Impress Them on Your Children: What Christians Need to Know about Public Education

By Charleton D. King

It was a slow realization over many years that I had been living a divided life as a Christian teaching in the public school system. I had no problem teaching at a public school myself, but I simultaneously refused to send my children to the same school because I didn't want them exposed to what was taught there. The inconsistency was clear in the minds of others when they found out that I homeschooled my children, but it took years for it to become clear to me. After a decade in teaching, I felt convicted to resign. This book recounts the several moments and realizations that led up to my decision to leave public education.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Dec 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385203406

Book preview

Introduction

An Insider’s Perspective

My entire education from kindergarten to undergraduate school was within the public education system. It was not clear to me that there were other possibilities and vantage points from which to understand the educational experience. Because my whole education was under the purview of the government, I learned little about other types of schooling even during my undergraduate education courses. Never did it occur to me that someone could graduate with an education degree and not end up as a teacher in public education. It was not until a few years into public-school teaching that I learned more about private schools, charter schools, democratic schools, Sudbury schools, and Montessori schools.

It should have occurred to me early in my master’s program that I had selected the wrong graduate school to attend if I was expecting to grow in my understanding of Christ’s role in education. Before starting any classes, my application interviewer informed me that, while I could expect my professors to be Christians, I should not expect them to open class with prayer. What I did not know at the time was that she was essentially telling me that I would have professors who were Christians but not Christian professors (this was a careful, yet very important, distinction that I did not understand the importance of until many years later). What began as an initial curiosity and hope for a master’s degree that would help me understand education from a biblical worldview only became more of the same secular psychology and pedagogy (i.e., the best practices for teaching) that I had received in my public undergraduate studies, but this time covered in a thin veneer of spirituality. It was the same content I had always heard but now from the mouths of believers.

My biblical worldview did not begin to develop until I attended a discipleship conference with lay leaders in my church. The keynote speakers at the conference were Christian psychologists who had an impressive command of God’s word and how it could be used in the lives of others. One speaker came to faith in Christ after several years of secular training as a professional psychologist. His ability to apply God’s word to the suffering situations in which people find themselves still impresses me to this day. It grieves me to admit that it was not until this conference that I realized just how much I had been immersed in the worldview of public education. From that conference forward, I have been disentangling my views on psychology, science, math, art, music, history, and sports from previously held non-biblical worldviews, slowly bringing all areas of truth and knowledge under conformity to Christ.

My later graduate classes were a refreshing break from every education course I took up until that point. It was the first time I had education professors start class with prayer, professors who I could tell loved the Lord and had an orientation in their hearts for education that I had never seen before. Though most of the program was online, I went to the campus a few times to take in-person classes during the summer. I felt so fortunate to interact with professors and students who both excelled in their craft and evidenced their love for the Lord. It was through my required readings for various courses that I furthered my worldview thinking around education.

Before I went on campus for a week-long residency during my final dissertation phase, I was supposed to have a working research question that could be honed through interactions with my professor and colleagues. Many educators who had already earned their doctorates had informed me that a dissertation topic must be something that could capture my interest for at least a year (though I remember thinking at the time that there was little in life that captures my attention for that long, especially if it is related to education). As I was running out of time before the dissertation course started, I decided to simply combine the three things that I found interesting at the moment: biblical worldviews, science, and homeschooling.

It was my dissertation research, in combination with other classes on Christian philosophy and education, that finally convinced me that I could no longer live out my educational beliefs as a public-school teacher. My graduate coursework had caused me to become increasingly aware and concerned with the worldview assumptions underlying the various initiatives to which I was exposed in public education, and I became overwhelmed by all I was expected to do as a teacher without the necessary spiritual support to do so. While I could have continued in public education as a Christian, I no longer wanted to be part of a system that was antithetical to Christianity and decided to resign and retire from public education after a decade in the profession.

This book is not written out of simply what I see in the news about public education; it is born out of firsthand experience and is a direct result of many conversations I have had with others over the years about my choices and views on education. Throughout this book, you will read about my experiences that have convinced me that Christians should seriously consider options other than public education for their children and themselves. These stories are not intended to be representative of what every teacher has experienced but merely serve as a sample of what children could be experiencing in public education, even at the hands of well-meaning educators who are Christians.

Finally, parents should know before reading this that I have found that most Christians do not agree with everything that I lay out in this book. Feel free to consider my views on education as representative of an abnormal view, one that some may even call extreme. While parents may decide to educate their children in ways in which I disagree, if they do so with all the facts in front of them and with Scripture and the Holy Spirit as their guide, then I am satisfied that this book has met its purpose.

An Outsider’s Perspective

A great percentage of Christian parents have either been in public education themselves or are currently sending their children to public schools. Because public education is inextricably entangled with the conventions of American society, it can be difficult to divorce ourselves from its inherent quirks. When books, television shows, movies, social media, the news, politicians, and most of society treat public education as a natural part of the human experience and a required rite of passage into proper adulthood, it is no surprise that the general population views those outside of public education with skepticism.

