The world of private fundamentalist education grew prodigiously throughout the late 1970s and into the early 1980s. These schools needed curricular materials and guiding educational philosophies. The impassioned debates among leading fundamentalist educators directly affected the education of hundreds of thousands of students. Concern over the growth pains among fundamentalist schools led many activists to lobby for a unifying educational philosophy. However, the strong desire for a unifying educational philosophy splintered against the reality of competing ideas among fundamentalists. Arlin and Beka Horton promoted a "Traditional Christian" philosophy and curriculum. The leaders of Bob Jones University (BJU), Walter Fremont and Phil Smith, created what they called a "conventional" approach. Since 1970, Donald Howard also competed to establish his Accelerated Christian Education as the properly fundamentalist style of education. In this article, the author discusses the struggles over curriculum and educational philosophy for Christian Day schools from 1970 to 1989. The author focuses on the bitterness of the conflict in the 1970s and 1980s between the Hortons, Smith and Fremont, and Donald Howard which came about because of the propinquity of their shared beliefs. (Contains 1 figure and 89 footnotes.)