Since the start of Covid-19, tens of thousands of parents have made a school switch for their children. In California alone, experts predict a 9% decrease in public school enrollment over the next decade. In Arizona districts, public school teachers speak quietly of “enrollment declines” in their schools. Meanwhile, homeschooling, private school, and charter school numbers are surging across the nation.
Perhaps you are one of the Christian parents who still have your kids in public school. You have watched your friends flee to private schools or to ever-trendy homeschooling and you are wondering if you are doing the right thing by keeping your child at the A-rated neighborhood school just down the street.
I want to approach this topic with an abundance of grace.
I am only a few years into parenting school-age kids, and we have already done a neighborhood public school, a brief stint in quasi-homeschooling, a classical public charter school, and a private Christian school. As a mom, I understand the benefits of all those models of education. (I have also taught in public and private schools and attended both as a child.)
In our family, we have weighed many of the same questions you have probably asked yourself recently. Do we want to homeschool? What would that look like? Are there any hybrid schooling options available? Should I continue working in any capacity? Do I need to be home with my kids all the time? Can we afford Christian school tuition for four kids? Would we entertain a free charter school where the curriculum is conservative even though it’s not overtly Christian? When we lived in California, there was a little K-2 public school just down the street where our oldest daughter attended kindergarten. We asked other questions then. What will she be taught in the classroom? How will she be impacted by the other students who attend the school?
If you haven’t strongly weighed where and how your child is being educated, I highly encourage you to do so.
After tossing back and forth all these questions for a few years, here are the answers we finally landed on for our family.
If we are going to send our children to a school for seven hours a day, it has to be a Christian school. We cannot allow them to spend 35 hours each week in a secular environment where they are not being taught explicitly to worship and obey God. We cannot send them off to learn under adults who are not followers of Christ, even if the teachers are sweet or “seem” like they aren’t on a mission to indoctrinate their students with worldly ideologies.
Because education isn’t just about avoiding the bad stuff like pornographic novels, radical activism, gender confusion, or the LGBTQ+ agenda. Education should be about teaching children what is true and beautiful and noble and good, and all that is good comes from God himself.
I came to the realization that if we were to continue in any type of public school (even with the far superior public charter schools in our area), I was going to have to spend my days playing defense — always on the lookout for dangerous ideas or people who were affecting my children negatively. But the greater loss is that we would never be playing offense — filling them up with things that are spiritually encouraging or that deepen their faith or their understanding of God’s Word.
Do I really want my kids to learn math and science and history and English without understanding how each of those subjects reflects God’s purposes and his glory?
Do I really want my kids to spend the majority of their time each week disconnected from Scripture and learning from people (both teachers and peers) who are indifferent or perhaps antagonistic to Christianity?
I finally had to admit the answer to these questions is… NO.
No matter what it costs us — whether with our time or with our finances — the only thing we can’t afford is to send our children out of the house each day to receive a godless education.
So we have settled on a Christian school for now. Would homeschooling be better? Maybe. Are we open to that in the future? Of course. Are Christian schools perfect? No. Are some better than others? Yes.
Does a Christian education ensure our children will be Christians? Again, no.
None of us can control our children’s salvation. We can disciple them steadfastly, we can make sure they are deeply engaged in a sound local church, and we can pray our guts out, but ultimately, it’s God who saves by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our job is to till fertile soil in our kids’ hearts and ask the Lord to make faith grow.
But by all means, let’s cultivate that soil with diligence.
Because I have to wonder why nearly 75% of kids raised in Christian homes leave the faith when they get to college. Should we be surprised that if we send our children to secular schools to be taught from secular books by secular teachers that they eventually decide to be secular?
I cannot make my children put their faith in Christ. But if I let them be educated by the world and then they decide to follow the world, I don’t have the right to be dismayed.
But if I teach my children to love and obey Christ at home and ensure their formal education is teaching them the same, I will have no regrets when I send them out into the world.
I won’t have to wonder if their faith is on rocky ground because I chose what was cheapest or most convenient when they were young. I won’t worry that their schooling caused their disbelief.
Rather, I will send them out with hope and faith that the soil of their hearts, plowed and pruned with love, will produce a hundredfold for the kingdom of God.
I will trust the Lord and know I did everything I could…
no regrets.
Ever heard the quote “Dont send your kids to Caesar then be surprised when they come back Romans”
It reminds me that what me and their teachers are teaching them isn’t really ALL their teaching them…
I attended public and private Christian schools in K12, and public, private secular, and private Christian colleges. My kids have experienced public, homeschool, and private Christian this far in their own education - and I've observed hundreds of Christian families avail themselves of a range of options.
Believe me when I say there are no guarantees. I've watched many, many people who attended Christian schools for some or all of their education - and people who were homeschooled by Christian parents - reject the faith. And many righteous men (& women) in the Bible had at least one child "go rogue." Noah, Isaac, King David, et al.
I take two insights to heart, one adapted from Mark Twain and the other from Proverbs:
1) Don't confuse schooling with education.
2) Yes, teach a child in the way s/he should go, hopeful that, "WHEN HE IS OLD [emphasis mine], s/he will not depart from it," but also remember each person is responsible before a holy God with respect to his/her own choices.
I cannot choose Jesus Christ for my children.