In the previous article, we explored what the Bible states about the education of children.  We discovered the following biblical principles.  (1) The goal of education is to help a child become a good thinker, reasoning and behaving in a way that is consistent with the character of God (Proverbs 22:15; Isaiah 55:7-8), and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).  A child trained in the way he should go will become an adult that does not depart from that path (Proverbs 22:6).  Biblically, the goal of education is to inculcate thinking and behavior that aligns with the character of God.  (2) Education should be for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).  Thus, when a pupil is fully trained, he should be a person who loves God and loves his neighbor (Luke 10:27), he should have a biblical worldview with a deep commitment to the Scriptures (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).  Thus, his teacher(s) must also be that way, because a pupil will become like his teacher (Luke 6:40).  (3) Parents have the responsibility of educating their own children, ensuring that their child’s education is “in the way that he should go” (Ephesians 6:4).  God therefore holds parents responsible for their child’s education.  God has not given the state the authority to teach children or to regulate education. 

Delegating Responsibly

Given that God authorizes parents to bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, parents have a responsibility to ensure that their child’s education is Christ-centered and God-honoring.  Homeschooling is biblically sanctioned and encouraged.  Yet, many parents feel inadequate to teach their own children and prefer to delegate.[1]  Since there is apparently no Scripture forbidding this, such delegation appears to be permitted as long as the child is trained “in the way that he should go” (Proverbs 22:6), and brought up in the “discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).  Parents therefore have a responsibility to ensure that whoever teaches their children fits these biblical criteria.  Some delegation is permitted; abdication is not.

What we now call “homeschooling” has always been the primary method by which God expects children to be educated – as we saw in the previous article.  But we do have biblical precedent for parents delegating education to godly teachers.  Hannah dedicated her first son to the Lord, and placed him under the care and tutelage of the priest Eli (1 Samuel 1).  Samuel was instructed in the ways of God (e.g. 1 Samuel 3:8-10, 19) and became a faithful priest, prophet, and judge over Israel.

In that same spirit, many churches have homeschool co-op options where various families share the responsibilities of educating their children.  Providing the teachers are faithful men and women who make God’s Word central in their curriculum, this seems a biblically allowed option.  Other parents choose to place their students in a Christian school.  This is potentially a good option as well.  However, caution is warranted.  Many Christian schools are Christian in name only.  Many give lip service to God but teach a secular curriculum.  Therefore, parents interested in Christian schooling for their children need to carefully investigate the curriculum and teachers to ensure that such an environment will train the child in the way he should go.  The curriculum is primarily what determines the worldview being taught to the student, as will be shown below.

Public Education

The United States of America offers free education from kindergarten through 12th grade for its citizens.[2]  The curriculum is determined by the government and teachers’ unions, and is entirely secular.  In the previous article, we found that the Bible does not authorize the government to educate children, and that such overreach is a violation of God’s role for government (e.g. Romans 13:1-7).  Nonetheless, would it be wrong to take advantage of the system since it is already in place?  Is there any violation of biblical principles to send children to a government school to be educated?

Biblically, parents are responsible to ensure that their child’s education is Christ-focused with the goal of learning to reason and behave rightly (in a way that is consistent with God’s character) for the glory of God (Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Psalm 78:3-7).  A biblically sanctioned education must have the goal of producing graduates with a biblical worldview, faith in Christ, love of God, and a deep conviction for the truth of Scripture.  Is this the goal of public education?  If we are honest about it, we must admit that government schools do not seek any of these things.  They have nothing to do with right-reasoning to the glory of God – the very purpose of education!

“Above all, in schools of all kinds the chief and most common lesson should be the Scriptures…  I greatly fear the high schools are nothing but great gates of hell, unless they diligently study the Holy Scriptures and teach them to the young people.” – Martin Luther[3]

Neutrality

Some will say, “Ah, but public schools are at least not anti-Christian.  They are neutral.  They teach the raw facts: the mechanics of reading, writing, and arithmetic.  At home and in church, we teach our children about God.”  This undoubtedly is the attitude of many professing Christians.  But it is horribly unbiblical.  Nothing in this universe is neutral with respect to God.  God rightly deserves our allegiance in all things, not our indifference.  To fail to acknowledge God in all things is therefore high treason.  Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters” (Matthew 12:30).  Jesus did not allow the possibility of a neutral position that is neither for Christ nor against Him.  Therefore, that which is not for Christ is against Christ. 

