Join Priscilla Rahn in an engaging discussion with April Chapman as they dive into the world of homeschooling and the challenges of modern education. April, a homeschool mom and media personality, shares her inspiring journey into homeschooling using faith-based approaches while dispelling common misconceptions about socialization. Together, they explore how parents can be empowered to be the first educators of their children, influencing them with foundational values and beliefs. Discover the historical insights of Rosenwald schools—a vital piece of educational history—and their impact on providing quality education to African American children. This episode also highlights the importance of challenging
Welcome to Restoring Education in America with Priscilla Rahn. She’s a master educator and author, leading the conversation to restore the American mind through wisdom, virtue, and truth.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome, everybody, to my show, Restoring Education in America. I’m your host, Priscilla Rahn, and I’m so excited that you decided to join the conversation today. You know, we talk about all things education, and I have a big heart, not just for public school educators, but for homeschool educators. And I’m bringing my special guest to the stage, none other than Miss April Chapman. Hi, April.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, beautiful. How are you today?
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m doing great, and I’m so excited. I know you’re so busy. You’re not just a homeschool mom, but you are a jet setter. And for those people who may not know who you are, I’m going to share your bio, and then we can get into it, okay?
SPEAKER 02 :
Sure.
SPEAKER 03 :
So Ms. April Chapman is a Project 21 ambassador, and she is a Christian conservative speaker, author, and independent media personality. As host of the Unshakeable with April Chapman podcast, she discusses all things social, cultural, political, and theological from a biblical perspective. April has previously served as the Assistant State Director and Georgia State Advisor for Blexit and was also active with the Black Voices for Trump Coalition. As a pro-life advocate, April has a personal mission to defend the lives of our most precious image bearers. And she uses her voice to raise awareness and to speak out against what she calls womb assassination, formerly known as abortion. April was the 2022 recipient of the Douglas Leadership Institute’s Defender of Life Award, and April has been the keynote speaker for the Alabama Minority GOP, Georgia Right to Life, and other auxiliary groups. Originally from Bronx, New York, April attended Spelman College. then spent 11 years in the insurance and financial services industry before owning and operating a retail home furnishing store in Georgia. April currently resides outside of Atlanta in Rockdale County, Georgia, with her amazing husband Robert, homeschooling their four beautiful children, Isaiah, Brandon, and the twins, Haley and Hannah. How do you do it all, April?
SPEAKER 02 :
By the grace of God. I’m sitting there listening to all that. Like, I don’t even know how I managed to get it all done, but it literally is a labor of love and God just equips me to do it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. God has given you so much capacity and you make it look easy because you’re just flawless. And you know what? You’re beautiful inside and out. And your podcasts are just from the heart. And you’re so humble. And you’re so generous with your time. And you’re like the total package. And you’re just like Barbie mom. Like, I don’t know how you do it. Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you so much. Honestly, you know, it’s really, it has more to do with me just submitting to my husband’s leadership and him just kind of leading and guiding me and allowing me to flourish in my gifting and just my commitment to the family and my children. It really is a whole family operation around here. Everybody’s involved in some aspect of what I’ve got going on.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you know, April, if anybody has spent any time paying attention to you, you truly do exemplify the Proverbs 31 woman. Because you get up early and you are, you know, buying and selling and you are creating and you are taking care of your family. And, you know, I think about how intelligent you are and how well-spoken you are. And you could have easily said, I’m just going to send my kids to school and then my own thing. Right. But, you know, that scripture in Proverbs 31, where it says, you know, the man are sitting at the gate. And all the guys are talking to the one guy goes, man, your wife’s amazing. Right. She is the creme de la creme. And I can just see how people like your husband’s friends are talking about you. And I, and I just want to encourage other women to, to say, you know, to, to be a Proverbs 31 woman doesn’t mean you have to like take charge of everything. And the man, like you said, your husband is the head of your home. Same with me, but you can still be strong and creative and take care of all of the things that need to be taken care of and be doing the work of God.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. Like I said, I attribute a lot of I don’t do it all in my own strength. And I honestly don’t believe we can have it all. But if God equips you and grants you the grace in order to have your hand in a myriad of other things and you’re still able to prioritize your family, that’s nothing but a blessing. And you just have to be grateful for that. So that’s kind of just what I’m doing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you just keep going. I want to talk about the homeschooling because, you know, when I was talking with you and I learned that you’re a homeschool mom, I’m like, oh, I definitely want to have a conversation with you because I know for me, that would have been a really intimidating thing. I’ve been in public education my whole entire life. And I think about parents who may not be happy with the public education system who might want to take that on and how daunting it might be. Now, I have a degree in education, might be less scary for me. But how did you and your husband decide that? Was this always the path that you were going to be on? Or did you kind of end up in it later on after your children were born?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, absolutely. I kind of pulled from my origin story in that even though I was public school educated, my mother was a city employee and she had a very generous maternity leave. And she was home with me until I was four. And I actually almost school age, almost five years old. And so my mother is who taught me my address and my phone number and my alphabets and and how to count. And so I had already had a slight introduction to an informal homeschool. And so when my husband and I got married and decided, well, we didn’t decide to start a family. It happened. But I immediately knew when our firstborn was two years old that homeschooling was going to be the way to go. I never once questioned my ability or thought that I was inadequate and couldn’t do it. I said, the Lord has given me this little boy, and I know him better than anyone else. Who better suited? to pour into my child and to educate him in all of the rudiments that I felt that a well-adjusted child needed to be equipped with. So we started out using a lot of faith-based curriculum here and there. We didn’t spend a lot of money. Homeschooling is so… affordable, but it first has to begin with a desire. I am always encouraging moms to submit that desire to the Lord and he will give you the desire of your heart. So if you’re saying, I want to be a good shepherd over this baby, this life that you’ve given me, Lord, give me the strength and equip me to do that. He will honor me. Such a request. And that’s really just what we did. We started when Isaiah was four and then right behind him, his younger brother is barely 20 months behind him. And then the twins were barely 20 months right behind him. So we had a full schoolhouse. Literally, homeschooling is all they know. They have never stepped foot in a government school at all. They have no point of reference for what that’s even like.
