Christians and Public Schooling, III

Part I

Part II

If this is your first time reading this I want to point out that this little series of posts was begun as a reaction to and interaction with a personal resolution at the PCA General Assembly encouraging parents to pull their kids out of public school.  This resolution was defeated and I have been doing these posts to explain why I voted against the resolution.

It is one of those strange ironies of life that I find myself arguing against such a resolution, the sentiments of which I support strongly.  My wife and I have always homeschooled or Christian schooled our kids.  I nearly lost a ministry opportunity because of my fanaticism several years ago.  During interviews for a ministry position they checked my references, some of whom were from my home church.  Those "friends" at church let my interviewer know that they probably didn't want me because I had a very narrow, one-track mind, where I thought homeschooling was the only viable option for Christian parents, all television was off limits and we needed to go to extremes to keep our kids separate from the world. I was a minister of condemnation and my friends from church let the interviewer know that I didn't have a clue about the grace of the gospel.

I am a fanatic supporter of the whole classical Christian schooling movement fashioned after Franklin Classical School and the Logos Classical School in Moscow Idaho.  The greatest influences on my own views of education come from Doug Wilson and his followers.  I was formerly on the school board of the Geneva Classical Academy in Lakeland, FL.  I still keep a link on my blog to the Cambridge Study Center in Lakeland, FL which I think is the most exciting educational institution I have ever seen.

For the past two years my wife and I have homeschooled our kids and this next year two of our kids will be going to one of the major Christian high schools in our area while we homeschool our daughter a little younger. 

I'm not really sold on a lot of what is called "Christian" education.  For education to be Christian I think all subjects should be taught from a kind of Kuyperian, reformed, redemptive historical point of view.  I don't approve of bible curriculums that are moralistic in nature, I think even young kids can begin to process the bible from a Vosian redemptive historical perspective.

While I have appreciated the dialogue and debate that has taken place in the comments of my blog I find it laughable that some have insinuated that I and the Dane and others who take our position are supporting public education.  Although the Dane maintains that he kept his faith in the midst of public education he has nowhere endorsed public education as a whole and has been very forthright in acknowledging and pointing out the problems of the public educational system.

We have not been arguing for public schooling, we have been arguing against one particular resolution that was offered at the General Assembly which we believe oversteps the bounds of what a denomination is called to do. 

The things we fear have been largely borne out in some of the comments that have been offered.  In my last post I contended that, if a denomination were to adopt such a stance it would create a presumption of negligence on the part of any parent who didn't pull their kids out of public school. In the aforementioned comments those who would refuse to pull their kids from the public schools have been accused of intentionally throwing their kids into a lake of fire, and failing to raise their kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 

I will grant that those who made such comments are probably using hyperbole and speaking in generalities.  But they need to hear people like the Dane, whose parents sent him to public schools (in California no less) and very clearly raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  He rightly resents the implication that his parents were bad parents for doing so.  I happen to be very close to a couple of families who sent their kids to public schools the whole way through and whose kids have attained a greater level of Christian maturity than just about any other kids I have known.  You will never convince me that these parents failed their kids in any way.

That is the problem with broad sweeping statements - to say that parents who send their kids to public schools are negligent is to imply that all such parents are negligent.  Therefore, if you are one of them then you are negligent.  Thus, the broad sweeping statements take on a very personal tone when you are the one whose parents sent you to public school or they are your close friends.  Those generalities cease to be generalities and become accusations against people you know and love.

We are not arguing that public schools are good.  We are arguing that a denomination would be overstepping its bounds to make a statement that will create a presumption of negligence where there may be none, and may even create the presumption of sin where there is none.   There are better ways to address the legitimate concerns we have about what is happening in public schools.

The Southern Baptists brought this issue back to their annual meeting this year and I could support a statement similar to the one they offered.  I am not completely sold on the resolution they offered, but its better than the one they offered last year and that we PCA'ers offered this year.  You can find that statement here.   Thanks to Molly at Brittle Crazy Glass for calling my attention to that statement.