• A biblical perspective on home schooling and state schooling

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I have written a couple of posts on my other blog regarding homeschooling (click here and here) which have generated an interesting range of responses, so I thought that I’d have a look at what the Bible has to say about homeschooling and state schooling. Brace yourself, I’m not going to mince words. Here we go…

1) Parents are instructed to teach their children at all times.

These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut 6:6-9 NASB)

Parents clearly have a duty of teaching their children. Nothing in this passage precludes sending your children to school, however…

2) Parents are instructed to teach their children sound doctrine.

This is stated in the passage above and in Ephesians 6:4:

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (NASB)

Parents are pastors (shepherds) of their children so I believe that Titus 2:1 is applicable:

You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. (NIV)

Here is where almost every school, both state and private, fails the biblical test: they do not teach sound doctrine. Evolution and humanism are both false religions that are taught in schools, so sending your children to a school that teaches these false doctrines is equivalent to sending them to a madrassah to learn how to be a Muslim [see footnote 1]. Schools that do not teach evolution and humanism are almost as rare as rocking horse dung and…

3) Children will follow the path that is shown to them.

Train up a child in the way he should go,
Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

[Prov 22:6 NASB]

Parents have two options: they can teach their children sound doctrine, or they can send their children to a school that teaches unsound doctrines such as evolution and humanism. As a general rule, people will follow for life what they are taught as children. That’s why the state wants to get its hands on children as early as possible and promotes “Early Childhood Education”. Note the “education” part: kindergartens aren’t babysitting services, they’re statist brainwashing centres.

However, even if the state wasn’t indoctrinating your children they would still suffer harm at school because…

4) Schools are full of fools.

Funnily enough, schools are full of children, and therefore schools are full of fools:

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child

[Prov 22:15a NASB]

What is foolishness? The Hebrew word comes from a root word meaning “to be perverse”, and denotes moral perversity rather than intellectual deficiency. It denotes someone who violates God’s laws and despises wisdom (good moral character)[2].

So, schools are full of morally perverse individuals, and it’s no surprise what happens when your children spend time with them:

He who walks with wise men will be wise,
But the companion of fools will suffer harm.

[Prov 13:20 NASB]

That’s as plain as can be: parents who send their children to school are harming them by forcing them to spend time with fools. Moreover…

5) Parents who send their children to a school that does not teach sound doctrine are binding themselves to pagans.

2 Corinthians 6:14-15 says:

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? [NASB]

John MacArthur says:

“not be bound together”. Lit. “unequally yoked”, an illustration taken from OT prohibitions to Israel regarding the work-related joining together of two different kinds of livestock [Deut 22:10]. By this analogy, Paul taught that it is not right to join together in common spiritual enterprise with those who are not of the same nature (unbelievers). It is impossible under such an arrangement for things to be done to God’s glory. [emphasis added]

Deuteronomy 22:10 says:

You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. [NASB]

About which MacArthur says:

…these two different animals couldn’t together plow a straight furrow. Their temperaments, natural instincts, and physical characteristics made it impossible.

Raising children is clearly a spiritual enterprise for parents. If they send their children to a school that does not teach sound doctrine they are binding themselves to pagans in a “common spiritual enterprise”. This will have 3 results:

1. conflict between the ox and the donkey (parents and school).
2. God will not be glorified.
3. the product of the enterprise, the children, will not follow a straight and narrow path. It is much, much harder to gather a harvest of righteousness from a crooked furrow.

How much better to homeschool so that your children can walk with wise men instead of fools!

What do you think about the points that I have raised?

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This post is not intended as condemnation, but I do hope to produce godly sorrow. Think about what is best for your children. Whilst it is theoretically possible to safely send children who have reached a certain level of maturity to a school that teaches sound doctrine and maintains good discipline, in reality such schools are rarer than honest politicians. It is never safe to send your children to a state school, and beware of the state curriculum: as can be seen is Footnote 1, the state curriculum is heavy on values, newspeak for doctrine.

If you want to know more about homeschooling I recommend going to the Home Education Foundation site.

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Click here to read about the anti-family agenda behind state education.

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Footnote 1:

Click here to view an evolutionist’s statement that evolution is a religion. Click here to view an example of evolution in the New Zealand school curriculum. This article mentions Archaeopteryx: compare that with what is said here and here. See also 2 Pet 3:3-5 and Rom 1:18-20.

Click here to view a humanist’s statement that humanism is a religion. He defines humanism as “An outlook that places man and his concerns at the centre of interest. Modern Humanism, which does away with traditional Christianity, is characterised by its faith in the power of human beings to create their own future, collectively and personally“.  Click here to view an example of humanism in the New Zealand school curriculum. Compare these humanist views with Philippians 2:1-11:

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but [a] emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. [NASB, emphasis added]

[a] Philippians 2:7 I.e. laid aside His privileges

Footnote 2) Expository Dictionary of Bible Words, Stephen D. Renn, pp 400-401. “Foolishness” in Prov 22:15 is Strong’s #200, which comes from #191, ‘ewil. Renn says that wisdom “refers to knowledge coupled with an inner quality that embodies a heart and life in conformity with the purposes and character of God” (p1050). In short, ‘foolishness’ means poor moral character and ‘wisdom’ means good moral character. Children are innately foolish and parents are instructed to instill wisdom into them (e.g. Prov 22:15: the evil anti-smacking law makes it much harder to turn foolish children into wise adults).

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