Education is Discipleship
The Bible says, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10), which means that a belief in and reverence for God is foundational to any educational endeavor. Fortunately, Christian homeschooling is an option that includes both the content and methodology prescribed in Scripture.
In AD 197, an early church father named Tertullian asked, “What does Athens [the center of human wisdom] have to do with Jerusalem [the center of divine revelation]?” He then asked the question more directly: “What do heretics have to do with Christians?” In other words, if we are Christian and we want our children to become Christian and remain Christian, then why would we send them to Athens for their education? God is the Creator of all things and is the source of all truth, so why would we choose a form of education for our children that (by Law) excludes God from the discussion and indoctrinates our children to believe in secular humanism?
“SECULARISM is a philosophy that claims that there is no God-or that if there is a God, He is irrelevant. HUMANISM essentially says that in the absence of God, humans can and should act as gods by judging, choosing, and defining what is right for themselves. The philosophy pervading the public education system combines these two philosophies into one.”-Ken Ham, Genesis of a Legacy, p. 152
The Godless Legacy of John Dewey
Perhaps the greatest influencer of the government education system is John Dewey and in his book, A Common Faith, he outlined his vision to use the schools to radically secularize and advance the cause of humanism as the new dominant worldview in the United States by using the public schools to indoctrinate all students away from the faith of their parents.
“It has taken longer than Dewey expected, but this secularist faith is certainly explicit and militant now…. With control over the public school system increasingly in the hands of the courts, educational bureaucrats, the university-based education schools, and the powerful teachers’ unions, little hope for correction appears. Federal mandates, accreditation requirements, union demands, and the influence of the educational elite represent a combined force that is far greater than the localized influence of many school boards, not to mention parents. Those who doubt the radical commitments of groups such as the National Education Association should simply look at the organization’s public statements, policy positions, and initiatives.”-Dr. Al Mohler, president, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Louisville, KY
Reality vs. Blind Faith
Sending children to government schools and to church creates confusion in our children. They’ll spend a couple hours a week at church hearing one thing about ultimate reality and then they spend 30 or more hours a week in a government classroom hearing something different about ultimate reality. In church they play games, sing songs, and spend a fairly modest amount of time on a message that usually includes moralisms and never seems to be backed up by anything tangible in the minds of kids. Well meaning and faithful Sunday School teachers don’t always have solid answers to challenging questions either (even though they exist). Unfortunately, less than ten percent of Christian families pray together (except for blessing the food) or read the Bible together and less than one percent have a plan for intentionally passing on their faith to their children other than participation in church programs.
Meanwhile, in the public school classroom they’ll spend six or more hours every day learning things that are backed up by observation and tests (observational science) as well as by things that are backed up only by anti-theistic presuppositions (historical science), but are taught as if they are backed up by observation. From Kindergarten through 8th grade, the average public school student receives 14,000 hours of instruction, which is the equivalent of your child receiving 4 hours of instruction per week at church for 70 years. Just imagine every hour spent in the classroom (K-8) being represented by a blue gumball and every hour spent in church represented by a white gumball. There will be 14 times as many blue ones as white ones and that does not include other secular worldview influencers such as peers, television, radio, internet, video games, movies, books, etc.
Week by week, month by month, year by year, most students raised in Christian homes will begin to believe that everything taught in the public schools is provable and based on reality whereas everything in the church is based on blind faith. Consequently, one-third will walk away from faith in middle school, one-third will walk away from faith in high school, and another 10% or more will leave in college, so within two years of high school graduation between 7 and 9 out of every ten children raised in Christian homes will have left the faith. Those are the cold hard facts of what is happening in America today. Even many of those who claim to be Christian will have compartmentalized their faith and separated it from their everyday lifestyle instead of using the Bible to influence every aspect of it. So, what is found in the spiritual will not be allowed to influence the real world.
What about Christian teachers?
My wife, Jennifer, was a Christian when she taught kindergarten in government schools, but when she recently reviewed the materials she used back then she was shocked by what she blindly taught her students. For example, she found several books that she taught from that smoothly slid evolution in as factual. In reflecting on the holidays she remembers that Christmas emphasized Santa and not Christ and Halloween was taught with no concern over the dark images (i.e. witches, ghosts, etc.) that were placed on the bulletins boards as decorations. So, just because your child’s teacher is a Christian does not mean that they are correctly discerning what should and shouldn’t be taught because not all Christians teacher are mature in faith and/or orthodox in their beliefs.
Furthermore, just because someone calls themselves a Christian does not mean that they are. There are many so-called “pastors” in mainline denominations who identify themselves as Christian, but they are nothing more than functional atheists. Of course, we need solid Christian teachers to serve as missionaries in the government schools, but there is a big difference between sending adult Christians who should be mature in their faith to be salt and light in the schools and sending innocent children who often have very little knowledge about what they believe and how to defend it against the secular humanistic curriculum.
Even when the public school teachers are solid Christians, the teachers have their hands tied because they are not allowed to favor one religion over another (so Wiccan witchcraft or Mormonism is no worse than Christianity) and they are required to teach curricula that deliberately removes America’s Christian heritage and states that the universe was an accident and that life evolved from primordial ooze, which is a worldview that leaves no room for the Christian God. Unfortunately, most teachers are not Christian as evidenced by the National Education Association, which openly advocates for the destruction of preborn children by abortion and for the advancement of sexual immorality through homosexual marriage, which is consistent with the secular humanistic curricula taught in the classroom.
