The Communication Architect
The Communication Architect
Academic Outcomes: An Interview with Dr. Brian Ray Pt. 2
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What educational methodology produces students with higher social competencies, lower somatic complaints, a higher willingness to study, greater rates of volunteerism, lower depression, higher test scores, and greater levels of less-measured socio-emotional outcomes like forgiveness? A new peer-reviewed journal article tells the whole story. Learn more by joining Dr. Lisa Dunne for Part 2 of today's interview with legendary researcher Dr. Brian Ray. Read about his stellar work at nheri.org.
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Hi, I'm Dr. Lisa Dunn, and thanks for joining me here today on the Communication Architect. Each week, we'll share content that will empower you to grow your personal leadership capacity through the development of communication competencies that build emotional health and relational resilience. We'll unpack some practical applications of interpersonal, intrapersonal, family, and organizational communication. And we'll connect with stories of transformation that will inspire you to achieve personal and social change. Now, let's build the scaffolding you need to become a communication architect. Hello everyone and welcome to the show. I'm Dr. Lisa Dunn, a lifelong homeschooling parent, author, and president of Chula Vista Christian University, a Bible-based university model that centers on mentor-driven, debt-free higher education. Education is formation. Why would we send a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, into a pagan system of education? Parents, your kids don't have to go woke or broke to earn their college degree. Join us for transformative education that's not yoked to a woke government system. Visit us at cvcu.us to see how we are taking back education for the next generation. Pastors, we can help you arm your congregation against that state indoctrination. Just click the Start and Academy tab so we can help you launch a church-based homeschool outreach in your community. For preschool to eighth grade options, go to Academic Rescue Mission.com to find a support academy or start your own. If your eighth to twelfth grader is ready for more academic challenges, join us for our new dual enrollment college program. Your homeschool or high schooler can take a college course once and count it twice, both for high school and for college. You'll get highly affordable classes in a safe, supportive in-person environment. You can join a campus at Veritascc.us or start one of your own. And of course, our flagship program, Chula Vista Christian University. Earn your degree and graduate debt-free in our in-person faith-based model. Go to cbcu.us to learn more. You can find all of our books, blogs, and resources online at cbcu.us. That's Chula Vista Christian University. Join me for part two of my interview with Dr. Brian Ray. If you missed part one, be sure to scroll back on my podcast, Communication Architect. Let's jump in now as Dr. Ray discusses a brand new peer-reviewed research article that you won't want to miss. A great book by I think it's Gaborne Mate. Um, the subtitle is Parent, Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers, but I read it in grad school and it was just the secular, secular book, a neuroscience book on um, you know, the the impact of the social circle. And one of their with one of their quotes I just remembered was the, you know, that the that having peers, having the peers training children is not how children grow to become respectable mature adults. That's the influence of a parent.
SPEAKER_01And so that is another great book you just mentioned. I we I don't we must have had the same reading list somehow. How did this awesome?
SPEAKER_00That's so that was such an obscure book for so many people. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01It was, it was. So this is this there's one called uh it might there's another one they did. So it's one is Hold On to Your Kids. Yes, yeah, and that's by Newfield, N-U-F-E-L-D. Yeah. And you know, it's interesting. I was at a global home education conference in Germany, the first one we had, and he was one of the speakers there. Wow, this is tremendous. His book, I'm not kidding you. This book, you read this book, Hold On to Your Kids, written 22 years ago now, and it reads, it's not about this, but if you read that, you'll think you're writing, you're reading a pro-home education book. Yes, that's exactly how I thought everything, everything in it leads to don't send your kids away to be to be taught, trained, and indoctrinated by their peers and strangers.
SPEAKER_00It seems so obvious, doesn't it? Let's talk about some of the adult outcomes because I think this is really exciting to see, you know, what when we, you know, the the verse train up a child is thrown around so many times. And um, and um I'll tell you later a little bit more about what we're working on in the in the in our outreach program. But um, what are we seeing out of students who you have adult children, I have adult children, my children are thriving. Um, what are we seeing nationally, internationally at the adult outcome level?
