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For years, Well-Trained Mind occupied a rare and trusted position in the homeschooling world. It was not just a curriculum company, but a gatekeeper of sorts, shaping how hundreds of thousands of families taught history, literature, and civics outside the traditional school system. Parents turned to it precisely because it promised seriousness, intellectual rigor, and distance from the ideological churn overtaking public education.
That trust cracked recently, because of a single statement, and then because of how the company responded when parents objected.
When Well-Trained Mind publicly weighed in on immigration enforcement in January, it did so not as an educational observer but as an overtly political actor. In a lengthy social media statement, the company asserted as settled fact that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is detaining people based on skin color and accent, Supreme Court rulings explicitly permit racial profiling, masked federal officers are terrorizing schools and neighborhoods, and Department of Homeland Security social media posts are coded calls for the removal of “nonwhite” Americans up to “100 million deportations” — shorthand for ethnic cleansing. The post framed these claims not as opinion, but as moral truth, guiding readers to a singular political conclusion and leaving no room for alternative interpretation. It was, by any reasonable standard, an aggressively political statement from a curriculum provider whose core product is teaching children to understand history and civic life.
Susan Wise Bauer’s response last week to that criticism was telling. Rather than engaging the substance of the objections, she reframed them. Those who were offended, she suggested, should interrogate their own moral failings.
For many families, that moment crystallized what they had sensed for some time. The controversy created a shift within the Well-Trained Mind, but also the homeschool world as a whole.
To understand why this rupture felt so sudden and yet so inevitable, it’s necessary to zoom out. The Well-Trained Mind shift is not an isolated incident. It is part of a broader ideological realignment within homeschooling, one that has been quietly unfolding for years, largely shielded from scrutiny by the assumption that homeschooling, by definition, resists politicization.
That assumption no longer holds.
Last summer, a National Review article documented how activist frameworks, once confined to universities and public school bureaucracies, have increasingly penetrated homeschooling spaces. Curriculum developers, parent forums, and institutional leaders have adopted the language and assumptions of “social justice” pedagogy, often without acknowledging the philosophical trade-offs involved. What once distinguished homeschooling — its pluralism, decentralization, and resistance to ideological conformity — has begun to erode.
Well-Trained Mind sits at the center of that story because of its influence, but it’s not alone. Rea Berg, the creator of the popular Beautiful Feet Books, for example, has also spent the last weeks posting anti-ICE content on her own personal social media.
Bauer’s Story of the World series has shaped how homeschoolers teach history for decades. It is difficult to overstate its reach. The books are not merely popular — they are foundational, used directly or indirectly by major curriculum providers across the homeschooling ecosystem. Christian companies such as Sonlight and Memoria Press recommend it and include it in the spine of their curriculum. When Well-Trained Mind moves, the market inevitably follows, unless it chooses to make an intentional decision to separate.
That is why the announcement of newly expanded 25th-anniversary editions of Story of the World has triggered renewed scrutiny. These editions are presented as updates — broader in scope, more inclusive in perspective. But for families already uneasy about ideological drift, “expanded” rightfully reads as a warning label.
Concerns about bias did not begin with the new editions. Even earlier versions of Story of the World prompted criticism from scholars and advocacy organizations. Rebecca Schgallis, director of K–12 Programs at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, has documented multiple historical inaccuracies in the treatment of Jewish history.
“The Story of the World incorrectly claims that there was no continuous collective Jewish presence in the Land of Israel after 70 CE, mischaracterizes Zionism, oversimplifies the Jewish revolt against Rome, and presents as fact that Arab states agreed to sign peace agreements with Israel in 1949, when no such agreements were reached,” Schgallis told the Washington Examiner. “CAMERA’s analysis raises serious concerns about the book’s reliability as a historical resource for children, not only in its treatment of Jewish history, but in its approach to world history more broadly.”
These errors matter not simply because they are wrong, but because they reflect a pattern: history presented through a contemporary political lens, with moral conclusions embedded in the narrative rather than left for students to wrestle with. For homeschooling families who deliberately choose curricula to avoid precisely this kind of framing, the implications were unsettling.
Still, many parents continued using Well-Trained Mind materials, chalking concerns up to interpretation or isolated mistakes. What followed the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel changed that calculus.