SPEAKER 03 :
So do you have a network of other parents or you talked about the curriculum and it being affordable? Like what curriculum do you use and do you have another other network of parents that you work with?
SPEAKER 02 :
Right, when we first started out, it was very, very simple. Shout out to Easy Peasy Homeschool. It’s run by this homeschooling mom who, in the process of educating her own children, she would pull free resources from the internet. And after every school year, she’d compile it up, upload it to a server, and put it on the internet for free until eventually she had 12 years worth of a curriculum. And so we kind of started there because it was one income. I left corporate America so that I could educate our children. It wasn’t even a question. We downsized our life and I committed everything to being home with them. And those are some of the best things years of our life. We did everything together. We went to the park, studied nature. And then once we moved from the free curriculum and our small business at the time started to grow and flourish is when I would invest in other, you know, a little bit more pricey, but not necessary. The biggest thing that I want moms to understand that Your children just require your time and attention and your commitment. And that, believe it or not, all of the bells and whistles and the resources that are out there, you don’t need all of that. It’s nice to have, but it’s not necessary. We eventually transitioned to like BJU Press and we did a mix of so many different amazing curriculums, Rod and staff. If you ever watched Little House on the Prairie in the schoolhouse and you would see the McGuffey readers, we own a set of McGuffey readers and that’s how I taught each of my children how to read. Just old school 1920s, 1800 McGuffey readers. We start with the primer and then work our way up.
SPEAKER 03 :
If you’re just now tuning in, my special guest today is Mrs. April Chapman. She’s the voice behind Unshakeable with April Chapman. And she’s an Uber homeschool mom. And I’m loving having this conversation. Okay, so I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of people talk about these misconceptions, possibly about homeschooling. What are some of the misconceptions that you’ve heard about homeschooling?
SPEAKER 02 :
The biggest misconception that I’ve always heard that I would get from friends and family and complete strangers, like if they see you out in the middle of the school day, like, oh, are they all from school today? And I’m like, oh, no, no, they’re homeschooled. Like when we’re out, everything is about learning, whether we’re cooking, cleaning, disciplining, church, everything is learning. You learn wherever you are. And the biggest misconception or the myth or pushback that I would get from people is like, well, aren’t you worried about socialization? I was like, listen, the reason why we’re homeschooling is because of the institutionalized socialization that children are receiving in the public education sector. Think about it. Your children are away from you for well over 10 hours a day, where some stranger whose worldview you’ve not vetted, and you know nothing about is literally pouring and indoctrinating and socializing your children into a particular worldview. Well, I am a Christian, as well as you know, and I was very concerned about the direction that the public education system was going. I started seeing how the university system was cranking out Marxist minded individuals. And then also in the K through 12 system, it was even worse. And so for me, it was no question. I said, I cannot send my children to Rome and then be consumed. Like, I’m going to send you the Caesar and then be confused when you come home as a Roman. And so the biggest misconception is the socialization. Now, I’ll admit, homeschoolers are different. They are a special group because they’re spending so much time within their own community. middle safe space, if you will, that you have to go out of your way to Put them in situations where they’re gonna socialize with other humans. But think about it, it’s not natural for you to be with just your peer group all the time. Sometimes you’re with the elderly, sometimes you’re with younger children, sometimes you’re in a mixed crowd. So for us, because we operated a public facing business, I would bring our children up to our retail store and they would engage with people. We were active and are active viable members of a local church. They would see people there. I’m like, children are not some special class of alien human. They’re just little people at a different stage of gestation. So the socialization was definitely a myth. And then they’re like, well, what about college? And I’m like, I’m the parent. i structure the curriculum into the direction that i want them to go and we make the transcript depending on the state that you live in um the university model in terms of education or higher education if that’s the route your children desire to go into it’s very friendly to home schoolers So many high schools, if you choose, you can do dual enrollment. A lot of colleges and universities actually have dual enrollment programs. The world of homeschooling has grown by leaps and bounds so much, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, that you can literally homeschool your child Send them to university, they can go to law school, they can go to med school. The world is their oyster. But statistically, homeschoolers are way more smarter and are way more ahead than their public school counterparts. The math does not lie.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, we need to remind parents that they are actually the first teachers of their children. And I think we need to go back to empowering parents to take on that role as the first mentor, the first person that actually helps to guide because they are. And that’s been the problem with public education is because they’ve taught us as teachers, they’re your children. We’re the trusted adults to the point where kids at public school will talk to their teachers before they talk to their parents. And then we’ve seen this trend of, You know, they’ll have kids come into a private counseling session and shut the door and talk to the kids about all this personal stuff. And the parents don’t even know. And then next thing you know, in some states, depending on the laws, these kids are being taken away from their parents because their parents are. You know, the enemy. We saw parents going to public school board meetings and being called terrorists, you know?