SPEAKER_01Okay, here goes sort of a repeat of the broken record. Okay, 54% of the studies in 54% of the peer-reviewed and and representative sample studies, the home educated are doing statistically significantly better than the others. And in the other, you know, whatever, I don't can't do my math, 46% generally not much difference. Now, people say, well, what is this one about? Okay, here's some examples. I'll just I'll just give you some examples. Uh, one was uh if you look at okay, and this is I don't want I wouldn't have the time for all the details of these studies, but if you look at long-term homeschooled adults who are long-term homeschooled, uh they do more volunteer work, lower divorce rate, lower anxiety and depression than the non-homeschooled. Now, here's one, you can't put this in your pipe and smoke it, as they say. In in one study, the the non-homeschooled had a little bit higher household income. But that's where you get into okay, but how important is that to homeschool graduates? And and are they living more often on one income if they're married? You know, so there is some interesting things here. Uh, here's another study. Uh, the homeschooled were higher in openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness.
SPEAKER_00The ocean study. Wow.
SPEAKER_01Okay, and lower, listen to this one, and lower in neuroticism than public that's like the big five.
SPEAKER_00That's a marker of psychological health. The ocean study. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01I don't even know. I mean, you know more about that than I do. And then here's another one. Um, let's see. The mixed, the homeschool adults, mixed results. Homeschool adults had more frequent volunteering, greater purpose in life, less marijuana use, and fewer lifetime sexual partners. Uh, like I said, these are uh these are not studies by me. These are studies by all kinds of people from all over the place. And uh they're finding overall basically no differences or statistically positive differences for the homeschool. And some people say, Well, what about college and all that? Well, okay. What we know so far, Dr. Dunn, is that we don't know a lot, but on average, maybe homeschooled people in their 18 to 25, maybe they don't go to college at quite the same rate. Now, of course, that's a worldly measure, I think. I think we can't say that's we cannot say de facto that's good or bad. Although we can we could have a lot, we could have a long conversation about that. But once they if they do go to college, from the studies I've read, they tend to do a little better than others in GPA and finishing what they started. So that's that's kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_00That's amazing. When we say when we say long term, what's the marker? How how long is long term?
SPEAKER_01In that study is a really good one by Dr. Albert Cheng. Oh, what do they consider it? I'd have to look up their study. Yeah. I'm supposed to memorize all this.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_01No, it's okay. I think it was over seven years. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I've heard a few different variables there, the six and seven. I love that purpose that you talked about. You know, Eric Eriksson, um, psychologist, said that um when kids don't have a young adult friend, they don't have friendships in young adult years, it leads to a lack of purpose and an inability to derive pleasure from anything they do in adulthood, which is what we're seeing right now in Gen Z markers, lack of purpose. And so when you look at that that homeschool marker, that they have a greater sense of purpose, they are connected to family. God said the solitary in family. Family is his institution. And so thinking about, you know, once again, the Romans 120 model that his character is evidenced in the created realm, we see it in the family system. Uh, just so beautiful. I love God's fingerprints all over this. And then what about um any factors that um so we're seeing healthy development in young adults and adults? That's critical. Obviously, we're training up children for their adult years, not just to be our babies forever. So when we look at things like different people who are homeschooling, I know the study uh talked about just the diversity of families who are homeschooling. Um, the number, one of those critical numbers was that I think you said the the val or the values were equal three million, about three. I've heard up to five, but about three million, the study said, is equivalent to the number of kids in Catholic school across the United States and the number of charter. And we have a lot of charter in California. So that's a that's a pretty striking number to give listeners and an understanding of just how powerful this movement is and how pro-socially it's going to impact the next generation. It really does shape a nation when you have kids who are trained up to understand that they have a sense, a purpose. So let's talk about family, any demographic or family factors that you want to throw out about this study.