So we must ask, “Are public schools for Christ?  Do they acknowledge Him as Lord over all?”  If not, then they are against Christ according to His own words.  They are in open rebellion against Him.  Is the curriculum of government schools gathering people to Christ?  If not, then it is scattering people away.  A curriculum that does not honor God as the supreme authority and source of all knowledge in all areas is wicked and untruthful because God is the supreme authority and source of all knowledge in all areas (Proverbs 1:7; Colossians 2:3).

Israel Wayne correctly states, “Parents who have grown up with a modernist mindset wrongly assume that their children will simply be taught a values-free set of facts and dates in schools, from which the children can determine what they believe. Nothing could be further from the truth.”[4] [emphasis added]

Some might respond, “But wait!  Some things are neutral.  After all, what do topics like mathematics, American history, or science have to do with God?”  Of course, a biblically minded Christian has the answer: everything!  None of these topics are neutral or make any sense apart from the biblical God.  It is only because people have been thoroughly indoctrinated into secular humanism that anyone could think that such topics are neutral toward a sovereign God.  Neutrality is a secular, anti-biblical concept.

Consider mathematics.  What exactly is mathematics?  Mathematics is the way God thinks about numbers (concepts of quantity).  How have humans come to discover some mathematical truths?  This is because God has revealed Himself to us; He has given us some of His thoughts.  He made humans in His own image, including our mind’s ability to reason about abstract things.  Why is mathematics so useful in the physical world?  This is because God’s mind (the same mind that determines mathematical truths) controls the physical universe.  Why is mathematics so self-consistent?  The answer is because God is.  Why do mathematical principles work at all times, in all locations, without exception?  This is because God is unchanging, omni-present, and sovereign over everything.  God rules over every aspect of mathematics.  It is not neutral!

Apart from the Christian worldview, none of those questions are answerable or really even meaningful.  Public schools may teach the mechanics of mathematics.  But stripped from its biblical context, the topic reduces to mere rules and relations that we need to memorize for some reason, and that have nothing to do with God.  No wonder so many children hate mathematics.  But what if they learned that in studying math properly, they were getting a small glimpse into the infinite mind of God?  What if they realized that in studying mathematics from a biblical perspective, they were training their mind to think more like the mind of Christ?

Likewise, is the study of history merely a bunch of dates and names of people that died long ago?  In a secular universe, history is just memorizing what certain chemical accidents did to other chemical accidents.  What could be more boring?  There is no importance, no purpose, and therefore no relevance in a chance universe.  But in the Christian worldview, history is the execution of God’s sovereignty over human affairs.  We see how God has rewarded the obedience of some nations and punished the wickedness of others.  We see numerous instances of divine justice and divine mercy spanning millennia!  We even see God using human wickedness to bring about good, all for His glory.

Science is presented from a thoroughly secular and corrupt perspective in nearly all public schools.  Students are taught that science has replaced silly religions like Christianity.  Rather than correctly learning how biblical principles are the basis for what makes science possible, students are taught that science disproves the Bible from the first verse.  Indeed, the secular origins story (including the big bang, Darwinian evolution, and deep time) is taught as if it were science, and well-established.[5]  Nothing could be further from the truth.  But children are not taught principles of logical reasoning by which they might recognize obvious falsehoods in the secular curriculum. 

As R.J. Rushdoony put it, “It is a serious mistake to assume, first of all, that there is any neutral subject which can be taught in the same way by both Christian Schools and humanistic schools. To believe so is to deny God’s total sovereignty over all things. It means that areas exist where man, not God, is the Lord. There is no area of neutrality in all of creation. What we believe determines our perspective in mathematics, history, biology, geology, art, physical education, and everything else. The triune God is totally the creator of all things and thus totally their Lord and determiner. All subjects are either taught from a Biblical, a theistic perspective, or they are taught from a humanistic, a man-centered perspective.”[6]

Yet, many Christians are fooled into thinking that some subjects in school are neutral.  Why is this?  Could it be that many Christians have a secular worldview because they had a secular education?  We live as practical atheists, thinking about God only on Sunday morning or during our daily prayer.  We don’t recognize the sovereignty of God in all areas of life because we were educated in a system that teaches that God is irrelevant to all areas of life.  We don’t see the importance of teaching all subjects from a biblical worldview for God’s glory because we don’t have a biblical worldview and do not truly live for God’s glory.  We have been secularized. 

