Can You Trust The Public School System?

Some excerpts from The Harsh Truth About Public Schools:

A Christian education must impart a Christian worldview in which the sovereignty of God and the central role of Jesus Christ in human history and affairs are understood by every Christian child...But this is not an education that Christians should desire to provide through a system of government schools.*

The point here is that Christian parents must not be distracted from their duty to their children by hoping for a reform of government schools that will not and should not happen. Instead, Christian parents must squarely confront what is now being done to their children. Secular humanists and New Agers are using government schools coercively to evangelize Christian children to their atheistic or pagan beliefs. These government-sponsored evangelists are relentless, and, as the data from Nehemiah Institute and Barna Research show, they have been very effective. If we are to be faithful stewards of the children God has given us, Christian parents must lead their children out of Pharaoh's schools now.*

First, parents today (and their parents, and their parents before them) were raised in a society that unreflectively  came to accept the belief that the education of children is the business of the state, not parents. Government schools, after all, employ legions of "highly trained education professionals" who have been known to remind questioning parents that they, not the parents, are the "experts." From the perspective of today's parents, why should they undertake something that is the government's job, that they haven't been "trained" for, and that they've already paid to have someone else do? Besides, being personally responsible for their children's education might cause some anxiety and force them to reorder their lives.*

The truth is hard, but simple. Those who control government schools want your children and your money. They don't want you sticking your nose into what they consider to be their business, and they don't want to change.*

"But What About Socialization?" Some Christian parents are a little schizophrenic- they want children to be Christian and to be like everyone else. This is obviously impossible. Christ offended many because His words and His actions were a rebuke to sinners. His apostles new they would suffer because they would give offense for His sake...So, the real question is, to which standards are we going to socialize our children- to those of Pharaoh's schools or to those of Christ?*

Bruce N. Shortt, The Harsh Truth About Public Schools ( Vallecito, Ca.:Chalcedon Foundation, 2004), p. 315-316

*Ibid, p. 316

*Ibid, p. 318

*Ibid, p. 323

*Ibid, p. 328