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, for a long time, it was never true. But the stereotype was all homeschoolers were right-wing, white, conservative Bible thumpers. It was it was never true. I told you about that family, those, those that group I met back in the 80s in Corvallis. Uh, but for but for a long time, yes, uh, Christians predominated, and yes, it was disproportionately uh white Anglo, but that has changed a lot in the last 10 years. In fact, excuse me, the latest statistics, and the federal government doesn't do this a lot, and some of us are saying we're glad, uh, but anyway, that it was something like 41% of homeschool homeschool children were not white Anglo, and it has grown tremendously amongst black families. The reasons for that are kind of interesting because research is showing that some of these families with dark skin, uh, people say people of color, I only believe in one race. One race, one blood. I believe in one race, but anyway, they're saying that, and this is bad, they're saying that the public schools still treat their children differently and have lower expectations of them. And I don't disbelieve that, Dr. Dunn. And so they're saying we're out of there. We're not gonna wait another 12 years while our little Johnny or Susie is harmed. Right. You know, so we we have families black, white, Hispanic, parents with PhDs and no high school diplomas. We've got low-income, high-income. In fact, one of the trends appears to be a little more low-income families. There another stereotype was that, and I have to deal with this with my colleagues who negatively criticize me, and I say, look at homeschool families were never high income. By even my old studies from way back in 1990, they were for families with children, they were median income on average. They're not wealthy families, they're not poor families, but it is moving a little bit more toward lower income. So we're seeing that. And let's see what else is going on. Yeah, we're just we're just seeing a a more uh proportionate to the national average, which you would expect when you go from almost extinct in the 1970s to now 3.41 million homeschooled children, you're going to have a more evening out of the all the demographics of the country.
SPEAKER_00Right. Incredible. I I don't know if I would I'd love to hear, I know I didn't put this in our question, talk about, but you know, in in California, we have such a struggle with um, you know, the charter system has really taken root in California. And a lot of parents who um we work with, they have felt the the pressure. And many of them they just have that, you know, that label over their heads that they're not capable. And so they want someone, you know, kind of and they don't realize that it's going to be a thumb on their back pushing them down until they get into it, but they feel overwhelmed because the charter tells them what to teach and when to teach it and how to teach it, and they feel um, you know, very overwhelmed by that debt. Somebody watching over their shoulder. What are some what are some tips, some things that we can say to help our families who are in that situation really break free? I know the study well defines um homeschooling as um as a parent-directed movement, and of course, if the government is telling you what to teach and when to teach and how to teach it, and telling you, and the state of California specifically, you know, forbids uh the teaching of Jesus and the sectarian principles um from nine to five. So, you know, at 5 30 you can mention Jesus and do a little Bible site. So what kind of advice do you have for these families? How do we help them um you know break them free?
SPEAKER_01The first thing, Dr. Dunn, that I want to say to every parent you are a parent, God gave you a child, therefore, fundamentally, presuppositionally you are competent. That's what the word of God says. You do not need your parents, their grandparents, you do not need your neighbors, you do not need certified teachers, government licensed teachers, you do not need the world to tell you you're competent, you are competent. God has given you everything you need, that's the foundation. And I and I don't I don't mean that condescendingly, it's just the truth. Look look back, break this wide open. Humans have been around for thousands of years, and we have proof positive for thousands of years of history that parents are competent to train their children up in the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, and kindness and the gospel. So that's you have to get that down deep in your mind and your heart. You gotta start there.
SPEAKER_00So good.
