Posted on 12/19/2007 2:40:07 PM PST by wintertime
Bruce Shortt in his resolution to the Southern Baptist Convention, May, 2007, writes:
"In 2002 the SBC’s Council on Family Life reported that roughly 88% of our children leave the church within 2 years after graduating from high school. It is reported by LifeWay’s Zan Tyler that Josh McDowell Ministries pegs the number who leave at 92%.3 " (B.Shortt)
However the retention rate for homeschoolers is much better.
"Research by Dr. Brian Ray, founder of NHERI, found that 94% of all homeschooled children retained their faith into adulthood." (B. Shortt)
Regarding the successes of children educated in Christian schools, they are far superior to those children educated in government schools:
"The Nehemiah Institute’s worldview testing shows that students in Christian schools reject moral relativism at a rate 500% higher than Christian children attending public schools. The same worldview surveys also show that children receiving a Christian education do better on worldview issues overall than their public school counterparts, with outstanding results typically coming from Christian schools that incorporate worldview materials in their curriculum and homeschooled children." ( B. Shortt)
I ask Christian teachers teaching in government schools,”How much influence can a Christian teacher have on children in government schools who are not from Christian homes?”
In my opinion, Christian teachers have little or no influence over the spiritual lives of their non-Christian students. If dedicated Christian parents are having so little success with their own children, I doubt that a Christian teacher can turn around a child who goes home every day to a secular family.
My recommendations to Christian teachers in the government schools:
1)Resign.
2)Consider your own children and the children of the parents in your congregation as your most important and urgent mission field.
3) Get your kids and the kids of your congregation out of the government schools.
4) Organize, and be teachers in, Christian schools in your own congregations.
5) If you can, homeschool your own children, and be a resource to other homeschooling parents.
5)Large brick and mortar buildings are not necessary. With today’s technology it is possible to have many “one room school houses” meeting in Christian homes. Of course we do have existing church buildings that, in my opinion, are greatly under-utilized. Christian teachers could be a tremendous resource in supporting these endeavors among the members of their Christian congregation. We may actually be surprised to learn that the educational and spiritual outcomes of children in "one-room-schoolhouses" are better than those in traditional schools built and run following the Prussian model.
6) Once your congregation has a viable and healthy education structure for its own children take in as many non-Christian children as possible ( provided that it would not overwhelm the Christian culture of the school). Mentor the parents of these children.
7) Work to organize private Christian scholarship foundations so that **every** child in the U.S. would have access to a private Christian education. Harvard has and endowment of $35 BILLION ,and small colleges like Amerhert or Williams $1.7 and $1.9 BILLION, respectively. We are a wealthy nation. If Christians REALLY WANTED they could do the same for children in this nation. http://opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010985
Finally, to ALL Christian teachers, NO! your school is NOT different. All government schools are Anti-Christian, and if you are paying dues to the NEA you are further pounding nails into the spriritual coffin of our nation's children.
Bruce Shrott writes:
"All Public Schools, By Law, Are Anti-Christian"
"First, it is important to distinguish between individuals and institutions. There is still a sizable remnant of Christian adults employed by the public schools. Many of them pray for their students and a few, though they risk being disciplined or fired, furtively try to witness. But this certainly does not mean that institutionally any public school system is, as some try to argue, “sympathetic to Christianity.” In fact, expressing nontrivial institutional “sympathy” for Christianity, let alone teaching from a Christian worldview, is absolutely prohibited by a complex web of court rulings, legislation, and regulations that apply to every single school and every single school employee subject to the laws of the United States. This is the hostile institutional environment in which Christian adults in the schools are forced to work. And, unfortunately, when you put good people in a bad system, the system almost always wins, which is the reason the public school system continues to deteriorate."
“Sympathy”, or the lack of sympathy, however, is simply not the relevant standard for judging whether a school is a suitable place to train up a Christian child. Christ tells us clearly that “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” For forty years and more, every public school has been legally prohibited from being for Christ. Unless one chooses to disregard Christ’s teaching, the only conclusion that can honestly be reached is that the entire public school system, by law, is against Christ. As will be seen, this is further confirmed when we look at the evidence of whether the public schools are “gathering” with Christ or “scattering.” "
http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:kY4WNVux_NIJ:www.exodusmandate.org/20070503-resolution/2007-letter-to-committee-members.doc+Dr.+Bryan+Ray+percentage+Christian+children+leave+faith&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us
I wish they realized in regular schools how important discipline is but a lot of that is the parents’ fault. Hit my Johnny or discipline my Jenny and I’ll sue! So, you can see why.
Our school costs around $3,500 a year, less for siblings. They work with you if you can’t afford to pay that much. When we started it, ANY child who wanted a Christian education could attend and not have to pay much. We got away from that but now we’re trying to implement it again.
Imagine if St. Paul or the other early evangelists had followed this idiotic advice.
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To my knowledge, St. Paul did not accept a government paycheck to teach secularism, atheism, and agnosticism to captive students, neither did he that accept that paycheck to keep silent about Christ and His mission.
“Christian” teachers do the above every working day of every government school year.
Consequently it must follow that we’ll never find the commonality to agree on anything that even touches the periphery of this subject.
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As this powerful idea catches on, circumstances will force you to deal with it.
The ministers should try to engage them...into starting a church school. He or she is well within pastoral rights to suggest it. The minister is charged with looking after the whole flock--children included.
I can't tell you how many public school teachers have stated to me that they would want to open their own Christian schools, but they don't have the money or the backing from the churches. That needs to change.