By carefully excluding God from every area of study, the secular curriculum teaches students that God is utterly irrelevant.  Students learn in public schools that God is irrelevant to history, God is irrelevant to science, God is irrelevant to language, God is irrelevant to art, God is irrelevant to music, and God is irrelevant to mathematics.  Such an education is thoroughly anti-biblical.  Biblically, everything exists by God’s decree and for His glory.  And knowledge begins with God (Proverbs 9:10).

Make no mistake.  The curriculum of government schools in the United States is not neutral.  It is an anti-Christian curriculum based on secular humanism.  It denies God’s sovereignty in every subject, thereby teaching that man, and not God, is the source of knowledge and wisdom in contradiction to the Bible (e.g. Proverbs 1:7; Colossians 2:3).  Secular humanism is an atheistic religion that puts man in place of God.  Secularism specifically rejects Christian morality, and replaces it with a false ethic stemming from the opinions of wicked men.  This is the religion that is taught either explicitly or implicitly in the curriculum of every subject in government schools (whether the teachers agree with it or not).  The false morality of secularism is now being taught more explicitly in government schools than in the past.  In many schools, students are now taught such abominations as “critical race theory” and sexual perversions like homosexuality and transgenderism.  These evils are not rare exceptions to an otherwise good system; rather, they are the inevitable outcome of a worldview that rejects God at every point.

The Pretended Neutrality Fallacy

Advocates of humanism like to pretend that their view is neutral, and non-religious.  They claim that public education should not be religious, and then use that claim to exclude Christianity while injecting their own secular religion.  Many Christians have been fooled by this tactic.  But, in claiming that they are neutral, the secularists are implicitly saying that Jesus was wrong to deny neutrality (e.g. Matthew 12:30).  And when they declare that Jesus is wrong, the humanists are not being neutral.  They are taking an anti-biblical stand. 

As R.C. Sproul states, “There is no such thing as a neutral education. Every education, every curriculum has a viewpoint. That viewpoint either considers God in it or it does not. To teach children about life and the world in which they live without reference to God is to make a statement about God. It screams a statement. The message is either that there is no God or that God is irrelevant. Either way the message is the same — there is no God. An irrelevant God is the same as no God at all. If God is, then He must be relevant — to His entire creation.”[7]

Gordon Clark put it well when he wrote, “Obviously the schools are not Christian. Just as obviously they are not neutral. The Scriptures say that the fear of the Lord is the chief part of knowledge; but the schools, by omitting all reference to God, give the pupils the notion that knowledge can be had apart from God. They teach in effect that God has no control of history, that there is no plan of events that God is working out, that God does not foreordain whatsoever comes to pass. Aside from definite anti-Christian instruction to be discussed later, the public schools are not, never were, can never be, neutral. Neutrality is impossible. Let one ask what neutrality can possibly mean when God is involved. How does God judge the school system, which says to him, ‘O God, we neither deny nor assert thy existence; and O God, we neither obey nor disobey thy commandments; we are strictly neutral.’ Let no one fail to see the point: The school system that ignores God teaches its pupils to ignore God; and this is not neutrality. It is the worst form of antagonism, for it judges God to be unimportant and irrelevant in human affairs. This is atheism.[8] [emphasis added]

The Shift Away from Christianity

How did the United States of America, a nation founded primarily by Christians and on Christian principles, develop a government education system that trains students to be secular?  The shift was gradual.  Much of it can be traced to John Dewey (1859-1952).  Dewey is often considered the “father of public education.”  He was an atheist and Marxist, and wanted to transform America into a secular nation.[9]  Dewey felt that the best way to do this was to get children away from their Christian parents and train them to be Marxist/socialist/secularists – all at taxpayer expense.[10]  He wanted students to be taught what to believe rather than how to think, so that they would better serve the state.  His plan has been remarkably successful. 

