I don’t usually talk much about the government schools, because our focus is in doing what God has called us to do. I prefer to talk about what we are doing and why we are doing it, as opposed to what we aren’t in this area.
This article will probably be considered quite strong. I feel very strongly about this. It is not my intention to offend anyone. We do not educate our children at home because of “how bad” the government schools are, but because we have been given a job to do by God. But learning about the government school system (as well as what God has to say) was a part of our realizing what that job is, and why it is so important that we obey Him in this. If reading anything negative about this system offends you, PLEASE don’t read on.
For our new readers, I promise my articles are usually not this “heavy”.
It is only by His grace that I stand at all, and I humbly present the following.
What will become of the “public schools” if all Christians start home educating their families? What will become of the government schools system is exactly what it already is, an anti-God, anti-family, anti-absolutes, amoral, ad infintum … system of passing on that corrupt culture and its values to our nation’s children. It is an unsafe place spiritually, socially, and emotionally, and for many, also physically. I personally see no problem with the schools “not getting enough money” due to lower student numbers. They should need far less money then anyhow. Shouldn’t they? In addition, it is not the responsibility of the government to provide “free education” at the forced expense of all. Already many without children in the system are paying for those that are in the system, those whose children have already completed their education are still paying, those of us with no children in the system are still paying, and the price just keeps getting higher and higher and the results keep getting lower and lower. The system is NOT working (except in the sense of indoctrinating students in anti-God and anti-scriptural philosophies – their true goal). Academic achievement is extremely down (see John Gotto’s book “Dumbing Us Down”). Yet the cost keeps getting higher, even as more and more children leave the system, they just increase our taxes – and keep adding more “provisions” to take more responsibility (authority) away from the parents. (Younger ages, before and after school programs, and more and more and more. It isn’t about literacy – reading, writing, and arithmetic.)
If all that ends up being left is the “rotten kids”, praise God! most parents will have once again taken interest and responsibility for their own children. Then very little money will be needed to finance these schools, right? Well, we all know better than that, as the “rotten” ones always cost the most (and many times get the best benefits – don’t our jail systems prove that?) (It is because we are forced to pay such high taxes to pay for the system, that we can’t afford to offer our own children at home the same “benefits” the government schools can.)
As for the “good” teachers leaving, I think that’s a good point in all of this. The American government school system is a God-less place, a dark place, a very hostile place to Christianity – perhaps a MISSION field for some, a very harsh, and combative mission field – not a place to send our partially trained youngsters alone without our shelter right there over them (more on this later). Even as a mission field for adults there is the problem that it is illegal to evangelize there, but just as Christians go in and evangelize in other “illegal” places, so I have known Christians that feel called into this place as teachers, hoping to make a difference in the lives of these kids whose parents don’t take their own responsibility. These people would not leave because of the “rotten kids”. They are there because of them. They do not believe in the system; they see it for what it is. There is also the problem that their employer is the system. The system is paying them to do a job that will achieve the system’s goals. Yet, as a Christian they cannot do what the system has employed them to do. Yet, on the other hand, as a Christian they are to be loyal to their employer, an impossibility in this situation. Perhaps within certain local jurisdictions, they are able to do what they have been hired to do without violating Biblical principles or God’s mandates. This is a hard one.
Along these lines of Christian children in the system, I really liked the analogy given by someone else on this, that children, like growing plants that are beyond the “2 leaf stage” can be recognized for what they are becoming, but they aren’t bearing fruit yet, they cannot reproduce themselves. Reproduction requires maturity. What a great argument against those that throw their children into this God-less system to be “salt and light”. These children are not mature enough to go into such a hostile battlefield in enemy territory and fight against it. Most of these children with Christian parents are not getting a daily focus on Biblical Christian training at home, certainly not in the same quantity of the opposite they are getting in the system. But even if they are, they are not mature and fully developed – mature fruit is not in their own lives yet, let alone the ability to reproduce it in others. (I will not argue against God, in His own Sovereignty has used kids in government schools to lead others of their friends to the Lord. Yes, it happens, but it is not the norm, and growth and good fruit is not the necessarily the end result.)
