Young C.S. Lewis pled with his father, ‘Please take me out of this as soon as possible…’[1] It was March 1914 and Lewis was referring to the public school he was attending, and at this early stage, we see seeds of kinship between Lewis’ views of education and modern Christian homeschooling begin to sprout. Indeed, Lewis’ experiences of public schooling were almost wholly negative. Conversely, positive experiences with home based education, contrasted with the former, and led him to adopt views on education later in life which modern Christian homeschoolers now recognize as their own. A brief sketch of Lewis’ early education serves to support the forthcoming thesis.

Lewis’ earliest education began at home. He recounts memories from his seventh year of life as he was, ‘going on with my education at home; French and Latin from my mother and everything else from an excellent governess, Annie Harper.’[2] During this early stage, Lewis also reveals he ‘learned both to read and write….’[3] He later contrasts the productivity of learning at home with his first public school (1908-1910) at Wynyard, saying, ‘I was already doing Latin exercises (as taught by my mother) when I went there in 1908, and I was still doing Latin exercises when I left there in 1910; I had never got in sight of a Roman author.’[4] At home, Lewis made steady progression, at school, he suffered stagnation. Home learning had been a happy, productive endeavor, while he found public schooling a place ‘most boys learned nothing and no boy learned much,’ and time ‘almost entirely wasted.’[5]

His first experiences in public schools are almost wholly negative, evident from his earliest days at Wynyard, which he dubbed ‘Belsen’ after a Nazi concentration camp.[6] Lewis’ memories of education at Wynyard included learning ‘a jungle of dates, battles, exports, imports, and the like, forgotten as soon as learned and perfectly useless had they been remembered.’[7] His experience following Wynyard was somewhat more favorable, but Lewis’ descriptions still portray institutional education as unfavorable as he described his second public school, Campbell College, as tantamount to ‘living permanently in a large railway station.’[8]  According to professor of English at Houston Baptist University, Louis Markos, Lewis felt ‘the schools taught him very little, and he particularly hated the overfocus on athletics and the vanity it produced in the upper-class athletes who expected the younger boys to serve and fawn on them.’[9] When he became ill half-way through a term, he was happy to return home: ‘The empty houses, the empty, silent rooms, were like a refreshing bath after the crowded noise of Campbell. I could read, write, and draw to my heart’s content.’[10]

Due to continuing difficulties at such schools, Lewis’ father arranged for him to be privately tutored by one of his own former teachers, William Kirkpatrick.[11] Thus, Lewis’ second round of home education occurred in 1914, when his father, Albert, ‘persuaded Kirkpatrick to become Lewis’ personal tutor…’[12] Lewis found the return to a home learning environment ‘educationally and spiritually formative.’[13] Biographer, Alister McGrath, remarks upon this time of personal, private, home centered learning as ‘precisely the educational method that was best adapted to his abilities and his needs.’[14] In sharp contrast to his experience in public schools, author Joel D Heck says adds, ‘Lewis learned to thrive in the homeschooling environment of the Kirkpatrick household.’[15]

In this paper, my task is to make clear connections between Lewis and modern Christian homeschooling. Specifically, I will show three things emphasized by the modern Christian homeschooling movement were also emphasized by C.S. Lewis decades earlier.  If successful, these clear similarities between Lewis’ views on education and homeschool leaders of faith today will provide solid ground for association between the two in future discussions. Additionally, if children are educated with these three things in mind, a home education can rightly be called a C.S. Lewis education. The three things are these: the importance of objective values, the necessity of reading old books, and the rejection of scientific reductionism.

Before supporting my thesis, I will say something about the significance of the modern Christian homeschooling movement. Lewis missed the rise of the modern movement by a couple of decades. Educators did not hear much about homeschooling in modern times until the 1980s, however, through decades of persistent support, the primary non-profit legal association supporting homeschooling, the Home School Legal Defense Association, now reports, ‘Homeschooling has gone from a relatively unknown fringe movement to a flourishing and popular educational option for families of every shape and size.’[16] Despite shifts in the overall culture of the homeschooling movement over the past few years, the movement continues to be primarily a Christian movement among families wishing to give their children a distinctly Christian education. The HSLDA is an unapologetically Christian in staffing and commitments.[17]

