The Biblical Basis for Homeschooling Christian Children ~ Part IV ~ Who Owns Our Children?

Who Owns Our Children?

“Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from Him.”
(Psalm 127:3)

After a mere 160 years of public education – after an accumulation of world history with parents or tutors having been the sole teachers of children – the folly of our choice to let others have reign over the influence and education of our children is coming home to roost in a very big way. In my own experience as the Miami County, Ohio homeschool coordinator for eleven years, I know of many instances of superintendents, and other school district “authorities” actually believing that every child in their district belongs to them, and not the parents. Indeed, this was driven home by the outlandish decision by the 9th Circuit Court’s admonishment and judgment against a concerned family who discovered that their young daughter’s school believed it necessary to conduct interviews of third grade students, asking explicitly sexual questions, greatly disturbing many of the school’s innocent children – without parental consultation or permission. When a Christian father went to the Principal of the school, he found out that his authority over his own daughter stopped when he and his wife let her cross the threshold and walk into their government school. And when that father took his school district to court, this Socialist point of view was confirmed by Ninth Circuit Judge James V. Selna in his June 2, 2005 decision, which reads in part: “[O]nce parents make the choice as to which school their children will attend, ...their fundamental right to control the education of their children is, at the least, substantially diminished. The Constitution does not vest parents with the authority to interfere with a public school’s decision as to how it will provide information to its students or what information it will provide, in its classrooms or otherwise…While parents may have a fundamental right to decide whether to send their child to a public school, they do not have a fundamental right generally to direct how a public school teaches their child. Whether it is the school curriculum, the hours of the school day, school discipline, the timing and content of examinations, the individuals hired to teach at the school, the extracurricular activities offered at the school or…a dress code, these issues of public education are generally ‘committed to the control of state and local authorities.’ ” [emphasis mine]

This judge clearly overstepped his bounds. Or, is he just living up to what has been the plan for the public school system all along? He obviously thought the superintendent had birthed those children his employees were corrupting himself. After all, they were his children, right?

But these are the type of offenses that take place when parents give up their authority and when attendance in the public – government – school arena becomes the unfortunate norm. But it wasn’t always this way. “The function of the parents to control the education of his children has been a Constitutionally recognized right in a long line of cases beginning with Meyer v. Nebraska in 1923. A U.S. Supreme Court decision to protect parents’ rights in education was not necessary prior to 1923 because there were hardly any compulsory attendance laws that required children to attend public school. As soon as compulsory attendance laws were passed, however, the attack on parental liberty began. Education became a state responsibility rather than a traditional parental responsibility. As experience teaches, whenever the state takes responsibility of any private sector, controls always follow.”[1] [emphasis mine]

And as time marches on, parents willingly give their children over to the state to indoctrinate and claim ownership…right under their noses. The state’s children are then fed a steady diet of lies and pseudo education. They are told – on pain of a failing grade and possibly a few lines on their student record, which will follow them for the rest of their lives – that evolution is truth. Not theory. Truth. Those ‘oddities’ who espouse “Creation Science” and “Intelligent Design” are odd, religious bigots. After all, what about separation of church and state? Besides, our universities have perfected their curricula and have spent years, themselves, being trained to train our children. All they want is to teach our children the very best of academics and humanities without any interference of religion or even any agenda of their own…right?

“Horace Mann had a view of education in which the elite must manipulate and conform the masses in order to create an ideal society. The state, not the parents, knows what is best for the children. There is little room left for God in Mann’s philosophy of public education.”[2] But certainly, Mr. Mann was the only one involved in the formation of our public school system to feel this way. Not so fast. John Dewey, who was a signer of the Humanist Manifesto and who was also the first president of the American Humanist Association believed that there was no place in society for Christian values. “This same man applied the principles of the Humanist Manifesto to America’s public school system. Dewey believed that man is not a reflection of God, but that society and education must be ‘socially planned’ by the state.”[3] [emphasis mine]

So now what is it that we find being taught in our public schools? Humanism has become the new non-religious school religion. It is a true religion that can be camouflaged as nothing at all. Or better yet, if some curious parent comes snooping around and asking too many questions they can be patted on the head and sent away with the assurance that their children will come away with a new tolerance and acceptance for the down-trodden; that the “I’m OK, You’re OK” philosophy is just a needed and innocent teaching tool and will become just as accepted as New Math and long division. “Don’t worry, we’re the experts, we went to teacher’s college for this, we know what we’re doing.”

Even though that parent might feel the urging of the Holy Spirit telling them to ask deeper questions, or even more, to get their children out of the public school system, they think it is just their imagination that they felt as if they had just left some sort of spiritual battle ground. But that is exactly what it was.

{Continued...}

[1] Chris Klicka, Home Schooling – The Right Choice! (Loyal Publishing; Sisters, OR, 97759)
[2] Christopher Klicka, Home Schooling – The Right Choice! (Loyal Publishing, Sisters, OR 97759), 82, 83
[3] Ibid