Public schools aren't for Christians!

[Fionn mac Cumh]

Originally Posted by Jito463

I often find myself disagreeing with you (even if I don't bother posting), but on this we're in perfect agreement.

10-4 brother.

[commonsense]

When my children were school age they attended public school and it was not a problem. Not sure I would send them today.. Most schools dwell more on secular humanism. Although I do not agree with Rush on everything........ when he cites the dumbing down of America_____I agree!!

My granddaughter is home schooled.

Not sure what is offered now but the UPC variety church schools I saw in the 70's and 80's did NOT impress me.

[Originalist]

Originally Posted by Fionn mac Cumh

Education, secular or christian, begins at the home.

[amh]

How are you supposed to win souls if you're completely oblivious to the things others your age are going through? Where is the evangelism in homeschooling? Christian schooling? Schools where kids are so completely sheltered from the world around them? Jesus walked with sinners. Why shouldn't we?

[shazeep]

after a certain age, sure; but 8 hours a day, in one's most formative years?

[aegsm76]

Originally Posted by amh

How are you supposed to win souls if you're completely oblivious to the things others your age are going through? Where is the evangelism in homeschooling? Christian schooling? Schools where kids are so completely sheltered from the world around them? Jesus walked with sinners. Why shouldn't we?

1. I do not believe most "children" are out to win souls. They are children and focused on being children.
2. Should everything that "children" do be focused on evangelism?

I was the biggest proponent of public schools, all of my life.
I despised private schools.
And did not feel much better about Christian schools.
I then moved my wife and two small children across the country to a "purple ribbon" (top 5 percent) school, which was terrible.
Lots of stories that I could tell here, but after 1.5 years, we took them out and alternated between home, christian and public schools until they graduated.
It did not hurt them academically or socially. They are both married, 20 years later, and have children.
Both are active in their church, preaching, witnessing, winning souls.
I do not believe they would have been as well off academically, socially or spiritually if we had left them in public school.
Now, do not take this to mean I mean this as a 'blanket" rule.
Some public schools are great and some are not.
Some parents can handle home school and some cannot.
I just believe the Lord led us in the right direction, for them.

[ApostolicKitty]

The Bible says to train a child in the way he should go. That's pretty difficult to do when you hand over your child to someone else all day long to provide their training and then have to deal with the work they burden your child with in the afternoon.

I pulled my son out of the government schools after he was done with 5th grade, though I wished I had been able to homeschool him from the beginning. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. I was able to train him with the materials the Lord provided me. He was able to focus more on his purpose in God because it was a part of his schoolwork. He was not out of touch with what was going on with his friends or the world around him. In fact, if anything, he had more of an idea about what was going on in the world than many others his age.

In my opinion there is no such thing as a good public school.

[amh]

I think children should have a choice though. Yes, train up a child in the way he should go, no, most children aren't so worried about evangelism. But at my church, we teach children that they have the power to help win souls to Christ, and our students are excited to be able to bring their friends into the church and see them be saved. Yes, we have homeschoolers and kids in Christian schools, but public school isn't necessarily evil. Sometimes it can be exactly the medium the church needs to win the lost.

(By the way, in my previous comment, I was mostly just thinking of teens in school. I think that if someone is able to reason and decide for himself what he believes about God, they should be able to decide whether they can handle public school or not. This is exactly what happened with me. My mother wanted to homeschool me but I insisted that public school was something that I just had to go through. She understood that I had a burden for the people at my school and she let me go. I did not want to be in public school. I chose to be in public school because there were no Christians there. Someone had to be a light in that school.)

[aegsm76]

amh - I have to disagree/modify your first statement.
Parents have the choice, even with teenagers.
Every child is different.
Some are capable of making good choices and some are not.

I would say that your mother made a correct decision in your case.

[Esaias]

Most kids who are homeschooled are capable of making a decision about high school, because they tend to have a better grasp of the issues involved IMO.
But for a Christian parent who has a child in their formative years I don't see how sending them off to the heathens to be trained up in the way they should go can be reconciled with their responsibility to raise up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.