I received this email today (I think it came from Denmark, but I am not positive). I thought I would share it with you, along with my response.
Hi Mr Gregg.
(well i know my english spelling is bad but its my third language, so... i hope i manage to write down what i want to say... )
It seams that you are very fond of home-schooling. I find that homeschooling is an extreamly dangerous thing. Jesus went to school. (He was a jew, they had the first schools in the whole world becouse it is so important to read the bible) And so did most of the new testament heros, and quite a lot of the old testament ones too, including Moses.
And than i think that something that is far worse than taking the bible out of school curriculum is taking the christians out of school. isn´t that playing premature rapture? If there are no christians beeing salt there, wouldn´t the world rott much quicker? Someone sayed that God spares many Places as He would have spared Sodom if there are more than 10 righteous...
And fear about the kids being contaminated? Who is bigger? the one who is in us or the one who is in the world? And isn´t school a great traing place to be brave and stand for up for Jesus? I mean if church is so poor as to provide answers for the questions of the teens as to justify the fear of school, it should repent and turn to the Lord who fears no question. I live in a country where homeschooling is illegal. Its considered a crime here. I can´t see why christians should commit a crime. So its not an option here anyway. Well, most kids here are home from school at lunchtime (at least the smaller ones).
But i just got curious.... or do they really kill christian kids in the american school so often? Well than i can understand that parents what to protect their children.
But else i would fear that more of the children would grow up without knowing people who love in spite of being harmed, who know about forgiveness, who are happy without drugs, who know how to pray. Christian kids can make such a difference! Children can be so influenced in both ways!
I would be so afraid as to making it hard for my children to obey the great comission if i would deny them the access to school as well as by that cursing people.
One more question, isn´t in the bible the education of the children a male issue? And only secondary a female thing? I know that in some european cultures it bekame the just opposite. (Industrial revolution, breakdown of family buisnesses, matriarchy and other reasons ) So for the Homeschooling part the responsible one should biblically be the husband, or would, strictly biblically, a women be allowed to somehow enroll for it?
Just wondering
Wiebke Klement
Home Schooling: Unscriptural and Dangerous?
Home Schooling: Unscriptural and Dangerous?
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
In Jesus,
Steve
Steve
Hi Wiebke,
You wrote:
It seems that you are very fond of home-schooling. I find that homeschooling is an extreamly dangerous thing. Jesus went to school. (He was a jew, they had the first schools in the whole world becouse it is so important to read the bible) And so did most of the new testament heros, and quite a lot of the old testament ones too, including Moses.
I would agree that home-schooling can be dangerous. So can public and private schooling. In fact, if it is danger to the children that we are considering, it can be rightly said that childrearing involves many risks. Home-schooling parents are concerned to avoid subjecting their children to certain unnecessary risks, and other parents (hopefully) protect their children from unnecessary risks which they foresee.
Parents who home-school do not always rear or school their children well. This is a flaw in the parents' wisdom, character, or abilities, however. It does not mean that home-schooling is itself a flawed paradigm. In fact, every disaster that has ever occurred in the education or upbringing of a home-schooled child has its parallels among children raised in the public school system as well. Good parenting is difficult, and home-schooling does not make-up for bad character or bad parenting practices in parents. The kids who would be damaged by poor parenting in other situations will probably also be damaged by poor parenting though they are home-schooled--maybe even worse. Home-education is not a panacea.
On balance, however, parents who choose to school their children at home tend to be highly-committed to their children, and most home-schooled kids I have known have turned out pretty well.
It is true that the boy Jesus probably attended the synagogue school, since most Jewish boys did so. Moses is probably the only biblical character, besides Daniel and his friends (and, possibly, Luke and Paul), who ever got formal schooling in a secular setting.
Before the invention of the printing press (about 1500), there were no books (even Bibles) in homes. This made it unnecessary for people to be very literate, unless they aspired to be scholars, and it certainly meant that home-schooling, as we know it today, was not an option (it is hard to get an academic education in a home with no books). Instead, boys were apprenticed in their fathers' trades, and girls learned domestic skills. In a world with few available books, little more than this was necessary.
It is true that the establishment of the synagogue allowed there to be a place where Jewish boys could learn basic literacy and could memorize the scriptures (there were scrolls of the scriptures in the synagogues, which they did not have at home).
If Jesus went to the synagogue school (as seems likely), he was taught the ways of God and the scriptures...and that is what the boys were sent there to learn. There is no parallel to this in the government schools.
The negative socialization pressure that occurs when children are thrust together in large numbers with minimal adult supervision may not have occurred in the synagogue schools, since the classes may have been quite small, and the discipline rather strict.
