The RenewaNation Review 2020 Volume 12 Issue 1 | Page 19

government-funded schools, Americans, generally speak-
ing, were better educated. My concern with public educa-
tion centers principally on its role in elevating the state’s
authority above that of the family.
Norman Ryder of Princeton University, writing more than
thirty-five years ago in The Population Bulletin of the United
Nations, “Education of the junior generation is a subversive
influence. Boys who go to schools distinguish between what
they learn there and what their father can teach them. The
family structure is undermined when the young are trained
outside the family.”
Ryder adds, “There is a struggle between the families and
the State for the minds of the young.” In this struggle, the
state serves as “the chief instrument for teaching [a new]
citizenship, in a direct appeal to the children over the heads
of their parents. The school also serves as the medium for
communicating ‘state morality.’”
Lesslie Newbigin, the famed theologian and missiologist,
stated it this way: “The transmission of traditional wisdom
in families from the old to the young is replaced by systems
of education organized by the State and designed to shape
young minds toward the future that is being planned.” Of
course, this planned future is grounded in secular humanis-
tic hopes for humanity that, it is believed, can be achieved
through education.
In this secular scheme, sin is nowhere a factor in what
ails humanity, our societal ills are merely the product of
ignorance, and human beings have a natural propensity for
doing good that is only inhibited by external influences. The
institutional emphasis of state-directed education aggres-
sively excludes any recognition of the biblical concepts of
sin, the fall, and mankind made in the image of God.
The modern idea that education is the ultimate responsi-
bility of the state originates directly from atheistic, Enlight-
enment thinking, which perceives the state as savior.
Throughout Scripture, it is parents who are charged with
the responsibility to raise and train their children, and the
nature and scope of that training are made quite explicit for
those who profess faith in Christ.
Unfortunately, too many Christians consider educa-
tion collateral to their faith, merely preparation for a job.
In thinking this way, Christians are making the same false
distinction between the world of “facts” and the world of
“values” that the Enlightenment thinkers made. The Bible
makes no such distinction. The world of facts—the material
world, including all of God’s creation and the social struc-
tures of man (facts), can only be fully understood in the
light of God’s revelation (values).
It is the neglect of this truth by many professing Christians
that has subsequently allowed the public school system—as
an institution—to achieve its secular drift. Couple this form
of education with the diminished emphasis upon theology,
“The institutional emphasis of state-directed
education aggressively excludes any recog-
nition of the biblical concepts of sin, the fall,
and mankind made in the image of God.”
doctrine, and discipleship by many churches, and it is no
wonder that Christianity has become a marginalized way of
thinking in American culture.
So, do we fold up our tents and run, or do we stay and
work to effect change from within? I say it may be a little
of both. One possible solution is the idea of returning to a
decentralized education system. It is the concentration of
bureaucratic power that has rendered public schools incapa-
ble of localized reform and enabled the influence of special
interest groups and union organizations such as the NEA.
In 1932, there were 127,531 independent school districts
in the U.S., many of them operating a single school. By 1990,
there were only 17,995 school districts left. This consolida-
tion of control into bureaucratic structures only further
undermined parental influence and input. Dr. Carlson
suggests “a radical deconsolidation of the public system,
down to even the single-school level.”
He goes on to say that this “would weaken bureaucratic
and union strangleholds on the schools and so return them
to real community control, where parental and neighbor-
hood moral judgments could again play a role.” This struc-
ture would certainly afford active Christians a much great-
er opportunity for positive influence over the institutions
they allow to educate their children. Presently, only private
institutions and homeschooling offer any measure of real
parental influence.
Finally, there are those who argue in defense of their chil-
dren attending public schools that “our children will serve
as ‘salt and light.’” However, this argument really doesn’t
come close to addressing the institutional and philosophi-
cal problems now ingrained in public education. Frankly, I
would add, this approach must be carefully weighed against
the psalmist’s charge to “walk not in the counsel of the wick-
ed, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of
scoffers.” ■
S. Michael Craven is the Associate Director for the Colson Fellows Program with the Colson
Center for Christian Worldview.
Copyright © 2019 The Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.
org with permission.
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