Grandma Attacks Classical Christian Education

So business season is in full swing, and the sunshine has returned with strength and beauty. We are trying not to waste a moment as well as trying to enjoy every moment. So far it's been pretty easy.

I worked yesterday afternoon for the grandmother of a student at our school. She is a former public school teacher, media center coordinator, principal, and finally, before her retirement, superintendent of a district in this area. A loud, energetic, and articulate lady, she confided in me that it breaks her heart to see her grandson in a private school. She knows/agrees that it's a good school, and apparently helps out with tuition, but his absence from the public schools troubles her greatly. She also said that she doesn't know if she agrees with the philosophy of the school.

My sense of this woman is that she must have been an outstanding administrator. Her district built several schools during her tenure and increased its student population by 700. Obviously she was a lady who could "get the job done."

The question we need to ask, however, is, "What is the job?"

In other words, if you raise glorious funds and build grand buildings, but damage the student by the content of what you are teaching, your work is largely in vain.

Christian parents ought to have a problem with the public schools for several reasons, but here's the key one: America's public schools demonstrate on a daily basis that God is irrelevant. Teachers in public schools must teach from the perspective that any belief system might be valid, or none might be. They must teach that evolution is the best approach to understanding our origins and our basic nature. In other words, they are require to lie (either implicitly or explicitly) to our young people about who they are and for what purpose they have been placed on earth. They simply are not allowed to tell the Truth.

Is it any wonder that our government schools are full of underachievement, drug use, gangs, violence, despair, teen pregnancy shallowness, disrespect, foul language, and depression? When you tell young people that they have no purpose beyond themselves, no One who loves them, and no One Who will judge their lives and their actions, you can expect exactly what we're seeing. And worse.

I haven't said anything controversial in my personal life for a long time, or in my blog, but I am ready to say something today. I am ready to call out all the Christians who believe that two hours on Sunday morning will counteract 42 hours of humanist instruction during the week. Even if the onslaught of philosophical naturalism during these formative years doesn't wipe your child's salvation, it seriously damage her ability to love God with all her mind because the educational system will feed her untrue information that she will absorb without realizing that it is untrue. (This happens to all of us -- we mentally hold two things that are mutually exclusive -- shall we say "A" and "non-A" -- and think them both to be true at the same time.)

I think I have said my piece for today. If you want to comment in disagreement, I ask you to think about your comment for a little while and don't merely post out of emotion.