In any case, Jesus was the kind of boy who could, no doubt, withstand peer pressure. Other boys of His generation may not have done so well, judging by the small number of faithful people of His generation He was able to gather as disciples once He was grown.
You wrote:
And then i think that something that is far worse than taking the bible out of school curriculum is taking the christians out of school. isn´t that playing premature rapture? If there are no christians beeing salt there, wouldn´t the world rott much quicker? Someone sayed that God spares many Places as He would have spared Sodom if there are more than 10 righteous...
And fear about the kids being contaminated? Who is bigger? the one who is in us or the one who is in the world? And isn´t school a great traing place to be brave and stand for up for Jesus? I mean if church is so poor as to provide answers for the questions of the teens as to justify the fear of school, it should repent and turn to the Lord who fears no question.
I attended state schools as a Christian boy, and I did confront the wrong philosophies of my teachers. I do not believe that my doing so changed anything about the school system (and so I did not prove to be salt and light to the system), and most of the kids in my church, raised in the same schools, lost their faith.
One of the reasons for the rise of the home-schooling phenomenon in America was the fact that Christian children were not found, in general, to be salt and light to their peers, but rather, the worldly kids were like infectious disease and darkness to the Christian kids. This tendency probably was the result of several factors:
1. The children of Christian homes are not all real Christians. That is, they may profess their parents' faith, but many have no inward, miraculous regreneration such as would keep them from caving-in to peer pressure;
2. The time the children spend among peers at school far exceeds the time left over for the parents to influence their children for righteousness;
3. When children spend more time per day with their peers than they spend with their families at home, the approval of peers seems a stronger motivator than the approval of the parents;
4. The schools in America deliberately evolved into darwinist/socialist indoctrination centers. Thus teachers often ridicule the Christian beliefs of students, making them question the teachings they have received at home from Christian parents;
I do not know of any case in scripture where children were sent out of their homes, into the world as evangelists. Children are in the formative stage of their lives. They are not primarily influencing their world, but being influenced by it. However, they eventually should reach a point of maturity where they do confront their world and may influence it for good. This influence is not going to be very great in the public school system, however. In many American schools, Christians are forbidden or greatly inhibited from sharing their faith.
I actually agree that children should be trained by their parents in the faith so that they may be able to enter the social world of their peers as leaders, not followers. However, the total immersion of young children in such an environment without their parents present has not proven to bear good fruit. I believe that Christian children may be home-schooled and also very well-socialized with children in their neighborhood or on sports teams or other extra-curricular situations. The time will come when they are strong enough, perhaps, even to enter state schools as positive influences. But this is not likely to happen prior to their reaching adolescence.
You wrote:
But i just got curious.... or do they really kill christian kids in the american school so often? Well then i can understand that parents what to protect their children.
I know you asked this in jest, but it is actually the case that Christian students have been killed by their classmates in this country. While I would not be ashamed for my child to die for Jesus, I would wonder whether I had been very wise in placing him or her into such a lion's den unnecessarily, if I had done so.
You wrote:
But else i would fear that more of the children would grow up without knowing people who love in spite of being harmed, who know about forgiveness, who are happy without drugs, who know how to pray. Christian kids can make such a difference! Children can be so influenced in both ways!
I agree that unsaved kids should have the advantage of meeting Christian kids, and seeing the difference in their lives. That is one reason for keeping Christian kids uncontaminated in their formative years--so they can actually become the kind of Christians that exhibit a difference. This is not the case with most Christian kids who attend the state schools however. More often, they pick-up the attitudes of their unsaved peers. Once children are truly strong Christians, they can indeed demonstrate a winsome alternative to their peers, but until then, what you describe seems pure idealism.
You wrote:
I would be so afraid as to making it hard for my children to obey the great comission if i would deny them the access to school as well as by that cursing people.
How is this working out in your country? Everybody, including Christians, are forced to go to state schools. How is the Great Commission coming along in these schools? Is belief in Christ and in the Bible increasing in the schools of your country? With so many Christians in the schools, I should hope to find it so. In fact, how is Christianity faring among the adults in your country? They went through the schools making contact with the Christian kids who were required to attend. Is godliness on the rise where you live? It sure isn't here.
I don't know about your country, but in my country, the schools are not viewed by the state as places for Christian students to fulfill the Great Commission. Some schools allow some freedom of Christian expression, but many do not. Again, I don't view my children's childhood years as the time for them to be fulfilling the Great Commission. As they have reached the maturity level where they might be expected to become witnesses to others, I have chosen other venues, rather than the public school campuses, for those activities. I would have thought that the purpose of sending children to school would be for them to learn, not to teach. If I don't want them to learn from the school, then I have no reason to waste their time by sending them there. As Mary Pride put it, "When my children are as strong in their faith as Daniel, that is when I will send them to Babylon" (paraphrased).
