March 2003 – A guy goes from cleaning carpets and windows to leading a national movement on education. The premise sounds like it was ripped from the plot of a made-for-TV-movie.  In reality, it’s the path Brannon Howse’s life has taken.

Howse is founder and director of the Worldview Weekend conferences held around the nation each year. He is also the author of two books and co-author of another. And he has served as the education reporter for The Michael Reagan Talk Show on national radio.

Howse has come a long way from his high school days. After graduation, he went into business for himself, running a commercial cleaning business. Yearnings from his younger years wouldn’t let him be content with that job, though.

“At an early elementary-school age, I wanted to organize Christian conferences,” Howse said. “My mom and dad took me to a lot of Christian conferences. And, I always enjoyed planning and administration, organizing projects and laying them out, and seeing them when they were completed.”

An interest in education
Howse first became interested in education when researching the new age movement. He found that new age thought was being introduced into school curricula. 

“I was studying moral relativism, humanism, pluralism . . . these were some of the philosophies that were being embodied in new age, multicultural, diversity, and tolerance curriculum,” Howse said. This led him to write one of the first books published about outcome-based education, Reclaiming a Nation At Risk.  

Outcome-based education has been attacked by conservatives because it tends to emphasize certain subjects for students, based upon predetermination of the student’s future career goal. Critics contend some outcomes focus too much on feelings, values, attitudes, and beliefs, and not enough on the attainment of factual knowledge.

Howse found a voice in reaching America through The Michael Reagan Talk Show. He soon picked up his own national radio talk show, but eventually found he was no longer having as great an impact on education because “the Republicans, after Newt Gingrich took over, were just as eager as the Democrats to keep pushing the Bill Clinton education agenda,” Howse said. 

Howse’s understanding and research also taught him to be concerned not only about outcome-based education and the liberal agenda, but also what philosophies were being taught to children in public schools. In particular, Howse took an interest in how the works of humanists such as John Dewey and Benjamin Bloom were having an impact on education in America.

“Ninety percent of the children in America’s churches go to public schools,” Howse said. “The data we continue to uncover show the typical child in a public school has a secular-humanist worldview, and he is only a few points away from having a socialist-humanist worldview. The typical child in a Christian school has a secular-humanist worldview, although he is only a few points away from having a moderate Christian worldview.”

These points are based on types of view featured in PEERS testing, a tool that measures students’ views in politics, economics, education, religion and social issues.

“Whether your children go to a public school or a Christian school, we found the impact of the liberal education system in America was affecting both,” he said.

It was this revelation that brought about the idea for the Worldview Weekends.

“It wasn’t so much a public school/private school issue as it was a church/home issue,” Howse said. “And that’s when we started the Worldview Weekends. We said, ‘Let’s quit focusing our energy on Washington, because that’s not getting us anywhere; let’s focus it on the home and the church.’”

The first Worldview Weekend was held in January 1993, with about 225 people in attendance. Now, the average Worldview Weekend has 800-1,000 attendees. The largest, held in Minneapolis in October 2002, had around 2,000 attendees.

At the conferences, noted scholars challenge attendees’ thinking on how Christians must become involved in both education and other issues important in the world today, and spur them to action. Speakers at Worldview Weekend seminars have included Josh McDowell, Ken Ham, David Jeremiah, Kerby Anderson and Tim Wildmon.

Sixteen Worldview Weekends are scheduled for 2003, with the possibility for that number to grow to 20.

Looking into the future
With the Worldview Weekends growing in popularity and frequency, Howse is taking stock of not only his career, but also his household. 

Born in 1969, Howse and his wife, Melissa, have two children, Landon, 6, and Libby, 3, and a little boy due soon. They have put their home in Minneapolis-St. Paul up for sale and are moving to northern Illinois to be more centrally located. 

Beginning this fall, they’ll be doing the Worldview Weekends as a family, traveling by recreational vehicle. They plan to homeschool their son.

Despite his success, Howse has remained level-headed, and his priority is family and raising up Christian children. This should give Worldview Weekend participants assurance in knowing that Howse practices what he preaches: giving children the best chance in life.  

For more information on Worldview Weekend Conferences, visit their website www.worldviewweekend.com or call 1-888-326-4543.