Needed: An Exit Strategy from the Public Schools

The Crisis Christian Parents Face

by R. Albert Mohler Vol. XXI, No. 4, April 2008

president, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Christian parents are increasingly aware that the public schools are prime battlegrounds for cultural conflict. Given the deep ideological chasm that separates the worldviews and expectations of many educators from those held by many parents, we should not be surprised by the vitriolic nature of this conflict.

That said, recent developments indicate that the public schools will soon be even more hostile to the convictions of many Christian families. Just ask Rob and Robin Wirthlin, parents of a seven-year-old student at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School in Lexington, Massachusetts. The Wirthlins' son carne home talking about a school lesson based on the book King & King – a parable about homosexual marriage. In the story, the young prince decides that he wants to marry the one he loves, who happens to be another prince.

"My son is only 7 years old," this concerned mother remarked. "By presenting this kind of issue at such a young age, they're trying to indoctrinate our children. They're intentionally presenting this as a norm, and it's not a value that our family supports."

That same school district was roiled by controversy just months before when another parent, David Parker, complained that his son, a first-grader, had been taught about families with same-sex parents and sent home with a "diversity book bag." The lesson? The children were taught that there are no normal families, and that all family structures are equally valid. Those who think otherwise are lacking in appreciation for – you guessed it – family diversity.

Look closely at the response of Paul Ash, the Lexington school superintendent, to the concerns of these parents: "We couldn't run a public school system if every parent who feels some topic is objectionable to them for moral or religious reasons decides their child should be removed. ... Lexington is committed to teaching children about the world they live in, and in Massachusetts same-sex marriage is legal."¹

Massachusetts law requires that parents be advised in advance when issues of sexuality are to be discussed. They can then "opt-out" their children from these lessons. But school administrators insist that lessons about family structure – even those dealing with same-sex marriage – are exempt from this requirement. Thus far, they are standing on their policy. Parents who have children in this school district will just have to accept the lessons or remove their children from the public schools altogether.

These examples are not isolated exceptions to the rule. More and more, they reflect what is happening in America's public schools. Some parents find this out when their children come home reporting that a teacher who was one sex when they started the school year is now the opposite sex. Concerned parents are told to just deal with it. Older students are exposed to the national "Day of Silence," an observance that is organized by homosexual activists and has spread to thousands of American public high schools.

On top of all this, recent court decisions have added momentum to the trend and seriously undermined parental rights. In 2005 a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed down a decision that denied California parents the right to block their children from being asked sexually explicit questions on questionnaires. The case in question, Fields v. Palmdale School District, dealt with the fact that children in grades one through three were asked questions about such things as "getting scared or upset when I think about sex," "having sex feelings in my body," and "touching my private parts too much."

In the panel's unanimous decision, written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the court held "that there is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children, either independent of their right to direct the upbringing and education of their children or encompassed by it."²

Remember that the children in question were as young as five years old. California's parents were bluntly told that they have "no fundamental right" to be the exclusive sex educators of their own young children. In the eyes of many parents, asking those invasive questions of children that young is tantamount to child abuse.

Make no mistake – there is a clear agenda here. Issues of sexuality and diversity may take the headlines, but a host of other issues is also at stake. Generations of progressivist educators, driven by the assumption that they – not parents – know what is best for America's children, have been busy shaping textbooks, curricula, and school policies.

Beyond this, groups such as the National Education Association, the leading union for public-school teachers, have a virtual stranglehold on many school districts. Decisions about school curricula and policies are increasingly set by bureaucracies far removed from local control.

The crisis in public-school education has prompted some to reconsider the very idea of public education. Some now argue that Christian parents cannot send their children to public schools without committing the sin of handing their children over to a pagan and ungodly system. Fueled by a secularist agenda and influenced by an elite of radical educational bureaucrats and theorists, government schools now serve as engines for secularizing and radicalizing children.

A look at the historical background is instructive. The public-school system in America has been controversial at various turns in our national history – but never as now. The government's early involvement in education was part of the young nation's effort to create an educated citizenry that would be truly democratic. Education was not to be limited to an elitist group of wealthy Americans, but was to be made available to all.

In the early twentieth century, another purpose entered the picture. Vast waves of immigration, primarily from Europe, brought millions of Irish, Italian, German, and other European families to America. Educational leaders like John Dewey saw the public schools, often called the "common" schools, as the mechanism for indoctrinating children into a new democratic faith. The worldviews and eccentricities of the various ethnic and national backgrounds would be erased and a new melting pot of Americans would emerge. Dewey, the most influential shaper of the public schools in America, understood that the success of his effort would require children to be liberated from the prejudices and values of their parents.

In his book A Common Faith, Dewey advocated a radically secular vision for the public schools and the larger public culture. His concept of a humanistic faith, stripped of all supernatural claims, doctrines, and theological authorities, would replace Christianity as the dominant, culture-shaping worldview. "Here are all the elements for a religious faith that shall not be confined to sect, class, or race," he claimed. "Such a faith has always been the common faith of mankind. It remains for us to make it explicit and militant."³

It has taken longer than Dewey expected, but this secularist faith is certainly explicit and militant now. Of course, this is not equally true in all places and in all public schools. As a rule, the effects of this educational revolution are less evident in schools in more rural areas, with local political control more concentrated in the hands of parents. In some school systems, the majority of teachers, administrators, and students share an outlook that is at least friendly and respectful toward Christianity and conservative moral values.

In other places, the situation is markedly different. In many metropolitan school districts, the schools have truly become engines for the indoctrination of the young. This process of indoctrination pervades, not only the more recognizable aspects of radical sex education programs and so-called health education, but other aspects of the curriculum as well. Unless something revolutionary reverses these trends, this is the shape of the future.

WIth control over the public-school system increasingly in the hands of the courts, educational bureaucrats, the university-based education schools, and the powerful teachers' unions, little hope for correction appears. Federal mandates, accreditation requirements, union demands, and the influence of the educational elite represent a combined force that is far greater than the localized influence of many school boards, not to mention parents. Those who doubt the radical commitments of groups such as the National Education Association should simply look at the organization's public statements, policy positions, and initiatives.

The breakdown of the public-school system is a national tragedy. An honest assessment of the history of public education in America must acknowledge the success of the common school vision in breaking down ethnic, economic, and racial barriers. The schools have brought hundreds of millions of American children into a democracy of common citizenship. Tragically, that vision was displaced by an ideologically driven attempt to force a radically secular world-view.

So, what should Christian parents and churches do? I am convinced that the time has come for Christians to develop an exit strategy from the public schools. Some parents made this decision long ago. The Christian school and home school movements are among the most significant cultural developments of the last thirty years. Other parents are not there yet. In any event, an exit strategy should be in place.

This strategy would affirm the basic and ultimate responsibility of Christian parents to take charge of the education of their own children. The strategy would also affirm the responsibility of churches to equip parents, support families, and offer alternatives. At the same time, this strategy must acknowledge that Christian churches, families, and parents do not yet see the same realities, the same threats, and the same challenges in every context. Sadly, this is almost certainly just a matter of time.

Meanwhile, the parade of shocking headlines continues, and millions of American children – including many from Christian homes – are being taught at school what would never be taught at home. Some major point of crisis is likely to bring all this to an end. The only question is when.

1. Tracy Jan, "Parents Rip School over Gay Storybook," Boston Globe, April 20, 2006. www.boston.comlnews/locallanicles/2006/04/20/parents- rip_school_ovecgay _storybook.

2. Fields v. Palmdak School District, 427 E3rd 1197; 2005 v.S. App. Lexis 23643 (November 2, 2005).

3. John Dewey, A Common Faith (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962), 87.