A few years ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Israel with several family members. As part of the visit, we learned about the kibbutz communities, self-contained groups of Jewish families who live and work together within a confined geographic vicinity, on the plains of Israel. I was able to visit a school within one of these communities during my time there and was fortunate enough to have extended time with Benjamin, the leader of the kibbutz’s school. Benjamin wanted to reflect with me about a visit he made to the United States to research the lived educational experience of students in public schools in our country. While here, he stayed with a family with young children and was able to observe the children for a full week. Since I grew up in the United States public education system, I was interested to know how an outsider would view what we do. What follows is an extended section of his field notes and a brief synthesis of his thoughts during his time with his host family.

A family has invited us to observe their interactions with the local public school. The children in this town have no choice in which school they will attend; it must be the one that has been designated to them and no other.

It begins early in the morning, far before the young children are ready to begin their day. The parents forcefully awaken their young daughter from her early state of unconsciousness and rush her through her morning cleansing and eating rituals. The child boards a bus along with every other child in the geographic vicinity. This vehicle and its driver are tasked with transporting the child from the safety of her parents to the safety of other adults. Both child and parents have a mixture of sadness and hope as they wave goodbye through the windows of the vehicle; the parents trust the driver to safely remove their child from the home, but the child seems to have preferred the company of her parents. This parental preference seems to wane as children grow older since we also saw many older children in other identical vehicles for whom there were no parents waving goodbye.

As I followed the bus with the youngest children, I slowly saw more of these vehicles emerge and collate as a sea of bees swarming toward a central hive. The square, one-story fortress corrals all the little children into its keep, limiting any dismissal and bidding only a few to enter after the day begins. There are fences around the building to keep intruders out as much as to keep children in. The architecture of the building is reminiscent of prisons: long, brightly lit corridors void of windows with white-painted bricks that substitute for walls to pacify all the children moving through them.

An administrator had previously agreed to accompany me for the day as I sought to understand what this school was like. As the children move from room to room, they seem to know where they are going and find friends along their routes with whom they commiserate. I note that the beginning of the day starts with a patriotic worship service; all children stand in unison upon hearing the priest’s call for a response. They place their hand over their hearts, recite the creed, and sing the doxology of their country.

There is an adult in every room to keep the focus of the children, orienting the physical space to facilitate their expectations. Children are in meticulously organized columns and rows pointed toward their teacher-priest who serves as a mediator between that which should be known about the past and the children as receptacles of that necessary knowledge. The walls are bland yet peppered with an occasional verse and inspirational statement from a father of the past; believe in yourself, you are enough, you can do it, and be the change you wish to see are frequently spoken and written throughout the building. Some children are disciplined for behaving like children, but many are pleased to receive multi-colored stickers and alphabetic pronouncements. These priests of salvation dispense their sacraments each day, instructing their disciples to write down everything they say for future recall.

The clocks in each room rule this school, dictating when the sacraments have been administered for the appropriate interval. At certain times, children are instructed to leave their current mediator in exchange for another. Children shuffle together in the hallways upon hearing the shofar, indicating a pause in worship as they migrate to their next room. Their pilgrimages take them throughout the entire building as the governing high priest speaks eloquently about his interests via intercoms. It is interesting to note that many of the children stay together in homogeneous cohorts. This sorting mechanism clearly prepares the children for work as priests, farmers, or soldiers depending on their abilities.

There is a singular time for a complete gathering when all children are welcomed to break bread together. This sanctuary seems to have prison wardens to ensure that no faithful disciple leaves or disobeys their laws. Children eat, laugh, and talk lively with each other during this communion, a highlight of their day.

Children then leave the building to run, scream, and jump around various colorful structures scattered throughout the back of the school. This looks to be another sorting mechanism of sorts: some children run, some throw balls, some sit and talk, while others seem to enjoy hurting, beating, and otherwise threatening others. This little city outside the school seems to serve as practice as students play house and practice real life with each other.

After communion and play, these children continue their pilgrimage throughout the building, repeating much of the same liturgies as in the morning. Eventually, the high priest speaks to everyone to signify another end to their worship service and gives a benediction that indicates that the buses have returned to remove everyone from their cells.

I followed the same child back home where she is reunited with her parents. The three discuss the events of the day but only briefly. The child has been given paperwork to complete during her few hours at home and so has little time for family matters. The school has control, not only over the hours of the day when the child is in the building but also over many more hours when the child is back with her family. The hours of the child’s day, the rhythms of the family, and the seasons of the year revolve around this American institution.

It was intriguing to read through what a foreigner thinks of our public education system. Someone so comfortable with the marriage of church and state throughout his cultural heritage was able to diagnose a major feature of the United States public education system—it functions like a worshipful liturgy and religion in the hearts of our children.

Unfortunately, I was not able to have more in-depth conversations with Benjamin about his views of the United States public education system because Benjamin is fictitious. While I have traveled to Israel before and visited a school in a local kibbutz, I never had any such conversation with the leader of the school. What preceded is my best approximation for how someone like Benjamin might interpret what he sees our children go through as they receive their public education. While Benjamin and his field notes may not exist, I hope you can see how a foreigner who is accustomed to regularly kept religious rituals might notice similar characteristics in our public schools.

