Farris is a devout Christian, but with "excellent" Christian schools nearby, her homeschooling decision had little to do with avoiding the secularism of public schools. For her, homeschooling seems to be more about motherhood than about education. Likening her ordeal to the Israelites' conquest of Canaan, Farris sees homeschooling as the capstone to an epic style of feminine self-sacrifice--complete with total submission to husbands and a rejection of birth control--that is enjoined on women by the Bible. If some readers are persuaded by her archaic interpretation of the meaning of Christian womanhood, many others will find it disheartening.
With 10 children, all of whom she schooled at home, Vickie Farris is a mom just like virtually no one. Farris intends this book as a pep talk and how-to guide for other homeschoolers, but she says next to nothing about pedagogy, focusing instead on her time-management dilemmas and sheer exhaustion. This she describes in visceral terms that compare the homeschooling experience to a "gray, dreary, never-ending mist" that leaves her "frazzled to the point of explosion," and which she endures by reminding herself to "trust in God."