Mark Koscak writes, “Dewey’s direction was based on using government schools; minimizing the role of parents (because they might teach things like religion); changing the role of teachers to facilitators; de-emphasizing Latin, the classics, the three Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic), western history, and history in general (including the study of the Constitution and capitalism); and providing a secular environment. The end product was designed to prepare students to be good citizens in a socialist society (students who don’t read very well or think very well for themselves).[11] [emphasis added]

Aside from the Bible, the most important subject in learning to reason rightly is logic.  That’s what logic is: the study of the principles of right reasoning.  Yet, this is the one subject that is not taught in virtually any public school.  There is a reason for this.  It is harder to indoctrinate students with false information if they know how to think properly.  In eliminating the study of logic, it should be obvious that the purpose of public schools is not to train students to think rightly to the glory of God.  It is to indoctrinate them to accept all subjects and all areas of life from a secular perspective, and to trust the state instead of God.  It is to conform them to the world, the exact opposite of what Christian education seeks to achieve (Romans 12:2).  Consequently, we now have a society of people who do not know how to reason well, and who have a secular/socialistic/anti-Christian worldview.  In other words, we are beginning to reap what we have sown.

Temples of Secular Humanism

No, public schools are not neutral.  They are temples of secular humanism.  Doesn’t the Bible forbid learning the ways of unbelievers (Jeremiah 10:2; Romans 12:2)?  But that’s what public schools do.  The curriculum at such schools is designed to train children to be secular humanists, to grow up to be responsible servants of the state.  The secular humanists themselves have admitted as much:

John Dunphy writes, “I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being. These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level — preschool, daycare, or large state university. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new — the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent with its promise of a world in which the never-realized Christian ideal of ‘love thy neighbor’ will finally be achieved.”[12]  

Strangely, some Christian parents recognize that public schools do teach secular humanism, but they send their kids to them anyway thinking that the benefits outweigh the risks.  Furthermore, some think that they can undo any potential secular indoctrination as long as their children attend church.  But the secular humanists know better:

Charles Potter writes, “Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American school is a school of humanism. What can a theistic Sunday school’s meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching?”[13]

Indeed, from kindergarten through high-school graduation, the average public-school student will receive around fourteen thousand hours of secular humanistic indoctrination.  Yet many parents think that one hour a week in Sunday School or church will be sufficient to counter this.  That is less than 3% of the time those students are being trained in secular humanism.  And most of the instruction at church is not geared toward countering the secularism taught in schools anyway. 

What if parents spent an hour every evening attempting to counter the secularism their children are taught in school that day?  There would be some value in that.  But it would still be less than 15% of the time under which their children are being indoctrinated in secular humanism.  Do you think that a curriculum that is 85% secular and 15% Christian will tend to result in a Christian worldview? 

What about Christian Teachers in Government Schools?

Some parents might respond, “But our public school system has lots of Christian teachers.  So, they teach from a Christian perspective, not a secular one.”  The underlying assumption is that such teachers have the legal freedom to teach from a Christian perspective.  But in the United States of America, that is not so.  They are required to teach the curriculum that has been determined by the government and teachers’ unions – and that curriculum is distinctly secular.  The real teacher that most strongly determines the child’s worldview is not the person standing in the front of the classroom.  The main teacher – in terms of deciding what information is presented, from what perspective, and what books are used – is the curriculum.  The curriculum is what the child learns.  The curriculum forms his worldview.

I appreciate that there are Christian teachers in public schools.  They are missionaries in a very pagan system.  And as much as they might like to “train up” their students “in the way [they] should go,” teaching science, history, music, and mathematics to the glory of God from a proper Christian perspective that recognizes the sovereignty of God in all things, they are not legally allowed to do this.  The reform brought about by Dewey and other secularists forces teachers to be mere facilitators of an anti-Christian syllabus.  By law, they must follow the secular curriculum.  At best, they can perhaps present it more tentatively than a secular humanist teacher who affirms the curriculum dogmatically, and perhaps even raise questions for the students to consider.  But this is far from teaching a truly biblical worldview. 

Christian teachers in a public school should best recognize their role as damage-control.  Although they cannot legally present information from a Christian perspective, they are perhaps displacing someone who would teach secular humanism far more dogmatically.  There is benefit in this.  However, teachers are hired as facilitators to present the state-sanctioned secular curriculum.[14]  They are not legally allowed to train up the child in the way he should go, in the discipline and instruction of the Lord as Scripture requires (Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4).

Therefore, when Christians object that their public school system is much better than most because it has many Christian teachers, they are really saying, “Our system indoctrinates our children into secular humanism less dogmatically than others.”  That is better I suppose, but it is far from biblical.  The Bible doesn’t say, “allow your child to be trained in the wrong way, but less dogmatically than most.”  No, parents are to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).  Unless a government school truly teaches all things from a Christian perspective to the glory of God, it is not an appropriate source of education for children. 

