Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Biblical Case Against Public Schooling


Can any parent tell me how they can justify sending their children to a place where strangers  {who most are not solid believers} will be given full authority over their children and are mandated to not even mention the name of Jesus when teaching their children? I just cannot fathom this anymore. Yes, we sent our children to public school for elementary school, Alyssa went to public junior high and one semester of public high school before she was fed up with the garbage being spewed there, and Cassi went to several months of public junior high before we felt she was going in the wrong direction and pulled her out.

I know better now. I can't justify biblically how Christian parents can send their children someplace and be taught by unbelievers. Read carefully these verses and tell me how this cannot be speaking against a place like public schools ~

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18

I love what John MacArthur wrote on his blog yesterday, "Christian parents today need to own this simple principle. Before the throne of God we will be held accountable if we have turned our children over to other influences that shape their character in ungodly ways. God has placed in OUR hands the responsibility of bringing our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and we will give account to God for our stewardship of this great gift. If others have more influence on our children than we, we are culpable, not excusable, on those grounds."

If you think that your children need to go to public schooling for socialization, this is what Kelly Crawford says about this and she is homeschooling her nine children. "The practice of grouping same-age kids together for large amounts of time is new. Not to us, but in the course of history, it is only been the last 100 or so years that this 'experiment' in human behavior has been conducted. Previously, kids of all ages intermingled, and for shorter amounts of time. Before that, families were the primary social group and children were taught social skills (how to become an adult) from adults...we’re told that if want to raise our children to be wise, we should be making sure they are 'walking with the wise', as in living among them, associating with them regularly, and observing them."

There are so many good resources now to make homeschooling your children fairly easy. However, nothing worthwhile is easy. In fact, being a godly wife, mother, and homemaker are hard and take LOTS of hard work but hard doesn't mean it isn't the right or biblical way.  As Christians, we are called to walk the narrow, difficult path for it is the only path that leads to abundant life and God gives us never-ending grace for the hard. We need to begin taking seriously our mission to raise godly offspring. This begins with training them in the ways of the Lord from the time they are born until the day they leave your home for good. This is a ministry that has eternal consequences.

Comments (37)

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I couldn't agree more!!! We have been homeschooling for 7 years and plan on continuing through our children's school years. We believe it to be our responsibility to teach and train them up. We attend a Christian co-op twice a month where other like-minded families (there are about 50 families involved) meet. We have classes and the children have great friends there. We are also fortunate that almost all the families, that attend the same church as we do, homeschool!

I was amazed, just today, at how much *I* learn through my children's schooling! I graduated high school with honors (I went to public school). Yet, I never knew the truth about Abraham Lincoln. His Emancipation Proclamation was not about freeing slaves. According to his own words, he was quite indifferent about whether slaves were free or not. All he wanted to do was save the union. I grew up believing he was this great abolitionist! :(
1 reply · active 516 weeks ago
I am a homeschooling mom of 4 and I am grateful that this country allows us to do so. But consider this, the majority of Christians in this world live in countries that have only public education and that is the only option. And those countries are not even Christian!!! Yet, God and parents are raising up his children through it all. So, is the homeschooling Bible mandated, no. Are we blessed that we can do it, definitely yes.
4 replies · active 516 weeks ago
Thank you for posting this. I have been told how could I keep my children form "the mission field" of public school. It frustrates me when Christian parents say that because it is not their mission field, they are children. There is a site that went more into this http://www.freehomeschooldeals.com/public-school-...

"When you send that child off to school today, you’re sending them into a pagan society.” Charles Stanley

It saddens me at the end of every summer when Pastors across America line children up in the altar to pray over them; then send the children out as sheep among the wolves. We wouldn’t drop our children off at a bar and tell them to go minister. It’s the same thing with America’s public school system. It’s a government run socialist bar serving up mixed drinks of secular humanism to our God given babies. ~pastor
1 reply · active 516 weeks ago
Our family is very blessed in our community. Our church supports our Christian school - in giving to it and praying for it on our church services. Families that really can't afford the tuition are subsidized by our church - who these families are is confidential. I was raised to start supporting Christian school as soon as I had a job. I know we will keep on giving until we die. I am thankful that I didn't homeschool - I would have if I needed to. I appreciate that our church, our families and our school are all on the same page. We are a Christian community - I think churches can have a wonderful impact on the Christian education of our children and that is a great help to many families.
1 reply · active 516 weeks ago
How do I justify sending my child to public school? Submission to my husband! While I would love to homeschool and have tried to (gently, calmly, politely, lovingly) explain my reasons to my husband, he REFUSES to even consider homeschooling. So, being a submissive wife, I am reluctantly, sorrowfully, and with great trepidation enrolling our daughter in public school. Oh, and before you ask, I have been praying about this, asking the Lord to change my husband's heart; however, at this point, he is still adamant about public school.