We have wasted too much money on attorneys fighting the public schools about prayer in schools, Ten Commandments and other religious issues--that money would have been better spent starting a church schools and paying teachers what they are worth.
Or because 99.5% of all Christian schools lose money (despite being subsidized in most cases with little/no building costs being footed by the school's budget).
Beckwith! How dare you challenge the a priori truth of the horrid nature of public education? Jesus didn't really want us to be salt and light. And that stuff about living in this present evil age is just a bunch of hooey. It makes life too hard. Now get your kids out of public school and quit sucking on the public teat!!
Off sarcasm. Over and out.
I take it you do not work for a large corporation.
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So...808Bass,,,I take that you do not work for a large corporation.
My husband did. The reason my husband’s large corporation was successful was because it sold honest products, did honest research, developed products that honestly improved the health, welfare, and general enjoyment of its customers.
And,,,guess what ! This large corporation honestly refunded money to its customers when its products were ( for any reason at all) defective, and honestly and immediately changed its practices if a defect was discovered or a better way found.
He worked for a corporation that had safety meetings for its employees once a month, and expert workers in permanent positions to study the safety work practices of its employees ( and where applicable for its customers). It **demanded** that employees work in the safest manner possible. If they didn’t they were fired. If this large company were in charge of government school buses, by next week all buses would have seat belts and adult monitors in addition to the drivers. )
My husband’s company never **lied** to its customers, and it never gave them books or literature filled with lies. Being a human organization, they did sometimes make a mistake, and they did everything possible to **honestly*** and immediately correct it.
I think all Christians in government school should immediately start demanding that its government school do the same. If they did this, 2 things would happen:
1) Government schools would immediately improve.
2) The government school would chew them up and spit them out.
I worked as a professional in my own professional office. I, too, did the same.
we need Christian teachers now more than ever in the public schools
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I agree with you IF( a big “if”).
I would agree with if Christian teachers acted like Christians. A Christian who was acting like a Christian would never agree to use teaching practices that were ineffective or harmful. A true Christian would never hand a student a book filled with lies. A true Christian would never teach lies.
A true Christian would never write a check and send it to the NEA.
You said that Christian teachers in government schools teach kids that religion and day-to-day life are separate. Did your husband proclaim his Christianity through his corporate job? Or did he simply live by Christian principles within his corporate job?
My husband’s company never **lied** to its customers, and it never gave them books or literature filled with lies. Being a human organization, they did sometimes make a mistake, and they did everything possible to **honestly*** and immediately correct it.
Sounds like my daughter's public school. I am sorry that you have had such negative experiences with public school. It is not everyone's experience.
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Some people, ( I am one), believe that the government schools need to get worse and the faster the better.
Why?
Because it will hasten their complete and total collapse. When the good people finally, get out, then they can organize a massive school tax revolt and finally shut these cesspools down.
Universal K-12 education needs to be entirely restructured based on an entirely new model.
Great article! Thanks! The NEA, as an organization, is an enemy of freedom and an enemy of the United States, in my view.
The only way to fix public schools is to take the head off the snake. The snake is the teachers union.
Thank you. I am called to that mission field. There is no other way that I could get through each day without His help, and I hope that somehow my service is going to make a difference in some of their lives. I feel so sad that FReepers bash public school teachers so much of the time. I’m a loyal FReeper but sometimes feel a pariah.
Great article! Thanks! The NEA, as an organization, is an enemy of freedom and an enemy of the United States, in my view.
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Atheistic Marxism is our nation’s most serious threat, and our K-12 schools, colleges, and universities are its most important weapon.
We can survive a nuclear suitcase bomb, but freedom will not survive if the Marxists and their armies of Useful Idiots succeed in indoctrinating the next generation of voters.
IT IS THAT SERIOUS!! ( yes, I am shouting! Why are people deaf?!)
What I find amazing is the legions of so called “Christian” teachers write checks to the NEA, willing go into schools teach lies, hand out textbooks that lie, and try to somehow “sneak” Christianity into a fundamentally atheistic and Marxist curriculum.
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There is not way to fix the government schools because the premise is faulty.
It is **IMPOSSIBLE***to have a religiously neutral education! It is impossible to have a religiously neutral vacuum. When government removes Christianity an atheistic, or paganistic philosophy will take its place.
Therefore,,,no matter what the government does about its government schools, it will support and uphold the religious worldview of some and trash the religious beliefs of others.
Government schools are a freedom of conscience nightmare. They always were, are now, and always will be in violation of the First Amendment.
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My husband’s company was not producing education as a product or service, but as the topic came up, and ( absolutely!) as it applied to his job, YES!, he did proclaim and apply his Christianity in his corporate job.
There is a major difference between corporations and compulsory atheistic government schooling.
***There is no such thing as a religiously neutral education!***
ALL education is moral, ethical, political, cultural, or religious in nature. ALL education is profoundly religious consequences and content. It is the very essence of every minute of every school day! If that education is not Christian then it is something else. If it isn’t Christian, it is NON-Christian. That is what so-called “Christian” teachers are supporting, aiding, abetting, enabling, and actively teaching, and producing every minute of every anti-Christian school day.
I simply can not see how so-called “Christian” teachers can do this day after day, and I absolutely can not see how a Christian teacher could justify writing a check to the NEA.
However,,,if they are truly Christian and truly teaching truth and light in the government schools, then one or more of three things would have happened long ago: 1) Government schools would have changed. 2) The NEA would be extinct, or 3) the Christian teachers would have been fired.
I don’t see many Christian teachers being fired. The NEA is stronger than ever, and government schools get more morally rancid every day.
Some do (I'm not sure I could do that myself). Many don't.
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