Over the weekend a friend of Tiff's from college that she had not seen in years came to visit us. He is now an assistant pastor in Midtown for a large Baptist church. During the visit by him, his wife, and his precious 10 month old - I was challenged in some of my thinking about education and the gospel.
For a few years I have been thinking about how to educate my children. Tiff and I have discussed the issue and we had come to some agreement that we didn't want our boys going to public school. I think that Tiff working in the school system made her very aware of how pitiful public education is. Plus we worried about the impact that all those heathen children would have on our kids...lol
We talked about home-school alot. Everyone at our church seems to advocate it, our pediatrician does it, its sorta the new fad...now that we know you can be both home-schooled and not weird...thanks to the external social clubs/ athletics that home-schoolers now participate in.
We decided that homeschooling elementary was not going to be the best option however since we would have multiple kids at different ages in the home (and some other factors). Thus, we abandoned our first choice. Still intent on staying away from govt-funded education, we decided that we needed to find a way to pay for private school. I mean, kids in Christian school turn out better right?
Those private schools are expensive and I was stressing in my thoughts about how to pay for such a thing until Tiff's friend said something very true and very biblical this weekend.
When confronted with the question of what he and his wife intended to do with their kids, he said:
"We live in the city, we love the city, we seek to minister to those in the city, my kids will go to public school in the city."
Wow - what a novel idea. Isn't that the real purpose mission anyway? - To be in the world but not of the world?
I know, I know...the standard objections came up in my head:
- What about the poor defenseless children, their minds will be so polluted by bad morality that they will be ruined for any ministry purposes.
- Pushing religion aside, the kids will get a horrid education...there goes college...
- The liberal teachers in public ed will certainly warp my childs understanding of the world...they might even convince the kids that SUVs really are a bad idea - oh no!
But, as hard as I tried - I could not come up with a single GOOD objection to what this friend said...certainly not a biblical one.
His statement says alot to me. It says that:
- We are the principal instructors of our child's heart. A kids morality is largely systemic of their parents guidance.
- College and big money are not the most important things out there..."he who gains everything, but loses his soul..."
- A worldview isn't the creation of isolated influence from educators - it comes from a lifetime of interaction with family, friends, church, and faith.
Have we (the young reformed) bought back into a fundamentalist philosophy of culture. Are we seeking to circle the wagons and make nice little Christian cliques where we all drive mini-vans, wear polos buttoned all the way up, and drink homeschool kool-aid OR are we willing to lay it all out there (including the idols that are our kids) and trust God to accomplish his purposes of bringing light to a dark world through the message of Christ delivered on the lips and in the lives of believers?
I'm leaning towards public-school these days...
I certainly won't bash the idea of homeschooling (I teach in a homeschool group), but Kristi and I are pro public school, through and through.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am no "anti" public school and realize that this is something every family has to work on their own (and there are no easy answers,no way is perfect) I do think there is a biblical basis for homeschooling, if that is what is your first choice. Deut 6:6-7 is an often quoted verse for homeschoolers, and I think there is merit to applying it to the topic. I personally look at homeschooling as discipleship of our children...of course there is so much that can be done outside of school hours to disciple your kids but just by sheer time constraints I think that many teachable moments can be missed because your kids are elsewhere. The living out of day to day is their classroom when they are with you. I am not by any means trying to convince you, or looking down on those who choose public school but I think that there is Biblical ground for it. Also, as one last thought, I think that we have to be careful when we are thinking about sending kids out to be salt & light, hoping that they will accomplish a missional purpose...before they can go out into the world and have a missional purpose there needs to be preparation for that, just as you wouldn't send an 8 year old on a missions trip without a parent. Hope this doesn't come across in a negative way, there is room for all kinds of thoughts on this, I just thought I would share another side! : )
ReplyDeleteps Just as an aside...I would, personally, choose public school over private school any day. I think private school has most of the social disadvantages of public school (minus the worldview issues) with the added disadvantage instilling in kids a sense of moral, social, and economic superiority. I am sure I have really offended someone now ! Sorry!! Just another thought! : )
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