The Bible warns believers not to be taken captive by the philosophy of the world (Colossians 2:8).  That is, we should not be led astray by a worldly way of thinking that puts man (and not God) at the center of all subjects.  Unfortunately, this is exactly the philosophy that is being instilled into children in public schools by the secular curriculum (even if some of the teachers reject that philosophy).  

Children of Caesar

During Christ’s earthly ministry, the religious leaders were constantly attempting to trick Him into saying something they could use against Him.  In one instance, they asked Jesus whether it was appropriate to pay taxes to Caesar – the supreme leader of the government (Luke 20:21-25).  Jesus asked them to show Him a denarius – a coin that was worth about a one-day wage.  He then asked them whose image was on the coin.  They responded “Caesar’s.”  Jesus said to give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.  The answer indicates that since the coin bears Caesar’s image, it rightly belongs to Caesar and is to be entrusted to Him.

Whose image does a child bear?  As a human being, a child is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27).  Since a child bears God’s image, He belongs to God, and not Caesar (the government).  Jesus requires us to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.  Therefore, it is inappropriate to give children to Caesar: to hand them over to be trained by a secular state.  Children are to be dedicated to God.  Recall the word “train” in Proverbs 22:6 means to “dedicate” and is so translated everywhere else the word occurs in the NASB. 

The Bible does not authorize exceptions to the principles encapsulated in passages like Proverbs 22:6 or Ephesians 6:4.  These texts do not say, “Train up a child in the way he should go… unless of course that is inconvenient, in which case feel free to give him to the state to be trained as a secular humanist.”  Nor do they say, “bring up your child in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, or, you know, let Caesar raise him to be a pagan, whatever.”

According to Proverbs 22:6, the reward of training up a child in the way he should go is that he will continue on that path of righteousness when he is an adult.[15]  There is an unwritten flip-side to this command.  Generally, if parents allow their children to be trained in secularism by a secular curriculum at a secular school, when they are older those children will not depart from secular humanism.[16]  Again, there are exceptions.  God will have mercy on whom He has mercy (Romans 9:15).  But generally, parents who delegate/abdicate the responsibility of training up children to a non-Christian system will end up with non-Christian adults.  You cannot send your children away to be educated by Caesar and then be surprised when they return as Romans.

Remember what Jesus said.  “Everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40b).  And the real teacher at any school – in terms of the information that is taught – is the curriculum.  Therefore, your children, when they are fully trained, will be like their curriculum.   A curriculum that ignores God as irrelevant in everything will tend to produce graduates who ignore God as irrelevant in everything.  Yes, a Christian teacher at a secular school can perhaps reduce some of the damage.  But the student’s worldview will be shaped mainly by the curriculum.  God will not be mocked.  If a child is sown into a secular system, generally, a secular adult will be reaped (Galatians 6:7).

The statistics confirm that Jesus was right.  The majority of students from Christian homes who attend public school walk away from the church when they are in their 20s.[17],[18]  Only one in five have maintained a level of spiritual activity consistent with their high school experiences.[19]  To put that in perspective, if you have three children, the probability that all three will have maintained or grown in their faith after graduating from a public school is a mere 0.8%.  The PEERS test implemented by the Nehemiah Institute shows that 90% of students from Christian homes that attend public school graduate with a worldview that is consistent with secular humanism.[20]  Yes, nine out of ten do not have a Christian worldview, but in fact have an anti-Christian, secular worldview.  Fourteen thousand hours of secular humanistic indoctrination has its intended effect.  The students became like their teacher – the secular curriculum.  Amazingly, all Christian parents think their children will be the exception – but 90% of them are not.[21]

Our society is now reaping the harvest of a nation-wide secular indoctrination system.  E. Ray Moore, the co-founder of Frontline Ministries, explains, “We believe you can make a case with data that the main reason the culture and the next generation are turning away from traditional values, from the Gospel, from Christianity, is primarily because of the indoctrination of the public school system.  We’re losing about 70 to 80 percent of Christian children. They’re abandoning the church and the Christian faith in their early adult years. And people will ask why this is happening. Well, you put them in a public school, you didn’t give them a Christian education.”[22]

Conclusions

In Luke 6:40b, Jesus said, “Everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.”  Therefore, if you homeschool your children, they will become like you.  If you send them to a Christian school, they will become like the curriculum taught at that school.  If you send them to a Muslim school, they will become Muslims.  If you send them to a secular school, they will become secular.  To expect otherwise is to call Jesus a liar. 

