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Acting Power Couple Take Parenting Seriously

Sam Sorbo shares how she and husband Kevin Sorbo instill Christian values in their three children. Read Transcript


[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Sam Sorbo is a talk radio host, actress and model.

But her greatest achievements are that of a wife and mom.

Sam met her husband, Kevin, while playing his leading

lady in the hit TV series "Hercules."

Both have been successful in Hollywood,

yet remain outspoken about their faith in God.

In her book, "Teach From Love," Sam offers 180 lessons

to instill Godly qualities in your children, one

for every day of the school year.

Well, Sam Sorbo joins us now.

And it's great to have you with us.

Thank you.

You know, a lot of people would

look at your life, and your accomplishments,

the activities you're involved in and say,

what, it's not enough?

Now we're going to home school?

[LAUGHING]

What made you-- because it is a commitment, Sam.

What made you decide to do it?

You know, OK, what made me decide to do it?

The school was not succeeding with my child to the degree

that I thought that they should.

And so I started doing homework with my child

after school every day--

which, by the way, why is there homework?

TERRY MEEUWSEN: Yes.

If the school is succeeding, they

have the child for seven and a half hours a day,

why is there a need to do homework?

TERRY MEEUWSEN: Amen and amen.

And the reason is because the parents do not

forego the responsibility of educating their children.

They're just leaning on the schools.

And the schools or are underperforming.

We've seen the results.

The schools are underperforming.

There's plenty of evidence out there for that.

There's nine overhauls of the public school education

system in 27 years.

That's one every three years.

Each one purporting to fix the problem,

and each one not fixing the problem.

So I just got to a point where I'm like, the schools not

serving my child.

What should I do about that?

Maybe I'll try it myself.

And then, honestly, I never looked back.

I love it.

I don't understand why we should send our children

to institutions everyday.

I don't get it.

Children belong--

It's the way it used to be years ago.

We've been conditioned, right?

We've been conditioned.

TERRY MEEUWSEN: Well, in the process of all of this,

you've jumped in with both feet.

And you've taken on the task of teaching Godly characteristics

and qualities to--

specifically, in your book, you talk about seventh graders.

And there's a point at which a child can really

begin to grasp, and receive, and be responsible about some

of that information.

How do you teach a seventh grader Godly qualities?

With discussion.

Because seventh graders are just at that age

where they're grappling with and learning to argue.

And they're really trying to get these things--

sort of decide for themselves, what makes sense for me?

What makes sense in the world?

And where do I fit in the world?

And I think it's important that we teach children

where they fit in the world and who they

belong to in this world, right?

TERRY MEEUWSEN: So by discussion,

you're really helping them learn to reason.

Yes, exactly.

That's exactly the point.

And I started with classical conversations

before my child reached the seventh grade year.

And then when we got to seventh grade,

I realized that they teach apologetics.

And I went, ah, brilliant!

Why aren't we-- and I said this to a friend of mine

who ran the little co-op that we are.

And I said, why don't they teach this in high school?

And she said, Sam, why don't they teach this in church?

Why aren't we teaching our children--

Hello.

--a defense of our faith, right?

And so this grew organically from being in the classroom,

and having these discussions with these kids,

and reasoning that I don't know where

they're going to get this.

So I mean, obviously, there are other places that--

I got it from somewhere, right?

But I just wanted to offer this as an encouragement for parents

who home school.

And then I realized, wait, everybody needs this.

It's not just for homeschoolers.

So it's for families.

But in fact, if you have a teacher

that you like and your child's going to public school,

get this for the teacher.

Because this is a great resource for them to just

have these discussions with their students.

Well, and a wonderful thing to take

to the dinner table at night to sort of have family discussion

be meaningful.

This is your second book actually, "Teach From Love."

Tell me about your first book.

So my first book just came out of having homeschooled

for a while and realizing that the system is not

what it used to be.

And this is a problem.

It's difficult for people to understand

how the system, how the bureaucratic educational

system, has shifted.

We see little snippets of it.

We

We see a teacher taking it upon herself

to do a transgender ceremony for a five-year-old.

And at the end of that article that I read,

it was questionable whether he believed he was transgender

or not.

And we see parents that are outraged that the teacher would

take this upon themselves and being told by the school

system, it's out of your hands.

You don't have the right to opt out of that.

In my school district, we have we

have books that feature pornographic imagery in them

for ninth graders.

And we are told that we can opt out.

But the problem is, you're stigmatized if you opt out.

So there's a system in place.

And it's not in favor of the child nor the parent.

TERRY MEEUWSEN: And while you're getting homework assignments

at home, moral values are being taught during the school

day, which are something that should

come from every child's family.

Well, they should.

And I would argue, some of them are immoral values.

I don't know that they're teaching moral values anymore.

Because they're teaching children

that they are accidents of nature

and that survival of as the law of the land.

And if you're a Christian, I don't

know how you marry that with your worldview, in which you

believe that every life has value.

Because survival of the fittest is what ISIS

is performing right now.

TERRY MEEUWSEN: Yes, exactly.

So I mean, we--

Think it through.

Yeah, we need to think these things through.

So a lot of people, Sam, are intimidated by the thought

of homeschooling.

What would you say to people who are even moderately

contemplating it?

Moderately contemplating it.

Well, first of all, get my book.

TERRY MEEUWSEN: The first one, by the way,

is called "They're Your Kids."

"They're Your Kids."

So in this book, I go through what

the problems we have in our public education system today.

And it's systematized.

It's not the teachers.

The teachers are great.

Most of the teachers are great.

There is some bad teachers out there.

TERRY MEEUWSEN: Of course.

But most of the teachers are great.

But they are hamstrung by a system that insists

that they teach certain things.

Now with Common Core, it's been absolutely bureaucratized.

And so they're stuck.

So the first part of the book goes through the problems

that we have with our education system.

And listen, we're competing 27th in the world.

We're America.

We're the United States of America.

And we're, like, 27th in the world for education.

TERRY MEEUWSEN: How's that possible?

The second part of the book is how I did it.

It's just a little glimpse into little tricks

that I learned, my mistakes that I made,

so that you don't make the same mistakes.

And the thing that I want to really impart to parents

is, it's fun.

You responsible anyway.

So accept the responsibility.

And then learn to enjoy it.

Learn to enjoy your kids.

Because homeschooling is really about the relationship

with your children.

And there are co-ops out there that are wonderful.

There's a lot of support.

So you don't have to be a science genius or a math

genius.

No.

And in fact, you shouldn't think that you

have to know everything.

What you should be for your child is the lead learner.

So when your child says, why are frogs green?

You say, I don't know.

Let's go find out.

We have the internet now.

We have everything at our fingertips.

And we need children to be lifelong learners.

Because they're going to have six different careers

before they're 30 now.

It's not like it used to be.

I want to say, the new book is called "Teach Them Love."

The first book was called "They're Your Kids."

And very quickly, because we've just got seconds left,

you've got a new movie coming out.

Lettherebelightthemovie.com.

It's about the darkness that's enveloping the Earth.

And the way to cure the darkness is through the light.

It stars my husband, Kevin Sorbo, from "God's Not Dead."

It's the story about an atheist who has a near-death experience

and--

TERRY MEEUWSEN: Kind of changes him up.

Changes him up a little bit.

[LAUGHING]

We'll look for it, October--

October 27th.

--27th.

Watch for it.

Go to lettherebelightthemovie.com.

OK, great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

You're doing good things.

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