Review: Millstones & Stumbling Blocks

reviewed by T. C. Pinckney                                                                       Vol. XIX, No. 1, January 2007

Bradley Heath, Millstones & Stumbling Blocks, Understanding Education in Post-Christian America (Fenestra Books, Tucson, AX, 2006), 117 pp.

This is an excellent book in many respects. For one thing, it’s brief ... only 117 pages, so it doesn’t require forever to complete. For another, Heath’s text is clearly and pungently written. He holds your attention and focusses your memory. And a third attraction is that he pulls no punches in describing the disastrous problems with government schools and the biblical-assigned responsibility of parents for the education of their children. A couple of quotes will illustrate this last point.

“Although I readily admit the public school plague has various symptoms (not every school has a shooting), I am resolute that their pervasive malady is an unwavering commitment to secularism – universally held, religiously practiced, and judicially enforced.” (p. 24)

“Christian parents are morally obligated to orient the affections of their children toward the true, the beautiful, and the good, which requires biblically consistent content embodied in the context of an affirming faith community. This godly orientation is what Christian schools and home education provide – enculturation via Christian content and context. Public schools provide enculturation via secular content and worldly context, and the resulting orientation and affections are completely different. The schools we choose will inevitably shape our children and ultimately shape our world.” (p. 44)

In the text Heath clearly and succinctly sets out the case against government schools and for thoroughly Christian schools and home schooling. In addition, Appendix A emphasizes the vital importance of reading with and to your children. It also suggests reading in four areas in each of which he lists five books: Critiques of Public Education, Classical and Christian Education, Lifelong Learning, and Culture and Christianity in America. Appendix A closes with the names and web addresses of a dozen “Websites of Interest”. This list alone is worth the minor cost of the book. $13 to $14.50 ordered online including shipping.

In short, I give Millstones & Stumbling Blocks an A+ and definitely recommend you read it and heed it.