In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s attacks on Israel, longtime users of the Well-Trained Mind forum noticed something unprecedented. On Oct. 11, 2023, a user noted discussions related to Israel were heavily moderated, locked, or deleted outright. This was striking not only because of the volume of deletions, but because it represented a sharp departure from normal practice. The forum had long tolerated, indeed encouraged, robust debate on political topics, including Russia and Ukraine. Those threads remained untouched.
Later, the same mother described the bias as impossible to miss. Threads condemning antisemitic violence, including the chants of “Gas the Jews” at the Sydney Opera House, disappeared entirely. Other controversial topics remained. The selective enforcement sent a clear signal about which moral reactions were acceptable and which were not.
At the same time, the forum increasingly functioned as a space for ideological affirmation rather than open inquiry. In discussions about ICE raids, one user, ironically under the username “Happy2BaMom,” encouraged fellow parents to arm themselves, advising them to identify which guns they would need to protect their families and to mentally prepare to use them. The post remained visible.
What emerged was not neutrality, but alignment: certain political expressions were protected, others suppressed.
For many families, this was the moment they stopped giving the benefit of the doubt. The company’s public stance, its moderation choices, and its curricular trajectory began to look less like isolated decisions and more like a coherent worldview.
That worldview is increasingly out of step with the homeschooling families Well-Trained Mind serves.
Curriculum developers across the homeschooling world have taken notice. Some quietly stopped recommending Well-Trained Mind resources long before the recent controversy. Others have now gone public.
Becky Aniol, founder of Living Heritage Curriculum, has been explicit about her reasoning.
“We’re known for taking a stand against liberal activism masquerading as education,” Aniol told the Washington Examiner. “If the minds behind Well-Trained Mind Press have decided to engage in emotional manipulation and proudly perpetuate false narratives as truth, then we refuse to use the educational materials produced by those same people. Bauer might call it ‘responsible’ citizenry, but I call it a warped worldview.”
Even large, established organizations have responded. Classical Conversations, one of the most influential classical homeschooling networks in the country, recently discontinued selling Bauer’s materials altogether. Though Story of the World was never required — it was suggested as a supplemental resource — leadership cited curricular and philosophical concerns, specifically, a lack of coherence between the worldview publicly espoused by an author and the worldview implicitly transmitted through educational content.
“Classical education, properly understood, isn’t merely a pedagogical method,” Robert Bortins, CEO and president of Classical Conversations, told the Washington Examiner. “It’s the pursuit of an integrated worldview where all learning points toward truth, goodness, and beauty. For classical Christian education specifically, this means the liberal arts serve as tools for understanding God’s creation and our place in it.
“What concerns us is when curriculum providers present themselves as classical or Christian educators while simultaneously promoting views fundamentally at odds with those traditions. When an author publicly disparages patriotic observances or aligns with progressive political causes, it raises legitimate questions about whether their educational materials can be trusted to faithfully transmit the Western tradition and biblical worldview they claim to represent. Classical education has always recognized that the teacher’s character and convictions shape what is taught, whether explicitly or implicitly.”
This response underscores a truth often overlooked in debates over educational neutrality: Classical education has never claimed neutrality. It has always been acknowledged that education forms students toward some vision of the good life. The question is not whether values are present, but whether they are coherent, honest, and shared by the families being served.
For homeschooling families, trust is not abstract. It is the basis of every purchasing decision. Homeschool parents are not passive consumers — they are deeply invested, highly networked, and quick to compare experiences. When a curriculum provider signals contempt for dissent or treats loyal customers as moral suspects, that trust erodes rapidly.
The irony is that Well-Trained Mind’s leadership appears genuinely surprised by the backlash. But the signs were there long before the statement that ignited it: in the content revisions, in the forum moderation, in the adoption of activist language, and in the narrowing of acceptable viewpoints.
This moment is not simply about one company’s misstep. It is about a broader transformation underway in homeschooling itself. As more curriculum providers adopt ideological frameworks imported from progressive education theory, families who turned to homeschooling as an alternative find themselves facing the same pressures they sought to escape.
DEMOCRATIC RIOT CULTURE IS DESTROYING POLITICS AND ENDANGERING LIVES
When a business adopts political positions that conflict with the beliefs of its core customers, and responds to disagreement with moral condemnation rather than engagement, it should not expect those customers to stay.
In homeschooling, loyalty is not guaranteed. Trust is the product. And once it’s broken, even the most established name in the market can lose it faster than it was built.