I can’t emphasize enough that if people are sending their kids to these schools, it is for the purpose of the children being educated by this system!!! They claim they are sending them in to be “salt and light”, but that isn’t the reason they are there. They are there to receive an education. Then parents get mad that their children receive the education that is offered there – amoral, anti-God, anti-parent, anti-any AUTHORITY and absolutes, anti-family, etc……
How many adult Christians are, in their work place, turning the place upside down through evangelism and Christian discipleship? Yet, that environment – the workplace, is not a place that was formed for shaping the beliefs and teaching the philsophies of life – and we still as mature adult Christians aren’t making vast inroads into the American workplace – evangelizing fathers to put God first, live by Biblical principles, and take repsonsibility for and leadership in their families for Christ; evangelizing mothers, and discipling them to their proper role in the family, and turning the hearts of both moms and dads fully to their children and what is best for the family, not what they WANT to do as individuals.
We are failing in the evangelism of men, the leaders of the family, yet we expect kids to go into an environment that is set up to shape the impressionable minds of children, and to shape them against God, and parents put them in to be “salt and light”? Where is our thinking??!!! Salt cannot preserve something that is already rotten. And our nation’s Christian children are the victims of this illogical thinking. The goal of many of the founders of government education as we know it today was to take away the authority of Christian parents and replace and undermine it with their teaching of secular humanism. The founders of this system were not Godly men. Such men as Horace Mann, John Dewey, G. Stanley Hall had a ungodly agenda, and it is being carried out in the government school system today.
Some recent statistics from Promise Keepers (I’m not sure where the research came from, if it was from Barna research stats – that’s my guess, but I didn’t ask. And I’m not positive of the exact numbers, but these are within the “decade” anyhow.) 60-some percent (or maybe it was higher) of over age 65 Americans consider themselves Christians. 40-some percent of middle aged (I forgot the exact ages), something like 18% of young adults, and only 6% of those aged 6- 18!!! This tells me that Christian parents are not doing a good job of passing on their faith to their kids, and I fully believe that the anti-God government schools they are sending their kids to are the major reason. These kids are being totally trained in the world’s values and very few Christian parents are countering that at all – outside of making them go to church an hour a week – well, at least until they are teens, and rebel and won’t go anymore.
Even the parents that are trying to disciple their children in God’s ways at home, but still are putting their kids in the government schools are passing the unspoken message that the system is the expert, that they (the parents) aren’t capable of teaching their own children but that’s the system’s job with its educational experts. You can’t tell your kids that the teacher (in the system) is there to teach them, that they need to go to the system to be taught, and then tell them not to believe what they are taught. I see it over and over, and statistics bear it out, these kids do not keep the faith of their parents most of the time. Many (most!) rebel, some come back after a time – but very few have a Biblical way of life and thinking. They mix their “Christianity” with their worldly beliefs creating a lukewarm, nominal “Christian” who lives and thinks just like the world and wanders through life confused and without purpose – putting God and Christianity along with their belief in the Bible into their Sun. morning box; and living the rest of their week in relative humanism and evolutionistic beliefs. They don’t train their children in God’s ways because they don’t know them to be True themselves. They live a fragmented life – as a double-minded man, not knowing what to believe.
Another statistic. This comes from the Nehemiah Institute, on the PEERS test, an evaluation of Biblical Worldview and thinking in Politics, Economics, Education, Religion, and Social Issues. (See the earlier post entitled “Testing, Testing” for more info on the PEERS test.) These stats are for Christian adults and Christian School students (I don’t know if there are stats for government school students, none are given in the paper I have.) I would gather that the people taking this test are people that are interested in having a Biblical Worldview – that want to live and think and make decisions based upon the Truth that scripture gives us for all of life, as they are “Christians”, yet here are the results. The categories being: Biblical Theism, then Moderate Christian, then Secular Humanism, then Socialism. Christian adult’s average score is in the middle of the “Moderate Christian” worldview (in the combined score of the 5 areas tested). All of this group’s individual 5 area scores are within the “Moderate Christian” category. Christian School students score just barely into the “Moderate Christian” category, only 2% away from “Secular Humanism” in their thinking. This is their overall score in the 5 areas combined. They score well into the “Secular Humanism” category in Politics (the lowest of their percentages, 1/2 way down into this category), as well as in Economics and Education. Only in Religion do they make it midway into the “Moderate Christian” category, and their thinking on Social Issues is in the bottom 1/4 of the “Moderate Christian” category. Over 5% of Christians, (ministry leaders, adults, and Christian School students) that are interested in assessing their Worldview thinking, score in the Socialism category, and nearly 20% do not score up into either of the “Christian” categories (Biblical or Moderate). Nearly two-thirds of Christians (that are interested in having a Biblical Worldview) do not have a way of thinking that lines up with the Bible they claim to follow.
