Who am I to tell Christians to stop supporting government education?

RazorMouth ^ | 7/28/02 | Jim Babka

[ppaul]

My recent RazorMouth article on the Pledge of Allegiance was republished in two other venues, and I received a lot of angry email. One Christian mother from Florida wrote to tell me that, because her sister home-schooled her children, she had prayerfully re-evaluated whether she should do the same. Both she and her husband felt that God was clearly leading them to leave their children in the government schools. In her words:

one of the paragraphs in your article really angered and offended me. You stated, "and those Christian parents who insist on deluding themselves about the wonders of public education will remain where they are." Mr. Babka, if I am being "deluded" about the education of my children, then it is God who is doing the deluding, because it is His voice to which we are listening. She “shuddered to think of what our public school system, and the children in it, would be if ALL Christian parents pulled their children out.” She went on to point out the wonderful impact Christian kids have in government schools. Then she asked me, “How can my children be salt and light if they are doing their studies at the dining room table and not in a classroom full of kids who may have never heard the gospel?”

I understand her point, and appreciate her feeling that God is leading her, but we must remember that other parents likewise feel that God is also leading them to abandon the government schools. I would urge her to more prayer, because there are other issues to consider, and more than one way to provide salt and light to the world.

Young children are impressionable. They lack the experience for discernment. And it's a well-established fact that you only get back what you put in. The state has her children for more waking hours than she does. She can’t control whom they associate with, or what they hear, see, and read. Perhaps, because her children are teenagers, they’re already prepared to prosper in an atmosphere antagonistic to her values. But it seems risky to expect the same from an elementary school child.

More importantly, we must consider what would happen if all Christian parents removed their children from the government schools. I believe the system would fold for lack of business. Would this increase or decrease the salt and light we provide to the world? And what would be the state of our nation’s children?

Education would still continue, but now it would thrive—as it did before public schools were created 120 years ago (when having an 8th grade education meant that someone was ready for college). It would also cost far less and teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, and other social ills would almost certainly plummet. I believe this would add a great deal of salt and light to the world.

We also need to remember that schools teach according to their own institutional interests.

Catholic schools teach that the Pope, bishops, and priests, and their moral teachings, hold the answers, and that a sacramental life is pretty important.

Evangelical Christian schools teach that the Bible holds the answers, and that personal salvation and godly behavior are necessary.

Prep schools teach that the elites of science, business, and government hold the answers, and that hard work and academic success are necessary to join that elite.

So, what should we expect government schools to teach?

My thoughtful correspondent from Florida believes she is able to control what goes on at her local government school, because she is heavily involved in it. But she is just one person, and the stories of school districts thumbing their nose at parents are legion. Just because it's never happened to her doesn't mean it won’t. And given the power of teachers unions, does she believe she could force the school board to change its mind (especially in a major city)?

Now I'm not disputing that her children can be a godly example in their government school, but I do believe that the costs and the benefits don’t add up to a net increase for salt and light in the world. Quite simply, I don’t believe children are qualified to be missionaries, and they are therefore more likely to be corrupted by the godless environment of the government schools than to effectively change that environment.

Missionaries must meet certain qualifications before they're sent into a mission field. Children do not meet those qualifications. I would like my Florida correspondent, and other concerned parents like her, to seriously consider whether their children will be able to detect when they’re being brainwashed by environmentalism, drug-war propaganda, relative value systems, sex-ed, and diversity training.

Government schools naturally teach children to trust government, and learning to trust government means learning to question parental authority, worship Mother Earth, worship the state (hence the Pledge of Allegiance), and accept as normal that Heather Has Two Mommies.

It seems clear to me that home-schooled and Christian-schooled children can provide more salt and light to the world than government-schooled Christian kids for the simple reason that they are being trained all day, every day, to do exactly that.

Finally, we need to recognize that government schools are based on compulsion. They confiscate the wealth of people without children, and even worse, those who have kids but who are not using the system. In other words, Christian parents who feel God is leading them to teach their children elsewhere are forced to pay twice! The compulsion and confiscation of the government schools violates everything we Christians are supposed to believe in.

How can we end this immoral system?

If all Christian parents would remove their children then the system would collapse, and the money confiscated by the government schools would instead flow toward private, and godlier alternatives. This sea-change would be a sign that Christians have truly accepted their calling to be salt and light, and that God has jurisdiction over both the rearing of our children and our pocketbooks.

Link to article HERE.

[Illbay]

But, I will stick with keeping them close, taking the time and making the sacrifices to do my best to try to keep the sludge oot of their minds and hearts for as long as possible.

I have no argument with this. My problem is with the doctrinaire statement like "Christians who send their kids to public schools are commiting evil."

That's just balderdash. Compared to the things you can and should be doing for the religious and moral education of your children, "public school" is a pale shadow.

The problem isn't that kids are exposed to evil. The problem is they aren't properly prepared for the experience.