I am posting as a guest so I don't embarrass or upset my husband.
4 replies · active 516 weeks ago
Thank you, Lord, for this answer to prayer! I've been praying over the question to keep my daughter in public school, or move her to the new Christian Education school. I homeschooled our daughter for three years with constant ridicule from my husband, I gave into sending her to, "real", school, which she's finishing up her second year. This post came just in time, God's perfect timing!
3 replies · active 516 weeks ago
Excellent article ! After 20 years of homeschooling 10 children, I have a very sobering perspective. I will testify that homeschooling is an amazing tool and blessing from God, but Jesus Christ is our Savior and only hope. When I think of some of the greatest men of God such as Daniel I realize "for with God nothing is impossible". Of course, Daniel was placed in a pagan school by the enemies of God. Yet, we see that God had a redemptive plan. I almost always reccomend a godly home education, but I also understand that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. May we pray for all Christian parents as they seek to raise up a godly seed to the glory of God !
1 reply · active 516 weeks ago
My husband doesn't want our children to be homeschooled either. I'm torn on the issue. My kids are only in first grade and kindergarten, and both their teachers are wonderful and go to church with us, so honestly we have not had bad experiences in that regard. The hard thing for me is the other children they are exposed to who aren't raised well. We have had to have talks with my poor little first grader about things I never thought we'd have to talk about so soon, thanks to other kids saying certain things at school.
Slightly off the topic of homeschooling, but still frustrating, yesterday my first grader was on a field trip and they stopped at a city park for a picnic lunch. This is a nice park and we live in a very nice, religiously dominant city. But carved into the playground were the most VULGAR horrible obscene things. My first grader is quite a great reader, and came home and told me everything he read. I just wanted to vomit. How can I protect him if he's not even safe to play on a playground? It hurts my heart!
2 replies · active 516 weeks ago
What do you say to people when they assert that the quote below only has to do with business partners?"
"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18"
2 replies · active 516 weeks ago
I totally agree with you! I went both to public school and to a little private catholic school and I can tell you that you see the difference. In public school I had a few good teachers but in general I had the impression that they really didn't care about me, I was just a number. In the private school I had wonderful teachers, I'm sure I wouldn't be a Christian now if it wasn't for them, they really made me say 'wow I really want to be like this', they were role models. After this experience I decided that I will never send my children to public school, my parents did a lot of sacrifice to send me and my brothers to a private christian school and I'm willing to do the same, if necessary, because I think that if you want your children to deepen their faith, sending them in a place when they will have non-christian teachers and friends doesn't seem a good idea.
1 reply · active 516 weeks ago
I love the Biblical and family ideals on your blog! I am really thoughtful about homeschooling lately, as my oldest daughter has just turned 5. The issue is that my husband is a public school teacher, and has a master's degree that qualifies him to be a principal. We feel that if we homeschool, he will always be passed over for any promotions. We are currently a family of 5 on one income, a teachers salary, which is so low we qualify for some assistance, which is not how we desire to provide for our family long term. Any thoughts to ponder here? I do believe homeschooling would be best for our children, but see the conflict here as well. Right now I am just trying to rest in knowing that God will make a way or open a door where He wants us. I also am somewhat disabled with rheumatoid arthritis and have a two year old and infant in my care.
1 reply · active 516 weeks ago
We, too, had a mix in how our daughters were educated-they have gone to public, Christian, and eventually homeschooled. What finally brought our daughters home to be schooled for good was when my husband walked into our daughter's middle school to talk to her math teacher and heard the profanity that was freely spoken by the students, loudly and without shame. And the fact that she wasn't doing well in school and the teachers didn't seem to care a great deal. But I do remember that day when my husband came home he said, "That's it! She's coming home for good." She homeschooled one year and then went to Christian school for a couple more years and graduated from homeschool. I will never regret the sacrifices made to make this happen. Now my grandchildren will either homeschool or go to Christian school. Praise the Lord!
Please do not interpret what I'm going to say as a reason for parents to send their children to public school, because that is not why I'm raising this point.

It is not true that teachers cannot say the name of Jesus in their classrooms. In essence, I believe we are making the job of our silencers easier when we say that teachers (& students) are not allowed to speak about Christian things at school. If we say it, believe it, and convince others of it, then the detractors don't have to! We are doing Christian public school teachers a huge disservice when we say they cannot speak about their faith. Are they challenged about it at times? Yes! But that does not mean that they don't have rights in these areas. And we should be shouting about their rights from the rooftops!
Very good. I've been posting about this lately myself. My children (9 and 11) were in public school (not my choice, but life circumstances dictated it) and we all hated it.

I have a bunch of posts about the various aspects of government schooling, but the link below has my thoughts about how school is disruptive to family life. It has been about a month and a half since I posted that, and the deficiencies noted in that post have already been mostly ironed out. It amazes me how much more gets done in much less time when the children are not shut away in government indoctrination centres all day.

I am grateful that we don't have to do that anymore but also thankful for all the unintentional lessons we learned from the experience. I agree that there is no justification for sending children into such an environment.
https://notequalbutdifferent.wordpress.com/2015/0...
I have a slightly different take on this issue. My son, our only child, was accepted to and begged to go to a TAG Science/Math magnet school. We prayed about it and decided it was the right thing to do. It's an inner city school in a large city and the school is highly ranked nationally and is renowned for attracting millions of scholarship money.

He's thriving and doing things that I could never, ever teach him. His classmates are serious and well-behaved and the teachers are dedicated and involved. The scholarship money would be a huge financial blessing for us.

I guess my point is that, while I mostly applaud homeschooling, it's not always the right path. Just an observation -- no shade thrown at anyone.
Recently I read a book titled "Hold On to Your Kids" which made a great case how utterly unhealthy it is for kids to be together for prolonged periods of time without quality adult supervision and direction. This is the book that helped my husband and I decide to make changes in our lives so we can homeschool our children in a few years. They are currently attending public elementary school but will not continue their education in the public school system beyond that. As they are in school right now we are very intentional on not allowing them to develop close friendships with any of their classmates. So, no playdates, parties, after school events, etc. Peer orientation is strong enough in school we don't need more of it after hours. It's not as effective as removing them completely from that environment but it's what we can do right now. They do have occasional play dates with the kids in our church but mostly they spend time with us, which is the best!

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