The Christian vs Public School Conundrum
One of the questions that faces Christian parents here in Australia is whether you send your kids to a Christian school or to the public system. The public system is increasingly unpopular with parents from across the socio-economic spectrum. The notion that only rich people send their kids to private schooling no longer applies.
Parents have a range of choices in terms of private schools, most if not all are religious options. The evangelical/pentecostal schools are fast growing and providing more opportunity than ever before for Christian parents. The question that many face is whether to take their kids out of the public school system and change or for younger parents whether to enroll them in private education from the start. The choice could play a significant factor in the future of each child, either for the negative or the positive – in both sectors of education.
A majority of parents in our church [who can afford it] send their kids to one of two evangelical/pentecostal options. About a third still persist with their children in the State [public] system. Typically, State schools have a significant percentage of miscreants who dabble in anything from drugs to violence and of course the ubiquitous teenage drinking scene. Leaving your child in a State school may well condemn them to developing relationships with peers who will lead them thoroughly astray. It may well help them grow in their Christian faith in a real world environment, and adjust to the world around them and the choices that they can make. It could well be the formation that they need, and it could well mean that they become peer leaders themselves and live missional lives.
We all know the stories of children who grow up inside the Christian bubble, who upon graduation overdose on the choices around them and walk away from the faith never to return, or after much damage has been wreaked in their life.
It is a difficult choice to make. I survived well in a public school system but I cannot make that judegment call for all my children necessarily. For the record I take each case on its merits, and we have made a different choice for at least two of our kids. One graduated from a public high school, the other has been switched over. The one in a public school was surrounded by peers who although not Christian had Christian values and have been a great blessing to my daughter through the friendship and support they provided to her.
Our other child was surrounded a peer group who were into the Emo & Goth scene. There seemed to be very little hope that this particular child would find another peer group due to the particular make up of her year intake. We decided that this peer group would not be a great influence throughout high school so we moved her. It was the best decision we could have made.
If we had sent our other daughter to a Christian school it would have been the end of her, as her peer group at that school had some very dysfunctional girls supported by particularly mendacious parents. Not sending her to a Christian school was her ’salvation’ in many ways. Her faith is intact and it has been worked out in the tough crucible of a public high school.
The other child will need to grow out of the thin veneer spirituality which seems to inhabit pentecostal schools where kids are big on Hillsong but small on fruits of the Spirit – if you catch my drift.
Recently a family withdrew their kids from a Christian school and put them into a State school, in what was a reversal of trend I have begun to see, albeit in a small minority.
Australia certainly has never had the diversity is now has and places in the new Christian schools is highly sought after, particularly by non-Christian parents.
Thankfully, the trend towards homeschooling has not grown from what I can see. We’ve hosted some homeschooling groups at our facilities and that has been enough to convince me that there is a particular sub-culture within that which prefer to stay a safe distance away from.
I find that many parents wrestle with this question, and I feel as a responsible Christian it is appropriate to take an individualized approach in the way you described. Christian schooling choices really depends on the individual child, the peer groups that will be established, the overall strength both academically and spiritually of the Christian school itself and the strengths and weaknesses of the public schools. Although I admire some homeschooling parents for being able to provide an alternative for their children–particularly those who really speak to their children as individual learners and critical thinkers–I can understand your reticence to homeschool as well. If your homeschooling groups has chosen that option out of a die-hard “All public schools are inherently evil” mentality, then it is difficult to somehow “fit in” to that crowd. As a Christian teacher myself and having attended a Christian school, I certainly have both good and bad tales to tell about Christian education. It really shouldn’t be a blanket assumption that all Christian schools are equal and somehow “better” for having the label.
Thanks for your comments Amayala.
I think the growing popularity of Christian schools in Australia is testament to their growing academic achievements, excellent facilities, higher standard of teachers, and a safer environment due to a strict behavioural code [to mention but a few factors].
That’s not to say there aren’t teachers in the State system who aren’t excellent and don’t try their best for their students. The private schools get to pick the creme of the crop when it comes to job opportunities, and because of a typically higher socio-economic parent base, the sub-culture of the kids tends to be less deviant than State school kids.
In our schools we now have Christian chaplains and Christian kids can hook up and engage with the chaplains both for support and outreach. It’s possible that State school can be a ministry training ground – it was for me!
You hit on a key issue that is a weakness in Christian schools and homeschool: critical thinking. It is difficult for this to happen in an environment so dominated by one particular point of view. Growing in a hothouse is easy, its harder to grow out in the real garden – and that is often the difference between a private or public school Christian kid.
The homeschool families I encounter usually have a number of kids who are ADHD diagnosed, dress in clothes from another era, and are socially inept. There aren’t too many homeschool kids who I don’t feel like ‘rescuing’. In my darker moments I dream of a ministry whereby you ‘rescue’ homeschool kids from the captivity of their parents and introduce them to the real world….
in america, we certainly face all those same issues. we’ve had our kids in christian schools since pre-k (three daughters – one graduated, one a junior, one a freshman). school has changed a lot from when you and i grew up, no doubt – peer pressures are much more intense over a wider range of behaviors. public schools, to me, simply aren’t an option, but some of it depends on where you live – schools are good in places, and are absolutely horrible in others.
christian schools – especially the larger ones – are not immune to drugs, sex, violence, whatever – they are still teenagers. and, they have as their models a generation (ours) where statistics of divorce, drug use/abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence, etc., aren’t that different between church-goers and non-church-goers.
i have, at times, deeply regretted having my kids in christian schools – primarily because i’m convinced the worldview is much too narrow and, at times, borders on ignorance, especially if the school continues to cling to a literal genesis, six days of creation, a boat of animals and a 120-yr-old captain, etc. while kids in public schools complain of the difficulty of learning one thing in their homes/churches and then being taught another at school, my kids get just the opposite – they’re taught one thing at school, and then they come home to their devil’s advocate dad!
homeschool would probably solve most of my complaints, giving a reasoned approach to scripture, the world, science, etc. but it’s an overwhelming commitment that can quickly become here’s-a-workbook-do-lesson-45-and-when-you’re-done-do-lesson-46 – which accomplishes very little.
nothing is easy, though time gets you worryin’
my friend, it’s ok
just take your life easy and stop all that hurryin’
be happy my way
when tension starts mounting and you’ve lost count
of the pennies you’ve missed
just try hard and see why they’re not worryin’ me:
they’re last on my list
- ian anderson, ‘nothing is easy’
mike rucker
fairburn, georgia, usa
mikerucker.wordpress.com
Great post Mike.
I in the States you have a longer tradition of home-schooling than we have in Australia. Most Christian parents who homeschool here use material from the States, although there are some curriculum developers here.
I find that homeschool kids, due to lack of social interaction and dealing with competing ideas are socially awkward and intellectually limited. They may well be clever and do very well at certain subjects but learning how to connect all this whilst living in the real world is a discipline that is difficult to put together in the claustrophobic confines of a suburban house along with all your other home schooled siblings.
I agree with you that the downsides of Christian education are less than many State schools. The state school in our area is very good, and people move temporarily into the area just so that they can enrol their kids in it. The high school is a different kettle of fish though!