The first connection between Lewis’ view of education and the modern Christian homeschooling movement is the emphasis on objective values. In his well-known book, The Abolition of Man, Lewis confronts the writers of a public school text he dubs The Green Book which instructs children to dismiss objective values and replace them with subjective opinions. According to Lewis, the writers of the school text neglect ‘the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are.’[18] Lewis is intently concerned ‘with the effect their book will certainly have on the schoolboy’s mind.’[19] The effect was of great concern to Lewis which, according to him, was nothing less than producing ‘trousered apes’ unable to approve and disapprove of things according to their nature.[20] Lewis finds the neglect of objective values not only a travesty in children’s education but laments that a ‘little portion of the human heritage has been quietly taken from them before they were old enough to understand.’[21] In his time, he was observing changes in long-standing curriculum which moved away from objective and toward subjective understandings of classical texts.[22] Anthony Elia, Director of Bridwell Library at SMU Perkins School of Theology comments upon the enormity of the danger as Lewis perceived it saying, ‘…he sees the infiltration of this worldview now at the level of school books, which must be the ultimate transgression of colliding worldviews; mostly, because it now puts these ideas into the heads of those who will propagate a future world.’[23]

In this vein, the modern Christian homeschool movement echoes Lewis. For example, influential authors and homeschool advocates, Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn, argue God’s word is foundational to Christian home education, founded as it is upon the Bible which ‘tells us the proper order of things, defines the role relationships, gives us the true presuppositions to establish our knowledge, imparts the holy values to guide our understanding, and establishes the righteous goals to guide us in the walk of wisdom.’[24] The ‘holy values’ they speak of correspond to the objective values Lewis argued for in The Abolition of Man. These are the values that correspond to reality and do not change, what Lewis called the Tao.[25] James Matthew Wilson, the Cullen Foundation Chair in English Literature and the Founding Director of the Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing at the University of Saint Thomas, Houston, explains the homeschooling vision for the restoration of Western civilization : ‘We speak truths as truths…In such vision, we encounter truth as more than a series of particular propositions; we see it whole…’[26] By speaking ‘truths as truths’ Wilson refers to objective values which possess truth value for the entirety of human history. Lewis’ focus on objective values can be seen expressed eloquently and often in modern Christian homeschooling literature.

A second area of emphasis between Lewis and the modern Christian homeschooling is the promotion of old books. He defends old books over modern ones in his wonderful preface to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation saying, ‘We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the 20^th century-the blindness about which posterity will ask, “But how could they have thought that?”-lies where we have never suspected it, and concerns something about which there is untroubled agreement between Hitler and President Roosevelt or between  Mr. H.G. Wells and Karl Barth. None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books.’[27] Lewis argued for the reading of old books, to ‘learn from the past precisely because it liberates us from the tyranny of the contemporaneous.’[28] He presented old books as the remedy to aid us in properly evaluating current events saying, ‘The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only be reading old books.’[29] Alister McGrath explains, ‘For Lewis, the reading of literature-above all, the reading of older literature-is an important challenge to some premature judgments based on “chronological snobbery”’.[30]

Similarly, Christian homeschooling literature is replete with calls to carry on with old classics. Successful authors of the popular homeschooling manual The Well Trained Mind, Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise express agreement with Lewis’ emphasis on older books as they advise, ‘…get the child to read quickly, well, and habitually; and to fill his mind with stories of every kind-myths, legends, classic tales, biographies, great stories from history.’[31] They argue that the old books provide a base for all subsequent learning while also providing an incomparable understanding of the roots of much of the literature that comes later.[32] In the widely used literature guide for homeschoolers, Invitation to the Classics, Louise Cowan and Os Guinness promote classic literature saying, ‘The classic works are a “great conversation,” the Western contribution to the ongoing discussion of the primary themes of life and death, right and wrong, triumph and tragedy, which we all confront in being human.’[33] In phrases that could have easily flowed from Lewis’ own pen, they explain, ‘Once we recognize the classics’ lyric beauty, their aching tragedy, their probing intellectual inquiry, their profound imagination, sympathy, and wisdom, we see that their capacity to restore is fundamental to our continuing liberty and vitality.’[34]  Lewis’ advocacy for old books aligns perfectly with modern Christian homeschooling.