You wrote:
One more question, isn´t in the bible the education of the children a male issue? And only secondary a female thing? I know that in some european cultures it bekame the just opposite. (Industrial revolution, breakdown of family buisnesses, matriarchy and other reasons ) So for the Homeschooling part the responsible one should biblically be the husband, or would, strictly biblically, a women be allowed to somehow enroll for it?
There is no method of childhood education prescribed in the Bible, other than the teaching that parents must nurture and train their children in godliness. This does not have to translate into home-schooling, though it certainly does not exclude it as an option. Home-schooling (as we do it today) was probably not practiced in Bible times, since most people did not have books or writing implements in their homes. Secular state schools, such as we have today, also were not found in Israel, in biblical times.
Many things are different in our society than they were in Bible times. Boys and girls both need to become literate. Boys do not always learn their fathers' trades, and girls do not always marry young. Educational methods need to be adapted to the needs of children who will live in the present world. However, our responsibility to avoid putting stumblingblocks before our children remains a Christian duty at all times.
You wrote:
It seems that you are very fond of home-schooling. I find that homeschooling is an extreamly dangerous thing. Jesus went to school. (He was a jew, they had the first schools in the whole world becouse it is so important to read the bible) And so did most of the new testament heros, and quite a lot of the old testament ones too, including Moses.
I would agree that home-schooling can be dangerous. So can public and private schooling. In fact, if it is danger to the children that we are considering, it can be rightly said that childrearing involves many risks. Home-schooling parents are concerned to avoid subjecting their children to certain unnecessary risks, and other parents (hopefully) protect their children from unnecessary risks which they foresee.
Parents who home-school do not always rear or school their children well. This is a flaw in the parents' wisdom, character, or abilities, however. It does not mean that home-schooling is itself a flawed paradigm. In fact, every disaster that has ever occurred in the education or upbringing of a home-schooled child has its parallels among children raised in the public school system as well. Good parenting is difficult, and home-schooling does not make-up for bad character or bad parenting practices in parents. The kids who would be damaged by poor parenting in other situations will probably also be damaged by poor parenting though they are home-schooled--maybe even worse. Home-education is not a panacea.
On balance, however, parents who choose to school their children at home tend to be highly-committed to their children, and most home-schooled kids I have known have turned out pretty well.
It is true that the boy Jesus probably attended the synagogue school, since most Jewish boys did so. Moses is probably the only biblical character, besides Daniel and his friends (and, possibly, Luke and Paul), who ever got formal schooling in a secular setting.
Before the invention of the printing press (about 1500), there were no books (even Bibles) in homes. This made it unnecessary for people to be very literate, unless they aspired to be scholars, and it certainly meant that home-schooling, as we know it today, was not an option (it is hard to get an academic education in a home with no books). Instead, boys were apprenticed in their fathers' trades, and girls learned domestic skills. In a world with few available books, little more than this was necessary.
It is true that the establishment of the synagogue allowed there to be a place where Jewish boys could learn basic literacy and could memorize the scriptures (there were scrolls of the scriptures in the synagogues, which they did not have at home).
If Jesus went to the synagogue school (as seems likely), he was taught the ways of God and the scriptures...and that is what the boys were sent there to learn. There is no parallel to this in the government schools.
The negative socialization pressure that occurs when children are thrust together in large numbers with minimal adult supervision may not have occurred in the synagogue schools, since the classes may have been quite small, and the discipline rather strict.
In any case, Jesus was the kind of boy who could, no doubt, withstand peer pressure. Other boys of His generation may not have done so well, judging by the small number of faithful people of His generation He was able to gather as disciples once He was grown.
You wrote:
And then i think that something that is far worse than taking the bible out of school curriculum is taking the christians out of school. isn´t that playing premature rapture? If there are no christians beeing salt there, wouldn´t the world rott much quicker? Someone sayed that God spares many Places as He would have spared Sodom if there are more than 10 righteous...
And fear about the kids being contaminated? Who is bigger? the one who is in us or the one who is in the world? And isn´t school a great traing place to be brave and stand for up for Jesus? I mean if church is so poor as to provide answers for the questions of the teens as to justify the fear of school, it should repent and turn to the Lord who fears no question.
I attended state schools as a Christian boy, and I did confront the wrong philosophies of my teachers. I do not believe that my doing so changed anything about the school system (and so I did not prove to be salt and light to the system), and most of the kids in my church, raised in the same schools, lost their faith.
