I saw that quote today and it reminded me of an article I read in the OCHEC Informer, the Oklahoma state homeschooler magazine. Ken Ham, of Answers in Genesis fame, said this about salt:

"Those trying to justify their belief that children should not be homeschooled or in Christian schools often say, "Well, we're supposed to be the salt of the earth."  Matthew 5:13 says we are supposed to be the salt of the earth, but if it loses its flavor, it's contaminated salt--no longer good for anything.  Mark 9:50 adds, "Have salt in yourselves." You can't be the salt of the earth until you've got salt--uncontaminated salt." --Ken Ham

Some have mistakenly used the argument that the salt of the earth verse includes children.  We are to become salt just as we are to "study to shew ourselves approved unto God." (2 Timothy 2:15) Parents are to teach their children so that they may become salt.  I believe that no child in grade or middle school has enough "salt" to withstand the contamination of being around public school peers all day. There are some that become "salty" enough to attend highschool, but most do not.  Children should not be sent out into the mission field of public school. It is not their responsibility nor their mission. But it is a parents responsibility and mission to be Proverb 22:6 parents.

There is a blog debate this week at JudeThree called Proverbs 22:6 Truth or Truism?  The key to understanding this verse is the command to "train up," not on whether it is a promise.  It is a commission, a charge if you will.  It is a directive, a mandate, an entrustment.  I like that one, "entrustment."  God has entrusted our children (gifts) to us to be an heritage unto Him (Psalm 127:3).  Are we up to the challenge?

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." --Proverbs 22:6