I've been thinking about that visit to our local high school.  One person commented that it must be a really tough school.  I'm thinking, as in inner city L.A./N.Y./Miami?  This is what I would expect to see in inner city L.A., but we are out here in the middle of nowhere, AZ.  I don't think we have a tough school, necessarily.  Actually I think most high schools in America have come to this.  As things have gone downhill with grades, teacher and student behavior, administrative foibles, and the endless black hole effect of pouring money into the school system, we have added more and more rules.  No prayer. No Bibles.  Carry I.D. Fenced-in campuses. Campus police.  No pocket knives, squirt guns, bubble gum, aspirin, etc.  It's just proof that you can't legislate righteousness.  After putting all these rules into practice, we still have more problems. 

The real problem with public school is in the heart of most of those who are involved with it -- government officials, board members, teachers, parents.  The students are the victims. Public school is a mess that I don't want my kids to experience.  With a different foundation (the Bible) and a different outlook, and a very different goal, public school could be a great ministry.  But it isn't. And it's not God's way to begin with.  It's one of those carts from 2 Samuel 6.  When David saw that the Philistine heathen had put the ark of God on a new cart in 1 Samuel 6, he probably thought, What a great idea! That would be much more efficient than having the priests carry the ark. But putting the ark on a cart resulted in disaster for David and his people. God didn't care how the heathen transported the ark, but his own people were to follow the instructions he had given Moses. God's way was to carry the ark, no matter what extra work was involved.  We (my family) are God's people.  Public school has been around for a long, long time, but for God's people, it's a new cart. God's way to educate our children is to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4.  He gives us many warnings to keep away from the ways of the heathen (the heathen aren't just in deep dark Africa -- they shop at Wal*Mart) and to depart from those who teach contrary to God's word.  Sure. It would be much more convenient to send my kids to school, and a lot less work for me.  But it's not God's way at all. It's bound to result in disaster.

I don't believe the fact that we homeschool makes us better than you or anyone else.  However, I do believe with all my heart that my children are better off than those who attend public school, and our home life is better off for it, too.  Anything and everything in us that is good is not there because we are good, but because of the grace of God and the blood of Jesus Christ.  No matter what other way is out there, we are content to do our schooling God's way.  I feel sorry for those kids behind bars.  And I feel sorry for those teachers, administrators and government people who can't figure out why their system isn't working.  They'll never get it until they read and believe God's word and put it into practice.  Public school is now a doomed system graduating doomed students (if they graduate at all). No new carts for us, thank you.

Awww. Thanks, Tia!