Homeschooling
wifeofadam
member
God Bless America - homeschooling in Sweden
wifeofadam
member
Have you seen this story about the boy who was taken from his parents at gunpoint because he was being homeschooled?
Between that story and theGerman family seeking asylum in the US because they wanted to homeschool, I am so happy I live in America!
Although, if historical patterns teach us anything (not in the public schools, obviously...lol), it will probably be illegal in the US for our grandchildren to homeschool their kids. It seems to be what eventually happens when you start giving the government too much control.
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Re: God Bless America - homeschooling in Sweden
I also think that if our schools were like Sweden's, I wouldn't likely have a need to homeschool.
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Where do you live? There is nowhere in the U.S. where "prayer isn't allowed," and I don't know of any school that doesn't still recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Organized prayer isn't allowed verbally (out loud) during school hours, but students are welcome to pray at any time in ANY school to themselves or with a small group outside of organized school activities. Most schools also have a Christian prayer group that meets before school, which is an approved school activity.
I am a Christian and a strong proponent for homeschooling, but I have seen a huge push from the Christian Right about these sorts of things, and in my (recent) experience, there is no basis.
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I don't have much experience with public schools since I graduated nearly 15 years ago, so the only things I hear about are what others say and what is in the news. We are involved with our local Teens For Christ chapter and they have talked about how they have been forced out of our local schools (these are just groups of students who meet together and do service activities).
It seems like we hear a lot in the news about teachers being fired for expressing their faith to students, students wearing a cross or shirt discussing Christ, removing religious items that are a part of the school's founding from the walls, students being harassed by faculty for expressing their religious views in class, being forced to remove headcoverings, etc. I know that these situations are not the norm and out of the thousands of schools in the country, represent only a small amount. But, when the only stories about the public schools (apart from the ones talking about how they are failing) are about these atypical scenarios, it's hard to believe that the system is very friendly to Christians. The news makes it seem downright hostile at times.
I am completely with you about children still being able to pray in schools. I know that my kids could. When Christians talk about prayer being taken out of school, it's organized prayer during class that they are talking about. That used to happen and it doesn't anymore. As long as my kids are able to be schooled at home, I'm fine with that. I realize there are many faiths attending schools.
What I would worry about if my kids had to attend public schools would be them being harassed or not receiving appropriate grades on assignments because of their beliefs. I want to raise children who feel confident to express Truth whenever they feel the need to. If that means telling a teacher that they disagree with their point of view because the Bible tells them it is wrong, I feel it would be my kids' Christian duty to do so. I've just heard so many stories about kids being told they are wrong or not being given the opportunity to explore all points of view in the current system.
Like I said, as long as I have the right to remove my children from the system, I am fine with it being Godless. But if the government forced me to send my children there, I would have serious problems with my kids not being able to speak out about their faith.
I agree with a lot of what you're saying here and I would never want my child telling another child they are the spawn of Satan. That's terrible and very ineffective evangelism (if that was the goal).
It's funny - you can find Christians who send their kids to public school specifically to evangelize. They think it's wrong to homeschool because it keeps you from being able to spread the Gospel. We've found this criticism of our choice to homeschool in our Christian circles. If I ever sent my kids to public school, it wouldn't be for that reason. I just want my kids to be able to express their faith in their studies without repercussions from faculty. That's all. I don't feel like the current climate tolerates that (and I'm not talking about Creationism, but rather social issues), so we don't want our kids to be a part of it.
I guess you could say my reasoning for being uncomfortable sending my children to public school where liberalism is the dominant ideology is similar to your reasons for your discomfort around Christians:
intolerance and "evangelism" (not of the Gospel, but of certain political and social ideology that differs from our faith)
I'm not opposed to teaching my children about other worldviews and ideas. That's one of our reasons for choosing to homeschool - because we want them to get ALL sides of the story. I feel like public schools ignore and are sometimes hostile to the religious sides of the stories and disregard their importance.
And for the record, I am also uncomfortable around certain Christians who are intolerant and seem to evangelize in very non-Christlike ways. It's also one of the reasons we are equally uncomfortable sending our children to a private Christian school. Sometimes I wonder if giving a complete stranger control over our children's religious education is just as dangerous, if not more, as doing it for their secular education.
But if it is flat-out illegal then you have to be an idiot to decide to break the law and be shocked that someone intervenes. It is one thing to argue that they should allow it but another thing to break the law. When I travel with my kids in other countries (we went to Hong Kong two months ago) I make a huge point to them that we are in a foreign country with their own laws and we follow the laws even if they are different. I am not going to wind up like the parents of the kid in Singapore years ago that was cained for vandalism, and if I break the law then I expect I can get caught and need to accept the consequence.