[RnMomof7]

Sounds like a plan to me. :>)

[don-o]

I think you realize the obvious, but can't put your finger on it.

Did you actually read my post?

I thought I had my finger right on it.

[Jerry_M]

Re. 77.

LOL!

(Are you sure that we are more heavily armed than OPie?)

[George W. Bush]

(Are you sure that we are more heavily armed than OPie?)

Last I knew, after giving a small-caliber rifle to his brother, he got mugged and bought a small-calibre pistol.

At least, that's the way I recall it.

We, by comparison, have between us a number of assault rifles, hunting rifles, shotguns and large-caliber pistols (e.g. my sweet Glock .040 with Glaser slugs). And I've been seriously shopping for Russian night-vision "hunting" gear and laser sights. For those run-of-the-mill nightime urban assaults self-protection needs.

I would observe that, generally speaking, the modern Presbyteries are't as well-armed as their forbears a few hundred years ago.

[meadsjn]

You are fortunate that your experience with your local public school system has been positive for you and your children. That is not the case for other people or in other places.

Your assumption that homeschooled children are "shut away from the world" is wrong, at least of the homeschoolers I know (and according to recent articles on homeschooling). Even 30-40 years ago, public school was the worst place to learn about acceptable behavior, and it is much worse now. Most kids in public school spend more waking hours under the influence of peers and bureaucracy, than they spend with either or both parents. Parents either go along with everything the kids pick up at school, or they are fighting a losing battle.

If parents want their children to attend public school, that is their business. Should the parents choose another path for their childrens' education, that is also their business. Both sets should pay their own way.

[RMrattlesnake]

My kids will never get near a goverment school gun free zone

[ohioWfan]

It's a lot more than the eighth commandment, and you know it. It's your political ideology that if you don't use the public schools, you shouldn't have to pay for them.

It would be silly for me to continue this conversation, because you are clearly too arrogant to even consider another opinion other than your own. Your argument has gaping holes in it, but you'll never see them because you're too full of yourself.

I have been called many things by narrow minded ideologues on this forum, but you are the very first to call my husband and me immoral for sending our kids to public schools. The inanity of that accusation should have kept me from even trying to have a rational dialogue with you. To you I'm just stupid and immoral, even though I have raised 4 children who will make this world a better place with their moral strength, courage, commitment and patriotism. You are, in a word, pathetic.

btw, please stop pretending that your very political opinion is backed up by Scripture. It isn't and even the most rudimentary study of Scripture should have told you that.

[ohioWfan]

Can you refer me to the Bible passage that says this? No? Oops -- must have been sourced from some nasty propaganda you read.

I'll give you three. There are plenty more, but I'll let you find them if you're interested.

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest (Jesus Christ) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin........We are sinners. Jesus Christ is not.

I John 3: 4 & 5 Everyone you sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin.

Romans 3: 23, 24 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus

No preaching, just Scripture.

I'm going to ignore the fact that you said my husband and I were evil, because I'm sure you can't possibly really believe that. I would hope that since you posted that you recognize how twisted that kind of thinking is.

[homeschool mama]

You are completely and totally out of line with your ignorant stream of rhetoric, meadsjn. To accuse someone of being evil for having children in the public school system is nothing short of ridiculous. You should be ashamed. Go crawl back under your rock.

[ppaul]

We respect others' choices, based on what God leads them to do. It would be nice if others (who claim to be Christians) would do the same for us.

Of course, most FReepers, me included, respect you and your opinions. But it isn't an issue of respect, really. Our country has gone to hell in a hand-basket, for the most part, because for the last three decades, the majority of citizens have been indoctrinated in our government school system, in a philosophical mold based upon a Hellnistic model and the civil religion of our time, secular humanism. A Christian, or any conservative for that matter, has to be blind or totally ignorant not to see what effect all this has had on our society and culture. Have you ever listened to the Sean Hannity program, when he does his "man in the street" interviews? Most graduates of our government schools have no knowledge of our nation's history, it's founders, the core beliefs upon which our nation was founded. Instead, they have been indoctrinated in "tolerance" of perversion, worship of the earth, ecofeminism, you name it. It is not that you are not respected. It is that we're trying to effect a paradigm shift in our culture and society. The only way for that to really happen is for committed, courageous parents to remove their children from the propaganda mills. The government indoctrination system is too far gone. Throwing our precious little ones, the nation's future, into these cesspools is akin to throwing sheep into a pack of wolves. A decade ago, I might have been persuaded otherwise. No more.

[ppaul]

Jefferson was talking about the COMPULSORY CONTRIBUTIONS TO RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS

Ahh, yes. But then a religious OPINION is just that - an opinion. And the government schools inculcate THIER opionions, their religion, if you will, into the little minds placed in their charge, which, for the most part, are opinions which run counter to the opinions of at least most FReepers, and undermine our free republic.

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