Posted on 07/28/2002 3:29:38 PM PDT by ppaul
My recent RazorMouth article on the Pledge of Allegiance was republished in two other venues, and I received a lot of angry email. One Christian mother from Florida wrote to tell me that, because her sister home-schooled her children, she had prayerfully re-evaluated whether she should do the same. Both she and her husband felt that God was clearly leading them to leave their children in the government schools. In her words:
one of the paragraphs in your article really angered and offended me. You stated, "and those Christian parents who insist on deluding themselves about the wonders of public education will remain where they are." Mr. Babka, if I am being "deluded" about the education of my children, then it is God who is doing the deluding, because it is His voice to which we are listening. She “shuddered to think of what our public school system, and the children in it, would be if ALL Christian parents pulled their children out.” She went on to point out the wonderful impact Christian kids have in government schools. Then she asked me, “How can my children be salt and light if they are doing their studies at the dining room table and not in a classroom full of kids who may have never heard the gospel?”
I understand her point, and appreciate her feeling that God is leading her, but we must remember that other parents likewise feel that God is also leading them to abandon the government schools. I would urge her to more prayer, because there are other issues to consider, and more than one way to provide salt and light to the world.
Young children are impressionable. They lack the experience for discernment. And it's a well-established fact that you only get back what you put in. The state has her children for more waking hours than she does. She can’t control whom they associate with, or what they hear, see, and read. Perhaps, because her children are teenagers, they’re already prepared to prosper in an atmosphere antagonistic to her values. But it seems risky to expect the same from an elementary school child.
More importantly, we must consider what would happen if all Christian parents removed their children from the government schools. I believe the system would fold for lack of business. Would this increase or decrease the salt and light we provide to the world? And what would be the state of our nation’s children?
Education would still continue, but now it would thrive—as it did before public schools were created 120 years ago (when having an 8th grade education meant that someone was ready for college). It would also cost far less and teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, and other social ills would almost certainly plummet. I believe this would add a great deal of salt and light to the world.
We also need to remember that schools teach according to their own institutional interests.
Catholic schools teach that the Pope, bishops, and priests, and their moral teachings, hold the answers, and that a sacramental life is pretty important.
Evangelical Christian schools teach that the Bible holds the answers, and that personal salvation and godly behavior are necessary.
Prep schools teach that the elites of science, business, and government hold the answers, and that hard work and academic success are necessary to join that elite.
So, what should we expect government schools to teach?
My thoughtful correspondent from Florida believes she is able to control what goes on at her local government school, because she is heavily involved in it. But she is just one person, and the stories of school districts thumbing their nose at parents are legion. Just because it's never happened to her doesn't mean it won’t. And given the power of teachers unions, does she believe she could force the school board to change its mind (especially in a major city)?
Now I'm not disputing that her children can be a godly example in their government school, but I do believe that the costs and the benefits don’t add up to a net increase for salt and light in the world. Quite simply, I don’t believe children are qualified to be missionaries, and they are therefore more likely to be corrupted by the godless environment of the government schools than to effectively change that environment.
Missionaries must meet certain qualifications before they're sent into a mission field. Children do not meet those qualifications. I would like my Florida correspondent, and other concerned parents like her, to seriously consider whether their children will be able to detect when they’re being brainwashed by environmentalism, drug-war propaganda, relative value systems, sex-ed, and diversity training.
Government schools naturally teach children to trust government, and learning to trust government means learning to question parental authority, worship Mother Earth, worship the state (hence the Pledge of Allegiance), and accept as normal that Heather Has Two Mommies.
It seems clear to me that home-schooled and Christian-schooled children can provide more salt and light to the world than government-schooled Christian kids for the simple reason that they are being trained all day, every day, to do exactly that.
Finally, we need to recognize that government schools are based on compulsion. They confiscate the wealth of people without children, and even worse, those who have kids but who are not using the system. In other words, Christian parents who feel God is leading them to teach their children elsewhere are forced to pay twice! The compulsion and confiscation of the government schools violates everything we Christians are supposed to believe in.
How can we end this immoral system?
If all Christian parents would remove their children then the system would collapse, and the money confiscated by the government schools would instead flow toward private, and godlier alternatives. This sea-change would be a sign that Christians have truly accepted their calling to be salt and light, and that God has jurisdiction over both the rearing of our children and our pocketbooks.
Link to article HERE.
