A child educated only at school is an uneducated child. – George Santayana

Now that another school year has started, many parents have struggled with one of the most difficult choices that they must make as a parent: How to educate their children? 

There are three primary options, and each has pluses and minuses: public, private (religious or secular) and homeschool. As Christ-followers, the Bible is clear the one who has the primary responsibility for teaching a child is the child’s parents. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). Too many parents subcontract out their responsibility to educate their children. As Christians, we don’t have that option. We are to disciple our children and teach them a biblical worldview. 

A recent nationwide survey completed by the Barna Research Group determined that only 4% of Americans had a “biblical” worldview or a Christian worldview. When George Barna, who has researched cultural trends and the Christian Church since 1984, looked at the “born-again” believers in America, the results were a dismal 9%. Barna’s survey also connected an individual’s worldview with one’s moral beliefs and actions.

A biblical worldview begins with understanding the story Scripture tells—from creation to new creation. Creation: God created the world good, purposeful, and ordered. Humanity is made in His image, with dignity and responsibility. The Fall: Sin fractured humanity’s relationship with God, others, and creation. Brokenness, injustice, suffering, and death entered the world when our first parents sinned. Redemption:
God’s response to human brokenness is not abandonment, but rescue. Through Jesus Christ, God redeems sinners and restores what was lost. Restoration: History is moving toward renewal. God will one day make all things new, restoring creation under His reign.

A biblical worldview sees every issue—identity, morality, justice, suffering, and hope—through this redemptive framework. One of the greatest challenges for modern Christians is recognizing when cultural assumptions subtly replace biblical truth. A biblical worldview, by contrast, is shaped by:God’s authority and a Christ-centered identity. Objective truth is revealed in Scripture. It is anchored in God’s sacrificial love and hope rooted in Christ’s resurrection.

There are great websites that will further unpack this for you. One that I continually go to is Gotquestions.org. The pressure for parents today is to replace biblical instruction with optional activities. No one is going to be a committed Christian because they played T-ball.

Developing wisdom and discernment takes intentional study, reflection, and conversation, something the Church has done best in community. It’s why we have Grace Kids, Amped and GSM. We want to share biblical truth in a group setting on the level of children and teens. We want to re-affirm the biblical truth that you’re teaching at home. 

Please don’t assume that because you have your child in a private school, they’re safe from world-centered thinking. As a child, I attended one of the first Christian schools in America. It was there in middle school that I was introduced to drugs. During my school years I only attended private schools (some religious, one secular). All of them, at some level, had the same secular thinking that you’ll find in any school in America. 

If you think homeschooling is the cure, I’d encourage you to watch the movie, The Village. In the movie a group of American adults thought that they could isolate themselves and their families from all secular evil and influences. What they missed was that all of us have evil in our own hearts.

Perhaps the best mindset for a parent when they send a child to school, would be to: pretend you’re sending your child to a Muslim school.

All schools are about training a child to adopt the school’s belief system. A school may not teach about a deity or use a religious text, but that doesn’t stop them from teaching something about origins, morality, truth, identity, sexuality, and everything else a child would learn about in a religious school. No school is neutral – it wants to foster a set of beliefs in your child just as much as a Muslim school would try to. So, imagine you have no choice but to send your child to a Muslim school, knowing they’ll spend at least 7 hours every day immersed in that belief system. 

What safeguards would you establish? How often would you have intentional conversations about what they’re learning and what they believe? How well would you want to know their friends? What hesitations would you have about sending them there? What steps would you take to prevent your child from becoming the ideal person according to a Muslim school’s worldview? 

If we’d devote daily time to protecting them from a Muslim worldview, why would we spend any less time protecting them from any worldview that doesn’t line up with God’s Word. That means as a parent, you need to know basic biblical truth. 

This blog is too limited a space to discuss all the concerns that a parent needs to think through as their child enters another school year. Let me make three suggestions. 

Pray for and encourage your child’s teacher/s. 

While parents pray for their children, we need also to pray for their teachers. I’d encourage you to pray for them with your child. Periodically, not just at Christmas or the end of the year, thank them. And if your child shares something great that they learned from a teacher, thank them for investing in your child. With the unraveling of the family, more is expected of teachers than ever before. 

Christian parents should be their biggest cheerleaders! That means knowing who they are, attending parent-teacher conferences. Please give them the benefit of the doubt about what may have happened at school. 

If you learn something is being taught that violates your convictions…

…handle it graciously and in a Christlike manner. Christians are to be the kindest, wisest and most tactful. Yes, some of our beliefs may be considered “wacko,” but Christians should never behave like a “wacko.” 

Only change teachers or schools as a last resort. 

Both Joseph and Daniel in the Bible were educated in idol worshipping schools, yet clung to their convictions, had a biblical worldview and the courage to stand alone. 

Most of us have had that “boss,” but you didn’t quit. God is using even those employers who are difficult to help us grow spiritually and trust Him more. That’s true for your children as well. God uses the “heat” to build godly character in us and our children. 

God has placed your child in that teacher’s care. You and your child have the opportunity to be Christ’s light to them! Make sure it shines brightly!