Thinking Like a Christian: What Does the Bible Say About Public School?

Most parents believe “school is neutral”, are not aware of any agenda outside of “no child left behind”, and often make decisions about educating their children based on visible traits–the reputation of their school, the teachers they know, etc.

My intent for this series is two-fold: first, to reveal some history and background into the admitted agendas of key influences in the educational system, and get you to think beyond “is my school a good school”. (See part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) But secondly, to challenge Christian parents to evaluate their biblical responsibility for educating their children.

Education is NOT neutral, even from a secular standpoint. Social agendas in the last 60 years or so are gaining momentum and academic interests are taking a backseat while our children are being indoctrinated with values not our own. The system is, by and large, interested in making “good citizens”, and often see the family as a hindrance to that aim.

Definition of a “good citizen”? Docile, easily managed, believe-what-we-tell-you men and women driven by consumerism and not likely to challenge the status quo (or recognize the influence of said agenda).

“Schools today do not teach adequately the essential academic subjects. They do not lead by good example. And they do not support traditional family values.  Quite to the contrary, they teach that there is no right or wrong, that tolerance is good and being judgmental bad, that competition is wrong and cooperation good; that all children should have high self-esteem, and that they should explore life and enjoy themselves to the fullest.  Learning to learn, becoming lifelong learners and fitting-in and getting along with the crowd is all that matters. “Progressive” educators, today, promote consensus and group-decision making, and they discourage individual thinking as being egocentric.  They want our children to become “good citizens” that can’t distinguish right from wrong and will fit into the “Global Village” under a “New World Order” that function under a new set of moral values.”  Education News

But for the Christian parent, the stakes are much higher. Does the Bible even speak about education? Since the words “public school” are not found in Scripture, is this an area of neutrality?

The truth is that the Bible most certainly tells us how to educate our children and we are accountable to that knowledge. To think that God would remain silent on such an important issue is naive at best.

Two commonly violated biblical principles of education:

Commonly, it is argued that a child can attend school but still have his parents fulfill the biblical command of nurturing him in the admonition of the Lord. I will not suggest this can’t be true when the child is not at school. Yet the fact remains, that for the majority of the day that child is NOT being nurtured in the admonition of the Lord. The majority of the day the child is being subjected to “the counsel of the ungodly”, even if he has a gagged Christian teacher here and there. The curriculum of the state is decidedly opposed to Christianity and separates the knowledge of God from every subject.

This fact alone violates two biblical principles: “walking not in the counsel of the ungodly” and “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”.

To be continued…

More on “What’s Wrong With Public School” from Gatto

More provoking thoughts from John Taylor Gatto (former National Teacher of the Year after 30 years in the public school system). Your thoughts?

“I want you to consider the frightening possibility that we are spending far too much money on schooling, not too little. I want you to consider that we have too many people employed in interfering with the way children grow up – and that all this money and all these people, all the time we take out of children’s lives and away from their homes and families and neighborhoods and private explorations – gets in the way of education.

And yet last year in St. Louis, I heard a vice-president of IBM tell an audience of people assembled to redesign the process of teacher certification that in his opinion this country became computer-literate by self-teaching, not through any action of schools. He said 45 million people were comfortable with computers who had learned through dozens of non-systematic strategies, none of them very formal; if schools had pre-empted the right to teach computer use we would be in a horrible mess right now instead of leading the world in this literacy.”

 

“…schooling after the Prussian fashion removes the ability of the mind to think for itself. It teaches people to wait for a teacher to tell them what to do and if what they have done is good or bad. Prussian teaching paralyses the moral will as well as the intellect.”

“Bertrand Russell once observed that American schooling was among the most radical experiments in human history, that America was deliberately denying its children the tools of critical thinking. When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them, and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning. That’s if you want to teach them to think.

Kindergarten was created to be a way to break the influence of mothers on their children. I note with interest the growth of daycare in the US and the repeated urgings to extend school downward to include 4-year-olds.”

Public Education: Do You Know?

Continuing the series on public school education, it’s important to note that my intention in these posts is not to promote homeschooling. The point of this series is to specifically discuss the federal government’s control of education and resulting consequences. There are other options available but will only be desirable by a public who realizes that the government’s role should not include that of “Educator”.

Can you answer any of these questions and do you know why they are important for parents to know?

• When was the Federal Department of Education established?

• When did the government’s role in education greatly increase?

• How has increased funding improved the quality of education?

• Do you agree with this statement: “In short, never has public education been more generously supported by the taxpayer and never have our schools seen more violence, academic disarray, and parental dissatisfaction than the present. What is even more shocking is that over four million students must be drugged daily with Ritalin in order to be able to attend class….What is actually taking place is a cultural revolution engineered by behavioral psychologists, humanist educators, and socialist change agents using a whole galaxy of education programs to implement their agenda, financed by the federal government.” Samuel Blumenfield

• Are a people really free if the government controls the education of the public? What happens in other businesses where there is no free market, no accountability and no competition?

The Beauty of New

(I am still working on posts for the “public education series” but thought I’d disperse them intermittently between other, more encouraging posts.)

So we approach a new year. I love new. New, crisp journals, new pens, new coffee mugs, new scarves…Christmas no doubt brought some new things to your life.

But far more than those fun things, I LOVE the anticipation of new habits, new vision, new direction and new aspirations. We anticipate a lot of new this year, eagerly awaiting the time when we can return to a new home, (see the tornado story if you’re new), get a new routine, a new schedule, and a fresh, new start. This year has given us much new that we have found difficult and overwhelming, and some we have found wonderful.

Jesus came to make all things new. And in Him, we have newness of life. But sometimes we don’t live in that newness. We are content to live in mediocrity, in a life not surrendered, in flesh not crucified.

