Posted on 12/19/2007 2:40:07 PM PST by wintertime
Bruce Shortt in his resolution to the Southern Baptist Convention, May, 2007, writes:
"In 2002 the SBC’s Council on Family Life reported that roughly 88% of our children leave the church within 2 years after graduating from high school. It is reported by LifeWay’s Zan Tyler that Josh McDowell Ministries pegs the number who leave at 92%.3 " (B.Shortt)
However the retention rate for homeschoolers is much better.
"Research by Dr. Brian Ray, founder of NHERI, found that 94% of all homeschooled children retained their faith into adulthood." (B. Shortt)
Regarding the successes of children educated in Christian schools, they are far superior to those children educated in government schools:
"The Nehemiah Institute’s worldview testing shows that students in Christian schools reject moral relativism at a rate 500% higher than Christian children attending public schools. The same worldview surveys also show that children receiving a Christian education do better on worldview issues overall than their public school counterparts, with outstanding results typically coming from Christian schools that incorporate worldview materials in their curriculum and homeschooled children." ( B. Shortt)
I ask Christian teachers teaching in government schools,”How much influence can a Christian teacher have on children in government schools who are not from Christian homes?”
In my opinion, Christian teachers have little or no influence over the spiritual lives of their non-Christian students. If dedicated Christian parents are having so little success with their own children, I doubt that a Christian teacher can turn around a child who goes home every day to a secular family.
My recommendations to Christian teachers in the government schools:
1)Resign.
2)Consider your own children and the children of the parents in your congregation as your most important and urgent mission field.
3) Get your kids and the kids of your congregation out of the government schools.
4) Organize, and be teachers in, Christian schools in your own congregations.
5) If you can, homeschool your own children, and be a resource to other homeschooling parents.
5)Large brick and mortar buildings are not necessary. With today’s technology it is possible to have many “one room school houses” meeting in Christian homes. Of course we do have existing church buildings that, in my opinion, are greatly under-utilized. Christian teachers could be a tremendous resource in supporting these endeavors among the members of their Christian congregation. We may actually be surprised to learn that the educational and spiritual outcomes of children in "one-room-schoolhouses" are better than those in traditional schools built and run following the Prussian model.
6) Once your congregation has a viable and healthy education structure for its own children take in as many non-Christian children as possible ( provided that it would not overwhelm the Christian culture of the school). Mentor the parents of these children.
7) Work to organize private Christian scholarship foundations so that **every** child in the U.S. would have access to a private Christian education. Harvard has and endowment of $35 BILLION ,and small colleges like Amerhert or Williams $1.7 and $1.9 BILLION, respectively. We are a wealthy nation. If Christians REALLY WANTED they could do the same for children in this nation. http://opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010985
Finally, to ALL Christian teachers, NO! your school is NOT different. All government schools are Anti-Christian, and if you are paying dues to the NEA you are further pounding nails into the spriritual coffin of our nation's children.
Bruce Shrott writes:
"All Public Schools, By Law, Are Anti-Christian"
"First, it is important to distinguish between individuals and institutions. There is still a sizable remnant of Christian adults employed by the public schools. Many of them pray for their students and a few, though they risk being disciplined or fired, furtively try to witness. But this certainly does not mean that institutionally any public school system is, as some try to argue, “sympathetic to Christianity.” In fact, expressing nontrivial institutional “sympathy” for Christianity, let alone teaching from a Christian worldview, is absolutely prohibited by a complex web of court rulings, legislation, and regulations that apply to every single school and every single school employee subject to the laws of the United States. This is the hostile institutional environment in which Christian adults in the schools are forced to work. And, unfortunately, when you put good people in a bad system, the system almost always wins, which is the reason the public school system continues to deteriorate."
“Sympathy”, or the lack of sympathy, however, is simply not the relevant standard for judging whether a school is a suitable place to train up a Christian child. Christ tells us clearly that “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” For forty years and more, every public school has been legally prohibited from being for Christ. Unless one chooses to disregard Christ’s teaching, the only conclusion that can honestly be reached is that the entire public school system, by law, is against Christ. As will be seen, this is further confirmed when we look at the evidence of whether the public schools are “gathering” with Christ or “scattering.” "
http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:kY4WNVux_NIJ:www.exodusmandate.org/20070503-resolution/2007-letter-to-committee-members.doc+Dr.+Bryan+Ray+percentage+Christian+children+leave+faith&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us
“”In 2002 the SBC’s Council on Family Life reported that roughly 88% of our children leave the church within 2 years after graduating from high school.”
Maybe they moved...
“Research by Dr. Brian Ray, founder of NHERI, found that 94% of all homeschooled children retained their faith into adulthood.”
