Just A Teaser On Government Schools And The Heart Of The Problem

The introductory line may be the best thought of a 8 minute segment that is chock full of good thoughts.

“Schooling is a form of adoption. You give your child away at his or her most plastic years to a group of strangers. You accept a promise, sometimes stated, but more often implied, that the state, through its agents, know better how to raise your children and educate them than you, your neighbors, your parents, your community, your local traditions and that your child will be better off so adopted. By the time the child returns to the family or has the option of doing that very few want to. Their parents are some form of friendly stranger to them. And why not — in the key hours of growing up strangers have raised the child.”

Government schooling is a classic example of ritual being maintained long after it made any sense to begin with. Christians continue to send their children to government schools even though if they would only take a step back and try to look at the ritual with fresh eyes they would have to see how ridiculous the whole ritual is.

I mean would any sane person ever reason in such a way as to suggest that it is a great idea to put 200 15-18 year olds together in a building in the middle of their raging puberty years with scant supervision. Only habit and ritual keeps this insane practice going.

Would any sane person, ever reason that it is an acceptable idea for a parent to put their five year old on a bus with one driver and 70 other germ infested five year olds in order to ship them to educational concentration camps? We only think this normal because we have done it by habit for such a long time.

Would any sane person turn their children over to be raised and instructed by complete strangers for 8-10 hours a day? And yet we do that year by year and decade by decade only because that is the way we’ve been doing it year by year and decade by decade.

Would any sane person believe that their children are going to be genuinely educated in these holding tanks when the evidence for decades now has been screaming at us that government education is sub standard at best?

When a person takes a step back and looks at this whole American ritual and tries to see it again with fresh eyes they can only conclude that this is not something we would do if we were to think of good ways to educate our children.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane