Public education cannot be viewed as an acceptable alternative. It is anti-God.

I am sorry, the author’s last sentence is hogwash. I have no problem with Christian school or with homeschooling, but to say that public education is not a good alternative is baloney. The author tries to use the same old tired arguments. Now I won’t disagree that the public school system is anti-God, but there are too many stretches here. I have had my children in both Christian School and public school. And these were not small Christian schools. These were 1,000-2,000 student conservative Christian schools. Do you know what my child was faced with in Christian school? Bullying, selling of drugs, kids taking drugs, kids getting pregnant, teachers abusing students…. I am not naive to say this isn’t happening in public school either, because it is. But i think that it is naive to say that the Christian school is this protection from the world. At least when a public school teacher abuses a student we can talk through it. It becomes a lot harder of a discussion when his Bible teacher abuses a student. I can say this with 100% confidence (having all three of my kids in both public school and Christian school), I have been significantly happier with the kids that he has been able to surround himself with in public school than the influences he had in Christian school. And despite anyone saying that this is an isolated instance. I have had my three kids at 6 different places across three different states in both sets of schools. Two of them would be at the near top of the list of what the FBFI would consider model Christian schools.

I say all of this not to knock Christian schools one bit, it is just to take them off the pedestal. I was also given the “fear” discussion when I was at churches with Christians schools. Now that I have kids in public school, I can see how much the fear was trumped up. My kids have been significantly better witnesses in public school then they ever were in Christian school. With that said, I believe strongly in the sovereignty of parents choosing the right education avenue for their children. If you send you kids to Christian school or homeschool, I do not knock you one bit. It is awesome that you are involved in your kids lives and you are making the right choice for them. I salute you!

Would you think differently if this was happening at your local public high school?

http://timesgazette.com/news/2293/hillsboro-school-facing-restroom-issu…

Interacting with sinners is not “a viable alternative?!” Of course they are anti-God; so isn’t everyone who isn’t a Christian. Should we also encourage our Christian workers to leave every job that presses against their faith? Should the Christian carpenter quit because the electricians listen to Howard Stern? Should the Christian ER nurse quick because she deals with drunks and addicts every shift? Should the Christian hospital chaplain quit because there is also a Rabbi a priest and an Imam on staff? Should the Christian teachers/helpers/lunchaides/principals etc quit because they work in a Godless school? Should the Christian manager at Barnes and Noble quit because they sell immoral literature? Should the Christian waitress quit because he boss and three coworkers are homosexual?

How will the teachers hear if we don’t tell them of Christ? I don’t expect my kids to be the missionaries to their school - I take that role myself.

So this last year to bless the public schools and the extracurricular activities in our town where my children are students our family…

• chaperoned 8 field trips of elementary & middle school students
• read to 4 elementary classes books that while not scripture upheld moral excellence at least once per month
• informed every teacher of our commitment to pray for them and encourage them weekly
• provided lunch for the teachers and staff at the elementary school on more than a few occasions
• coached 48 little league players (using our church for team meetings and many practices)
• Invited all players and most classmates to Awana
• Had the biggest night of Awana club guests (see above) on the night we make pies for every fire station and all the police officers/staff in town.
• spent 12 breakfast meetings with other coaches to share the gospel
• organized our family devotions before school to include prayer for each teacher (and the kids were sure to tell them so on their appointed day:-) )

And the single mother of 5 who came to Christ and is struggling to pay rent, let alone Christian school bills for her kids, thanks you for the kick in the teeth while she’s down.

Ok rant over, thanks for reading.

[Barry L.]

Would you think differently if this was happening at your local public high school?

http://timesgazette.com/news/2293/hillsboro-school-facing-restroom-issue…

Nope, doesn’t bother me one ounce. First it is high school and kids already know all about this. Second, they are going to have to face this in the real world. So this is a great learning opportunity for them.

Would churches who believe this accept public school teachers or administrators as members?

But the situation has digressed immensely this past year. Allowing men and women sharing locker rooms was unheard of until recently. It’s one thing to trust your children to make the right decisions in worldly environs; it’s another to put them in a situation where they could be put in a situation that is out of their control.

Lets be honest Barry, there have been situations, since the 1960’s, every few years that generates the statements that you made. Whether it was the sexual revolution in the 1960’s or taking prayer out of public school in the 1990’s. We want to shield our kids from the transgender kids at high school, so we protect them from that, yet send them out to an afterschool job at the local hardware store where two gay guys work. We treat them like fragile china instead of teaching them how to engage these elements in our society.