Four classroom examples
As we have reflected back over the years, let me share four examples of how we’ve seen this liberal agenda play out.
- Jenn remembers a character program when she
taught kindergarten where children were taught to embrace each others’ differences. Of course the whole premise behind this program was to blur the lines of right and wrong behaviors and to mandate acceptance for such choices. Look at the use of books like King and King and Heather Has Two Mommies in public school classrooms if you have any doubt about their agenda. - My sister-in-law worked as a teacher in a charter school and she was approached by a lesbian parent who provided her with books to read to the students that promoted diversity and acceptance of homosexuals. She never did, but how many teachers do?
- There was an affair between two kindergarten teachers (a married woman and a lesbian) at one of the school’s Jenn taught in that resulted in the married woman’s divorce and the break-up of the lesbian’s live-in, long-term relationship (they bought a house together). A student actually caught the two female teachers kissing on campus, so parents contacted the principal and demanded action. However, when the principal tried to do something about the situation, the lesbian leader of the teacher’s union threatened a lawsuit against the school district. So, the teacher’s union placed the immoral sexual activities of its teachers above what was best for kindergartners and the school district caved to avoid a lawsuit.
- More and more school districts are forcing their liberal agendas on children and not allowing parents who object to know about such programs and opt their children out when they occur. Sadly, the courts are supporting the school districts in such cases, which indicates a growing tendency by the judiciary to support the indoctrination of children by the state versus the rights of the parents. Is it any wonder that public school teachers are twice as likely to homeschool their children as the general public?
Didn’t we turn out ok?
I hear parents all the time making statements like “I was nervous about sending our kids to the public school at first, but then I thought it would be ok because I went to public school and I turned out all right.” Unfortunately, this reasoning is absolutely false. The vast majority of students from Christian homes who attend public school did not turn out all right. In fact, the statistics from Barna and from the Nehemiah Institute reveal that 85%-91% of children from Christian homes that attend a public school do not hold a Biblical Worldview. They may not do drugs or cheat on exams, but where are their hearts and minds?
According to statistics cited by Thom Rainer in The Bridger Generation, the number of Americans holding to a Biblical Worldview has dropped from 31 out of 48 million people born between 1910 and 1945, to 27 out of 78 million (1946-1964), to 8 out of 49 million (1965-1976), to a mere 3 out of 77 million born between 1977 and 1994. In other words, if you are still a Christian and you were born after 1964 then count yourself blessed, because the vast majority of your peers didn’t make it. Secondly, public schools are worse than they were when you were a student and they will continue to get worse with each passing year as our nation continues its moral and spiritual decline.
Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it. Just read the following quote by an anti-Christian humanist who correctly sees the important role government schools are playing in the secularization of America:
“I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being. These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing the classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level-preschool day care or large university. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new-the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism.”-John Dunphy, A Religion for a New Age, p. 26
Why do Christian parents who wouldn’t dare send their child to an Islamic or Wiccan school to evangelize young Muslims or witches think it is ok to send them to government schools that teach secular humanism? Does the Bible tell us to be salt and light? Absolutely, but you are misinterpreting that passage if you think it is a commandment to send your children to government schools. First, this is a commandment for mature believers and statistics show that most children raised in Christian homes do not hold a Biblical worldview and know little to no doctrine, so how are they going to be salt and light if they aren’t even believers or don’t know their faith well enough to explain it? Second, this is a commandment to be salt and light where you are and is not a directive to go somewhere. In fact, the Bible also tells us to be set apart as a people. So, is being set apart the same as sending our children to be indoctrinated to become secular humanists?
To fulfill the Great Commission locally, parents must actively model evangelism for their children by having the whole family reach out in Christian love and service to their neighbors and unbelieving friends. Our kids have seen my wife and I serving and witnessing to our neighbors on many occasions and they have also made cookies and other baked goods with Christian messages and brought them over along with vegetables from our garden. Zachary has even witnessed to our neighbors on a few occasions.
The Biblical Option
Because no form of education is neutral and whoever is educating our children is discipling them, I agree with Dr. Al Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who said, “I believe that now is the time for responsible [Christians] to develop an exit strategy from the public schools.” Christian homeschooling is biblical and it dramatically increases the likelihood of your children becoming and remaining Christian.
What we chose to do and why…
My wife and I chose to homeschool because the Bible also says that parents (not the church or the schools) have the mandate to raise their children in the faith and the model for this is found in Deuteronomy 6: 1-9, which cannot be fulfilled without spending quantity and quality time with our children. In fact, Jenn and I know of no better evangelism and disciple-making tool for children than Christian homeschooling because it is the same intentional and ongoing approach to education where parents incarnationally (model) and informationally (teach) train their children (Eph. 6:4) that is prescribed in the Bible. It also allows us to develop stronger relationships, help them develop Godly character, have greater academic achievement (due to the individualization enabled by low teacher-to-student ratios), and our kids have healthier socialization due to the absence of negative peer influences. Please know that web-based charter schools (i.e. Arizona Virtual Academy or Connection Academy) are still public schools and are not the moral equivalent of Christian homeschooling.
So, where do I start?
Ask us! We will be happy to help you with this great educational adventure! You can also find out more about homeschooling in Arizona by visiting Arizona Families for Home Education and the Home School Legal Defense Association. Our family is blessed by membership in both organizations.
thanks for the encouragement to stay faithful in teaching our children, brad!