I still fail to see what this has to do with the child.
Out Christian school is expanding to add an extra grade and we are looking to increase enrollment. At a Board Meeting, we were going down the list of children that were graduating from another private elementary school to see which children may attend our Christian middle school.
When one child's name came up, someone said that she would not be a candidate because "her parents are hard core atheists". I pointed out that such a child is precisely the child that a Christian school may want to go out of it's way to recruit.
The school is there for the children. Not the parents. The children.
The problem with this story is that this school decided upon certain rules and were completely upfront with them. If you don't like the school's rules, go somewhere else (as the woman is doing) and don't try to impose your morality (or immorality) upon the school. I wouldn't qualify for enrolling my kids, and I'm not the least offended by that fact. To each his own.
Very well said.
I tend to agree with you. The mothers in both cases at least seem to care enough about their children to put them in a private christian school. I'm not sure the child should be punished for the parents questionable behavior - maybe they should be ministered to instead of expelled.
How in the world can you recruit the child of "hard core atheists" for a Christian school?
I don't like "recruiting" children against the will or philosophy of their parents. I don't like it when atheists do it, not when communists do it, not when homosexuals do it, not when Democrats do it, and not when Christians do it.
I homeschool to keep my children innocent, and cannot condemn parents for attempting to create a more innocent environment for their children through their church school. We left public school because we didn't want to hear about Heather's two mommies, and Joey's two daddies, and dare I say, stripper mom's lifestyle. The kids are only five!
Ahhh...but will the atheists sign the Christian school Mission Statement and uphold it?
Your school is. Or, more precisely, you believe that school should focus completely upon the child (or so I take your words). That is a valid viewpoint. But others may choose a different view: that the family is as much a part of the picture as the child...or nearly as much. That is also a valid viewpoint, IMO.
It comes down to a matter of choice by the individual school and explains why I like private schools and loathe public ones: Private schools offer more variety in settings, outlooks, and curriculum. Parents have more choice and everyone can end up getting more or less what they want out of a school.
I've not defended the mother: not because she is a stripper, but because she signed an agreement and broke it, then made a fuss over it when the results of her actions came home to roost. The actual policy of the school is not the point, IMO, but whether the mother agreed to the policy in the first place, which she admits to have done.
The policy itself is a seperate issue, and one that we here have only an academic interest in, as none of us have any children attending the school (that I know of). Evidently, enough people agree with the school's policies to keep it financially solvent. More power to them...but if I had a kid, I wouldn't send him or her there.
Tuor
I would like to agree with you on this because on the surface it sounds like the right thing to do. But I can't. The parents are still the primary influence on the child and that child is going to bring his/her beliefs and upbringing into the school and influence the other children, whose parents are paying a lot of tuition to remove them from that influence in public schools. I'm dealing with this issue as we speak. My daughter's best friend is not from a Christian home but was allowed into the school while her mom served out her jail sentence and b/c she was living with a Godly aunt and uncle. This girl deceives everyone at school and is just the kind of person I spend a LOT of tuition for my child to avoid.
I agree with you that the ministry of the church is to reach out to sinners--all of us--regardless of the sin. This mom should be cared for and ministered to by the church, but her lifestyle should not enter the school via her child. God gives us the responsibility to bring up our children the way they should go and I do not believe that means co-mingling them with worldly children until they have acquired the maturity and wisdom to address those issues.
No, it's mostly there for the parents, as a means of helping them raise their children in particular way.
But the reason I'm really responding is this.
Here you've got this lovely stripper, dropping her kid off in the morning, picking her up at night. She's gorgeous (she really is), and she makes her living on sex. Such things interest men despite their better judgement.
That's just plain poison -- one can reasonably assume she has a less-than-innocent effect on some of the fathers at the school. It's difficult enough to avoid the temptation to look where you shouldn't when you can't smell her perfume.
It's rotten that the little girl has to pay the price for her mother's occupation; however, this one child isn't the only one affected, nor the only one potentially harmed, by her mother's activities.
It sounds like the church tried its best to alleviate the situation. Unfortunately, the mother was unwilling to negotiate -- the stripping money was too good. The church pretty much had to make the decision they did, based on what would do the least damage.