How many Christian parents would list “getting into a good college” as the number one priority for their child’s K-12 education? My guess is that few parents would rank this at the top of such a list. Yet sadly, this is the way most of us have been conditioned to think about education. And perhaps it’s one of the primary reasons many Christian parents neglect the worldview training their child receives in the public school.
Yes, even the public schools teach worldview. It’s not the Christian worldview, of course, and we need to admit that a public education is not neutral. Subjects are taught with a secular worldview. That is: God is irrelevant to the topics, concepts, and themes taught every day. The subtle assumptions about what should be emphasized and highlighted, how to approach a key idea, and the primary objectives of such learning all have ramifications for the development of a child’s worldview. Even the teacher has implicit worldview assumptions that are impossible to disconnect from the classroom learning.
Getting into a good college can be an appropriate concern and goal for the Christian parent. But we need to be asking the more important questions about what our children are learning, how our children are learning, and the goals of learning inherent in their environment. If we want our children to be faithful followers of Christ—who take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ—it makes a lot of sense to choose an environment where the school and the teachers share this same view.
This is the kind of school that author John Stonestreet has in mind when he describes: “A holistically Christian education with Christian goals, with a Christian vision, with Christian pedagogy, and with a Christian understanding of who it is that we’re actually teaching.” For more information about how and why a Christian education is foundational in developing a worldview to prepare and equip our children as thoughtful believers, I encourage you to read John’s article: The Lost Purpose for Learning.
