Why Parents Support Christian Schools
by Dr. Paul A. Kienel
This past year there were 662,350 students enrolled in Christian schools which are members of the Association of Christian Schools International. That figure represents an increase of 95,000 students above the previous year! If one very rich and generous individual were to step forward and write a check paying for the annual tuition of those 662,350 students, my best estimate is that the total figure would be $1,987,050,000. That is almost two billion dollars! My point is that Christian school education is a costly enterprise. In terms of money spent, more money is expended on Christian school education than on almost any other area of ministry in the evangelical community. Surprising, isn’t it?
What causes parents and grandparents like me to sacrifice substantial monies to make Christian school education possible for our children and grandchildren? Permit me to list just a few:
1. Parents are concerned about the over-all condition of our society.
Former U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. William J. Bennett said, “Violent crime is six times more common in America today than it was in 1960. There are five times more illegitimate births. The divorce rate has quadrupled, the teenage suicide rate has tripled and SAT scores have dropped 80 points.”1 As Professor Stephan Carter said, “We are paying the price of banishing religion from public life.”
2. More and more parents want a positive, caring and safe educational environment for their children.
If our government were as concerned about mind pollution as it is about the pollution of our physical environment, what a difference it would make. Since it is unlikely that an Environmental Protection Agency of the Mind is forthcoming from the government, parents are looking for educational environments for their children which are compatible with common sense parenting and Christian values. Parents are looking for caring schools, run by caring educators who love God so much that it shows in the classroom everyday.
3. Parents, and all of us for that matter, are weary of education that often runs counter to traditional values, especially Christian values.
It seems the overriding purpose of value-free or value-neutral education now so prevalent in the nation’s non-Christian schools, including some non-Christian private schools, is to totally erase Christian values and Biblical truths from the hearts and minds of the next generation. With Biblical values totally debunked or ignored, it is an easy step to fill children’s minds with “politically correct” ideas such as:
1. Homosexuality is an acceptable “alternative lifestyle.” This, of course is contrary to numerous passages of Scripture which call it an “abomination” (Leviticus 18:22).
2. Abortion or killing an unborn child is a “choice” a mother can make and doctors can perform with no moral consequences. In the Bible God talks about human beings as being human beings before they are born. (Psalms 139:13-16).
3. Multiculturalism and global education is presented as teaching students to be tolerant of all races, creeds and cultures. On the surface that sounds innocent enough - even noble. God is “no respecter of persons” and God help us if we ever discriminate against a person because of his or her race. God made us all and loves us all. But, some people see a secondary motivation for multiculturalism that is disturbing. Educator, Dr. Bob Simonds writes:
Under the guise of “multicultural pluralism” children are taught that different life-styles (homosexual/lesbian) and moral relativism (values clarification - atheism) are acceptable and even desirable. Thus, atheism, social immorality, and anti-Americanism are all taught as legitimate curriculum in multiculturalism.
Children are inundated with a plethora of cultures, religions and immorality, while the traditional American values are totally excluded. No matter that our entire constitution, our entire law system and political system are built on the traditional Judeo-Christian ethics (the Ten Commandments).
Even Christians don’t seem to clearly understand that to abdicate our American culture of Judeo-Christian values in our schools, for a divisive multiculturalism, is ushering in atheism, socialism, witchcraft and new persecution for all believers. We cannot afford to lose this battle!2
Professor Alan Gribben said he is concerned about “the current mania for converting every academic subject into a politicized study of race, class and gender.”3
I agree with Russian author, Dostoyevsky who wrote, “Where there is no God everything is permissible.”4 Parents support Christian schools because they can count on Christian school educators to teach a true Biblical perspective on how to live.
4. Finally, in a very real sense, parents expect the Christian school to be an extension of themselves.
Since the education and training of children is a parental responsibility, parents select schools which will educate and train their children in a manner that reflects their philosophy and views. At least that’s the way it should be. Christian parents send their children to Christian schools because they want them to lead meaningful Christian lives. Christian school educators know and Christian school parents know that in order for true Christian education to occur, Christ and His teachings must be at the center of the school’s curriculum. As my long-time friend, Dr. Roy Lowrie (now deceased), said, “A Christian school is not just where Christ is present, not just where Christ is prominent, but where Christ is pre-eminent.” That is why parents support Christian schools!
1 William J. Bennett, Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, First edition.
2 Dr. Bob Simonds, “President’s Report,” August 1992.
3 Alan Gribben quoted in Telling The Truth: “A Report on the State of the Humanities in Higher Education,” Lynne V. Cheney, Chairman. National Endowment for the Humanities, 1992, P. 31.
4 Dostoyevsky, Brothers Caramozov.