One of the reasons for the rise of the home-schooling phenomenon in America was the fact that Christian children were not found, in general, to be salt and light to their peers, but rather, the worldly kids were like infectious disease and darkness to the Christian kids. This tendency probably was the result of several factors:
1. The children of Christian homes are not all real Christians. That is, they may profess their parents' faith, but many have no inward, miraculous regreneration such as would keep them from caving-in to peer pressure;
2. The time the children spend among peers at school far exceeds the time left over for the parents to influence their children for righteousness;
3. When children spend more time per day with their peers than they spend with their families at home, the approval of peers seems a stronger motivator than the approval of the parents;
4. The schools in America deliberately evolved into darwinist/socialist indoctrination centers. Thus teachers often ridicule the Christian beliefs of students, making them question the teachings they have received at home from Christian parents;
I do not know of any case in scripture where children were sent out of their homes, into the world as evangelists. Children are in the formative stage of their lives. They are not primarily influencing their world, but being influenced by it. However, they eventually should reach a point of maturity where they do confront their world and may influence it for good. This influence is not going to be very great in the public school system, however. In many American schools, Christians are forbidden or greatly inhibited from sharing their faith.
I actually agree that children should be trained by their parents in the faith so that they may be able to enter the social world of their peers as leaders, not followers. However, the total immersion of young children in such an environment without their parents present has not proven to bear good fruit. I believe that Christian children may be home-schooled and also very well-socialized with children in their neighborhood or on sports teams or other extra-curricular situations. The time will come when they are strong enough, perhaps, even to enter state schools as positive influences. But this is not likely to happen prior to their reaching adolescence.
You wrote:
But i just got curious.... or do they really kill christian kids in the american school so often? Well then i can understand that parents what to protect their children.
I know you asked this in jest, but it is actually the case that Christian students have been killed by their classmates in this country. While I would not be ashamed for my child to die for Jesus, I would wonder whether I had been very wise in placing him or her into such a lion's den unnecessarily, if I had done so.
You wrote:
But else i would fear that more of the children would grow up without knowing people who love in spite of being harmed, who know about forgiveness, who are happy without drugs, who know how to pray. Christian kids can make such a difference! Children can be so influenced in both ways!
I agree that unsaved kids should have the advantage of meeting Christian kids, and seeing the difference in their lives. That is one reason for keeping Christian kids uncontaminated in their formative years--so they can actually become the kind of Christians that exhibit a difference. This is not the case with most Christian kids who attend the state schools however. More often, they pick-up the attitudes of their unsaved peers. Once children are truly strong Christians, they can indeed demonstrate a winsome alternative to their peers, but until then, what you describe seems pure idealism.
You wrote:
I would be so afraid as to making it hard for my children to obey the great comission if i would deny them the access to school as well as by that cursing people.
How is this working out in your country? Everybody, including Christians, are forced to go to state schools. How is the Great Commission coming along in these schools? Is belief in Christ and in the Bible increasing in the schools of your country? With so many Christians in the schools, I should hope to find it so. In fact, how is Christianity faring among the adults in your country? They went through the schools making contact with the Christian kids who were required to attend. Is godliness on the rise where you live? It sure isn't here.
I don't know about your country, but in my country, the schools are not viewed by the state as places for Christian students to fulfill the Great Commission. Some schools allow some freedom of Christian expression, but many do not. Again, I don't view my children's childhood years as the time for them to be fulfilling the Great Commission. As they have reached the maturity level where they might be expected to become witnesses to others, I have chosen other venues, rather than the public school campuses, for those activities. I would have thought that the purpose of sending children to school would be for them to learn, not to teach. If I don't want them to learn from the school, then I have no reason to waste their time by sending them there. As Mary Pride put it, "When my children are as strong in their faith as Daniel, that is when I will send them to Babylon" (paraphrased).
You wrote:
One more question, isn´t in the bible the education of the children a male issue? And only secondary a female thing? I know that in some european cultures it bekame the just opposite. (Industrial revolution, breakdown of family buisnesses, matriarchy and other reasons ) So for the Homeschooling part the responsible one should biblically be the husband, or would, strictly biblically, a women be allowed to somehow enroll for it?
There is no method of childhood education prescribed in the Bible, other than the teaching that parents must nurture and train their children in godliness. This does not have to translate into home-schooling, though it certainly does not exclude it as an option. Home-schooling (as we do it today) was probably not practiced in Bible times, since most people did not have books or writing implements in their homes. Secular state schools, such as we have today, also were not found in Israel, in biblical times.
Many things are different in our society than they were in Bible times. Boys and girls both need to become literate. Boys do not always learn their fathers' trades, and girls do not always marry young. Educational methods need to be adapted to the needs of children who will live in the present world. However, our responsibility to avoid putting stumblingblocks before our children remains a Christian duty at all times.
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
In Jesus,
Steve
Steve