Jill Duggar, to the surprise of many, has emerged as kind of the rebel of the Duggar family.
And honestly, she’s doing a pretty good job of it.
Sure, she’s not out there doing drugs or campaigning for Bernie or anything like that, but she’s made some big steps.
She wears pants all the time, she cut all her hair off, and she pierced her nose a few years ago — all things that Jim Bob and Michelle surely don’t approve of.
She and husband Derick Dillard have even been shunned from the family since he started speaking out about the sketchy way Jim Bob handles, well, everything.
We’re not saying she’s perfect by any means.
A lot of people still have a lot of problems with some of the things she says and does, and plenty of people feel like she can be downright dangerous with the things she allows her children to do.
And then there’s that whole thing where she’s married to Derick, who really is just a terrible person.
But you don’t have to be perfect to do a good thing or to stand up to your family’s views, and that’s what Jill is doing now.
Because she just went and registered Israel for kindergarten!
At a public school and everything!
She shared this cute picture of Israel looking so happy about it all — it really is a sweet photo, isn’t it?
And her followers were, as the kids say, shook.
Real quick, in case you don’t know or need a refresher, homeschooling is a pretty big deal to the Duggars.
Michelle homeschooled all of her kids, and her children are doing the same — Josh and Anna are the only ones with kids old enough for school, and they homeschool, too.
They do it because the religious organization they belong to, IBLP (or Institute in Basic Life Principles, which many refer to as a cult), has its own homeschooling program, ATI.
The whole thing about ATI is that it uses the bible to teach children literally everything — science, math, it’s all based in the bible.
It also teaches lessons about morality and how to handle various issues that might pop up in life.
For example, it teaches that if a girl is molested, it’s essentially her fault for tempting the man who molested her.
Yeah, it’s not great.
Since Josh and Anna met at an ATI conference, we imagine they use it for their children, too, and it’s probably just assumed that all of this new generation of Duggars will be taught this way as well.
Horrifying, isn’t it?
But Jill, once again, is going her own way.
And obviously, the fewer children taught this kind of nonsense, the better.
Jill’s Instagram followers were quick to applaud this decision, too.
As one person told her “Good for you enrolling him in school. It will be nice for you to meet other moms.”
“I’m glad he’s going to public school,” another person said, “and not being homeschooled like your parents did.”
One comment read “He’s going to love it. You guys are game changers in your family and it’s going to have major positive impact.”
And one follower said “I am so proud of you for stepping outside your family’s box and enrolling him in public school. He will enjoy it so much.”
Of course, she did get some judgement for this choice, because of course she did — a few people actually begged her to keep homeschooling him.
But Jill is getting better and better at making her own choices, and we can’t wait to see her next move.