For anyone– homeschoolers especially– the Internet is a massive library. Its bookshelves are endless and full—not only with books, but with magazines and research papers. And it’s a library teeming with experts anticipating every need.
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We’ve come full circle from the earliest days of education. Parents, not governments, are responsible for providing education for their children. It was given to parents to teach all sorts of things all throughout history– which is not to say that the parent did not have help of some teachers of specific fields– but parents used to be the only source of education for a student.
As an answer to parent’s desire to send their children to a place where they could receive better and more Biblical training, churches and other organizations created private schools with a Christian curriculum. These schools vary in purpose from those that are primarily an edification arm of a church to those that are independent and funded only by tuition to those that are evangelistically minded.
A Christian cannot avoid being in the world. They were born into the world a sinner, they were saved from sin but still influenced by it and struggling to become more like Christ along the way. Very seldom throughout their life will they have the opportunity to have just Christians around. They will have to be able to stand for their faith against people that either couldn’t care about it or that are antagonistic to it.
There are two basic reasons that I believe that Christian parents send their children to public schools.
“You cheated!” I hear you say. “You loaded a lot of reasons into the first one!” Actually, I group all of them together because the first option is based soley on “practical matters” or non-spiritual ones. That decision is made with the priority of the child’s spiritual life lower on the list than other factors.
Those that choose the second option believe that they are actually helping their child spiritually, and therefore are choosing the education format to help them to grow into good defenders of the faith.
So, what do the parents want out of the Public School system? They want the expected product– they want their child to know their subjects, to be good citizens of their community and they are counting on a system that thousands of kids pass through each year.
The spiritually minded parents also want their child to be exposed to the logic of the world, but to have the opportunity to stand against it– to hone their logic and other skills to the point that they will be able to stand against other temptations down the road.
How well do they get what they are looking for?
America’s public schools are continually getting poor reviews, and not beacuse of a lack of money. Every year the governments (local, state, federal) continue to put more and more money into the system, but the grades do not seem to improve. We’re constantly reading about testing being altered and systems being put in place to help students, but we also read about children leaving high school not being able to read and write.
Systemically, the public school faces a big problem from too much direction and too much liberal influence. With the desire to get kids through, and with the size of classes, children get overlooked and enter society at a large disadvantage.
If the Christian parent is involved with the child’s education he can certainly learn his subjects well and come out better than average, however. The quality of education, regardless of the location, depends a lot upon the parent’s involvement.
As for Biblical upbringing, this falls heavily on the parents because they not only have to give Bible training, but help guide the child to make godly decisions when everything they see around them is contrary. There is the benefit that you can say that “everything around you is wrong”– a way to identify wrong and keep the child away from it, but the trade off is the things that the child will be exposed to that they might not be with one of the other schooling options.
Should you send your Christian child to a public school? Only if you want to be really involved with the child’s classes, teachers, school board, peers, and you will take the time to make sure the child knows what is godly and what is not. You will also need to make sure that you provide good, solid Biblical education to them because they will be hearing all sorts of things that run contrary to the Bible in the school– and if you’re not telling them differently why shouldn’t they believe their teachers?
I have to believe that every Christian parent would desire that their child have a love for the Lord. It’s debatable whether they’d actually desire that their child go into the ministry or be a missionary, but I’m sure that they desire for them to have the same or more love for God as they do.
The question that faces every parent is how to best raise their child to have that desire– especially in the area of education. Read the rest of this entry »
The other day, acting on a strange impulse, I hurriedly wrote the following on my calendar: “Ran to town over the LUNCH HOUR to pick up prescription for 6 yo, ran by library, dump and grocery store.” Why did I do this? Documentation.
Our home state is reasonably relaxed when it comes to homeschoolers, but no state is safe. Did you know that based on an anonymous tip alone, you can be falsely accused of child abuse and have your children taken from you? Don’t tick anyone off that resents your choice to homeschool.
Here’s what you need to know. The Fourth Amendment protects you. No matter where in the USA you live, a social worker does not have permission to enter your home unless they have a signed warrant from a judge. Some social workers don’t even know that they lack the right to forcibly enter your home, they’ll bully and intimidate. Call their bluff. The Fourth Amendment right to freedom protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures.