I have struggles in my life. Do you? I get angry when I shouldn’t, am unloving when I should love, am short when I should be long suffering.

I let old habits reign paramount way too often. In short, I’m unwilling, or maybe just too busy to die in order to be made new. Can we die to the flesh that robs us and our families of joy?

In this new year, I want to live in newness of life. I want to allow the Lord to fill me with His love, His character so that the aroma of Christ exudes from my life.

How? By making time to pause, listen and dwell in His presence. By filling my mind and heart with His Word until I’m transformed. By focusing on the importance of my influence on my family and loving them enough to love Him more.

“Father, help me.”

How are you embracing “new”?

A Closer Look at Public Education: Are We Trained to Serve the Economy?

In this series on education, I have and will quote quite often from John Taylor Gatto because I believe he is not only highly qualified to speak, having been intensely involved with the public school system for more than thirty years, but I also believe he has a pure agenda, motivated only by a simple love of truth and people. He is as studied and competent a man I’ve ever read and we would do well to at least consider his observations and conclusions.

Open discussion is encouraged and welcomed, providing it remains respectful and dignified.

The following is a small excerpt from a speech Gatto gave with perhaps some of the most interesting perspectives on compulsory education I have ever read:

“There can be no doubt that the fantastic wealth of American big business is a direct result of school training. Schools training a social lump to be needy, frightened, envious, bored, talentless and incomplete. The successful mass-production economy demands such an audience. It isn’t anybody’s fault. Just as the Amish small business, small farm economy requires intelligence, competence, thoughtfulness and compassion, ours needs a well managed mass — level, anxious, spiritless families, godless and conforming; people who believe that the difference between Coke and Pepsi is matter worth arguing about. The American economy depends on schooling us that status is purchased and others run our lives. We learn there that sources of joy and accomplishment are external, that the contentment comes with the possessions, seldom from within. School cuts our ability to concentrate to a few minutes duration, creating a life-long craving for relief from boredom through outside stimulation. In conjunction with television and computer games, which employ the identical teaching methodology, these lessons are permanently inscribed. We become fearful, stupid, voiceless and addicted to novelty.

The secret of American schooling is that it doesn’t teach the way children learn – nor is it supposed to. Schools were conceived to serve the economy and the social order rather than kids and families — that is why it is compulsory. As a consequence, the school can not help anybody grow up, because its prime directive is to retard maturity. It does that by teaching that everything is difficult, that other people run our lives, that our neighbors are untrustworthy even dangerous. School is the first impression children get of society. Because first impressions are often the decisive ones, school imprints kids with fear, suspicion of one another, and certain addictions for life. It ambushes natural intuition, faith, and love of adventure, wiping these out in favor of a gospel of rational procedure and rational management.

From John Taylor Gatto’s Speech

The Sovereignty of the Messy Manger

We reflect on many different things at Christmas, but rarely on the perfect sovereignty of God in the manger.

So many events in our lives, and as far back as history goes, look messy to us, while the Lord sees beauty. Such was the case in Nazareth a long time ago. A young, single girl discovering she’s pregnant. A dreamy engagement tarnished. A difficult journey, a difficult labor, a difficult delivery.

Then His life. Void of the esteem one would expect of the Savior of the world. Criticism, exhaustion, rejection and then cruel death. Our earthly view is confounded while He, enthroned in glory, smiles at it all, His perfect, “odd” plan.

Is this “the best life now”? Or has God always delighted to confound the wisdom of the world and give us the real “best” in another way?

Pre-tornado: our old house, our simple lives

Christmas looks different, feels different for me this year. Different is good sometimes. But I wouldn’t have chosen change.

I think I’ve shared here before that a few weeks before our home was destroyed in April’s tornadoes this year, my brother jokingly tried to persuade us to move to Colorado. “Chris, you don’t understand the ‘thing’ about me…I. don’t. like. change. I love the normal-ness and routine of my days and I can’t imagine anything else.” LOL!

April 27, 2011...a few hours after the storm.

Change came suddenly and permanently. We lost friends, we lost our home and possessions, we lost the beauty of our entire community–a sight still sore to see, eight months later. But we gained something far more precious…

A clearer understanding of the sovereignty of God, a fresh reminder of the peace in knowing He holds all things in His hand, and a new appreciation for the simple, important things in life–the people in it.

We have seen God work ALL things for our good and for those around us suffering deeper losses than we have. It hasn’t been painless, but we are not called to live painlessly. Just as Mary wasn’t. Nor Jesus. Nor anyone who has named the name of Christ. But the difference is in our Hope…our joy through all things, and our peace, resting in His perfect will.

We can say with Mary, “My soul doth magnify the Lord!”

I thought I’d be upset if we weren’t in our new home by Christmas, as if our atmosphere would determine the quality of our celebration. (I wonder if Mary had longed for a more comfortable birthing room?) We are not in, and I am not upset. I am rejoicing. Rejoicing in the sweet faces of my children, in my steady, work-horse of a husband, in another year with my father whom we almost lost to a heart attack that same fateful day, and in too many unbelievable blessings to count as a result of what we called a tragedy.

I am rejoicing in His perfect sovereignty, which removes all fear and confusion.

I’m rejoicing in the messy birth of a skin-wrapped God come to die in my place. What love…do we know it?

If you are struggling with some providence in your life, let me leave you with this that has so encouraged us, written by Chris Strevel, a pastor in GA:

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas season, full of the tenderness of a Savior’s love. If you don’t know Him, I pray He finds you, and you fall in love with Him. I thank you all, from the deepest gratitude, for your love, prayers, support, gifts and tender thoughtfulness to our family over this past year.

It. changed. everything.

I love you.