Finally, the rejection of scientific reduction is a view Lewis and home educators of faith hold in common. This philosophy, also referred to as materialism or empiricism, was debunked by Lewis numerous times, in fact, ‘Lewis engaged in an extensive critique of various forms of reductionism, particularly during the 1940s.’[35] The view that all of human life and experience can be reduced down to material causes was exposed as erroneous in Lewis’ fiction and non-fiction; however, it is in his fictional depictions of it, issued from the mouths of evil villains, he most effectively denounces it. He was convinced, according to biographer Alister McGrath, that ‘only a fraction of human experience could be communicated using “Scientific language”…’[36] Author Joel Heck notes an instance where, ‘Lewis satirized a reductionist view of origins in the character, Weston, the Un-Man in Perelandra who believed that an “unconsciously purposive dynamism” explained the origin and purpose of life.’[37] In the final book of the trilogy, That Hideous Strength, Lewis places the philosophy into the mouth of the evil psychologist, Professor Frost, who reduces human emotions saying, ‘Resentment and fear are both chemical phenomena. Our reactions to one another are chemical phenomena. Social relations are chemical relations. You must observe these feelings in yourself in an objective manner. Do not let them distract your attention from the facts.’ [38] Frost similarly reduces the meaning of life down to materials saying, ‘When the so-called struggle for existence is seen simply as an actuarial theorem…a concept as unemotional as a definite integral…with it disappears that preposterous idea of an external standard of value which the emotion produced.’[39] Lewis argued strongly against such empty philosophy and advocated for a robust worldview which balanced reason and faith, logic and the imagination. Author, Donald T. Williams, explains how Lewis voiced his opposition to scientific reduction in Abolition of Man by showing how ‘Education in the spirits of The Green Book, in the spirit of reductionist materialism, trains something that is less than human.’[40] Additionally, in Surprised by Joy, Lewis admits to being a ‘votary of the Blue Flower’, or what Alister McGrath explains to be an association with the German romantic idea of ‘the reconciliation of reason and imagination, the observed world outside the mind and the subjective world within.’[41] Lewis’ view of education nourishes the soul with instructional waters of both reason and the imagination and like a finely sharpened pencil, pierces through scientific reduction showing it to be a dangerous pedagogical approach. Louis Markos adds, ‘Lewis always left room in his educational thought and practice for wonder, mystery, and intuition,’ and as an educator, Lewis ‘would hold together in creative tension reason and imagination.’[42]

In much the same way, the modern Christian homeschooling movement rejects reductionistic views of life. One of the key reasons given in support of the movement is the avoidance of such views. In their classic Christian homeschooling manual Educating the Wholehearted Child, Clay and Sally Clarkson say, ‘You have good reasons why homeschooling is the right thing to do. You homeschool because it is right to guard your children against the aggressive, secular, humanistic worldview of the public school.’[43] The Clarksons direct parents to the dangers of materialism, warning them, ‘Your child is not just a soulless brain that needs to be filled up with facts by a teacher, but a person in relationship with you and God, who has eternal value, dignity, and purpose because he or she is made in the image and likeness of their Creator.’[44] Likewise, Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise comment upon the importance of the balance of faith and reason in education when they say, ‘But an understanding of human character and goodness in its various forms cannot be separated from our belief about who human beings are, where they came from, and what they are essentially like.’[45] Like Lewis, they make the point that materialism reduces meaning and makes it impossible to deal with ethics or human life.

A lingering question may be raised at this juncture: If Lewis’ philosophy of education truly aligned with the modern Christian homeschooling movement of today, then why did he not have the Gresham boys tutored privately or teach them at home? Lewis became step-father to Joy Gresham’s two sons, David and Douglas, however, he did not teach them himself in any formal way, nor did he bring in private tutors for their education. From biographies, we can surmise possible reasons. First, he was busily employed providing for a growing household and did not have time to take on the responsibility of educating two boys in addition to his responsibilities as the chair of Medieval and Renaissance literature at Cambridge.[46] Their mother, Joy Gresham, was their primary caretaker and there is no evidence that she desired home education for her sons. She had already lived in England prior to her marriage to Lewis and had started both the boys in the English school system. In his biography of Lewis, McGrath, speaking of Joy, reminds us, ‘She had enrolled both boys at Dane Court School in Pyrfor, Surrey.’[47] The inference is clear: Joy made the educational decisions for the boys, not Lewis. A great many things may have gone differently had Joy Gresham not been diagnosed with cancer and her dire prognosis may have affected the educational decisions. It’s noteworthy that while Douglas Gresham went to public schools, he is now a vocal supporter of home education and carries on Lewis’ legacy, recently speaking at homeschool conventions in Ohio and Texas.[48]

Lewis’ writings on education continue to teach a new generation of educators that ‘the Christian faith allows us to see things as they really are.’[49] He applied his convictions about the Christian faith to education with a goal in mind, as Anthony J. Elia explains, ‘…the ultimate philosophical and ethical project of C.S. Lewis boiled down to a question dealing with how we teach children about the world.’[50] As we have seen, his “project” included three specific lines of thought which have also come to dominate Christian homeschooling: the importance of objective values, rich literature, and the patent rejection of materialism. In the spirit of C.S. Lewis, Christain homeschooling nourishes souls and allows students to be fully human at home. It is, therefore, a simple, happy connection that allows me to say a Christian home education can aptly be called a Lewisian education.

