Introduction
I pulled my children out of public school in February. It was a harder decision than you would think. My wife and I never considered public education until we moved to rural South Carolina. When I was hired by our local church for an internship role, there was a great deal of “hype” about the quality of the local system. The schools were reportedly academically sound and untouched by the rampant liberalism and atheistic encroachments experienced by many other locales. To top it off, a fairly sizeable proportion of members are part of the administration and faculty. By sizeable, I mean about one-third. And, the school board chairman attends our church regularly. After our brief experiment, my wife and I simply could not stomach the public-school system any longer. We believed we were not being faithful Christian parents if we left our children in. So, we pulled them out.
In truth, the “our public-school system is different than all the rest” testimonies we heard were not so different than many others. When I lived in small-town Alabama it was the same. Christian friends who enrolled their children in public school had to do so despite the amoral atmosphere. And, this was 15 years ago, before the LGBTQ+ sexual revolution. They convinced themselves they were engaging their children in the Great Commission by allowing them to be salt and light in their local schools. This was even though George Barna was beginning to report Christian children were leaving the faith in droves.[1] The problem, though, was with the church, not the family.[2]
There are numerous issues in public education that should cause Christian parents to, at the very least, take a long pause before inserting their children into them. Some things to consider: public schools fail to educate in the truth, fail to discipline children as they require, and embrace the goals of the cultural revolution. In addition, I will demonstrate that the family is the basis for all education in the truth. Since God created the family, and conveyed the responsibility for education, this responsibility should be carried out in faithfulness to him.
A Failure of Teaching
The Scriptures reveal to us that God created all that is (Gen 1, Acts 17:24-30). Because all that exists is the result of God’s decree, all that exists is revelatory of the nature and character of God (Ps 19, Ro 1:28 ff.). Further, God exercises his providence over the affairs of mankind so they accomplish his predetermined plans (Jer 35, Acts 2:29). Thus, both creation and providence are revelatory of God. All that may be known, then, derives from God because he has declared it from the beginning (#REF).
Along these lines, Dr. Morton Smith wrote, “All human thinking is a reinterpreting of God’s thought after him…all knowledge is in a sense theological knowledge…all facts are revelational of God, and thus any knowledge derived from the study of facts must point back to God ultimately.”[3] In summary, this means for any fact to be understood truly, it must be understood in light of the revelation of God in Christ.
The bearing this has on education is becoming clear. Our children have not truly learned a fact until they have learned it in light of the revelation of God in Christ. Therefore, education in any subject is incomplete if its connection to Jesus Christ is not formed in the mind of the student. All truth is God’s truth and is intended to lead to worship.
When we evaluate any system of education, it has to be evaluated in light of this. Any school, public or private, Christian or secular, that does not educate children theologically, does not truly educate them. This is the reason public schools are designed to fail.
Public schools are inherently pluralistic. Rather than offer a religiously-neutral alternative to private, Christian schools, public schools actually promote a religion all their own. In part, this is because they are public. They are funded by tax-payers, and, therefore, must conform to the will of the taxpayers. They must represent all creeds.
But only the Christian creed is based on the self-revelation of the infinite Creator. Thus, at their core, are simply unable to provide children a true education. In John 17:3, Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”[4] In his high priestly prayer, Jesus discloses that life and knowledge are organically linked. To know God through Christ is life. Not to know God through Christ is not to have life. Since life is foundational to all creation, this knowledge of God through Christ is foundational. But a taxpayer funded school system will never be allowed to base its curriculum on this quintessential truth.
This is not to say, however, that public schools are entirely irreligious. Neil Postman, in his book, The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School, discusses the four “gods” of the American school system.[5] They are: economic utility, consumership, technology, and multiculturalism. Together, these “gods” teach children that through certain inputs they will achieve skills sets which will enable them to obtain the jobs necessary to fund their consumeristic desires. Success in education is ultimately defined as buying-power, not worship.
A Failure of Discipline
This brings us to the next fundamental failure of public education, the failure to provide proper discipline. This problem has several roots. The first root is one of anthropology. In 17th century Europe, Desiderius Erasmus was profoundly interested in education. He desired “to reform society and the church through education.”[6] It was Erasmus’ view that the mind of the child was a virtual tabula rasa, a blank slate. With the right education at the right time, begun by age seven at the latest, the heart of a child could be steered into a life of moral up-standing.[7] All humans could be persuaded to act reasonably, and strife could be resolved through reason. In other words, he rejected the concept of original sin.