These stats are incongruous...
So, I take it, you are a Christian teacher who has been working in public schools.
It's worth noting that Catholics in this country already exposed all the flaws of this country's public school system more than a hundred years ago.
Nothing's really changed since then, eh?
I hate to say I am giving up on the US education system but it does seem hopeless.
Teaching in a public school is a sin? Alriiiiiiiighty then. I think I’ll jump off of this discussion at this point. Our views are just too divergent to find the common ground to even disagree.
Each individual should follow the leading of the Lord as to the course and direction of his life. That leading should only be by the Holy Spirit in conjunction with one's knowledge of the Word. Perhaps there will be a time when the Spirit of God leads all believers, teachers and students, to leave the public schools, but it is presumptuous for one believer to tell another believer what God's directive will is.
Even the great reformer, Luther, worked within the very evil and apostate Catholic Church until circumstances forced him out. That brings up another issue. Should an Evangelical believer work at a Catholic school which has chapel services teaching doctrines pernicious to his fundamental faith? Oddly enough, I believe the answer is yes -- if the Spirit guides the believer in that direction..
Will you broaden the scope of what you are asking of believing teachers to include an injunction for believers to leave all lines of work involving businesses which have policies that are secular-liberal or to the left (eg. Apple, Oracle, Disney, Fortune 500).
From what I have observed, Christians aren’t tolerated very well in public schools, being that the majority of the administrators and other teachers tend to be politically correct left-leaning liberals. They don’t tolerate down to earth people very well. The Christian Teachers tend to get weeded out early in their careers as a result.
Public schools - as schools - are simply obsolete. It is a 19th century paradigm that was wearing thin at the end of the 20th century. It is not only no longer necessary, but does more harm than good.
Use the OVER $10,000 per student per year and give their family a $500 computer, a free monthly high speed internet connection, curriculum options, and then leave it in the hands of the parents like God intended.
“All government schools are Anti-Christian, and if you are paying dues to the NEA you are further pounding nails into the spriritual coffin of our nation’s children.”
Dear Mr. Shortt, you’re full of it.
Thanks for the suggestion. That’s not a bad idea. I’ll pass it on. Maryxxx
My husband and his best friend attended a Catholic High School in Syracuse, CBA I think, and boy, there was no discipline problem there. Father Michael wasn’t afraid to put fist to nose when kids needed discipline. I’m sure he had to do it only once. They were very afraid...
Y' think?
Local churches need to start their own schools. Unfortunately, not everyone is equipped or motivated to homeschool.
Discipline works!
Private schools are wonderful if you can afford them!
Home schooling is also wonderful if the parents are equipped and sincere.
From what I have observed, Christians aren’t tolerated very well in public schools, being that the majority of the administrators and other teachers tend to be politically correct left-leaning liberals.
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I live in a rural area of a red state. Here, teachers need to conform ( at least outwardly) to the standards of the community. However....Even here I believe that Christian teachers should abandon the government schools.
1) It is impossible to have a religiously neutral school. If Christ is scrubbed from the classroom and textbooks, something **will** fill that vacuum. It may be agnosticism, new-ageism, global warming earth worship, paganism, atheism, Marxism, or a combination of some or all of these or other philosophies. When the Christian teacher agrees to suppress Christianity, unavoidably he or she will promote and nurture a non-Christian worldview in his or her students.
2) The Christian teacher is teaching his or her students to compartimentalize religion. Somehow religion is OK for the home and on Sunday, but not OK in the workplace or school. She or he is also falsely teaching the student that Christianity can be put away for a more “convenient” time. Even his or her presence as an employee in the government school models this false philosophy since he or she must be silent and/or very careful about speaking about Christ.
3) Teaching in the government schools is, in a way, by his behavior a form of denying the witness of the Holy Ghost. The Christian teacher **knows** that Christ’s mission and message are true, but suppresses and hides this knowledge from his students. He does not confidently proclaim his testimony to his students at appropriate times during his lessons.( I am reminded of Peter denying that he knew Christ 3 times before the cock crowed.)
It is impossible for a Christian teacher to be true to Christianity and the secular mission of the government schools. He must be a liar to one or the other.
I’ve tried to bow out of this once, to no avail. Lady, I can’t begin to tell you how far out you are on this one, so I’m not going to try, so let me reiterate: We don’t even have enough common ground here to even disagree. Consequently it must follow that we’ll never find the commonality to agree on anything that even touches the periphery of this subject.
Well, that’s about the stupidest suggestion I’ve ever seen in my entire Christian life. Imagine if St. Paul or the other early evangelists had followed this idiotic advice.
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