How to make 100% sure your child doesn’t vote for Clinton. Or Trump. Or Satan.

We received a free product for the purpose of writing this review. Our family only reviews items that we actually find valuable and are able to be 100% honest about regarding our experience. We received no monetary compensation for our opinion. Links contained in this post may direct to affiliate sites.

Right now, your child happily tows the party family line and parrots every nasty little WikiLeak tidbit you’ve parsed around the dinner table, proving, once and for all of course, that Hillary Clinton should be in prison. Period.

Or maybe you’re überproud of your #NeverTrump kid, who has learned at your knee that who you are when no one is looking is the measure of your true character, and would rather eat bees than vote for a guy who thinks that it’s o.k. to talk about women like that, ever.

Quite possibly you’re breathing a sigh of relief that your offspring are following you in taking the moral high road and are espousing the intrinsic value of standing up and being counted among the Third/Fourth/Fifth/Twelfth Party options now coming in to the limelight.

Thank goodness they’ll always share our political views, right? I mean, isn’t that what homeschooling is all about?

Please tell me that you just laughed long and hard when you read that. Please. Because if you have parented more than fifteen seconds, you really ought to have learned already that you’re pretty powerless when it comes to the choices of your children. You train them up in the way they should go and then…

Then it’s them and the Holy Spirit.

Maybe that looks like a mini-me die-hard Democrat, or a dyed-in-the wool GOP voter. Or maybe it looks like a family who avoids any and all conversation of politics around the Thanksgiving table forever, lest the mashed potatoes fly. Heck, maybe it even looks like apathy—a total disconnect from any and all political thought.

The point here is that how your kid votes in the future is not within your power. However, that is not an excuse to throw your hands in the air and excuse yourself from offering up a solid education on the history of our nation, its place in the world, how our system works, and the responsibility of its citizens.

That ball is totally in your court. Sorry. Or you’re welcome. Depends on your leanings, right?

Over the years, our family has developed a tradition of introducing our youngest members to the goings on of the republic through oral discussion. Even our very youngest members get to contribute to the conversation, usually offering insights at their level that are amusing distractions (i.e., we’re discussing the government’s role in curtailing modern human trafficking, and a child pipes in to let us know that Abraham Lincoln is on the penny) but show their ability to absorb the tidbits that are so often pre-chewed and half-digested in the textbooks that most high schools bore their students with. As our kids get older, we offer up our opinions, yes. But more than that, we share our Biblical convictions, our life experiences, and the compare/contrast kinds of resources that allow them to question what we’re saying as well as strengthen their own forming core beliefs.

In other words, yes: my high schoolers read The Federalist Papers. They also read the Anti-Federalist Papers. Then we discuss, in great length, what it all means. We talk about the burden of tax, but we also probe how our society works in relation to caring for the poor. We accept no pat answers here. The only authority is the Bible itself, which, unlike even our vaunted Constitution, was written inerrantly.

With this as our backdrop, our family took on Notgrass’ Exploring Government Curriculum Package from Timberdoodle. Part of the 11th grade Curriculum Package, Exploring Government is a self-guided, semester-long study of federal, state, and local governments just 75 lessons. Much of the course is reading, although there are suggested activities and even an optional add-on of a half-credit in English through the addition of literature selections and writing assignments. This course covers the background upon which our country was founded, the basis under which we set out to form a nation, and the actual operation of those principles. There’s also a section which deals with the modern nuances that plague us right now; consider it a current events primer, in a way.

All of this is presented in easy-to-handle bits, and packaged in a friendly, accessible way. I have heard for years that Notgrass is the way to go to check off that elusive high school Civics credit, and I see why. It’s painless. There’s no prep, very little involvement needed on behalf of the parents, and straight forward.

Which is to say… we didn’t like it.

You knew I was going to say that, right?

Guys, I wanted to like this. I wanted to give it an enthusiastic “Buy this!” But I can’t. Not because of what’s in it, but honestly, because of what’s not.

For starters, you need to know that this curriculum is built on a foundation of very conservative political doctrine. Ray Notgrass makes no bones about taking a very narrow view of the Constitution and outlining an equally narrow scope of government. While I don’t have a particular bone to pick with his presentation, I do find that the exclusion of alternative interpretations of founding documents (and diverging views on the intent of the founding fathers) to be potentially misleading at best. I love that he sprinkles Scripture throughout the text, but also felt at times that the verses were used to back up points that were arguable. For example, a lesson on government response to Hurricane Katrina, which focuses on failures in preparedness and response, concludes with John 9:2.

And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.'”

Coming so soon after a warning about special interest groups, status quo, bloated budgets and massive government agencies, somehow it felt to me like a bit of a back hand to the many thousands of people who did their best in the face of something I’m not sure anyone could have prepared for. Again, not a huge red flag, but also not something that felt to me within the range of balance we personally like to present in regards to this component of our children’s educations.

My biggest issue, to be honest, is with the second volume in the Exploring Government course. Entitled We Hold These Truths: Historic Documents, Essays, and Speeches in American Government, this book is meant to compile a “go-to” reader of sorts for the budding citizen. It starts out on solid ground: Biblical texts, historic documents that underpin our republic, some comparative points (like the English Bill of Rights). There are also a few gems in terms of essays and speeches, things I wholeheartedly believe every American should read. But then things take a decidedly one-direction dive, and never quite recover. Aside from the glaring omission of representation of civil rights giants (like, um, Martin Luther King, Jr.) who—agree with them or not—are important reference points in our society, there is again a lack of point/counterpoint that I believe will backfire in its overarching desire to turn out loyal, conservative voters with a taste for small government and limited social programs.

Remember my point up top? You cannot dictate how your child votes. You cannot be their political conscience simply by feeding him or her a nonstop diet that decries “bleeding hearts” and “liberal fanatics” and “pro-choice Nazis.” Sure, you can count on their obedience for a while, but you’re truly not training that child to be soft to the heart of God and to measure a potential candidate by more than what the political pundit of your party’s choice is screaming today. I can absolutely see using Exploring Government as a starting point in your child’s education on matters of the government. But as written? As a stand-alone, hand it to a kid, walk away, and check a box? Sorry. I think it falls woefully short and will accomplish the same “drill and kill” method of indoctrination that we homeschoolers so lament in institutionalized education.

You cannot guarantee that your child will walk in lockstep with you, politically or otherwise. But you can guarantee that you have given him or her a thorough grounding in Scripture, in history, and in thoughtfully weighing choices against God’s will, illustrating your convictions as you go. Please consider that as much of a part of your civic duty as voting… whomever you find worthy of that vote.