, Mao even went so far as to remove kitchens from homes to try to destroy family bonds. Adults were made to work, so children were often raised in, like, daycares. Families were kind of forced to eat in cafeterias just to remove family ties. Right. Finally, the last parallel I talk about is society being divided, which we can, I think, easily see in politics or culture, we have a divided society, and that’s one of the hallmarks of know disrupting systems or institutions such as the family, and labeling people know oppressive or know the Nazi propaganda machine, which included the education system. They demonize the Jews, right. Mao of Communist China, he used to be the head of propaganda, where he would demonize, villainize his political opponents. Right.
John Stamper:
So I was taught in my trainings, I talked about in my own trainings, I was taught of privileged identities and tactics of abuse. So the point is learning from history, identifying parallels, where this kind of stuff has happened before, how it played out then and there, and what we can learn from that. That’s my whole point of talking about this and writing about this in my book is just to say, hey, this is not good. These things are not good. It hasn’t worked before. It’s very destructive. And we individually, as a family, as a town, a society, should change course immediately if we recognize these. Parallels, we should be alarmed.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah. It’s so interesting as we look back into history and see history repeating itself, right. And sometimes you just think, did we not learn the first time when COVID came and we saw churches shutting down and kids coming home and just all the indoctrination that was going on, not in the schools, but with people through the media. It was so shocking to me that people telling on their neighbors and people yelling at people for not wearing masks and stuff, and I was like, Are we in Nazi Germany again? I mean, this is insane. I can’t believe people are actually playing along with this. But I think so much of it is because people just simply don’t know their history or they forget their history, they forget what it produced. As we look through scripture, we look back at the Israelites and see all the times that they disobeyed God and what their punishment was, and then the times when they obeyed God. And people know.
Yvette Hampton:
You look at the Esther’s and the Daniels of the Bible and their obedience to the Lord and how the Lord blessed the through that, and you just think, let’s be that. Let’s do that instead. Because the alternative is not where we want to go. It’s not where we want to be. As a society and as families, it’s hard sometimes to look at history and think of all the things that have gone wrong. Right. But as we talked about before the break, there are so many things that have gone right in history and so many people that we can use as examples in history. I’m reading right now.
Yvette Hampton:
It’s always on the forefront of my mind because I’m reading another book by Corey Ten Boom, and it’s the five Silent Years of Corey Ten Boom. And she’s the most fascinating person to me. Like, I cannot wait to meet Corey Ten.
John Stamper:
Boom.
Yvette Hampton:
When I get to heaven. I mean, she is my hero. People ask you, if you could meet anyone in the world, who would it be? Mine would be Esther and Corey ten boom. Those two women, because they were so like, they just stood on their conviction and they allowed the Lord to use the to impact and change history in different ways. And so there are so many things that I think as we think through history that are encouraging as well as you’re looking at how we’re looking at Marxism and communism and how that really has destroyed a lot of societies. And of course, we’re trying to bring that into America. And that’s not what we want for our nation. It’s not what we want for our children.
Yvette Hampton:
What’s some encouragement that you can bring on the other side of that?
John Stamper:
It’s so easy to get weighed down and bogged down with so many problems going on in our world, in our society. But it is important, especially as Christians, to have an encouraging message and as Christians, we do have the encouraging message, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Yvette Hampton:
Amen.
John Stamper:
And if you’re a believer, if you spent any time living for the Lord, certainly he’s done something for you. He saved you, first of all, but certainly he’s delivered in a time of need. So we know that there is an encouragement that we can hold on to in the Lord. So the scripture that I’m reminded of, it’s a very popular scripture, is Deuteronomy six, verses five through seven. And this is kind of like what education should look like from the get go, right? Of course, we’re going to get into math and things like that in science, but the education that God touches on in the Bible is between parents and their children. And he says in verse five of Deuteronomy, chapter six, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently unto your children. Teach what diligently the words which I command you this day.
John Stamper:
And he said, you shall talk of them when you sit down in the house and when you walk, by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. So that’s all the time and everywhere you go, you should be talking to your children about the commandments of the Lord, right? And then so I encourage you guys to remember that and to do that and just to always have praise on your lips when it comes to the Lord and when you’re in front of your children. I talked earlier about how I always remember what my parents did and why they did it. And parents matter, what you do matters, what you say matters, but why you do it matters. So it’s really important to model praising the Lord in front of your kids and to model going through a difficulty in life, but being a faithful child of God, model that for your children. So it is a difficult time, I think, collectively that we’re all going through in the country, but as Christians, we’re to be light and salt in the world. So what an opportunity to be an example for your own family, your own children, but onlookers your colleagues, your coworkers. What an opportunity to be a light in the darkness.
