Tomorrow is Independence Day in America, but my family will be celebrating it today with a cookout, games, maybe some music, and hopefully some good political and historical discussion. As we head for the ultimate American celebration of freedom, I find some thoughts brewing under my cap with regards to what I call the Last Bastion of Freedom in America—Home Education.
This may sound like a rash or extreme statement, but I stand by it. Here’s why.
First, though, know that I am writing from the perspective of a conservative (by which I mean “believing”) Christian. Conservative in theology. As to politics, I am not a groupie for the Republicans, but I could at least possibly vote for some of them, while my Christian faith would by no means allow me to vote for a Democrat, at this point in history. I don’t like the historical context of Right/Left distinctions, but have no problem also being labeled as politically “conservative,” provided the word is not used as interchangeable with “Republican.”
Most of my family and close friends are also conservative in theology and politics, including many Christian acquaintances from a number of different local churches. Which is why I have a hard time understanding why so many of these conservative Christians send their children to be educated by liberals.
But if their children are enrolled in public schools, that is exactly what is happening.
There are two responses which my friends often make: first, they say that the teachers in their kids’ schools are not liberals, and in some cases are even conservative Christians themselves. No doubt this is true. But these teachers don’t make the rules, and they don’t run the system. The institution of public schooling in America is radical and socialistic, and has been since the days of Unitarian Horace Mann and Humanist John Dewey (see former public school teacher and New York teacher of the year John Taylor Gatto’s books The Underground History of American Education and Dumbing Us Down for more on this).
The teachers may be Christians, but they have to teach their subjects as if they are unbelievers. As if God does not exist. They cannot teach as if Christ rules the world, and so their students (including all the conservative kids) are being taught that God is (at best) unnecessary to the study of history, English, math, science, or literature. Some of them are also being taught to sing praise songs to Obama; but even those who are not are still being taught to accept the socialistic ideas of Obama. But that’s been happening for many years, long before Obama was even heard of—how else have we transformed from the old America of the Eisenhower days to the crass, immoral, government-worshipping society we are now? The answer would not have surprised Mann and Dewey: public schools.
Second, my Christian friends say that their kids are “missionaries” in the public schools. I do like the courage behind this idea (though I wonder why they never send them to secular private schools—somehow it’s always the free schools to whom God calls these missionaries). But the simple answer to this is that the Bible does not allow you to send your children to be educated by atheists and agnostics. In Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6, God requires a specifically Christian education for Christian children, so sending your children to officially agnostic public schools is forbidden by Scripture. More on that in a future post, but if you’re interested in reading on the subject now, I can recommend Douglas Wilson’s Excused Absence as a good place to start. Further, would you send your kids to a foreign country to be missionaries? No, because they need training first, right? Training that can only be obtained via a Christian education. Then they will be strong enough to be missionaries; as it is, they are growing up and becoming just as secular and faithless as their friends at school. Why are we surprised?
If you Republicans out there reading this want your children to grow up to become good socialist Democrats, then by all means leave them in public schools. That’s what these schools were designed for. Otherwise, get them out, now. The Homeschool movement has long recognized this, and that is one reason we have chosen to take the burden of teaching our children on ourselves—to preserve liberty for future generations.
The radicals on the Left have birth-controlled and aborted their children out of existence, for the most part. They are, quite literally, a dying breed, at least when it comes to birth rates. They need (and they know this) a next generation to pass on their ideas to, or they will be gone in a generation or so. But since they don’t have these kids at home (the average radical liberal house is not exactly ringing with the laughter of children), they have to get them somewhere. And of course where they are getting them is from the homes of Christian conservatives (among others). That’s really a sweet deal for them: they not only gain soldiers for their side, but they gut our armies at the same time.
Some may say, “my children won’t turn liberal; my children won’t abandon the faith;” but that’s a pipe dream. According to a number of research surveys, some two thirds of kids from conservative churches are leaving the church on reaching adulthood. Worse, most of them state that they first began to doubt their faith, not when they got to their first Darwinian college biology course, but long before that, back in high school or junior high (see Ken Ham and Brit Beemer’s book Already Gone for an in-depth analysis of one such study).
Maybe your kid will beat the odds. Maybe not. But you’re playing a risky game: it’s hard to undo the damage done by six to eight hours of godless instruction, not to mention the overwhelming influence of youth culture and peer pressure. You’re risking your child’s very soul; and again, the Bible stands against rendering to Caesar the things that our God’s: namely, our children.
The education establishment as a whole stands firmly against home education (and Christian schools, but that’s a subject for another post), because they believe that children belong, not to parents, not to God, but to the State. You who fear the government may come for your money, your health care, your guns, your freedom of speech—does the government already own your most precious possession: your children? If your little ones are enrolled in government-run public schools, the answer is yes.
In government schools, kids are taught that government is the solution to every problem, whether crime, health care, education, or the environment. They are trained up to be loyal, unquestioning servants of the State. But the Home Education movement, by and large, is a Christian and conservative effort, and we teach our children that God alone is the Savior of the world, and the answer to all our problems. We teach them the true history of America, both the good and the bad. We teach them that the liberties we enjoy are a direct blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that men who have not been made free by Christ cannot build or sustain a free society.
Your children cannot learn that in a 30-minute damage control session every night over supper (if you even eat together as a family, which is itself a disappearing custom). Those who hate God and hate freedom control the education of the next generation: this is why I say that Home Education is the Last Bastion of Freedom in America.
So I would ask all my conservative and Christian friends out there to join me in celebrating Independence Day in a new way this year: declare your independence from liberal, statist education, and give your children the blessings of the Last Bastion of Freedom. But do it before it’s too late.