I live in a good sized city (180,000), in a Great Plains state. Despite supposedly being in the “Bible belt”, all is not holy even in the churches in my city, let alone in general. While there are a few churches that claim to be independent fundamental Baptist, I am not comfortable with any of them for various reasons.

Move to Christian schools. There are NONE that are anywhere near fundamental (there is a lutheran, several catholic, a “classic” school where C.S. Lewis is just below God, and a wishy-washy evangelical school). Which would you pick?

There is home schooling, and several options at that. You can do a “public option” at home (that our Christian Governor favors so he doesn’t have to pay for inconvenient things like retirement for teachers…). Then there are the traditional home-schooling options.

Public Schools- The school is in our neighborhood. It is a block away! I know the principal well. He is a Christian man. He works hard to keep school reasonable. The teachers are family-friendly. While not all are Christian, this is not California… I get to know the teachers of each child, we help out with reading and such, activities, PTO, etc. It works for now. If I ever ran into a problem, then we’ll deal with it. But, for us, public school is better than our limited Christian school options, and home school.

Convictions? Is that “of course, Christian school/Home school”? Or is that “to each his own based on their convictions”?

I would say the author gave his opinion, and not a very good one at that. A classic example is when he makes the statement, “In summary, the reasons given by Christian parents for choosing a public education for their children lack substance.”, yet in the preceding paragraphs for all but one of the complaints against sending a child to Christian school he states that the statement is true. It makes no sense.

In my opinion, ever single education choice has its pro’s and con’s. There is not one inherently superior than the other. Each parent needs to look at their children and understand their pro’s and con’s, they need to look at their family situation and they need to look at the options they have available for them. They then need to make the best decision given what is available and their circumstances. We have all seen good kids come out of public, Christian and homeschool scenarios and we have seen bad kids come out of all of them. This decision is much more nuanced than just declaring one is superior to all others.

The author reveals his naiveness when he stands up and declares one type of parachurch organization superior to all others, by extending Bible verses way beyond their reach, thus condemning those who have taken other choices. It bothers me when both my wife and I graduated from public school, chose to serve the Lord, chose to raise our family following Biblical principles, all while listening to others condemn the choices our parents made. What school my wife and I went to had nothing to do with whether we were raised correctly, it was all about our own parents and the choices each one of us took. It is amazing that we could even find any Christians in places like China without a solid FBFI Christian School being present for parents to send their kids to.

[dgszweda] It is amazing that we could even find any Christians in places like China without a solid FBFI Christian School being present for parents to send their kids to.

But it seems to me that you are betraying a bit of an over the top antagonism by this statement.

I was also a product of the public schools. I think my education was good academically, but there was no spiritual help available. I would be loathe to put my children in the public system, and I did not. We used the Abeka videos, I was pleased with the results, though it was difficult and costly. In my opinion, the sacrifice necessary to provide a Christian education for my children was far superior to the convenience of the public system. I wouldn’t say dogmatically that it is the only option that should be followed, but I would advise parents to try to find an acceptable option outside of the public system if at all possible.

We are so thankful for Grand View Christian school, and glad that our boys can attend (it is not a wishy-washy evangelical school—and we do have some of those in the Des Moines area; neither is it a legalistic fundamentalist school). But I do not begrudge any parent for making the educational choice they believe is best for their family, as long as they think it through and are involved rather than simply handing their parental responsibility over to the school.

[Don Johnson]

I was also a product of the public schools. I think my education was good academically, but there was no spiritual help available.

The underlined portion in Don’s quote I think is one of the keys to understanding why this is such a hot-button issue for many Christians.

Speaking for myself, I don’t see why Christians would or should expect their child’s school (whether public, private, Christian, or whatever) to provide “spiritual help” for their child(ren). Isn’t that one of the things that God established the Church and the Home to provide? Are God’s established means insufficient or inadequate today? Why would anyone think it necessary to supplement, or outsource, children’s spiritual instruction and guidance?

Don’t get me wrong; I am a big supporter of Christian schooling. I am a product of elementary & secondary Christian schooling from 1st through 12th grades, and today I (voluntarily) do alumni event planning, promotion, & raise scholarship funds for my alma mater. Christian schooling has many great things to offer. Let’s not lose sight of what its true distinctions are and/or should be.