John Stamper:
So I just encourage everyone to hold on to God’s Word, stay in His Word, and the Word He gives me one day he’ll give you something different. And the word of God is inexhaustible. And it’s amazing how God uses the word. He’ll use a single scripture a million different ways to a million different people as only he can do it. So it’s a beautiful thing. And that’s my major encouragement right there, is hold on to the Lord and stay as close to Him as you possibly can.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, that is so important. And you were talking before about how our system, our government, undermines a parent’s authority in the lives of their kids. And I think that’s one of the most important parts of homeschooling and taking on that responsibility to educate our kids and to disciple their hearts is that we’re not saying, okay, government, you’re in charge of our kids. You’re in charge of their hearts and their education and their academics and all of the discipleship of our kids, because our kids are being discipled somewhere, whether they’re being discipled by us or by the school system. And so parents just not releasing that to someone else, but saying, we’re going to take responsibility for that. We are going to teach them the way of the Lord, and we’re going to teach them truth. We’re going to teach them history as it actually is, the good, the bad, and the ugly, right. And we’re going to love our kids through this, and we’re going to train them up to be warriors.
Yvette Hampton:
This was a bold move, actually, I think, of a lot of books that people write, and sometimes books are really fun and easy and they’re novels and people enjoy reading them. And then there’s other books that just slop you right across the face and you’re just like, that person was really super bold and actually putting this stuff down on paper, especially when it comes to things like teachers unions and public schools and things that are big, huge giants, right? Because compared to them, it seems like we’re so small and we have such little power. But I love that the Lord has called you to write this and to expose some of the things that are going on. And so as you wrote the book, what was your hope for the book? What are you hoping that the readers will get from the book? Who are you hoping will read the book? Talk a little bit about what your thought process was going into this book.
John Stamper:
Sure. So I really wrote the book to kind of just sound an alarm. And again, this was back in the fall of 2020 when all this happened. So this was all kind of new in the media cycle, if you remember. It wasn’t until kind of the fall of 21 when all the school board debates started to heat up. So I really just wanted to sound an alarm for teachers who were like me, who maybe had a conflict with what was going on in their own school, and then for parents who were kind of wrestling with, what should we do? Should we go to public school, private school, home school? I don’t know, something like I explained my parents went through. So I really just wanted to provide information to teachers and parents just to help them make informed decisions on their career and how to educate their children. So as I mentioned before, I would just encourage you to pray and seek wisdom on what to do.
John Stamper:
I felt led to do what I did and filed a formal complaint, and I ended up leaving my position. But God had provided for me, so I was trusting the Lord then. And it’s a day by day, it’s a daily walk, but I hope teachers and parents have information. They feel encouraged and more confident in their decision. But most importantly, knowing that the Lord is on your side is really what matters. So that’s my encouragement to you is take a biblical stand and hear from the Lord for yourself.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, I want to talk about homeschooling for a minute because as someone who had been homeschooled and you’ve worked in the public school system and you’re familiar with homeschooling, I know you’ve got a little one on the way right now, so you’re not yet to that stage of homeschooling your own children. But as you look at the contrast between public school and homeschooling, what do you see and what do you see as some of the benefits of homeschooling?
John Stamper:
Well, I mean, nationally, by virtually every metric, homeschoolers outperform their private school and public school peers in every area. So that’s benefit number one. Benefit number two, and these are no particular order, but I mean, you have freedom as a family if you’re homeschooling. You have freedom to live your life, right? And to kind of work schooling around your life. You have freedom to choose the curriculum that you want to choose, like a Christian curriculum, which I’m involved with. And most importantly, who knows your kids better than you? Who loves your children more than you? Nobody. Right. Nobody on this earth anyway.
John Stamper:
So no one is better suited to teach your children than you. Okay. That’s my belief anyway. So those are the benefits of homeschooling. And honestly, that’s something my parents wrestled with too. I talked about my dad was an iron worker. My mom was a stay at home mom. They felt unequipped to teach four children at home.
John Stamper:
They had never done anything like that. They felt insufficient. Right. But it was only through prayer and seeking God that God spoke to my parents and said, I’m going to give you what you need. I’m going to equip you to teach your children. So it was just on the promise of God and being obedient to His Word. They took that step. So that’s really the difference maker, and that’s something that the world doesn’t have and the lost they don’t have that reassurance from the Lord.
John Stamper:
And that’s something that we can tell the world, like, hey, there’s a God who loves you, who’s going to provide for you, who loves you and wants to protect you and wants to bless you. So we can show the world that there is this positive alternative to the public school model which is not working. There is this great alternative Christian home school curriculum. I hope that answers your question.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, it totally does. As a matter of fact, it’s really funny because hearing you talk about those things and some of the benefits of homeschooling, you almost said word for word what Israel Wayne says in our movie Schoolhouse Rocked. And what’s funny, for those of you listening, john Stamper has not yet seen Schoolhouse Rocked. He didn’t even know that it existed before we started recording.
John Stamper:
Yeah, great.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, he’s amazing. And so he’s one of our main cast members in the movie. So before we started recording, I said, have you seen the movie yet? He’s like, no, I didn’t know that there was a movie he was familiar with the podcast. That’s funny. But yeah, it’s so funny because, again, it just reinforces homeschooling and the benefits and the great blessings of homeschooling. And so it’s funny. You’ll have to watch the movie now, John. And for those of you who have not yet seen it, watch it.
