These are the children
that homeschooling will not work for. They're lost in the system and
there really is no way out for them. A young woman who at 15 attempted
suicide because she saw no other way out of an abusive relationship. A
young man who writes of his previous addiction:
When a soldier filled with strength,
becomes a victim of the game,
Many things change.
People see your face and turn away.
They wanna love ya,
They wanna hug ya,
But they simply can't trust ya,
Because you're filled with an evil product.
This
is why I do not feel the church can give up on public education. Not
that we can somehow change the system with its inherent flaws. However,
unlike many, I do not think children going away from home to learn is
necessarily the root of the problem. Children in Jesus' day were
educated outside the home in the synagogue
(scroll to the bottom). The difference was in accountability and
purpose. The father was the authority in education and the purpose was
to learn Torah.
There are working solutions out there. Earlier today, I highligted the Carver Academy.
That is a model I sincerely believe that churches should consider as
they spend millions of dollars in building projects, including youth
gyms, private schools and coffee bars.
There is a second model gaining a bit of attention recently. Community schools, such as Blue Ox,
are being highlighted as Bill Gates and others have come behind them in
support. And they are producing some impressive statistics. Some of
these schools accept only youth who have been expelled from a
tradtional school and still somehow maintain the same, and in some
cases higher, graduation rates. Their purposes are wholly secular: to
prepare youth for the workplace.
But shouldn't the church offer
something? At the founding of our free and public education, the goals
of equipping the youth with knowledge of the scripture was at its core.
Several laws required communities to offer schools so that all of its
citizenry might have the opportunity to learn to read the scriptures.
These schools were not necessarily set up by the church or run by the
church. The problem is not so much that the church stepped out of
education and let the state take over, but that the state began
changing its goals in the early 1800's.
As a Christian, I
agree whole heartedly that we should not leave our children in the
system which has developed. Most Christian schools sadly have gone the
same way. They generally service a clientele a little higher on the
socio-economic ladder so are often not plagued with quite the same
problems as the public schools. Still, they are oftentimes no different
from secular schools in their character and methodology. And what of
those who cannot afford it? Or whose situation precludes homeschooling?
Most of the children in my class came from Christian homes. 100% were
minorities. 98% were on public assistance. 20% lived with someone other
than their biological parents. Several lived with only one parent. And
that one parent quite likely was a teenager when she gave birth. I
don't think homeschooling would have been a viable option for any of
them.
We set up missions all over the world and educate youth in
the gospel of Christ. We pay for classrooms in Africa, India and South
America where teachers instruct indigenous populations in the
scriptures as well as academic subjects. Why don't we show any interest
in this in our own communities in our own nation?
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Posted by
Jun. 8, 2006 - Hearing your heart ~
But, I do come from a different, more pessimistic perspective than you. I am not confident that today's culturally relevant mega-church will ever meet the needs of the children highlighted in the North Coast Journal. I parent a child that is much like any one of the children in that article. She came into my heart when she was seven and I adopted her at the age of nine. She has brain damage caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol and had quite a few behavior problems when she first arrived. The church, on the whole, would rather close their eyes to these kids than to care for them.
We must all pray for revival in the church ~