Originally, I was going to post a Bobspotted blogroll post early this week. Well things got hectic with my sister visiting, and then with almost all of us getting sick. So here I am about to embark on a Christmas road trip, and I haven’t posted in a while. So I wanted to at least link to these articles by Tim Challies.
Tim Challies discusses the reasons why he sends his children to public school in the following articles: “Why I Do Not Homeschool Part 1“, and “Part 2” [HT: Justin Taylor]. Having been educated strictly in Christian or home schools, I have an inbred prejudice against public schools. But as a parent, I am realizing that deciding between the options for educating my children is really a difficult decision. And this article does a great job of explaining the issue of “to homeschool or not to homeschool”, as well as providing some good reasons why some Christians can legitimately send their kids to public school. I hope the following excerpt will encourage you to go read these posts.
God has placed us in this culture, among these people, and He expects us to reach out to them and to let the gospel go forth….I believe [my children] can best heed this call by being in the culture in which God has seen fit to place them. I want them to be with kids who are not Christians, to be friends with them and to love them, to learn what separates them from their friends, and to begin to understand how their convictions make them different from others. I want them to see and know and understand and believe in the superiority of Christianity to any other religion or way of life. I want them to see what the world has to offer and to see that it quickly loses its lustre….I find it difficult and painful to imagine a public school system devoid of Christians. Imagine, if you will, that every Christian pulls their children from the public schools. There will be no more Christian clubs in junior high schools; there will be no more prayer meetings or Bible studies at high schools; there will be no witnessing, no conversions. Christians will have removed the best indigenous missionaries from their natural mission field. I want my children to learn how to witness to their friends and want them to do it.