Choosing a Christian School Is Just the Beginning
In these times which still reflect a world around us, which more or less openly rejects the idea that, 'All truth is God's truth.'
Christian parents need to encourage and nurture the life and mind and carefully search for an appropriate venue for their children to mature in their faith.
In his regard choosing Christian education is a must. (See David Wheaton's book, University of Destruction) The operative word here is "choosing" and choosing carefully!
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Registering your children for government education or at a non-Christian independent school simply opens them up to a "lopsided" view of ideas, principles, and philosophies contrary to that which you are attempting to instill at home. This thought, however, while important, shouldn't be your only consideration. Personally I believe that a Christian education is a most liberal education.
There was a time when children had three major influences in life: the home, the church, and the school. Gradually, with the growth of electronic and digital media, these influences have been significantly weakened. Find a youngster not wearing ear buds, looking at or sending a text on their phone, or using their iPad; for that matter find a "Gen-Xer" or "Millennial." It is constant and pervasive! (For an in-depth look see: Dancing in the Dark project coordinator Quentin J. Schultze)
Among the aforementioned influences: home, church, and school, the school was the first to cave. I was in elementary, junior high school, and high school during the 50s. My college, graduate school, and post-graduate studies were in the 60s and 70s. I experienced, "first-hand" the drift and subsequent collapse of our educational systems.
Around the same time as this collapse, slippage in the church much like that which took place around 1900 can be discovered. (To learn more about the earlier schism search for and read J. I. Packers Fundamentalism and the word of God.)
My mother, bless her heart, often said to me, during these times as I would express some of my thoughts, "Robert you're going to become so broad that soon you'll be flat."
Thank God for that warning because it kept me vigilant as did a wonderful Christian wife and strong Christian mentors!
Among the churches, first the "mainline" and then the more "evangelical" ones broadened their thought, accepting liberal dogma and practice and the second influence collapsed significantly.
Home became the "last fortress." It took a bit longer, but eventually families with children in government schools or those remaining in weak churches began to weaken themselves. Why, even Christian schools began to buckle under cultural and societal "stressors," springing up in the world around them.
Those schools without a strong understanding of "Christian education," in particular to education as "incarnational" for both teachers and students became impotent! (See here, here and here.)
Consequently, simply sending your children to a Christian school isn't enough. Making certain it is "profoundly" Christian, having a faculty who truly understands what Christian education is and acts upon that understanding is paramount, but it is not the end all. A parent cannot just relax and let it all happen. There is more.
Now that you have found the right Christian school, the journey begins through involvement with your children's studies and significant service to the school. This is not just volunteering for lunch room duty or joining the parents' organization, it is much deeper, more significant. And, don't forget a wise choice of a church for the family, and a profoundly Christian home environment.
Committee service and board service, if possible, offers the means to keep informed and aware of school trends as well as the ability to "affect" school direction, making certain that the school remains "as Christian as possible." You actually become a link between the family constituency and the faculty, administration, and governors, holding a high level of influence over school policy and practice.
If you wish the Christian school you have chosen to remain true, be effective, and meet/accomplish the goals and objectives established, then get deeply involved!
"Leaders who know their business and care keep a sharp eye out for the shoddy and cheap, for who among us can be trusted to be always diligent and honest?" (Proverbs 20: 8 & 9 The Message)
And remember what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said in The Gulag Archipelago, "We always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap."