Yvette Hampton:
It’s free. You can download it for free or you can stream it for free. Schoolhouserockedmovie.com, it couldn’t be easier. It’s absolutely free. But there’s a part in the movie where Israel basically kind of walks through several benefits of homeschooling, and those are some of the things that he talks about. John, it has been fun talking to you this week, and this book is fantastic. It’s full of information, it’s full of encouragement, but also really just kind of exposing again, what is happening in the public school system. I think, again, people still need to be reminded about what’s going on in these institutions.
Yvette Hampton:
It’s not what a lot of people think it is. Oftentimes people think it’s not happening where I live, and it really is actually happening where you live. So thank you for writing this. What is your last bit of encouragement or advice that you’d want to leave for our audience?
John Stamper:
Sure. Thank you. And thanks again for having me. Thank you, everybody, for taking the time to listen. So I believe I’ve kind of encouraged people to homeschool a little bit already. So I want to kind of talk to the parents who are sticking with public school or even private school. I want to give you guys a few helpful strategies, helpful tips on how you can try to prevent political Ideologies from coming in your school or to prevent your children from being indoctrinated. So based on my teaching experience, here are some things that I think you should look out for or get involved with.
John Stamper:
First of all, teacher trainings. Now, teacher trainings can come in a couple of different forms, but most importantly, the online mandatory teacher trainings, I believe, are one of the most prevalent ways that Ideologies are snuck in behind the curtain into public schools. And the average parent will never see it because it’s a private teacher training. Second grade level meetings and, like, mandatory weekly meetings. If somehow in your school district you can get, like, a parent group or a parent representative to sit in on those meetings so you know what’s going on. State policies are regularly talked about in those meetings, and one of the most important things to know about are special events or special speakers. Like, schools have special weeks. For example, in Chicago Public Schools, in June, they celebrate Pride Month or Pride Week.
John Stamper:
Right? So the whole school is decked out with flags and this and that, and students get handed out bracelets and pins and things like that, and they can join Ally clubs in the hallway. There’s no parental consent going home. This is just happening. And the speakers are coming in, and there’s a school assembly, and kids get excited about that stuff. A school assembly? We don’t have to do math. Awesome. We get to go sit in the gym and learn about the colors of the rainbow and what LGBTQ plus means, how many genders I can be. Kids get excited about these things.
John Stamper:
Right. And they want to hold on to it because it’s fun. We don’t have to sit in class. So those are the things to really be aware of. The trainings and the special events. Other than that, talking to your children daily, of course, being involved with the curriculum, adoption process, what textbooks are coming into the classrooms, very important. So those are just a few of the suggestions that I want to give you. There’s more that I mentioned in my book, but if you guys can remember those or jot those down, I think it’d be really helpful for you.
Yvette Hampton:
Are parents able to go to teachers trainings and different things like that that are taking place in the schools and choosing curriculum? Okay. I didn’t think so. It’s just something you need to be aware of.
John Stamper:
Yeah. PTOs. Every school district should have a PTO, and I’m not going to say they’re not allowed. It’s just not common practice. I don’t think I’ve ever had a parent just come in and sit in on meetings like that. But that’s something you can request and demand because of what’s going on. So, I mean, they’re your kids, and because it’s not happening, that’s, in my opinion, part of the problem. That’s why we’re having these problems.
John Stamper:
Sure.
Yvette Hampton:
This is where we say, my tax dollars are paying your paycheck, and you’re teaching this to my student, so I want to know what’s going on.
John Stamper:
It might be an uncomfortable conversation to be had with school leadership. Yeah.
Yvette Hampton:
But I agree. If more parents would stand up and stand firm and say no, we want to be involved in this and we want to know what’s happening, or just take your kids out altogether.
John Stamper:
At least having a representative sit there just so that at least someone knows what’s going on, whether you have a vote or a voice or not, at least you’ll know, very least. Hopefully you’ll have an opinion.
Yvette Hampton:
But yeah. In the movie, Brian Osborne, who also he was a public school teacher for 13 years, and he talks about how we have to know what’s going on in the public school and what our kids are being taught, and then when they come home, we have to undo it all. And that takes so much work. Like, it takes so much work for any parent to have to undo what has already been done and taught to our kids. And it’s so much easier to just keep them home and homeschool them. That’s a lot less work for parents to do. So do the easier thing, even though homeschooling is hard.
John Stamper:
Yeah. I do want to be fair, though, before we leave, that there are many great teachers and principals out there in school leadership. Absolutely. 100% would never say otherwise. But like we’ve talked about the systems and the things like this and the politics, how they creep in, and teachers who have a conflict with this are in a tight spot because their career is on the line. So I don’t at all want to say that every teacher, every school is this way because I have many friends and families that are teachers and principals, and so there are a lot of Christians still in the public schools. So keep them in your prayers. US too.
John Stamper:
Because they’re on really the battlefield too.
Yvette Hampton:
Yes, they are on the front lines of this battle. It is a fierce battle and one that needs to be fought. Ephesians 610 through 20 put on the full armor of God. We need to do that as parents, and we need to do that with our kids. We need to put that armor on them as well.
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