Homeschooling vs. Christian Schools vs. Public Schools
Over the years, I’ve noticed an attitude of sorts developed by some – not all – home schoolers, and similar numbers of folks who send their kids to “Christian” Schools [What makes a school "Christian"? - to reference Neil's discussion on the usage and mis-usage of this word], as it applies to those Christians who choose to send their children to public schools. This attitude popped its rather ugly head up again in one of Ingrid’s recent rants against the Evangelical churches in America.
More than one hundred and fifty years after their Catholic and Lutheran counterparts had begun building Christian schools in America, Southern Baptists just managed a couple of weeks ago to issue a resolution officially calling on Southern Baptist churches to start developing some Christian schools in those multi-million dollar church buildings.
Last year, Tim Challies got pounded on by the fundamentalist God-blogosphere for his articles on “Why I Do Not Homeschool” (part 1 and part 2), and more and more of the “TR” crowd seem to create a pile-on when other Christians don’t tow their line on schooling. Personally, I find this attitude of “what I chose to do for my kids is the only right thing” to be rather arrogant and repulsive. The choice of where and how to school is a very personal one, and many couples – taking the same scriptures and counsel into account – choose different avenues for educating their children. There is no “right” choice in schooling, and any one of the choices might be the “right” or “wrong” one, depending on the child.
Let’s give each other a break.
12 Comments(+Add)
Chris L.,
As a homeschooler with four kids, I am in complete agreement with you. This is an issue of liberty. I completely support a family’s decision whether it be homeschool, public, or private.
……and yes, my kids are socialized….whatever that is.
I have a 5 year old ripe for school in the fall and this is something that I have struggled with. My wife is a stay @ home so she could home school but doesn’t feel she is able.
I can;t shelter my kids from outside influences with any method I choose. I can only hope they the example I set for them is something they aspire.
If you talk to some christians sending your kid to public school equals damning their soul to hell. I to think that is a lot of crap being dished to our kids in public schools, evolution being the least of my worries, but I try to stay up on the trends so that I know how to respond when my kids asks me tough questions that might contradict our faith in Christ.
Jeff et al.,
Anyone that would like some advice on school choices, please e-mail me at darrensapp@charter.net. I will give you our experiences good and bad. I do not think everyone should homeschool so my goal is not talk you into that.
“TR crowd”?
Neil
We’ve chosen to put our kids into the public schools where we live for a couple of reasons.
1) Two of our children have special needs that private (Christian) schools were not able to address.
2) We pulled our oldest daughter from a private (Christian) school because it was behind the public schools.
This decision was not made lightly and we’ve made concerted efforts to infuse Biblical teaching into daily life. We trust God with the results – He is building in each of our kids the testimony He wants them to carry forth into the world.
I’m ok if you choose to homeschool or send your kids to a private school or choose to put them in the public school. To elevate this beyond a personal choice based on the wisdom God has granted us as parents is inappropriate.
We’ve used Christian schools at times. And avoided them at other times.
Reasons to avoid:
(a) Sub-standard levels of education. Let’s just be honest: some Christian schools are doctrinally pure but educationally-challenged.
(b) Legalistic and paranoid mindset of some (not all) parents and school staff. If the balance tips toward the majority of staff (or the leaders at least) being legalistic and anti-culture, definitely keep your kids away from gnostic teachings.
Reasons to send our kids to Christian schools:
(a) Believe it or not, sometimes the Christian school has better educational standards. Sometimes, we’ve endured the tendencies of these schools toward legalism and silliness, because at least our kids could read and write at the end of the day. And as parents, we could debrief (deprogram?) them from unBiblical ideas. (Same as if they were in non-Christian schools)
(b) Some schools (in a city we once lived in) not only had terrible educational standards, but were actively teaching and insisting on the kids participating in New Age stuff — like contacting their very own “ascended master” spirit guide to help them deal with life’s problems, or teaching TM as a “stress reducer” during studying for final exams.
I was homeschooled for five years (4th-8th grades). I went to an exclusive private non-religious school for a semester of ninth grade, got in trouble, and was sent by my parents to an exclusive christian private school, which is where I stayed until I graduated. My parents homeschooled me for the educational benefits and to allow me more time to pursue extra-curricular activities (I surf a whole lot). I started partying sometime toward the end of my homeschool career, continued in the exclusive private school (I got caught by my parents and they felt that my school was a bad atmosphere), and then found the party scene at my christian school (it was a little below the surface, but definitely there). By the time I graduated high school, the only difference between the two private schools that I attended was that the my class of the non-religious school preferred Tanqueray while everyone at my Christian school claimed Patron as the class liquor.
I guess my take on it is that there are certain elements of personality that are going to come out if a kid is rebellious enough, and the best thing parents can do is firmly not support that rebellion. My rebellion reared early, some kids’ is supressed so it doesn’t come out until they are away (its funny how in college the kids who party the hardest are the ones who didn’t even drink in high school), but I was always clear on what my parents stood for, and there was never any question in my mind that what I was doing was against them. The principles exuded by their steadfastness have been invaluable to me as I have matured out of my youth…
The twopence of a young guy with no soon prospects of fatherhood…haha
I am young and so my voice is probably not as credible. But, I was a private Christian school teacher for two years. For the record, I prefer public school, but I would choose homeschooling over private Christian school. let’s just say that the school I worked for and the ACSI Convention (Association of Christian Schools International) were SCARY!
(a) Sub-standard levels of education. Let’s just be honest: some Christian schools are doctrinally pure but educationally-challenged.
I’ll take that then the reverse.
Legalistic – run from it because it misrepresents the very nature of the Father.
But robbymac, the main ingredient is warm and loving teachers who are walking with Christ and watering the seed you’ve planted in that life. Look for teachers who not only say it is a ministry, they demonstrate it.
Somebody help me. What does TR stand for?
“Totally Reformed”
Or “Truly Reformed” – though I like Brendt’s revision to QR