Even using the logic contained above it is not a leap of any distance to conclude that the above budgets should and do contain monies for preventive maintenence. OPie says "Caesar" is the government. One of the methods used to prevent the above criminal behavior is through education. The public schools have been funded by taxpayers to achieve certain levels of education, some succeed some don't. It's an ongoing process and those who would abolish such attempts will be promoting the criminal behavior that "Caesar" is biblically licensed to address.
Every man in a county, a town, a city, or a State is deeply interested in the education of the children of the community, because his peace and quiet, his happiness and prosperity, are largely dependent upon the intelligence and moral training which it is the object of public schools to supply to the children of his neighbors and associates, if he has none himself."
--U.S. Supreme Court, KELLY v. CITY OF PITTSBURGH, 104 U.S. 78 (1881) 104 U.S. 78
No doubt the public schools need work, so do the prisons, the military and the infrastructure. Those who are quitting on the schools now, will eventually quit on the other vital needs of the country. They have withdrawn into their self styled bubble, quoting themselves and twisting scripture to fit their needs. They offer no solutions, just "Burn, baby, burn". These guys are a regular riot.
You assume that criminality is a problem of knowledge, rather than of character. This is the underlying myth behind public education -- salvation through information. The Ukrainian educational system produced top-notch linguists and engineers. Folks who are great fun to talk with. And the whole country looks like a half-assed Saturday afternoon project.
Statists believe taht people are inately "good," and only need information to do better. Christians start with the fact of original sin, and make the means of grace available to those who sill avail themselves thereof. "Means of grace" includes the consequences of bad behavior (functioning judicial system) and opportunities for redemption (gospel proclamation and charitable opportunities).
No doubt the public schools need work, so do the prisons, the military and the infrastructure. Those who are quitting on the schools now, will eventually quit on the other vital needs of the country.
Actually, home school kids are now entering colleges in force, mostly doing well, and will be well-prepared to make their civic contributions in years to come. You may have heard of the Israeli kibbutzim. These local socialist entities raise kids in cafeterias and dormitories, instead of in families. When the kids grow up, their "bell curve" is squashed to an amazing extent -- few at either extremes, a population that is overwhelmingly "average." Kibbutzim produce agricultural and light industrial products. The one thing the kibbutzim do not produce is leaders.
Thomas Paine on "The Study of God"
Delivered in Paris on January 16, 1797:It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of Divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles. He can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.
When we examine an extraordinary piece of machinery, an astonishing pile of architecture, a well executed statue or a highly finished painting where life and action are imitated, and habit only prevents our mistaking a surface of light and shade for cubical solidity, our ideas are naturally led to think of the extensive genius and talents of the artist. When we study the elements of geometry, we think of Euclid. When we speak of gravitation, we think of Newton. How then is it, that when we study the works of God in the creation, we stop short, and do not think of God? It is from the error of the schools in having taught those subjects as accomplishments only, and thereby separated the study of them form the Being who is the author of them...
The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works of the creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of His existence. They labor with studied ingenuity to ascribe everything they behold to innate properties of matter; and jump over all the rest, by saying that matter is eternal.
Fisher Ames (author of the First Amendment),
quoted in Paladian Magazine, September 20, 1789:"We have a dangerous trend beginning to take place in our education. We're starting to put more and more textbooks into our schools. We've become accustomed of late of putting little books into the hands of children, containing fables and moral lessons. We're spending less time in the classroom on the Bible, which should be the principal text in our schools. The Bible states these great moral lessons better than any other man-made book."
No, I assume that if the kids are in school, they are not out committing crimes. The education that they are supposed to receive leads the way to acquiring the skills they need for honest employment, thus averting/reducing crime. They may still have flawed characters but the church and the courts, if necessary, can deal with that. Education is a stepping stone not a cure all. Not trying to save anybody or offer salvation, didn't see that in "Caesar's" job description.
Statists believe taht people are inately "good," and only need information to do better.
Really? It's my understanding that statists believe that the general population is not so "good" and must be laden with rules and regulations to make them act right.
Actually, home school kids are now entering colleges in force, mostly doing well, and will be well-prepared to make their civic contributions in years to come.
I don't begrudge home schoolers. I encourage the practice. The numbers will never sustain the work force in this country, though. I can see now where my comments are not clear. I don't refer to home schoolers when I say quitting on the schools. That is meant for those who would abandon the students who absolutely depend on public schools. My argument is with those who advocate a total collapse of that system.
The two examples that you mentioned don't strike me as being very relevant.
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