My mother taught public school for 40 years, and retired 10 years ago, but in her day, she put up Bible verses on her bulletin boards, read Bible stories to her students, and quote Scripture regularly, without any reprocusion from administration. This cannot be done today. So the question is — Can a committed Christian who believes in the admonishishment of believers by Christ to live holy lives and to reflect the character of Christ, to walk faithfully with the Lord, while teaching with a perspective that is completely and totally void of any reference to faith of any kind, or to a Master Creator who purposefully made the world and all people in His image? Should a Christian purposefully mask their relationship to Jesus by blending in to a profession that disallows the mere mention of faith to be made in any context within the school day of teaching?
This is, I believe, the real question, and I don’t know how a believer in Christ might answer this by defending their choice to teach in public school. My mother’s era of teaching in public schools is over. She still thinks Christian teachers can use verses on bulletin boards and read from Bible story books to their students. She doesn’t get that it is no longer possible to live so openly as a Christian teacher in the school system, the way she once did those years before.
I am a single Christian adoptive homeschooling mother of four, who recently put one of my four back in public schools for 10 weeks, because he (my 11 year old) seemed to need more structure and was not responding to my leadership the way I thought he should. Those 10 weeks recently of dealing with my son at a “very good” neighborhood school was quite eye-opening for me. I tried hard not to be the paranoid, deranged, anti-public school mother — but it was very hard to do. Let me just list a few things that happened within two days of enrolling him this last spring:
The female principal was charged and sentenced for rape of a child (a female student she’d been having sex with for years). My son was shoved to the ground twice, and called names for being a “goody goody” (he is polite, well-behaved, and eager to learn). He was excluded from every single playground activity / game because he was “too short” to play, according to other students. One little girl came up to him the first week, and told him, “You’re too stupid to be in 5th grade.” Lovely. The last straw was when he and a younger friend were leaving school, and a group of older girls with BATS attacked the boys, and my son found a large sharp piece of metal on the ground to defend himself with (which made these girls run away). After that, I was in the principal’s office declaring our family would never come back, and that homeschooling was the only way to keep my children safe and happy. Done with that. I teach my children to stand up for themselves and be a “light in the darkness”, but THAT was ridiculous and pure insanity.
Just some thoughts from my side of the fence...
Your post alone is “Another Reason to Homeschool”!
In my opinion, he can't. He would either betray his faith by "going along to get along", or he would be fired. One or the other.
And...It really irritates me when some teachers claim that they can sneak in a little bit of Christian values by merely being an example.
First of all, they are teaching the children that Christians are sneaky.
Second, if they were really a good example of Christianity they would have been fired already. So...Not only are they teaching children are sneaky, but they are a very poor example of Christianity if they have managed to keep their jobs.
Isn’t that terrible?
My sis teaches in a small, rural school. She is a committed Christian, teaches right and wrong without preaching, and impacts the kids. Here in Los Angeles I would not do it, period. However, I homeschooled and now tutor, one on one. I believe the Lord uses me in these kids’ lives, not to preach the Gospel, but to pray for them, to teach them right from wrong, to love them.
“Each has a different Gift. One to teach, another to preach, another to xx.” If it is done in the name of the Lord, and if you do not teach that which you do not believe (ie Government propaganda), how can it not be the Lord’s work?
Isn’t that terrible? Good for your son. And good for you.
A few years ago, I had a volunteer program at a local high school, inviting speakers in at lunch. Got a well-known church musician to come sing for the kids, to share how he got where he was. He asked me ahead of time — ‘Can I speak of the Lord?’ I said, “Sure, I am a volunteer, they cannot fire me. What will they do, put the both of us in the Christian wing down at the jail?”
He gave his testimony, right there in the public school. Then he played a few worship songs. THEN he prayed for the kids. We must have had 60 there that day — friends of friends from the Christian club, etc. It was so beautiful. Never heard a word of repercussion.
A lot of our speakers were Christians; their testimony was part of their paths, and they shared of the Lord. This was NOT the Christian club, mind you — just people sharing about their jobs/ educations.
There are always ways. And there are many, many Christians actively working in those schools. As I said, we homeschooled and I would not have put my son in there for a million dollars. But folks do. And some come out better for it, toughened for battle.