If you have questions on this subject, leave a comment, send me a message through Facebook, or email me at williamchadnewsom@gmail.com.
This may sound like a rash or extreme statement, but I stand by it. Here’s why.
First, though, know that I am writing from the perspective of a conservative (by which I mean “believing”) Christian. Conservative in theology. As to politics, I am not a groupie for the Republicans, but I could at least possibly vote for some of them, while my Christian faith would by no means allow me to vote for a Democrat, at this point in history. I don’t like the historical context of Right/Left distinctions, but have no problem also being labeled as politically “conservative,” provided the word is not used as interchangeable with “Republican.”
Most of my family and close friends are also conservative in theology and politics, including many Christian acquaintances from a number of different local churches. Which is why I have a hard time understanding why so many of these conservative Christians send their children to be educated by liberals.
But if their children are enrolled in public schools, that is exactly what is happening.
There are two responses which my friends often make: first, they say that the teachers in their kids’ schools are not liberals, and in some cases are even conservative Christians themselves. No doubt this is true. But these teachers don’t make the rules, and they don’t run the system. The institution of public schooling in America is radical and socialistic, and has been since the days of Unitarian Horace Mann and Humanist John Dewey (see former public school teacher and New York teacher of the year John Taylor Gatto’s books The Underground History of American Education and Dumbing Us Down for more on this).
The teachers may be Christians, but they have to teach their subjects as if they are unbelievers. As if God does not exist. They cannot teach as if Christ rules the world, and so their students (including all the conservative kids) are being taught that God is (at best) unnecessary to the study of history, English, math, science, or literature. Some of them are also being taught to sing praise songs to Obama; but even those who are not are still being taught to accept the socialistic ideas of Obama. But that’s been happening for many years, long before Obama was even heard of—how else have we transformed from the old America of the Eisenhower days to the crass, immoral, government-worshipping society we are now? The answer would not have surprised Mann and Dewey: public schools.
Second, my Christian friends say that their kids are “missionaries” in the public schools. I do like the courage behind this idea (though I wonder why they never send them to secular private schools—somehow it’s always the free schools to whom God calls these missionaries). But the simple answer to this is that the Bible does not allow you to send your children to be educated by atheists and agnostics. In Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6, God requires a specifically Christian education for Christian children, so sending your children to officially agnostic public schools is forbidden by Scripture. More on that in a future post, but if you’re interested in reading on the subject now, I can recommend Douglas Wilson’s Excused Absence as a good place to start. Further, would you send your kids to a foreign country to be missionaries? No, because they need training first, right? Training that can only be obtained via a Christian education. Then they will be strong enough to be missionaries; as it is, they are growing up and becoming just as secular and faithless as their friends at school. Why are we surprised?
If you Republicans out there reading this want your children to grow up to become good socialist Democrats, then by all means leave them in public schools. That’s what these schools were designed for. Otherwise, get them out, now. The Homeschool movement has long recognized this, and that is one reason we have chosen to take the burden of teaching our children on ourselves—to preserve liberty for future generations.
The radicals on the Left have birth-controlled and aborted their children out of existence, for the most part. They are, quite literally, a dying breed, at least when it comes to birth rates. They need (and they know this) a next generation to pass on their ideas to, or they will be gone in a generation or so. But since they don’t have these kids at home (the average radical liberal house is not exactly ringing with the laughter of children), they have to get them somewhere. And of course where they are getting them is from the homes of Christian conservatives (among others). That’s really a sweet deal for them: they not only gain soldiers for their side, but they gut our armies at the same time.
Some may say, “my children won’t turn liberal; my children won’t abandon the faith;” but that’s a pipe dream. According to a number of research surveys, some two thirds of kids from conservative churches are leaving the church on reaching adulthood. Worse, most of them state that they first began to doubt their faith, not when they got to their first Darwinian college biology course, but long before that, back in high school or junior high (see Ken Ham and Brit Beemer’s book Already Gone for an in-depth analysis of one such study).
Maybe your kid will beat the odds. Maybe not. But you’re playing a risky game: it’s hard to undo the damage done by six to eight hours of godless instruction, not to mention the overwhelming influence of youth culture and peer pressure. You’re risking your child’s very soul; and again, the Bible stands against rendering to Caesar the things that our God’s: namely, our children.
The education establishment as a whole stands firmly against home education (and Christian schools, but that’s a subject for another post), because they believe that children belong, not to parents, not to God, but to the State. You who fear the government may come for your money, your health care, your guns, your freedom of speech—does the government already own your most precious possession: your children? If your little ones are enrolled in government-run public schools, the answer is yes.
In government schools, kids are taught that government is the solution to every problem, whether crime, health care, education, or the environment. They are trained up to be loyal, unquestioning servants of the State. But the Home Education movement, by and large, is a Christian and conservative effort, and we teach our children that God alone is the Savior of the world, and the answer to all our problems. We teach them the true history of America, both the good and the bad. We teach them that the liberties we enjoy are a direct blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that men who have not been made free by Christ cannot build or sustain a free society.
Your children cannot learn that in a 30-minute damage control session every night over supper (if you even eat together as a family, which is itself a disappearing custom). Those who hate God and hate freedom control the education of the next generation: this is why I say that Home Education is the Last Bastion of Freedom in America.
So I would ask all my conservative and Christian friends out there to join me in celebrating Independence Day in a new way this year: declare your independence from liberal, statist education, and give your children the blessings of the Last Bastion of Freedom. But do it before it’s too late.
If you have questions on this subject, leave a comment, send me a message through Facebook, or email me at williamchadnewsom@gmail.com.
