Re: “They were not state or government schools, when I growing up they were public (our) schools.”
They weren't your school. They were the schools of the most powerful voting mob or faction, and the religious, political, and cultural worldview of the voting mob or faction was established in the socialist-entitlement K-12 schools. Any Catholic who attended Catholic schools in the 1950s or earlier can confirm this for you.
Also...Mc Donalds is public. Anyone from anywhere can go into McDonalds and receive service. Socialist-entitlement K-12 schools aren NOT public. Socialist-entitlement K-12 schooling is highly restricted to those defined as eligible by the government. Ask any parent who has been forced to move to find a safer socialist-entitlement k-12 school or who has had their child bused by government assignment.
Re: The lukewarm religion offered in your socialist-entitlement government K-12 school:
I see posts like yours often here on Free Republic. Many of our generation, who attended government schools, believed they were receiving a religious education in their government school. I think they believe this because they did not have a truly Christian education by which to make a comparison. They are like fish swimming in secular water. They can't see the secularism.
Yes, there was some Protestant-based Christianity in the government owned and run schools but it was **generic** and not based specifically on teachings of a unique denomination.
I, too, attended government schools ( one of the best in the state) for 11th and 12th grades. Yes, there was morning prayer ( Protestant version), the chorus sang occasional religious music ( almost always Protestant in origin). Christmas was celebrated, and the Christian teachers did have influence over the content of the curriculum.
BUT! There was a **HUGE** difference between this generic Protestant Christian worldview in the government school and my first 10 years of Catholic schooling. HUGE difference! And...I am willing to bet that there was a HUGE difference between the generically Protestant worldview of our socialist-entitlement K-12 schooling and that of a truly Christian Baptist K-12 school of that era.
Next....Public schools are and always have been socialist-entitlements and they are compulsory for all those children whose parent can not pay the ransom, ( jizya or dhimmi) to rescue them.
So?...What are the problems with the above:
1) Children who attend generically lukewarm Christian schools ( government or private) risk learning to be lukewarm and generic about their religion. What does Christ do with the lukewarm? He spits them out of his mouth!
2) Children who attend today's godless schools ( government or private) **will** learn to think and reason godlessly. They must just to cooperate in the classroom, read the textbooks, and finish assignments. How could it be otherwise?
3) Children who attend socialist-entitlement K-12 schools risk learning to be comfortable with socialism. Hey! Any voting mob that is powerful enough to give them tuition-free schooling is also powerful enough to give them lots of “free” stuff.
In just one to three generations of socialist and secular K-12 schooling our nation elected Woodrow Wilson with his failed “one world” League of Nations, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, and Lyndon Johnson and his Great Society.
I must disagree with much of the rest of your post because your post suggests that government schooling is reformable. Gee! if we could only return to some magic time in the 20th or 19th century the socialist-entitlement K-12 schools would be fixed is the reasoning. Unfortunately they would soon devolve to today's standard because the foundation upon which it is built is rotten. It would be inevitable that our government K-12 schools would eventually again become evil because:
1) socialism is evil and all government owned and run K-12 schools in this nation are socialist-entitlements. At first Obamacare won't be that bad because of the professionalism and training of those still in the system. But...In a generation or two we will read posts that say, in the 2020s we had good socialist-entitlement health care. If we could only go back to the way Obamacare was run in the 2020s then our socialist-entitlement health care would be fixed. Few citizens ( even conservatives) will ( like the fish in socialist water) be able to recognize that the problem is socialism, and the solution is privatization.
2) It is evil for government ( the voting mob) to force secularism ( or any other religious belief) on children. All schools (this includes socialist-entitlement schools) have a NON-neutral religious worldview.
3) it is evil for the voting mob to force their neighbor to subsidize and establish their religious ( now godless), political, and cultural worldview.
And....Again, I do believe you are good, honest, and earnest man, and I have tried my very best to be respectful in every way.
I must strongly diagree with you on so much fault finding and setting youself in the place of God in judging all to be luke warm. (Apparently you judge all non-Catholics.
I do not want my children (now grand-children) to worship statues, nor set Mary the mother of Jesus to be equal to God and even above Jesus Christ.
I do not want to follow a man that has been declared infallible, nor to be praying to the dead nor for the dead.
About the 7th grade, the Catholic children began to attend our public schools. I was shocked that they could curse so often and so good, especially using God’s name in vain.
The Roman Catholics owned all the Liquor Stores, night clubs, and beer joints at that time.
So I’m not easily persuaded for and in the Roman Catholic brand of Christianity.
Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour, and I know He was weithout sin, and I know He will present Me and all true believers.
No Church saves, no Priest saves, no Pope saves,no preacher saves, no Evangelist saves, salvation is of the Lord.
John 1:12 says: “To as many as receiced Him[Jesus] to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”
Romans 10:13 says: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
1 Peter 1:23 says:” Being born of the Spirit, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.”
1 John 5:12 says: “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
Ordinances and man made rituals will not give salvation to man, Only our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, who was made sin for us, who had no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)