When public education is the norm for a person’s entire life, the formational nature of the building and its routines escape notice. It is easy to miss the assembly-line approach to education that has been marked in the United States in the past century, designed to identify students in particular tracks of education. What I want us to glimpse is the ritualistic and religious nature of the public educational system. Christian parents need to recognize how the routines of the public education system mirror modern church liturgies. It is in this striking similarity that parents need to be primarily aware and which forms the thesis of this book. The public education system has many of the same features as a religious system and functions identically in the formation of the hearts, minds, and behaviors of our children.

Arthur Holmes said it well when he observed, The question to ask about education is not ‘What can I do with it?’ That is the wrong question because it concentrates on instrumental values and reduces everything to useful art. The right question is rather ‘What can it do to me?’¹ It is upon this question that I focus the rest of this book—not what our children do with their education, but what our educational choices do to our children.

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. Holmes, Idea of a Christian College,

29

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1

The Goals of Public Education

When I taught in public schools, I used to lead my students through what I called Life Lesson Fridays. It was my chance to get away from the curriculum and have some short, genuine conversations with students about things I wish I had known when I was their age. There were lessons on finances, marriage, how to drive, how to study, what to do to impress a date, and the importance of quality sleep. The conversations I was able to have with students after class because of these Fridays are some of my most precious memories as a public-school teacher.

One of my Fridays started with a question: Why does the government make you go to school? Questions like these sparked such pleasing conversations, the kind for which every teacher dreams. The following were some answers students would often give:

•To learn information

•To learn how to be social

•To get ready for real life

•To get a job

•To stay out of trouble

After an initial list like this, I would then push back and ask, But shouldn’t parents be doing these things already? You were learning, socializing, getting ready for life, and staying out of trouble long before you entered formalized education. Plus, many people drop out of high school and end up with well-paying jobs. If this can all be done without school, then why are you here? I could see in the students’ eyes their confusion as they tried to come up with a reason for schools to exist that was a unique contribution that could not come from anywhere else. Billions of taxpayer dollars are used to move students through a system that we insist is good for them. Wouldn’t it be nice to know why the government is investing so much into children?

To this day, I still remember a girl in my front row who rarely talked. She had the sweetest smile, but I knew from conversations with her that things were far from healthy at home. Her routine lateness and minimal homework completion belied a less-than-ideal home life. A few seconds into the conversation about the unique contribution of school, she innocently raised her hand and asked, Yeah, but what about all the kids without great parents?

There it was. I do not think she recognized how profound her question was, but she immediately touched on a primary motivator that shaped public education in the twenty-first century. Education has a way of leveling the playing field, making sure that every person has access despite an inadequate upbringing. Education is a great equalizer, one of the many cogs in the social justice machine that ensures equal opportunity for all participants. As a class, we then added the following to the bottom of our list for the purpose of school—to make up for the failures of parents.

It should come as no surprise that I was able to convince my students that this was indeed the unique contribution and purpose of public education. I was able to do so by simply pointing them to the four core expectations that the school district had for these students. Readers would be forgiven for thinking these expectations would be items such as academic excellence, lifelong learning, or any other educationally related expectation. Instead, the core expectations for this school were things like trustworthiness, care, bravery, and kindness. These are all character traits that parents seek to instill in their children long before they get to formal education, but without diligent parents, the public school must make up the difference. Now, do not misunderstand me—it was quite refreshing that these were the core expectations of the school, and I expressed my appreciation for them when I interviewed for the position. However, the codifying of these core expectations represents the all-encompassing in loco parentis role that schools have come to play in the lives of children.

When I began my teacher preparation program, I naively believed that I would be teaching content. The student teaching cohort of which I was a part was coached to answer the future interview question What do you want to teach? with the response I want to teach students. We were supposed to show prospective employers that we would be willing and flexible to teach any class because the reason we got into education was for the students, not the content. The logical conclusion is that teachers cannot simply teach content to students when the students’ more basic physiological needs have not been met (e.g., physical and mental safety, adequate sleep, or food). To get to the goal of teaching content, teachers must first make sure that the more basic needs of students are met. Educators teach students, not content.

How is a teacher supposed to ensure that her students have all their physiological needs met? The simple answer is that she cannot, she can only do the best with what has been given to her. There is little a teacher can do to affect the home life of the child; if there were, there would be many former students of mine that I would have removed from their homes and placed into safer, more loving environments. Still, parents do the best that they can do with their children. For some, the best looks like preparation for any post-high school plans a student may have. For others, their best looks like simply getting their children to the school bus; for still others, their best is simply the fact that the mother gave life to the child when she could have chosen otherwise.

These children then come to their teacher with various levels of preparation, care, and physiological well-being to back them up. What are the expectations for the teacher? To take every single one of her students and get them to the next grade. Some students will flourish and succeed even with a poor teacher while others will barely make it over the finish line even with constant guidance and support from a great teacher. The call to be a teacher is a difficult one because teachers cannot control the most important variable that affects the quality of learning—the home life of the child. Rather, teachers do their best with the set of cards they have been dealt, drawing a new random hand every year.

What Are the Goals of Teachers?

During my student teaching days, one of my assignments