They’ll try the courteous route, assuring you that all will be solved (whatever alleged abuse you’re accused of) if you’ll just let them in to discuss it. Huh-uh. Let them in without an official warrant and they’ll find something to pin on you. A messy house, ‘mal-nourished’ child—yes, these are real accusations against homeschoolers. Worse, your children will be traumatized.
If a suspicious neighbor was the one to “anonymously” tip the authorities that she saw a bruise on your child, the social worker may insist on strip-searching all your children. Don’t let them through the door. They can’t get a warrant—even from an anonymous tip or simply suspicion of abuse. But once you let them in your house, you’ve waived your rights and they can get a warrant to take your children away…because they’ll invent “probable cause” by observing your surroundings.
So if one comes to your door? Get their business card. Find out the allegations. Ignore all attempts at intimidation. Calmly tell them that you have nothing to hide, but in the best interests of your children you’ll get in touch with them after you speak with your attorney.
Lack of supervision and having your children outside during school hours are the two most common allegations of educational neglect against homeschoolers. Thus my hastily jotted note to myself on the calendar. At the dump, I got the third degree for having my children out and about. I admit, it rattled me.
Nothing like homeschooling to keep this sahm home. :O)
What a sad story. This past week we’ve seen the ultimate in school killings it seems.
The target: a group of innocent girls in a schoolhouse amongst people that don’t believe in using modern devices in accordance to their religion.
The attacker: a man who was disturbed because he molested some family members a while back and wanted to do it again.
What started out as a normal day at this schoolhouse turned out to be anything but that. As time progresses from what happened last week, we hear more and more about what happened then, and in the days before.
He was a disturbed man– married with three children, he felt tortured by memories that he had molested family members twenty years ago with a desire to carry out those dreams again. If true, he decided that, rather than face those feeling and beat them back, he would live them out.
His intent when he burst into Georgetown Amish School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, armed to the teeth and equipped for a lengthy siege, was to act out those fantasies on the young classmates.
Instead, panicked by the arrival of police, he began executing them before turning the gun on himself.
However, the story doesn’t seem to ring true– at least the part about the molestation in his past. As it turns out, the two people that he named claim that no such thing happened. In fact, they claim that they had no contact with the man.
In either case, the story of what went on in that schoolhouse is chilling. This man was the regular milk truck driver, and the kids would have known him. We know now that he was planning this for some time and had things prepared for a lengthy stay where he would have taken advantage of these girls.
We know that the morning of the attack, they hung a sign in the room saying “Visitors Brighten People’s Day.” He entered the room, displaying his weapon, and sent the boys and adults out of the room. After that, as the attack unfolded, an Amish girl named Marian Fisher displayed great courage for her age, asking that she be killed first to give the younger ones more time.
When the deputy coroner reached the Amish schoolhouse, she found blood on every desk, every window broken and the body of a young girl slumped beneath the chalkboard. Ten children had been shot, five fatally, and the gunman was dead.
“It was horrible. I don’t know how else to explain it,” Amanda Shelley, deputy Lancaster County coroner, said Wednesday. “I hope to never see anything like that again in my life.”
The Amish are taking it well. They praise the girl’s courage. They seek to help the family, and let God be judge. Then there are those that want to give Baptists bad names.
Shirley Phelps-Roper of Westboro Baptist church was going to protest the funeral of the Amish. She believes that the Amish were recipients of God’s wrath.
She tries to say that what she’s doing is merciful, since you can only minister to people who are alive and telling them that they are wrong is the only way they can get right.
Now, I don’t know a lot about the Amish beyond that I know that they do not believe in the One True God like I do. However, this is a sensitive time and I’m not going to be boycotting anyone’s funeral. This woman gives Baptists a bad name, however, boycotting funerals of service men, the Amish, and preaching that only those that go to her church glorify God.
It’s the last thing we learned from this event– yes this is an opportunity to reach out and provide comfort– even to spread the Gospel. It’s not a time to seek self-aggrandizement through television and radio in the name of the Gospel of truth.
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