What if the NEA repented and your children’s public school looked like this!
Published by tramsek July 19th, 2006 in UpdatesWhat if your children���?�s public school had class sizes with about ten students, averaging about four or five?
What if the government���?�s curriculum was Christ-centered, God-honoring and taught the Lordship of Christ in every subject?
What if your child���?�s public school teacher could customize the curriculum to each individual student���?�s needs and desires?
What if in your local public school there was close to zero negative peer-influence on your child?
What if in your child���?�s government school there was a tremendous amount of positive, Godly socialization from a wide range of age groups?
What if your child���?�s school teacher loved your child as much as a parent loves their own children?
What if your public school system brought prayer, the Bible and the 10 Commandments back into the classroom?
What if your public school stopped teaching your pre-teens ���?sex education���?�, moral relativism, the new ���?tolerance���?�, etc.?
Most Christians would answer a tremendous ���?That would be great!���?� to all of those ���?what ifs���?�. The amazing truth is that all of these concepts can be a reality through the discipline of what is called ���?homeschooling���?�. Homeschoolers typically have small class sizes (their own brothers and sisters). Homeschooling parents have the ability to choose the best Christian curriculum available. Homeschooling parents can tailor fit each child with a particular curriculum. When you homeschool, you minimize the amount of destructive peer influence to your child. In fact, it is the Godly parents who have the most influence on their children. And who could love and know your children better than you (the parents)?
Again, I want to emphasize that homeschooling in and of itself is not virtuous. There are some non-Christians who homeschool and it is not glorifying to God. But homeschooling is the best discipline that we have to teach our children in the name of Jesus. Christian schools are second best in that, though they may have a ���?Christian���?� curriculum (though many would compromise on Genesis 1-11), they still have much of the destructive peer influence of unregenerate children, in whom foolishness is bound up. Also, Christian parents need to come to grips with the fact that thought they may delegate their authority to teach to outsiders, they can never delegate away their responsibility. God gave children to parents, not the church, not the state, not the public schools. God will hold parents, particularly fathers, responsible for their children���?�s education.
Today, Christians have the freedom to educate their children at home in every state, with few restrictions. This is based on God���?�s grace through the hard work of homeschool pioneers and organizations like the HSLDA and CLA. I believe every Christian parent ought to look long and hard at the joys and benefits of home-based education. Parents are to be the primary spiritual disciplers of their children and that includes their education. God wants to see multi-generational faithfulness, that is parents passing on a spiritual heritage to their children. Teaching our children in the name of Jesus is one of our greatest joys and privileges. I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.
You make some excellent points. I homeschooled my 4 children for nearly all their education. We didn’t do as many subjects at one time as regular schools, but we always emphasized the Bible and its teachings. I now have 4 teens/young adults who love God and living to please him. I believe that is from God’s faithfulness as I did my best to be obedient.
I did send my youngest to a Christian school for one year (at her request), but I was horrified at how the peer influence affected her. We now have her in an on-line public high school, and, believe it or not, it is vastly superior to the Christian school because of the peer issues. Since she is now the only child young enough to still be ’schooling’ (the others are in college), I have more time to work with her and it gives us an opportunity to witness to the teachers. She has written reports on the Scope’s trial, Lucy not being bipedal, etc. She gets excellent grades too. I have had the opportunity to share the creationist position with an evolutionist science teacher, and he has been taking an honest look at the information. (I figure as saturated as he has been with evolution, it will take a few years for him to think through the implications.) I DO NOT RECOMMEND ON-LINE PUBLIC SCHOOL UNLESS THE PARENT HAS SUFFICIENT TIME TO HELP THE CHILD EVALUATE THE ATHEISTIC BIASES. The biases can show up in any class. I have found them mostly in science and world history. Your website is great for writing polite letters to teachers and administrators pointing out these biases and asking them questions like “How do you expect kids to behave if they believe that they descended from animals?” Anyhow, this has worked well for us in our situation, but it is actually more work than homeschooling.
I believe this concept has already been established in regular Christian life. It’s called Sunday school, a far less harmful brainwashing technique. To cut off all “destructive influences” on your child (and by this I assume you mean the Jewish, the Muslim, the secular, etc.) would make him/her socially inferior in the real world.
Disgusted,
Chris
Why must Chris continue to make unfounded claims? I know from experience that he is wrong because I have been homeschooled from a Christian viewpoint for eight years.
You should also include Christian schools along with puplic schools since they have the same problems of peer pressure, sex, drugs and fighting. I am not so sure that hideing them away from the world will help them cope with it when they finally leave the nest.
There is no way a person can blanketly say what is “best” for all Christian families. I vowed I would never put my child in a public school, ever. But my husband and I had no peace about the options we were considering. My husband felt strongly we should check out the public school our son was zoned for, which happens to be our neighborhood school 2 blocks from our house. While the principal was talking to us, and we were asking all the hard questions, we both felt totally at peace that this was where our son should go.
Many of the teachers in this school are christians, they have strong, enforced discipline, high academics. When we toured the classrooms there was order and the teachers obviously cared about the kids. Many of my Christian friends had so turned me against public schools I almost didn’t give this school a chance. I think it depends on the school itself–the principal and teachers and how committed they are and whether they are Christians or at least have high morals. Homeschooling is great too, in many cases. But it is not the only ordained of God way children can be educated. I have a brother and sister-in-law who homeschool and the kids are great, somewhat sheltered but seem ok now. They have yet to experience the real world. I also have a sister and she and her husband have had their kids in public school all of their education–a daughter is a senior in high school this year. There is also a son and another daughter. These kidslove God with everything in them, and are very well rounded, and have high academic achievement. They live in a large metro area where the schools aren’t perfect but they have thrived. They have been parented well and have a strong church. Not everybody can homeschool. God is bigger than one choice. And I have to think if a child is parented well, and has a good church, that it can be a benefit to have been in a public setting. It can make that child stronger because he/she has been faced with being in the world but not of it.
Whereas the home schooled child has been almost completely sheltered and have not had to make decisions on their own to stand for Christ. I would never throw my child to the wolves. But not every public school is bad. We trusted in God for guidance and discernment and had to put all the voices for this or that away. God knew we wanted what was best for our son. And we knew when we had the peace of God about where He should be. I would urge parents to gather as much information as you can, and then pray and seek God about what is best for your child. After all, it is only God who truly knows you and your needs.