Thursday, May 14, 2009

"Public" Schools

The following is an excerpt from a thought out response to a lady who challenged me, "by name" on an internet e-mail list I participate in. While slightly "off-topic" from the purpose of the list, the lady had challenged my disapproval of government schools. As she named me by name, I assumed the moderator would have let me offer the rebuttal. Unfortunately, the post was axed. But so as not to go to the trouble writing something that will never be seen, I offer the following exerpt, with all the identifying information removed, for your perusal. To set the scene, she opined that public schools are not all bad, because she's seen real live Christian kids who are doing well there, including her own. Here is my response.


-----------------
Experience is a fickle standard by which we make our decisions. For every child who exemplifies a Christian walk in the government schools, you can count five who are just the way I described. Now, the standard line I've heard is that parents want to send their children to these places so they can be a "light" or a good witness. I must make all my decisions, where possible, based on the standard of the Word of God. I Cor. 15:33 reads:


Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.(1Co 15:33)


Other translations render this as "bad company corrupts good morals."


No, not every child that attends government schools is going to conform to the baggy pants, gothic style, head banger image that seems to be growing more prevalent. More and more may be coming out as clean cut, smooth talking, athletic, and charismatic types (such as our current U.S. President) who have bought the establishment line, hook, line, and sinker.


The fact remains that even a solid, Christian adult would have a hard time keeping a renewed mind if he were fed the new age, earth worship, diversity, "all religions equal" dogma that is crammed down the throats of innocent children 8 hours every single day.


Our own American Caesar, Abraham Lincoln, once said, "The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next." How right he was, as we now see our state governments one by one passing sodomite "marriage" bills. How could this be avoided when millions of school children are taught that homosexuality is equal to heterosexuality? And to bring this subject back to the focus of this list in particular, the whole anti-child mindset is implanted in the minds of our children in a pro-feminism, anti-life agenda that has been prominent every since the 1920's and the establishment of the eugenic organization known as Planned Parenthood (which is now welcomed in many high schools).


>>>>
Please allow the same respect to children that attend public school. Some families do very well at homeshcool (sic) and some do not, the same can be said of public school families.
>>>>


It is not a matter of whether I respect them or not. Actually the children rarely have a say in whether they are homeschooled or not. The fact of the matter remains that in our homeschool, I love the "socialization" that it offers. I know for sure that every child in our school is under the same love and care as everyone else...for they are all brothers and sisters. I know for a fact that my children do not need to live in fear of one of their classmates pulling a"Columbine" stunt.

>>>>
My husband and I have prayed about homeschool many times and God has never once led us there.
>>>>
My question to you is this: How would you know if God were leading you there? In fact, how do you know that God has led you to government schooling? Is He neutral on the subject? God speaks to us through His Word (Hebrews, chapter 1). The Word of God declares:

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.(Deu 6:6-7)

I would be interested in reading a similar passage that instructs parents to delegate the instruction of their children to someone else. I can't seem to find that one.

Certainly as a godly wife, you must follow your husband's lead on this. I would urge him to know that Deut. 6 is directed at *fathers*and he will give account to Father God regarding to whom he delegated the authority to teach the nine precious souls that God entrusted to his care. As for me and my house, I teach whatever I can myself and delegate much to my loving helpmeet, who is the only one I trust with such an important task.

3 comments:

The Schaubing Blogk said...

What list? Usually email lists don't have a way to axe posts.

What is the purpose of the list?

I like your quote:

My question to you is this: How would you know if God were leading you there? In fact, how do you know that God has led you to government schooling? Is He neutral on the subject?All too often we conveniently ignore what Scripture has to say on a subject; or don't even look, when we don't think we would like the result.

Mike Southerland said...

Thanks Von. It's an email list similar to one of the yahoo groups lists, though independent and not associated with yahoo.

The list has nothing to do with education, so the moderator was justified in disallowing my post to go through. I opt not to state the name of this list associated with this blog post because I respect the moderators and I enjoy the list. I don't want to speak ill of them. I did not post this on my blog to complain about it being rejected. Rather, I just wanted "the world" to be allowed to read what I spent the time thinking of and writing.

I hope that my response here will be an encouragement to others not to use the internet to belittle other organizations.

Your response to the subject matter was right on target and was exactly the point I was trying to make.

Thanks,
Mike

Little Acorns Academy said...

Hi Mike,
I am on 'the list' and read all of the posts, yours and hers, on the topic and believe that you are right on target. I am sorry that this post was 'axed' as you have an excellent way of explaining things, biblically and thought provoking. I look for your posts everytime I recieve a digest as I know it will be full of Godly advice and wisdom. I am a homeschooling mom of 4 (so far :) and appreciate the effort you put into your writing. I followed your siggy to your blog site - hopefully others will too.
Blessings
Melanie