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. That’s precisely why I chose to homeschool, because we have a mantra in this family. We don’t share custody of our children with the government. These are not community children. These are our children. These are the image bearers of the Lord that I’m going to have to give an account for, right? When I stand before a righteous and holy God, he is not going to allow me to use the excuse, say, well, I sent them to school and this is what they came out as. Listen, we’re not responsible for our children’s salvation. However, we are responsible for living a life before them, raising them in the fear and admonition of the Lord and training them in the way that they should go. Well, it’s going to be difficult for me to live out my deeply held biblical convictions if I have to send them to a school that is purposely in opposition to the worldview and the value system that I’m sending them at home. If public education was just benign and neutral and they focused just on math and reading and history and literature, if it was just the basics, I’d be okay with that. But that is not the case. There is always going, there’s no neutrality in these schools. They are absolutely pushing a particular worldview. And I have to give an account. for my failure to be the main teacher of my children and abdicating that responsibility to someone else. I was unwilling to do that. And I’m grateful that my husband gave me his full support. He never, I mean, sometimes I did have to reel him in as the headmaster of the school to whip these kids into shape because they’re all different kind of learners. And so I’m not saying it’s easy. I am hoping that your audience will walk away with this one thing that this is a gift that you’ve been given and you only have these children for a very short period of time. And if you don’t cherish that time with them and pour into them everything that you believe the Lord has called you to pour into them, then you’re going to have to give an account for that. And you can’t be shocked when they turn out and possibly go a different route, not saying that homeschoolers don’t stray away. They do. However, you just need to be found faithful and allow God, trust him with the results.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, April, did you go to public school yourself?
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. I am a product of the K-12 system in Bronx, New York. But my mother allowed me to go away from my zoned school. And I am also a product of the charter school system. And then for high school, I got a scholarship and I went to boarding school away from home at 15.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, wow.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
So we do have something in common. I went to school in Brooklyn, New York. Shout out to PS 104. But, okay, we were talking offline about what a failure our history education was in public education. How you and I discovered Rosenwald schools around the same time, a few months ago. Right. And I was so upset. I’m like, how did I not know about Rosenwald schools? I’ve come to find out my father went to a Rosenwald school in King Street, South Carolina. It was called Tomlinson High School. And so then I started to do all this mad research. And I was just like, why don’t we know about the contribution of Americans who cared enough about this transitional time in our history to make sure that young children had access to a high quality education? How did you first hear about Rosenwald schools?
SPEAKER 02 :
I first found out about it. So with my media company, Standard House Media, my flagship client, Vince Everett Ellison, who is a master historian and an amazing podcaster, just in passing one day, he mentioned it to me and asked me if I ever heard of it. And I said, no. And he uncovers, just like you said, during a time in history when everyone is always wanting to re-adjudicate how bad white people were to Black people in this country. And they never talk about so many of the amazing individuals that on their own recognizance understood that these newly emancipated slaves needed to be educated. And that in order for them to be able to assimilate in society, aside from if all you know is plantation life, and now they need to learn how to read and to function in their freedom, we’re going to have to give back to them in some sort of way and educate them and educate them well. And that’s what these Rosenwald schools were. And I had no idea that it was this network of schools that were thoroughly committed to educating Negro children And it was top notch education. And it was a white person, Julius Rosenwald, who was responsible for starting this, provided the seed money and everything. And it made me like you. I first felt anger. And then I felt like there’s a reason why this information is actively suppressed, because if they can keep us perpetually stuck in the past, laying the sins of the past at the feet of people alive today and to lead them to believe that there was no virtue and that there’s only one side of this story in our history, then they can keep us divided and separated. And I just refuse to harbor hatred in my heart on the basis of ethnicity. And at the end of the day, I just want to deal with what is true. That’s it. Just tell me the truth. Give me an opportunity to grieve and be angry and have all kinds of feelings about that truth. But at the end of the day, the only way we can heal is if we can wrestle and grapple with this truth. So that was my initial thoughts when I learned about it. And it’s just such a rich history. And sadly, trying to preserve them all today is very, very difficult because you need money and finances to do that.