SPEAKER_01Secondly, Dr. Dunn, that's the foundation. If if I'm talking to a Christian, I want them to get that. Like don't buy the lies of the world. Don't buy the lies of your family members who are bugging you. Don't buy your own your own voices in your head. You you're a parent. God didn't God didn't design it so that once you have a child, you're supposed to say, Oh, I have a child, I'm not competent to raise him. Yes, you are. You know what? Institutional schooling is the new kid on the block. It's the new kid on the block. And before it, remember, we had pyramids and we had artists, and we had great music, and we had creativity and poetry and candlestick makers, and we had iron and steelmakers, and we had all these things without institutional schooling. So I just want you to please break free of all that, everybody. Break free of that, and then look at it. I just gave you almost 40 years of research. All that research does is it affirms that you're competent. That that's what that's what it affirms. It affirms you're competent, and it affirms in many ways God's design. And the third thing is, as you mentioned, Dr. Dunn, I've met families all over the country who use the public school at home things we call charter schools, and they are stressed out. They're stressed out, you don't need to be stressed out. You need to take a big deep breath. What is this? This is May, right? End of May. Take a big deep breath during the summer and say, okay, we're going to unplug from the government-run system and we're going to enjoy our children, and we're going to go get support with people who love God in the area, who are homeschoolers. And I'm going to go talk. If you're if you're a mom or dad who's, you know, 33 years old, you're going to go find an like an old guy and an old gal, like Dr. Ray and his wife, and talk to them about what did you do back then? Right. And we'll tell you what we did. You don't have to be stressed out. You don't have to keep up with the Joneses. You don't have to go to soccer and basketball and baseball and 10 field trips every month. You don't have to do all that. Okay, you got me on my soapbox.
SPEAKER_00It's so good. It's so and that mentor model is so critical. Those of us that are homeschooling owe to and have homeschooled our kids kindergarten college. We we owe that, you know, to the mentors who spoke into us, who took us under their wing. And um, we always tell our parents reach up to somebody 15 years older and down out to somebody 15 years younger. Let's keep that thread going. Well, where can our listeners learn more about this article and the Peper Peabody Journal of Education? Where can they learn more about the the research you're doing, the work you're doing?
SPEAKER_01Okay, I'll give the simple website. Okay, drum roll. Okay, n-her I dot org. N-her i dot org. And probably the best thing is just go way down the bottom of the page and sign up for free email research. We do not send out a bunch of junk email. We don't put all kinds of pressure on you. Free research. And then, of course, you go to the menu and you can click on about and news, and it'll take you to that new giant study. And it'll give you a tiny, tiny summary, but it'll take you to that journal article. And we want everybody to go to the journal page. We want everybody to go to the actual page and click it and look at it a little bit, and that will drive expanding this research all over the world to researchers all over the world, which by the way, and Dr. Dunn knows this that influences policy and government control. So please go to our website, find new report, and then click the new article. Go go there.
SPEAKER_00It's cool. Yeah, it is cool. You'll feel so smart after you've read it. It looks cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's amazing. When you when I look at when I look at this thing online, oh cool, I published it. But anyway, but people, if nothing else, go there. Anybody's listening, go there and read the abstract. At least read the abstract. You might not want to read the 30 pages, but read the abstract.
SPEAKER_00And I we're always sending people to the NHERI.org site. So talk a little bit about what um what families can expect when they go on there. Obviously, you are the most researched name in this field, and you have so much incredible data. Where do pe parents even start? If they have somebody in their family who's a naysayer against homeschool and they really want to want to maybe give them something that might win them over, where should they start with your website?
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Dr. Dunn. Yeah, uh recently I had helped somebody making this better and easier and clickable. So just go to neri.org, n hera.org, and then you'll see you got three links: homeschool parents, research, and policymakers, donors. The one thing that most people all over the world is reading is homeschool facts. Just click that little thing that says homeschool fast facts. And and if your grandpa or your church leader who's still bugging you would read that, it could be the little thing that puts them over the edge. Like, like I would say, dude, we don't here's here's the deal for for homeschool moms and dads, or for moms and dads who are thinking about homeschooling, I'd like to say it this way why when your child turns five, do you just magically send them away to be taught trained and indoctrinated by others? And almost nobody has an answer for that. It's like, well, everybody else did. And and really, I would like you, I would like moms and dads to politely lay that on to their grumpy parents or their grumpy church leader and say, Can you show me biblically why I'm supposed to send them away to be taught, trained, and indoctrinated by others? And nobody can give you that. Nobody, I've never I've asked that from fellow Christians, nobody has an argument for it. And then the research just backs it up.
SPEAKER_00So powerful. Well, what's next for you, Dr. Ray? What's your next? We're working on the the artificial attachment crisis and Gen Z. What's next for you and the research?
SPEAKER_01Uh breathing a little bit. Good. That's good. That's important if we want if we want to write more work. I'm writing more. So I do have an article that I I wrote. Uh it's called Defining Homeschooling and Why It Matters. It's kind of oriented at researchers, but I think it's interesting to moms and dads who homeschool too, because I go back historically through all the literature, some philosophy, and say homeschooling is now people don't like this word, parent-controlled home and family-based education and privately funded. Now, now the people say, well, that's kind of narrow, Brian. But you know, the parent control rather than government control or private school control is at the heart of this whole discussion, both theologically and in terms of the modern homeschool movement. It was interesting. I won't say her name, but I presented that paper at a big conference, and scholars were there, and this one scholar was kind of cranky about it, and she said, Well, if you define it that way, that narrowly, you lose market share. Dr. Dunn, I was shocked. I thought, wait a minute, you're a scholar. What do you care about market share? Yeah. So you see how some people are looking at homeschooling, they're seeing it as a market. And if they can get you more involved in their government school home programs or their tax funded programs, then they have market, which means they have money and they have control. So anyway, I'm gonna try to get that published and things like that, and trying to make our website more accessible. Behind the scenes, I do help homeschool organizations when they're attacked by bad legislation. So we're always doing that, and I'm always helping doctoral students behind the scenes. So that's what I do.
SPEAKER_00So fantastic. That's what we do. Thank you for the many ways that you bless not only the homeschool community, but really the scholarly community, because I know you're turning on some lights, some aha moments are happening in the hearts of scholars. You're planting seeds all over the all over the globe. So thank you for that. Thank you for being on the show today, Dr. Ray. We are so blessed to have you in the United States on the West Coast, influencing the culture. God bless you. Friends, education is formation. Who is teaching the children and what are they being taught? One of the amazing offshoots we see in the Truli Vista Christian University model is not only academic support and structure, some of the things we talked about in today's interview, but also whole student development. It comes from having mentors, from having your voice matter in a smaller classroom environment. Our children need relational, emotional, and spiritual fortitude to thrive. For the continuance of the church and the faith, I'm calling on pastors and parents across the United States to be part of the solution to this education crisis. For preschool to eighth grade options, go to Academic Rescue Mission.com. If you have kids in the public school and you want to get them into Christian context, fill out the contact form at Veritascc.us and join us for an upcoming parent meeting where you'll learn more about the work that we're doing to help public school students find affordable Christian education. And for our full university degree programs, you can go to cvcu.us. That's Chula Vista Christian University. If you're new to the show or you're homeschooling for the first time, you can catch all the episodes on the Communication Architect Podcast. Just scroll back for some more interviews and inspiration. Don't forget to check out my two latest books, The Mentor Method and Outsourced Why America's Kids Need an Education Revolution, available in print and on Kindle. You can find all of our books, blogs, and podcasts on the homepage at cbcu.us. That's Jula Vista Christian University. Again, I'm Dr. Lisa Dunn. Thanks for joining me on today's show. I'll be back next week with more tips and tools of the trade. We'll see you then. Thanks again for joining us here on the Communication Architect. If you have questions about today's episode or if there are topics you'd like to see us address, send your comments via Instagram to at Dr. Lisa Dunn or via email to contact at drlisa nunn.com. That's D R L I S A D M Me.com. And remember, strategic communication will help you build greater emotional health and relational resilience. So don't miss the next episode. I'm Dr. Lisa Nunn, and I look forward to talking with you next time right here on the Communication Architect.