While many students and parents alike are rearing up for the upcoming school year, there are those who are taking an “alternative” route to education.
Homeschooling is on the rise in Utah, with many contributing factors including the Covid 19 pandemic, legislative support through grants like the Utah Fits All scholarship and increased community support and involvement.
In fact, many parents are forming homeschooling co-ops in an effort to work together to educate their children. One such woman is Payson resident Cari Bartholomew who is the state director for Moms for America, Utah. She recently ran for State Board of Education District 13, and while she didn’t win her bid, she is still advocating for what she describes as a critical way of looking at American history and world civilizations. She teaches these subjects to many children in a homeschooling co-op called Yates Place and says that she has gotten a positive response from those she teaches. She also believes that her background brings a unique perspective.
“I’m biracial. My son is second-generation biracial, but he looks Irish,” she said. “(Where we are from in Washington) he was told to ‘identify as your oppressed side and reject your oppressive side,’ and that was not something that we teach in our home. … When I’m teaching kids, I try to teach them the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful – all of it.”
In her history classes, Bartholomew said that she takes a multi-angled approach, often talking about things she said aren’t often discussed in other educational settings.
“There are people who … teach the kids the worst parts of history and have them hang on to it,” Bartholomew said. “(For instance), you take Harriet Tubman’s story and you strip out the fact that she was a person of faith, which she was. I don’t hide that. … She loved the Old Testament with its stories of freedom and the idea of letting your people go. So that’s the story that I tell kids.
“I will have the kids line up, and I will show them what it means to have a shackle around your neck and shackles around your arms and shackles around your legs,” she continued. “But I will also tell them that when (Harriet Tubmen) ran, good people helped her, and some of those people were white. And I think those are important lessons that the kids hear because then they have an education that has hope that they can see that people can be good or bad, and it has nothing to do with the color of their skin.”
Bartholomew said that when she introduces many difficult subjects in her history classes, she will write a simple statement on the board: “It’s complicated.” She said that when she does this, her goal is to invoke critical thinking and the ability to open minds to various perspectives.
“I was teaching American history last year, and I took the opportunity to teach Black history, but I taught Black history in a way that most people haven’t experienced,” she said. “I talked to kids about Black Wall Street. I talk to kids about Thomas Sowell. Now I have third-graders who will say, ‘If you want to help people, you tell them the truth. If you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.’ That was something that they memorized in their test.
“In my class, I tell my students that we’re going to be able to learn to sit in a room and listen while people have differing opinions and maybe they agree with us, maybe they don’t agree with us,” she continued. “But they’re going to learn how to have a conversation with someone without hating them.”
Bartholomew said she has many life experiences to draw from, including growing up and aging out of the foster care system. She said that this particular experience has taught her resilience in the face of adversity and she hopes she can instill that mindset into her students.
“Heroes have to go through a journey to become heroes,” she said.
Bartholomew teaches critical thinking and history to high schoolers, ancient civilization to third through eighth-graders three days a week. She said that she loves the options Yates Place offers to homeschooling families.
“It’s really what I would call, ‘the work of heart,’” she said.
