Another Biblical case for homeschooling
We looked at the following Scripture in church last night: Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV)
This is normally used as a reference to not marrying unbelievers, but as Pastor Michael Jones pointed out it also pertains to entering business agreements with unbelievers. Any time you partner with unbelievers, even if it is an unbelieving institution, you invariably have to compromise. I don’t run my bank like a Christian banker, but as a banker who is also Christian because this is not my business and not my money. When someone has a hard luck story, I would love to help them out but I can’t. So it is inevitable that whatever partnerships we make with the unbelieving world will require some sort of compromise, and schooling is no exception.
One of the most important duties for any parents, and especially a Christian parent, is the proper rearing of our children. For the Christians this means a good education through a Christian worldview where Scripture knowledge is an integral part of that education. In spite of this, we still see millions of children from Christian homes sent off to public schools where they are taught from a decidedly secular worldview that is in many ways in open opposition to Biblical truth.
Why do we allow ourselves to be yoked in this way? The reasons typically given are myriad and none of them are good ones:
• I am not qualified to homeschool my kid. Like the average public school teacher is? Who is more qualified to educate your child, someone with an education degree that is five years removed from their senior prom or someone who has loved and cared for your child their entire life. Education is more than being able to do a lesson plan and assign worksheets.
• I can’t afford Christian private school. This one is true. Churches aren’t, for the most part, doing much to help Christian parents. Again, we spend tons of money on missionaries in foreign nations and on VBS but we refuse to sponsor Christian schools. Most churches have way more room than they ever use, and the really big churches especially should sponsor a Christian school or an academy for homeschoolers and look at that as an opportunity to evangelize children and perhaps even subsidize those who can't afford full tuition. Again, where better to spend your resources, on kids that come to your church every week or on kids whose parents are looking for a free babysitter for a week?
• I went to public school and I turned out OK. People who come out of public schools unscathed are the exception rather than the rule. This would be analogous to “I got bitten by a Rottweiler once and I turned out OK, so I am going to drop my kid into a junkyard” The lifestyle in a public school is not one that lends itself to a Christian worldview very often.
• My kids need socialization. Very true, but doesn’t it make sense to dictate how that socialization happens? Not to exaggerate the issue, but the overwhelming majority of kids in public school today are from non-Christian, non-church going families. I just don't see how sending kids into a peer driven environment when the peer group is either ungrounded in or hostile to the worldview we are developing in our children makes sense. The play ground at a public school, the school bus, etc are virtual free for alls, with Lord of the Flies rules. Is that really the socialization we want?
• My kids are missionaries, salt and light in the public school. Just as we shouldn’t send brand new Christians out in the mission field nor should we send our children off to be indoctrinated in a system that seeks, as a whole, to develop a different worldview in direct conflict with the one taught at home and church (not every teacher, and not every school is part of this, but the system as a whole and the philosophy behind the system is equally hostile to the Christian worldview)
Those are not valid reasons for a Christian parent to send their child off, in their most formative and vulnerable years, to an institution that is beset with problems of behavior, morality, worldview and a general apathy from parents, students, teachers and administrators. Despite the protests to the contrary, it is just easier to send kids to public school. It is free and it is easy, just bundle them up and get them on the bus each morning. But as I have said before, it is not the easy things we are called to, the comfortable things. Being a Christian and living the Christian life is a difficult endeavour in this world and normally requires us to not seek the path of least resistance.
When a child becomes an adult, they better be equipped to handle the outside world, to contend earnestly for the faith, to stand up to the world, the flesh and the Enemy. We should do all we can to equip them for that reality, but throwing them to the secular wolves as children is not the way to accomplish that goal. Who do you want forming your child's worldview and moral compass, you or the institutional, secular school. Who cares more for your child's soul, you or the NEA? Who is commanded to raise up your children, you or the local middle school?