[1] Alister McGrath, C.S. Lewis: A Life (Great Britain: Stodder and Houghton, 2011), 34.

[2] C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (New York: NY:  HarperCollins, 1955), 11.

[3] Lewis, Joy, 12.

[4] Lewis, Joy, 29.

[5] Lewis, Joy, 34, 40.

[6] McGrath, Life, 27.

[7] Lewis, Joy, 40.

[8] Lewis, Joy, 61-62.

[9] Markos, Education, 3.

[10] Lewis, Joy, 66.

[11] McGrath, The Intellectual World of C.S. Lewis (West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014), X.

[12] McGrath, Life, 35.

[13] McGrath, Intellectual World, X.

[14] McGrath, Life, 41.

[15] Joel D. Heck, Irrigating Deserts (Wheaton, IL: Zondervan, 2005), 71.

[16] Home School Legal Defense Association, “History of HSLDA,” last modified September 18, 2019, https://hslda.org/post/history-of-hslda.

[17] Homeschool Legal Defense Association, “What We Believe,” last modified April 22, 2020, https://hslda.org/post/what-we-believe.

[18] C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (New York, NY: Broadman and Holman, 1996), 31.

[19] Lewis, Man, 20.

[20] Lewis, Man, 25,29.

[21] Lewis, Man, 25.

[22] Anthony J. Elia, ‘C.S. Lewis, T.S. Eliot, and the Ethics of the Natural World: In Pursuit of Education, Humanism, and Natural Law in The Abolition of Man’, Encounter 78, no. 3 (2018), 52.

[23] Elia, ‘Natural World’, 50.

[24] Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn, Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style (Muscatine, IA: Trivium Pursuit, 2001), 37.

[25] Lewis, Man, 55.

[26] James Matthew Wilson, ‘The Vision of the Soul: Six Central Insights of the Western Tradition’, The Classical Teacher, Late Summer  (2022), 61.

[27] C.S. Lewis, Preface, On the Incarnation, Saint Athanasius (Yonkers, NY: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011),                  13.

[28] McGrath, Life, 184.

[29] Lewis, Preface, 13.

[30] McGrath, Life, 187.

[31] Wise and Bauer, The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Co., 2004), 57.

[32] Wise and Bauer, Mind, 485.

[33] Louise Cowan and Os Guinness, Invitation to the Classics (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 14.

[34] Cowan and Guinness, Classics, 13.

[35] Alister McGrath, The Intellectual World of C.S. Lewis (West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014), 47.

[36] McGrath, Lewis, 139.

[37] Joel D. Heck, Irrigating Deserts: C.S. Lewis on Education (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Academic Press, 2005), 100.

[38] C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength (New York, NY: Scribner, 1945), 252.

[39] Lewis, Strength, 293.

[40] Donald T. Williams, Mere Humanity (Chillicothe, OH: Dewar Publishing, 2018), 45.

[41] McGrath, Life, 154-155.

[42] Louis Markos, C.S. Lewis: An Apologist for Education (Camp Hill, PA: Classical Academic Press, 2015), 2.

[43] Clay and Sally Clarkson, Educating the Wholehearted Child (Walnut Springs, TX: Whole Heart Ministries, 1996), 1.

[44] Clarkson, Child, 43.

[45] Bauer and Wise, Mind, 577.

[46] McGrath, Life, 384.

[47]McGrath, Life, 325.

[48] Jay Wile, “C.S. Lewis’ stepson at the Texas Homeschool Convention,” Proslogion (blog), March 14, 2019,  https://blog.drwile.com/c-s-lewiss-stepson-at-the-texas-homeschool-convention/.

[49] McGrath, Life, 174.

[50] Anthony J. Elia, ‘C.S. Lewis, T.S. Eliot, and the Ethics of the Natural World: In Pursuit of Education, Humanism, and Natural Law in The Abolition of Man’, Encounter 78, no. 3 (2018), 49-50.