Will my children be overprotected in a Christian School?
The Bible does not warn us about overprotection; rather it warns us of the need to protect our children properly. Jesus said that it would be better to lose an eye or a hand than to have an eye or hand cause us to sin and end up in Hell (Matt. 18:7-9). He is saying as clearly as He could that the real question we need to be concerned about is whether we protect our children enough. Read Ephesians 6:10-18 and ask whether your child’s intended school will provide the armour of the Lord.
State School was good enough for me, why isn’t it good enough for my children?
When one looks at the state of the nation today one has to ask whether, in fact, State School was good enough for the previous generation. Whatever the answer to that question, State School education has changed dramatically over the last twenty years. The most significant change has been little less than a revolution in the teaching of morals. Once our School systems attempted to teach Christian values and morals. Now Australian Schools have an education system based on situation ethics and values clarification. Children learn that there are no absolutes of right and wrong – the child must judge what is right or wrong in a given situation. So while it is wrong to kill a baby who annoys its parents by crying, it may be right to carry out an abortion because the mother’s rights are considered more important than the baby’s. The dreadful moral mess we are in is largely derived from the adoption of the approach and the influence of television, which over this period has been quite profound.
If we take all the Christian children out of State Schools where
will the salt be to savour those Schools?
In answer to this question there are a number of considerations to be kept in mind including:
- Parents are primarily responsible for the welfare of their own children. We are warned about putting stumbling blocks in their way. See Matthew 18:6.
- The Bible says that if salt loses its savour it is useless. Sadly, very often children from Christian families in a secular School have failed to provide a positive Christian witness to their peers, but have instead been influenced by their wrong values. See 1 Corinthians 15:33. “Bad company corrupts good morals.”
- Evangelism is primarily an adult responsibility. Churches and Christian teachers need to be actively involved in secular Schools in as many ways as they can, rather than leaving the task to Christian children. Parents should seek to provide their children with witnessing opportunities through family contacts. (Acts 1:8)
“Parents need to realise that the main danger their children face in a secular school … is the secularisation of their whole thinking and the partial or total rejection of all that their parents and the Church believe. The main reason for sending a child to a Christian school is to allow him to learn to think as a Christian about the world of science, the humanities and the arts, and to develop a truly Christian world view where the Bible is seen as relevant for all of life.
“Because a Christian school trains its students to think as Christians about all the issues of life they will be better prepared than most for university, college or work, or whatever challenges to their faith that may come in later life. They have had the advantage of learning from teachers who themselves have had to face these issues. What better or more practical way to change our country radically than to follow the Biblical pattern of training and so send out a new generation well-trained, and well-equipped with Biblical knowledge to live for Christ in an increasingly secular world?”
-Bob Frisken