Should you send your child to a Christian school? This is a very personal and difficult question to answer for parents. There are a lot of things to consider before you make this decision. I think we need to remember that our educational systems today teach our students much more than just book facts, they spend more time teaching our kids about life in general than some of us do. So this decision should not be based only on academics, although they are an important part of the educational proccess, rather it should be based on a comprehensive approach.
I attended public school 1st through 12th, and apparently I liked it so much I added a year of transition after kindergarten. I graduated from a large high school in Phoenix, Arizona. Between my sophomore and junior year I began going to church, while finally accepting Christ during the winter of my Junior year. After high school, and a few years away from school period, I attended and graduated a very liberal secular university, where I graduated with a degree in Philosophy. I married my best friend the last year of college. After my wife and I had finished school we began to have discussions about if we would send our future children to public school or a private school. My wife had attended a private school for a few years of her early childhood, and had fond memories of the atmosphere at the school. I on the other hand was absolutely adamantly against sending out children to a private school. I had enjoyed my school experience so much that I did not want to even think about robbing that from my children. Do not get me wrong, I never thought that it was horrible for everyone to send their child to a private school, just not me.
Then I had a child of my own. Just after my daughter was born, I began to teach at a private Christian school in Norman, Oklahoma. Needless to say, my opinion changed drastically.
Ephesians 6:4 says, “Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Proverbs is filled with instruction and correction by the father in the house. One of my favorite passages in scripture is Proverbs 4:10-27, and it tells us that there are two paths that you can take, the path of the righteous and the path of the wicked. It is based on a father instructing his son in the ways of the Lord. My point here is not that all public schools are on the path of the wicked, and all private Christian schools are on the path of the righteous, although this may be close to my conclusion in the end. My point is that it became very clear to me through reading these scriptures that I had a responsibility as a father. You can gauge the success of a father on one thing; that he bring up his children in the training and instruction of the Lord.
If your child is not involved in extra curricular activities at school then they will be spending an average of about 40 hours a week there, and if your child is involved in other things, then you can probably bump that to about 50 hours a week at least. As a parent, even an involved parent, you can not compete with the time that your student spends away from you. I know some parents that are jealous of their child’s teachers because they get to see their kids more than they do. There are two main aspects that deserve consideration; academics and social. Let me cover them both with a single question.
I was going to give you a pro’s and con’s list and let you make the call your selves, but then as I was writing the lists down, I realized that there probably is not a more important point than the question I am about to ask. What type of worldview training do you want your child to spend 40 plus hours a week listening to? Your teachers are teaching them a worldview, and since I am pretty sure public school teachers are not allowed to teach your child the same Christian worldview that you believe, what worldview are they teaching them? Have you read through your child’s text books from school? What are the subtle and not so subtle underline ideologies that are being taught to your child? My point here is that academically I feel that I have a responsibility to place my daughter in a school system that teaches the truth according to Godly principles expressed in the Scriptures. Why as a father, who is charged with training and instructing my daughter, would I send her to an academic institution that will not teach her the truth of God’s word, but will actually teach her contradictory truths? Aren’t I responsible for that?
The second aspect to consider is the social aspect of your child’s development. Again your child spends more time interacting with peers during the average week than with you. The question again, is what type of worldview training do you want your child to spend 40 plus hours a week listening to? I know the pressures and expectations of a high school student were great when I went to school. With all of the advancement in social media today, it must be much worse now. I can not imagine the amount of pressure that a student faces today to partake in sex, drugs, alcohol, and cheating. Now I am not saying that those things do not exist in a private Christian school, they do. But again, would I rather my child spend the day in an environment that does not teach biblical principles that shape the social landscape or an environment that does? Parents: THE SOCIAL WELL BEING OF YOUR CHILD IS NOT AS IMPORTANT AS THEIR SPIRITUAL WELL BEING! The spiritual, academic, and social training that your child receives needs to be consistent all the way through.
We all know of people that grew up in the public school and turned out great, I did. We all know of people that grew up in the private school that turned out terrible. Ultimately, as a father, I am responsible for training them and instructing them in the ways of the Lord. What they choose to do with that training and instructing is the beauty of free will. I am not responsible for what they do with their training and instruction. I am simply responsible for giving it to them, and giving it to them consistently. You need to find the right private Christian school for your child, one that will teach the basic truths of Scripture. We train and instruct our children, and pray that they make the right decisions. I just do not see the reason behind bringing your child up in a system that teaches them that the worldview you are trying to teach at home is incorrect.
Please don’t use the word sheltered here. What is a shelter? It is a structure that protects what is in it from being damaged beyond repair. So you can say that I may be sheltering my daughter when I put her through private Christian school, but I say that I am protecting her from false ideas being taught as truth. I would rather error on the side of teaching her truth, than have someone else teach her things that are not true. I believe God will bless her and I for that.
I am merely asking you to consider the options here. Pray and seek wisdom in this decision for your child. James1:5 says that if we ask for wisdom God will give it to us liberally. In no way is this post exhaustive, and I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas, so that we can add to this topic of education.
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