Our children are not just statistics, and none of us want to be categorized with status quo (I hope), but these statistics do point out that Christian adults aren’t raising their children in Christian values and worldview in this society we live in. It is difficult to instill those Christian values when all of society around us is combatting against them. It is also difficult because many Christian parents were not raised with those values intact. We were raised in a more “Christian professing” society, but even by our generation Christianity had taken on a nominal status and was being mixed with the world’s views. We as parents have had to learn Biblical Theism (belief in what the Bible says and living our lives accordingly) as adults. Although, from these results most Christian adults have not done this themselves, and even the moderate beliefs that most Christian adults have, are not being passed on intact to their children, even for their children in Christian schools where the Bible is not only allowed but is taught, these Biblical beliefs are deteriorating.
One more closing statistic (this one from Promise Keepers again) on where our evangelistic efforts have the greatest return. If a man comes to Christ there is a 92% chance that the family will come to Christ. For the remaining 2 stats about this I am unsure of which is which, I heard both ways and have been unable to verify which way it is yet. But the point is, there is a vast difference in outcome between leading a man to Christ, and another member of the family. The other percentages are: If the woman (wife/mom) (or perhaps it was teen, but I don’t think so) comes to Christ there’s a 31% chance of the family coming to Christ. If the teen comes to Christ there’s an 18% chance of the family coming to Christ. The point is there is a *FAR* greater impact of leading a man (head of a family) to Jesus, than leading the children or mother.
This is NOT to say that we shouldn’t lead moms and kids to the Lord. By all means, reach who you can, and by God’s grace they will reach others!! But another startling statistic is 82% of all Christian kids lose their faith when they go to college. Even by college age they are not strong enough to withstand the pressure of an educational system and the peer pressure there, to live their faith, let alone stand up for it. We have got to do *everything* we can to strengthen our children’s faith and give them a solidly Biblical worldview while they are under our care, that when they become adults and have to stand on their own, they will have the Rock Solid foundation of Jesus and His Word – the full teaching of the Bible that gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness – to stand on, and they will not slip and fall.
One closing comment on looking out for our own family and “not others” – as sometimes home educators are accused of “selfishly” doing. If all the other children are in the burning arms of Molech will you (any of us) put your children there too – unknowingly is bad enough, but purposely!? Do you not first care for your own children, then when their well-being is secure (and as that security is continually protected) you reach out to help others as you can. *But* you cannot rescue all the other children. God did not give you all the other children to care for. He gave you yours. He gave the others to their parents, and *they alone*, Christian or not, will be accountable for how they cared for them. Our hearts go out to those kids whose parents continue to try to defy God and His Word, and refuse to listen to and obey His council, for their children are being greatly harmed by it. They are the victims of their parents defiance of God and His Word. We must do what we can, but what we cannot do is usurp the authority of those parents over their own children.
I want to close with the opening paragraph of a book that I haven’t re-read in a long time, “Is Public Education Necessary?” by Samuel Blumenfeld (who also wrote “NEA Trojan Horse in American Education”). “It has been four years since the first publication of this book and everything that has happened in public education since then has proven my thesis to be correct: that not only is public education not necessary, but its continued existence makes true education for the vast majority of American children an impossibility, and it poses a threat to this country’s future freedom and security.”
