On Wednesday Night, Aug 6^th, we will have a “Back to School” Special session. I recently received an article written by Dr. Al Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. In this article, he asks the question – “Should Christian Parents send their Children to Public Schools?”

Dr. Mohler outlines the history of public education in the USA – where most public schools were community based and locally controlled. Parents had input into decisions made by their local school – from education policy, to curriculum, to discipline. The public school was so much a part of the community, that to NOT send your children to public schools was “seen as profoundly anti-democratic and practically un-American. Homeschoolers were seen as marginal eccentrics, Catholics were seen as hopelessly sectarian, and those who sent their children to private schools were seen as elitist snobs.”

But in the last 40 years, things drastically changed.  Dr. Mohler shares the influence of such “progressive” education pioneers like John Dewey who worked to change the purpose of public education from teaching the 3 R’s – Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic to making a “common liberal culture as their main purpose. Without hiding their agenda, these educators argued that the public schools should separate children from the religious ‘prejudices’ of their parents and redefine Americanism as what Dewey called a secular ‘common faith.’”

Dewey’s goals took decades to implement and this influence was seen more quickly in the large metropolitan school systems than in the country schools. But through various US Supreme Court Decisions and through various mandates by the Federal and State Education Departments, even rural schools have been affected by this liberal or “progressive” agenda.

Dr. Mohler went on to list some examples of resolutions recently passed by the National Education Association (the largest teacher union in the US) – things like “educational programs that increase acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle, regardless of the parents’ views… government schools should supply family planning instruction and resources directly to children… opposes parental efforts to restrict obscene and offensive books in school libraries and classrooms.”

Dr Mohler recognizes that there are many fine Christian teachers and administrators in the public schools – but he warns that with the kinds of changes and the momentum of these changes in government schools that soon even these dedicated Christian professionals will have some very difficult decisions to face. He finishes the article with a question. “Is public school an option?”  Then he adds “For Christians who take the Christian worldview seriously and who understand the issues at stake, the answer is increasingly no.”

What do you think?  If you are a Christian who takes your Christianity seriously,

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