Tim Challies has decided to broach the third rail of the schooling debate (this one seems to become VERY personal VERY quickly).  Tim is one of those Christian blogosphere voices who shows a fairness, even to those (like me) who often disagree with him, and I find it a bit (truly) courageous to even broach a subject with a position that many of his normal readers might disagree with (suggesting he is offering his children up to Molech – which seems to be par for the course).

My wife and I chose public schooling for many of the same reasons Challies lists, though we have friends and close relatives who have chosen Christian Schools, homeschooling – or both, and we do not think differently of them for their reasons of choice – which is really what it comes down to. 

Echoing Tim’s sentiments, where my wife and I landed was this: Our children need to be as much ’salt and light’ as we must be.  If every Christian were to remove their children from the public schools, it would serve to cause or to accelerate a downward alive in society – just like turning off the light in a room, leaving only darkness behind.  What about our kids? We (Suzi and I) need to provide a Christian environment in our home along with a stable church community, supplementing (and sometimes/often supplanting) what goes on in the public school.  We have to have enough faith that God will lead us and our children in a way that protects them, strengthens them while providing light in the darkness.

We are blessed to be in a school district that has a larger percentage of Christian kids than many/most, and that is academically excellent.  When our oldest was old enough for Kindergarten, he was in a Christian school because the public school in that area had a large number of problems and we were still feeling fairly ’seperatist’ in our Christianity.  The next year, there were two significant events – first, we moved to a much better area (school-wise) and we were convicted by an examination of Christ’s response to the Essenes, who were the First Century separatists.  Since this time, we have not considered anything besides public schooling (though things could change in the future), for precicely the reasons mentioned.  Others may not feel this conviction, and that is there perogative.

Here is a link to part 1 and part 2 of Tim’s post.

Thanks, Tim!