Religious Reasons to Choose Freedom

Articles, illustrative stories, a survey, resources to help parents and religious leaders think more deeply about their education decisions.

 

I encourage you to print up some of the items on this page and get together with your spouse or friends or colleagues and have a serious discussion.

 

Faith-based Considerations

http://educationconversation.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/faith-based-considerations/

Collection of excerpts and quotations for Christian leaders and parents as they consider their philosophies and choices regarding education.

 

A Special Word to Parents of Faith

http://www.schoolandstate.org/Case/parentsoffaith.htm

Alliance for the Separation of School & State

Excerpt: The end result of all education is a worldview…. That worldview is either man-centered or God-centered.  – Glen Shultz

 

Do Parents Have Rights?

http://www.schoolandstate.org/circuitcourt.htm

Alliance for the Separation of School & State

Excerpt: (from Ninth District Court of Appeals Opinion):

[O]nce parents make the choice as to which school their children will attend, …their fundamental right to control the education of their children is, at the least, substantially diminished. The constitution does not vest parents with the authority to interfere with a public school’s decision as to how it will provide information to its students or what information it will provide, in its classrooms or otherwise.

 

How Does Your Child’s School Measure Up?

A Survey for Parents of Faith

http://www.schoolandstate.org/Surveys/measureupsurvey.htm

 

Last Great Christian Surrender

An Education Conversation article

http://educationconversation.wordpress.com/category/christian-surrender/

 

A Christian Philosophy of Education

By D. E. Bills, MA

http://www.adoniram.net/achristianphilosophyofeducation

Excerpt: Cornelius Van Til defines education as “implication into God’s interpretation,” which is just a fancy, philosophical way of saying that education is teaching students to see the world as God sees it.  It is, above all else, providing young minds with a biblical worldview–namely, that this is God’s world. Note: Incredibly, though this piece makes a powerful case for Christian education for Christian children the author can’t quite bring himself to rule out public school altogether. It’s still well worth the read.

 

School: A Church Solution

An Education Conversation article

http://educationconversation.wordpress.com/category/school-a-church-solution/

 

Church/School Issue Revisited

An Education Conversation article

http://educationconversation.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/churchschool-issue-revisited/

 

It Couldn’t Be Important: An Illustrative Story

A teenage girl questions her dad about the important things in education

http://www.goboy.citymax.com/notimportant.html

 

Matt’s Sabbatical: An Illustrative Story

Matt overhears an argument between his dad and a man at church and is thrown into a state of confusion about his education.

http://www.goboy.citymax.com/sabbatical.html

On Being Salt and Light
by Frederick C. Foote
http://www.schoolandstate.org/Knowledge/Faith/Foote-SaltandLight.htm

Excerpts:

Unlike notions of being salt and light that result in mere positioning among the unsaved, we don’t see that strategy in Jesus or John. Rather, we see them most often going in the opposite direction of the world yet at the same time drawing unbelievers to their message with the qualities of their lives and testimonies.

As for influence, we [as young public school students] learned more about evil from the group than the group learned about righteousness from us.

In our opinions, the risks are too great and our children too unprepared. In the battle of who is more likely to influence whom, our children (like their parents before them) are more likely to be losers to the larger forces about them than vice versa. And the loss may be greater than we realize. Nothing could be clearer from the above New Testament passages on salt and light: — “If the salt have lost its savour…it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden underfoot of men.” (Matthew 5:13; see also Luke 14:34-35)

Resources

 

Help Finding a Christian School: Discover Christian Schools

http://discoverchristianschools.org/Default.aspx

 

Help Starting a Private School

http://www.schoolandstate.org/Resources/StartPrivateAlterSchool.htm

 

Help Getting Started With Homeschooling

http://www.goboy.citymax.com/starthomeschooling.html