We looked at the following Scripture in church last night: Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV)
This is normally used as a reference to not marrying unbelievers, but as Pastor Michael Jones pointed out it also pertains to entering business agreements with unbelievers. Any time you partner with unbelievers, even if it is an unbelieving institution, you invariably have to compromise. I don’t run my bank like a Christian banker, but as a banker who is also Christian because this is not my business and not my money. When someone has a hard luck story, I would love to help them out but I can’t. So it is inevitable that whatever partnerships we make with the unbelieving world will require some sort of compromise, and schooling is no exception.
One of the most important duties for any parents, and especially a Christian parent, is the proper rearing of our children. For the Christians this means a good education through a Christian worldview where Scripture knowledge is an integral part of that education. In spite of this, we still see millions of children from Christian homes sent off to public schools where they are taught from a decidedly secular worldview that is in many ways in open opposition to Biblical truth.
Why do we allow ourselves to be yoked in this way? The reasons typically given are myriad and none of them are good ones:
• I am not qualified to homeschool my kid. Like the average public school teacher is? Who is more qualified to educate your child, someone with an education degree that is five years removed from their senior prom or someone who has loved and cared for your child their entire life. Education is more than being able to do a lesson plan and assign worksheets.
• I can’t afford Christian private school. This one is true. Churches aren’t, for the most part, doing much to help Christian parents. Again, we spend tons of money on missionaries in foreign nations and on VBS but we refuse to sponsor Christian schools. Most churches have way more room than they ever use, and the really big churches especially should sponsor a Christian school or an academy for homeschoolers and look at that as an opportunity to evangelize children and perhaps even subsidize those who can't afford full tuition. Again, where better to spend your resources, on kids that come to your church every week or on kids whose parents are looking for a free babysitter for a week?
• I went to public school and I turned out OK. People who come out of public schools unscathed are the exception rather than the rule. This would be analogous to “I got bitten by a Rottweiler once and I turned out OK, so I am going to drop my kid into a junkyard” The lifestyle in a public school is not one that lends itself to a Christian worldview very often.
• My kids need socialization. Very true, but doesn’t it make sense to dictate how that socialization happens? Not to exaggerate the issue, but the overwhelming majority of kids in public school today are from non-Christian, non-church going families. I just don't see how sending kids into a peer driven environment when the peer group is either ungrounded in or hostile to the worldview we are developing in our children makes sense. The play ground at a public school, the school bus, etc are virtual free for alls, with Lord of the Flies rules. Is that really the socialization we want?
• My kids are missionaries, salt and light in the public school. Just as we shouldn’t send brand new Christians out in the mission field nor should we send our children off to be indoctrinated in a system that seeks, as a whole, to develop a different worldview in direct conflict with the one taught at home and church (not every teacher, and not every school is part of this, but the system as a whole and the philosophy behind the system is equally hostile to the Christian worldview)
Those are not valid reasons for a Christian parent to send their child off, in their most formative and vulnerable years, to an institution that is beset with problems of behavior, morality, worldview and a general apathy from parents, students, teachers and administrators. Despite the protests to the contrary, it is just easier to send kids to public school. It is free and it is easy, just bundle them up and get them on the bus each morning. But as I have said before, it is not the easy things we are called to, the comfortable things. Being a Christian and living the Christian life is a difficult endeavour in this world and normally requires us to not seek the path of least resistance.
When a child becomes an adult, they better be equipped to handle the outside world, to contend earnestly for the faith, to stand up to the world, the flesh and the Enemy. We should do all we can to equip them for that reality, but throwing them to the secular wolves as children is not the way to accomplish that goal. Who do you want forming your child's worldview and moral compass, you or the institutional, secular school. Who cares more for your child's soul, you or the NEA? Who is commanded to raise up your children, you or the local middle school?
2 comments:
For a more detailed look at the "apologetic" for Christian schooling, please visit www.DiscoverChristianSchools.com.
Arthur,
You were very thorough here, thank you.
As for "I went to public school and I turned out OK." This is sort of a circular argument anyway, becuase who taught you what is "OK" in the first place - right, it was the public school.
Bethany
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