This same view is taken of children today. Men act out in violence because they lack education and meaningful job opportunities.[8] If we simply provide children with a proper education, they will be channeled into economically productive livelihoods which will meet their intrinsic, consumeristic desire and decrease violence. The heart must not be disciplined, it must be channeled. Thus, the very core of education philosophy is anthropologically wrong.
Hand-in-hand with this is Neil Postman’s fourth “god” of education: multi-culturalism. He does not refer to cultural pluralism, but to the recognition that “oppression is the key to understanding white history, literature, art, and most everything else of European origin. It follows from this that all the narratives of the white, European races are to be seen as propagandistic means of concealing their evil, or, even worse, making their evil appear virtuous.”[9] The story of history, therefore, is not the story of the outworking of a sovereign God who purposes all things for his own glory and the preservation of his church (Ro 8:28). Instead, history is about oppression, particularly that of minority groups.
What does this have to do with failing discipline? In 2014, the administration of then-President Obama issued a letter warning schools about the high level of school suspensions. The problem: racism. A preponderance of students being suspended or expelled from schools was black.[10] The multicultural narrative informs public policy by noting that any disparate treatment is not the result of disparate behavior, but of oppression. So, schools in many states have passed legislation to curtail suspensions. And, classroom behavior has suffered.[11]
I have personal experience with this issue. In the school where my children attended for much of this past year, disciplinary issues were substantial. Over time, the children realized administrators would not suspend them for bad behavior. Fighting and cursing at teachers was disciplined through “talks” and, perhaps, in-school suspension. During in-school suspension, children were allowed to use their phones or read a book. Hardly a punishment. The result of this lack of discipline was an atmosphere in which well-behaved students were the ones who felt oppressed because the students who behaved badly were effectively rewarded with time-off.[12] And, teachers are quitting in droves.[13]
A Failure of Morality
Public schools cannot educate children because they fail their curriculum is not rooted in the truth of Scripture and because of failing discipline. A third reason they fail is because of their rush to embrace the cultural revolution. A number of years ago I heard a story on National Public Radio about a public school system which counseled its teachers to refer to students as “purple penguins.”[14] One might think this story came from San Francisco or Portland. No, Nebraska. The cultural revolution has reached terminal velocity when it is embraced in the “heartland” of America.
Since that time, the public school embrace of hedonistic sexuality has strengthened.[15] Young children are being asked about their preferred gender pronoun.[16] Female student-athletes are being defeated by young men who “identify” as women.[17] And, all of these things are deemed praise-worthy by local school boards, despite contrary scientific research.[18]
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). Yet this is a proper motto for American public schools. The institution whose sole objective is to impart wisdom to children is itself foolish. It is foolish because it has rejected Christ as the basis of all knowledge. It is foolish because it rejects a biblical approach to the discipline of children. And, it is foolish because it embraces the radical hedonism of the sexual revolution.[19] Why do Christian parents continue to send their children to these schools?
For my wife and me, we were persuaded to try it because of our church family lauded the local schools as ones that busted the paradigm. And because, like some other parents, our financial circumstances required it. But in light of these circumstances two challenges should be issued, one to parents, and one to churches.
First, parents must remember that they themselves bear responsibility for the education of their children. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons…” (Deut. 6:7). Parents have a didactic responsibility. That is, they must actively provide the theological education for their children that public schools cannot and will not. This responsibility is covenantal. God has entered into a formal, blessing-curse relationship with his people. We loudly proclaim that all benefits flow to us on the basis of God’s gracious acceptance of Christ’s righteousness in our behalf (Rom 4:1 ff.). But we have not been left devoid of any responsibility of obedience to God. And, part of Christian obedience to the one, true God is to raise covenant children in the nurture and admonition of Christ Jesus (Eph. 6:4).
Not public schools, government agencies, or even churches, but the family is the “basic social institution of human society.”[20] Dr. Smith went on to write, “As an institution of authority it was the precursor of civil authority. As the institution of training and education it was the precursor of the school. As the place of worship and fellowship with God, it was the precursor of the Church.”[21] Christian parents must embrace this truth, especially with regard for their children’s education.
Second, churches must remember the responsibility of the Great Commission includes discipleship (Matt. 28:18-20). This discipleship means to teach all the nations “to observe all that [Christ] commanded…” (Matt. 28:20). Jesus embraced children as members of the kingdom of God (Matt. 19:13-15). And, churches should take the opportunity to see ministry to children through the provision of Christian education as an aspect of the Great Commission.
