Yeah, okay. Show me where the Bible says it is ANYONE's responsibility to teach a child to read, write and do math. Cause I've evidently missed that. What you are doing is applying scriptures that tell a parent how to raise a child in the Lord, to educating that child overall, with no more than your own opinion to lead one to that conclusion.
"Train up the child in the way he should go..." This is education. As a result, part of training a child is to be able to "Study to show thyself approved." My goal, granted, is not to compete with the school system as I am raising my children to be Godly children. However, a part of that raising is to give them an education which explores the world around them. They should be able to study and they should be taught the ways of God. This mandates more than Bible education, but all education must be Bible focused. I am also to teach my child wisdom and understanding. This requires worldview education, and a broad education.
And I agree. But "raising" kids and teaching them to read and write are two different things. As much as I hate what public education has become in this country, there is no doubt that without it many, many of our citizens would be illiterate. I'm one of the lucky 40% of citizens in my county that graduated from high school even with public education available!
No, raising children and educating children are not two different things, they are one in the same. I educate my children because I am raising my children. The philosophical problem you are facing is that you want to segregate certain types of education from God. You seem to believe math, for instance, is not God centered. Math is God centered! You seem to think that writing is not a God-centered task. Writing is ultimately God Centered. You also seem to believe that we can segregate courses in education. Writing is tremendously distinct from Math is tremendously distinct from a Biblical Worldview. No, writing and math are not segregated, they are inclusive of a Biblical worldview.
We don't live in a "Christian" country where all parents believe their children should be educated. Many, many Christians I know would fail to educate their children if left to their own devices. My own mother was the product of a Free Will Baptist preacher who put his girls to work in the cotton fields as soon as they left 6th grade cause they didn't "need" any more education than that to marry and bear children. The boys were allow to decide for themselves if they wanted to continue school. AT 12 YEARS OLD!!!
Yes, there are people who sin against God and their children by not providing an education. However, it is not the role of Government to correct poor parenting. They are there to protect kids when abuse occurs (a legitimate role of government) but not to correct all the misgivings of parents. This is not a Christian Country, but government should not tell me how to educate my children.
And you say our gov doesn't have a vested interest in the education of our citizens? Do you want us to become a Third World nation? Because that is what you are advocating. Third world nations have no interest in the education of their citizenry. Thats why their citizens are all trying to come here! Some education is better than none!
I do believe Government benefits from an educated group. I, however, do not believe Government has the authority to usurp or force me to educate in the way they see fit. Look, I am all for education. In 16 days I will receive my 3rd Masters Degree. However, it is not Government's role to make me parent.
BTW, the "third world country" illustration is bogus and a strawman argument. In fact, several studies have shown that before public education in America, we had a better literacy rate than we do now with public education. In Colonial America, where Government was not involved in education, only 4 in 1000 people could not read or write legibly. That is about where we stand with the public education system (
link). Thus, in areas like Washington DC, we spend $28,000.00 per student in a public school where the exact same amount could send them to the top private schools in the country (the top four in DC are around that $28,000.00 mark). Yet, the government in DC are some of the worst schools.
Let me see.....no, I don't believe that the gov has ever said how I should parent my kids. They've told me I had to keep them fed, sheltered, reasonably clean and educated. And that my friend is a whole lot different than telling me how to parent.
If you don't like our laws, then change them. Go to
www.parentalrights.org and join in the fight for this very worthy bill that sets reasonable limits on what the gov can force us to do.
But don't make a mountain out of a molehill. Asking parents to report how they are educating their children isn't an infringment on their right to parent.
To have parental rights, which I support that group, you have to have education rights. You cannot separate the two.