SPEAKER 03 :
My special guest today is April Chapman. She is the voice behind Unshakeable with April Chapman. You need to make sure that you are tuning into, we’ll make sure we share all of her social media platforms, but she’s also a wife and an Uber mom. She’s a homeschool mom. a great role model to a lot of young ladies. And we’re missing some of that in this day and age. Good, good role models of how to be a godly woman and a mom and you’re intelligent and doing everything and jet setter and leading in so many conversations. And I think that’s really, really critical. But you’re right, you know, this race conversation, and we’ve seen it in public education, we’re talking about DEI and CRT and all of these different agendas coming into the school. And it’s really toxic. You know, when I think about Where we are, where you and I are in history, like my dad grew up in segregated schools. He, you know, went to black only restaurants and water fountains like that was his generation. And I’m just one generation removed from that. I’ve been able to. from going to a public school and being free to go wherever I need to go. I don’t feel like a victim. My father never raised me to feel like a victim, but I feel like we’ve gone backwards since 2020, since COVID, since the George Floyd. I’m like, why are we, why do I feel like we’ve gone back in time? And now our kids don’t want to do anything and learn anything. It’s on purpose.
SPEAKER 02 :
They are absolutely subverting and trying to indoctrinate the hearts and minds of our children. Because if cultural Marxism is accomplishing the goal of speaking of everything in these categories and constructs of division, So you’re white here, you’re gender this. And it’s always categories and constructs versus understanding the idea of America in order for us to flourish. I believe it is John Locke who said, our Constitution was only designed for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other. But Marxism, which is an anti-God, anti-Christian worldview, comes in and says, no. We have to abolish religion. The government is God, essentially is what it is saying. It wants you to bow the knee to the government and move you away from faith. And the further away from faith in a biblical worldview you get, these types of worldviews will take root and then like gangrene, they just spread.
SPEAKER 03 :
April, where can people follow you? Name all of your social media platforms.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, you can find me. Mainly, my main platform of choice is YouTube. I’m Unshakeable with April Chapman on YouTube. Unshakeable W-A-P-R on X, formerly known as Twitter. And Unshakeable with April on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and even LinkedIn. I think I’m on LinkedIn. It’s just my government name, April Chapman. But I’d love to connect with your audience.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. We’re going to promote you. Real quick, do you teach your kids how to think critically? Because that’s another misconception that people think about homeschoolers in this day and age when you’re protecting them sort of from the things that are going on in the world, but they’re going to have to be able to defend what they know and learn.
SPEAKER 02 :
We do a lot of apologetic training in this house, meaning I will expose them to the alternate worldviews and ask them, they need to be able to give a reason to defense, not just for the hope that’s within them as Christians that we’re raising them to be, but to be able to answer critically and logically all of the fallacies and the lies that they’re being presented, such as a boy can become a girl. Like my- To my children, it is insanity for someone to even believe such a thing. So they are sheltered in the sense that we curate what it is that we want them to learn, but they’re not sheltered in a sense as if they don’t know the worldviews out there and the opposing viewpoints. They know how to defend it. They can explain and articulate it well. And it’s because we’ve rooted them with the knowledge of God first. The first thing I taught them is apart from the knowledge of God, you can know anything. And so all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ and they can defend using God’s word. That is their objective standard. And so if there’s anything in terms of ideology that attempts to creep in and sway them away, we are very careful to take them to that objective standard and say, this is the explanation as to why God made marriage between a man and a woman. There are not more than two genders. There are only two. And that children are supposed to be birthed in the confines of a marriage. And all of these things, all of these things, even science, We root it based on the scriptures.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, amen to that. And I’m looking at the time, April, and we’ve got to land our plane. And I’d love to have you on again in the future. To my listeners, thank you so much for tuning in and catch me next time. And remember, educating the mind without the heart is no education. So seek wisdom, cultivate virtue, and speak truth.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thanks for tuning in to Restoring Education in America with Priscilla Rahn. Visit PriscillaRahn.com to connect or learn how you can sponsor future episodes to keep this message of faith, freedom, and education on the air.
