Public schools aren't for Christians!

[amh]

Originally Posted by 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.

I see what you mean.

[Scott Pitta]

I am not sure we are consistent in our interaction with the world. If public school participation is bad, is it also wrong to engage in other public public events such as going to the market place for work ? Participating in elections ? Military service ? What about college ?

I do not recall the issue of primary education ever mention in the NT.

[shazeep]

funny you mention those; i have come to see them all as vanity, or worse. We surely have examples of those who eschew them to follow Christ...but also those who follow them, and could be said to be examples, i guess.

[Jito463]

The difference is, children tend to be easier to indoctrinate. Considering they spend 6-7 hours a day at school, that's a lot of time to be indoctrinated into the world's viewpoint. It makes it that much harder for parents to reconcile the correct upbringing (Christianity) with what they learn in school. It's not impossible, I went to public school, yet am a solid conservative Christian; but it's definitely more difficult for the parents.

[Carl]

Children are at an impressionable and tender age that they need to be protected to some degree. At times even the best give into peer pressure. In the government school there is also a lot of misbehavior, disrespect for teachers and other students as well as peer pressure that it is a distraction to the good kids who really want to learn and have it be a positive experience.

This past year we transferred our son out of the high school he was attending because the environment was so bad. He observed kids getting arrested right in class, as well as teachers getting injured trying to break up fights, not to mention the kids getting hurt. He also got tired of the constant attitudes, belittling and harassment that kids seem to engage in. He knows what he believes and is steadfast, but the culture was just so troubling and distracting to him. Yes, maybe this should be a good witness opportunity, but for a young person that is maybe too much to have to deal with. He now drives 12 miles to a different school which seems worlds apart, which in a way it is being in a small town nearby.

Up until a few years ago all our kids attended our church school beginning with kindergarten. The school closed due to the financial challenges involved with operating it. It bothers me to this day. We went without some things in order to pay tuition and it was worth every penny!

[Scott Pitta]

Christianity does not have a long history of private schools as opposed to public school participation. I suggest that this is a recent development mainly found in the US culture. Recent, as in the last 50 years.

[shazeep]

i remember being assigned a short story to read in class--everyone read it--about incest. It did not depict the incest as heinous, but rather more like something that just happens sometimes, tra-la. I was mentally divested of public schooling by then, prolly 15 or 16, but i still noted it as really weird. Looking back on it, the teacher was even being weird that day; uncomfortable with the assignment, perhaps.

That was like 1978-79. Can anyone witness some of the weirdness coming out of schools now? I've seen worksheets on GMOs for elementary school kids; also on pantheism, etc.

[Jito463]

Originally Posted by Scott Pitta

Christianity does not have a long history of private schools as opposed to public school participation. I suggest that this is a recent development mainly found in the US culture. Recent, as in the last 50 years.

One could also point out, on the flip-side, that 50-60 years ago saw a more Christian-friendly school system.

[Carl]

Originally Posted by Jito463

One could also point out, on the flip-side, that 50-60 years ago saw a more Christian-friendly school system.

Right, that is why the Christian school movement began maybe 30-40 years ago. When prayer and the ten commandments were thrown out and the culture began to change, humanism became prevelant and Christians realized they had to take a more active role in education.

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by Scott Pitta

Christianity does not have a long history of private schools as opposed to public school participation. I suggest that this is a recent development mainly found in the US culture. Recent, as in the last 50 years.

This is completely false.

http://education.stateuniversity.com...Schooling.html

Originally Posted by A secular website

History of Private Schools in the United States

Private schools date back to the schools opened by Catholic missionaries in Florida and Louisiana in the sixteenth century, which predated the beginning of formal education in Massachusetts. These Catholic schools were the offspring of missionary zeal. The distinction between public and private, of such importance during the second half of the nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century, was not an issue in colonial North America. Schools quite frequently were the products of combined efforts of ecclesiastical and civil authorities, along with parental support, the latter often constituting the primary factor in the schooling of the young. No one pattern existed across the colonies; the government had no de facto monopoly in the operation of schools anywhere.

Private "christian" schools came before "public schools" here in America. And, the first public schools were Christian.