And yet, some Christian argue that there are other considerations that outweigh the risks and damage of secular education.  What about the “salt and light” argument?  What about socialization?  What about sports?  What if both parents work and cannot homeschool or afford Christian school?  We will consider these objections in the next articles.


[1] Moses similarly argued that he was inadequate to do what God told him to do (Exodus 4:10).  But the Lord comforted Moses, and pointed out that He made Moses and therefore equipped Moses with what is necessary, and that He would be with Moses as the task was performed (Exodus 4:11-12).  When Moses continued to insist that it would be better to send someone else, the Lord was angry with Moses, but nevertheless sent Aaron to help him (Exodus 4:13-16).  Are there some lessons in this that have application to someone who is apprehensive about homeschooling?    

[2] The system is free only in the sense that it has already been paid for by taxing the citizens.  Since God has not authorized the state to educate children, the taxation of citizens for this end is theft and therefore sin.    

[3] https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/luther-nobility.asp

[4] Wayne, I., Education: Does God have an Opinion? Master Books, April 2017

[5] Many Christians do recognize the secular influence in the science classroom.  Perhaps this is because creationists have been largely successful in showing how Darwinian evolution and the big bang are not truly scientific at all, but anti-biblical, secular origins stories injected into the curriculum as an attack on Scripture.  However, many Christians fail to recognize that all other subjects are just as corrupted by secular, anti-biblical philosophy as science.  Perhaps we fail to see this because we have been trained to think as secularists in a secular system, and so it all seems perfectly natural.

[6] https://forums.floridasportsman.com/discussion/203191/r-j-rushdoony  <<accessed 2/16/2022>>

[7] https://www.ligonier.org/posts/the-importance-of-cultural-awareness-pt-3  <<accessed 2/16/2022>>

[8] https://www.trinityfoundation.org/journal.php?id=93  <<accessed 2/16/2022>>

[9] John Dewey was an original signer of the Humanist Manifesto.

[10] Public schools are socialistic by construction.  They are funded by an unbiblical, state-enforced redistribution of wealth.  The government forcibly takes (steals) money from property owners who may not even have children in order to fund a secular indoctrination system.  It’s not surprising that so many young adults in the U.S.A. think that socialism is a good idea.  They are not trained to think rationally or biblically. 

[11] https://www.renewanation.org/post/undoing-john-dewey-s-impact-on-american-public-education  <<accessed 2/16/2022>>

[12] Dunphy, J., “A Religion for a New Age,” The Humanist, Jan.–Feb. 1983

[13] Charles F. Potter and Clara Potter, Humanism: A New Religion (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1930), p. 128.

[14] At best, they can hope that a student raises a hand and asks them what they think about the curriculum.  Currently, public school teachers in the United States are legally allowed to answer honestly a question that a student asks. 

[15] This is not a promise.  It is a proverb – a succinct saying conveying what typically happens.

[16] Greg Bahnsen argued that this is actually the primary meaning of the verse: that it is a threat of the tragic consequences of allowing a child to continue in his sinful way.  Either way, the verse indicates that the training of a child will tend to determine the path of his adult life. 

[17] This indicates a severe spiritual problem if not outright apostasy.  Christians understand the importance of fellowship with other Christians (Hebrews 10:24-25).  We use church attendance as a proxy here because we cannot objectively measure a person’s heart-attitude toward God. 

[18] This is documented in the book Already Gone by Ken Ham and Britt Beemer.

[19] https://www.barna.com/research/most-twentysomethings-put-christianity-on-the-shelf-following-spiritually-active-teen-years/#.V8c1K5MrKYU

[20] https://www.nehemiahinstitute.com/

[21] Older Christians reading such statistics might think, “I don’t remember it being that bad.”  Well, it probably wasn’t.  The standard curriculum has become increasingly secular over the decades.  There was a time when starting the day with prayer was common rather than forbidden. Now many schools teach critical race theory, transgenderism and other sexual perversions.  That downward trend will continue as long as secularism is the only religion allowed in government classrooms, because secularism has no objective moral standard to prevent an unlimited descent into wickedness.

[22] https://www.dayspringchristian.com/blog/christian-children-in-public-schools/