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Samantha “Sam” Sorbo returns to FreedomFest/Anthem Film Festival this year with a new mission. She previously participated multiple times as a filmmaker, as with 2019’s Miracle in East Texas, which she produced with her husband Kevin Sorbo. This time, returning as an award-winning actress, writer, producer, and best-selling author, Sorbo will champion her mission to help the home-schooling cause.
The 2024 FreedomFest, July 10-13, moves to Caesars Forum conference center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The theme, “Brave New World?”, explores the nature of government and human freedom. The event will include the Anthem Film Festival, over 300 speakers, breakout sessions, debates, panels, lectures, and other presentations. Speakers in addition to Sorbo will include Argentina President Javier Milei, artist and actor Ice-T, comedian Rob Schneider, and author Robert Kiyosaki.
Sorbo will speak as part of the session titled “Education Reimagined: Building the Marketplace of Alternative Education”. The session will include a discussion of tools and techniques for home schooling.
The Beginnings
From movie star to home schooling crusader was not Sorbo’s first transition. Her first goal involved a medical career. I began our interview with that subject.
Majoring in biomedical engineering at Duke to fashion model and Hollywood actress — tell us about that journey.
I was working on an ulcer in college, due to the pressure of mounting debt and getting good grades to eventually earn enough. No one tells us what ‘enough’ is, though, when we are attending school. The message is, “Earn money. The more, the better.” And that’s the school’s definition of success.
So, with an ulcer forming, I figured I needed to take a break. I wanted to learn French, so I arranged to do some lab work at the University of Caen, in the north of France. But over the summer, I got some jobs modeling and my agent suggested I head to Paris, model, and earn money, instead of volunteering at the university. That made sense. I headed to Paris and was very successful modeling, even though I had little interest in fashion. I earned a lot of money and when I returned to Duke, the hardest classes I’d even taken were super easy, because the stress of needing to earn a living was completely alleviated.
As an aside, we don’t pay enough attention to how devastating anxiety is to the learning process! In any case, I faced a choice. I could pursue the modeling — which would include acting – a dream I had since high school but was discouraged from chasing — and earn money, travel, learn languages — I spoke French and Swedish fluently already, and was starting German — OR, I could continue my studies, mounting debt, and a singular career in medicine. I chose the former.
How did you meet Hercules?
Eventually I ended up in LA pursuing an acting career. I was cast as a princess on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Second Change
You’ve been to FreedomFest before but wearing your actress hat. This time you’ll be there as a home-schooling advocate. What made you decide to make that change?
I’ve been advocating home learning for over a decade. I’ve written several books on it and, of course, we home schooled my own three kids. It isn’t so much a change as an inclusion. I’ve presented films at FreedomFest, but this year I’m presenting alternative ideas on education, instead.
What lessons did you learn from home schooling your kids?
That we are getting education completely wrong. We are not serving children. Instead, schools often represent the greatest harm to children. A lot of schooling is tantamount to child abuse – and that’s baked into the system of schooling, not the teachers. There may be some bad teachers, but when you take a child who is naturally curious and demand they shut up, sit down, and not ask questions, well, you are accomplishing the opposite of benefiting the child.
Are your kids living the dreams you had for them?
I couldn’t possibly have dreamed the tremendous people my children have become. They’ve surpassed all my expectations!
What are the biggest challenges faced by parents considering home schooling?
The biggest challenge to parents homeschooling their children is the need to shed the notions they learned in school about education. It’s not what you think. It’s completely, entirely, different. We need to rethink the way we approach education, especially if we want to save this nation and preserve our freedom.
Indoctrination?
You’ve said that education should be indoctrination. Most people would be turned off by that idea. Can you explain?
Most people don’t understand what education is. They think it’s academics – that’s why they scream not to indoctrinate the kids. And they have a point. The indoctrination that is happening in our schools is bad because it is only lies. But the previous indoctrination – of us, before CRT and Gender Theory – was to train us to abandon our own doctrine — belief in God, Bible, and pursuit of truth — and trust that education was only academics. That was the softening.
But education is the whole child. Raising up of the child to become an outstanding adult – not just the information download so the child can do a job. And we all bought the lie, so, now that they are shifting away from academics — Oregon no longer requires literacy or math proficiency to graduate high school — we are begging them to go back. We’ve been softened to believe if we surrender our children to academic “experts” they will return to us as good people. The joke’s on us. Not only are school people not academic experts anymore, but it was never about being good people, just being good at some form of academics. That shouldn’t ever have impressed us.
Education is indoctrination, because education is not data entry, it’s a software download. And the software is doctrine. It’s worldview, values, and character development – all of which are more important than being able to recite the quadratic formula.
Besides Kevin, who else has been an inspirational force in your life?
Ayn Rand wrote Los Comprachicos. It’s available online. It perfectly describes what’s happening today, even though she wrote it in 1950. And Jordan Peterson has proven that we are ready to have in-depth conversations.
You’ve written several books exploring family, faith, and freedom. Which one is most important in today’s world and why should people read it?
Words for Warriors is about our language and the shift that is happening, so it’s appropriate for every American or English speaker. My education books are great for parents and grandparents, of course. True Faith I wrote with Kevin as a testimony to marriage.
Is there any hope for Hollywood? Can it escape the influence of foreign money?
Haha! Remember, Hollywood is composed of individuals. Can individuals resist corruption? What do you think? We are raising people to believe that their highest worth is money, so they chase the dollar at every turn. They abandon their honor, integrity, they even sacrifice the truth for the almighty buck.
Hollywood is no different than the rest of the world, including even some politicians. There are a few who won’t compromise, because they have understood that nothing is worth sacrificing the truth for, but the rest, as miserable as they are, would sell their own grandmothers. They’ve been conditioned by our schools, and the brainwashing runs deep. The indoctrination has been ongoing for several decades, now.
Why should people attend FreedomFest?
To be encouraged! Uplifted! And entertained! FreedomFest is tremendous fun and it’s educational. It’s the best.
For More Info
Check their websites for more information on FreedomFest and the Anthem Film Festival. You can find links to Sam Sorbo’s books, podcasts, and speaking opportunities here.