One author notes that if all Christian parents removed their children from public schools, the system would be brought to its knees.[22] He issues this stinging rebuke, “How many pastors have watched how many covenant children turned over to the godless so that the godless might oversee their growth and formation, and have said nothing?”[23] If Christian congregations embraced their catholicity and endeavored to establish faithful schools with reasonable rates in their cities, God would be pleased. And a significant mouthpiece for cultural revolution in America would be silenced.
Conclusion
When we pulled our children out of public school, my wife and I had reached the point at which we could not leave them there in good conscience before God. This is because we believe the public school simply is not a system in which we can educate our children in faithfulness to God. All believers must make this assessment personally before the Lord, and consider the arguments I have laid out in this paper.
[1] Barna reported nearly 60% of children were leaving the faith permanently or for an extended period of time by age 15 in “Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church,” Barna Group, accessed May 5, 2019, https://www.barna.com/research/six-reasons-young-christians-leave-church/.
[2] Ibid., Barna identifies six “problems” teenagers have with the church that causes them to want to leave.
[3] Morton H. Smith, Systematic Theology, vol. 1, Prolegomena, Theology, Anthropology, Christology (Greenville, SC: Greenville Seminary Press, 1994), 26.
[4] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture citations from NASB
[5] Neil Postman, The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School, 1. Vintage Books ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1996).
[6] Roland H Bainton, Erasmus of Christendom (New York: Scribner, 1977), 24.
[7] Ibid.
[8] I would never minimize the importance of either of these, in fact I think this should lead to Christian concern over the growth in AI as a replacement for human workers. Scripture informs us that men are made to work (Gen 1:26, 2:15, 2 Thess 3:10), and a jobless man is a purposeless man. Lack of education and joblessness, however, are not the root of evil (1 Tim 6:10).
[9] Postman, The End of Education.
[10] Wayne D’Orio, “Is School-Discipline Reform Moving Too Fast?,” The Atlantic, last modified January 11, 2018, accessed May 6, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/01/is-school-discipline-reform-moving-too-fast/550196/.
[11] Ibid. He notes that over the last two years in California alone, “1,400 staff has left” because of issues with classroom discipline.
[12] The lack of effective discipline is one facet of a multi-faceted problem. What the schools are dealing with, culturally, is generations of children who are growing up fatherless, read discipline-less. This issue is not quite right for this paper, but a majority of children from minority homes grow up in single parent homes. This is well documented. In my personal experience, there is another significant number of children who are being raised by extended family. The prevailing opioid crisis in the country is producing many orphans.
[13] Last year, nearly 7,000 South Carolina teachers quit, “Classrooms in Crisis: Why SC Teachers Are Quitting in Record Numbers,” The State, accessed May 6, 2019, https://www.thestate.com/news/local/education/article205569864.html.
[14] Some of these things you can’t make up! “School Told to Call Kids ‘Purple Penguins’ Because ‘Boys and Girls’ Is Not Inclusive to Transgender,” National Review, October 8, 2014, accessed May 6, 2019, https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/10/school-told-call-kids-purple-penguins-because-boys-and-girls-not-inclusive/.
[15] “LGBT K-12 School Proposed for Georgia,” Baptist Press, accessed May 6, 2019, http://www.bpnews.net/46108/lgbt-k12-school-proposed-for-georgia; “Department of Education: Title IX Applies to Transgender Students – The Aquila Report,” accessed May 6, 2019, https://www.theaquilareport.com/department-of-education-title-ix-applies-to-transgender-students/.
[16] “School Told to Call Kids ‘Purple Penguins’ Because ‘Boys and Girls’ Is Not Inclusive to Transgender.”
[17] “A High School Girl’s Life After Transgender Students Join Her Sport,” accessed May 6, 2019, https://www.instapaper.com/read/1190432246.
[18] “Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden,” accessed May 6, 2019, https://www.instapaper.com/read/1025923768.
[19] This is to say nothing of the embrace of radical feminism and the rejection of a biblical model of family.
[20] Smith, Systematic Theology, 1, Prolegomena, Theology, Anthropology, Christology:276.
[21] Ibid.
[22] “Burn All the Schools,” Blog & Mablog, last modified November 1, 2018, accessed May 4, 2019, https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/burn-all-the-schools.html.
[23] Ibid.
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