Ethics Daily is reporting that SBC proponents for exiting public schools will be offering resolutions at Baptist state conventions around the country this fall.
Frankly, I'll be glad to see them come to Oklahoma. I am weary of people thinking I am an alarmist when I tell them about the influence of Dominionism in SBC life and about their goals and intentions. Once these resolutions start getting discussed locally, I don't think I'll face the same number of doubters.
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I wonder how much support this effort will get at the congregation level. I also wonder what the model will be for the structure. Is it to get vouchers to fund the schools? Is it to rely on the use of tithes, offerings and tuition from parents and congregations? This could be come an additional financial burden for parents and could possibly a detriment to church income.
We used to homeschool our children - now in middle school. Prior to that we had them in a private Christian school. Our reasons for home schooling at that time were two-fold; we couldn't really afford private school tuition any longer and the public school district we lived in at the time had the poorest academic scores in the state. We recently moved into a better district and enrolled our children in public school. Initially, this was much to the displeasure of my wife, but she's now glad our kids are in the public school system.
Some observations from our homeschool era:
1)Christian organizations seem to have a strangle hold on homeschooling. Conventions we attended had many exhibitors that sold texts for all subjects. However, many of them ignore or lie about common historic and scientific knowledge; characterize scientific theorists as non-believers and interject right-wing opinion as fact.
2) Homeschool groups mirror church small groups. We could not find a homeschool group in our area that was not dominated by a contingent of like-minded (not my mind) people, generally from the same or similar churches. Outsiders they were unsure of were viewed with suspicion and a Mormon family who tried to participate in the same Phys Ed program was shunned. My wife was frowned upon because she had a part time job in the evenings. This did not sit well the ladies in the group who felt is was a sin to work outside the home.
3) We were basically paying twice for our children's education. Education costs through property taxes plus the cost of text books and other homeschool related expenses doubled the cost of education. Increased school expenses would cause church giving to decline.
4) Kids and the curriculum are smarter than the parents. We were rapidly approaching the threshold where the real value of trained teachers pays off, especially in the areas of science and mathematics where we could not do justice to the subjects. We could not continue without impeding academic progress.
Contrary to the attempted 2004 SBC resolution there have been no attempts to dogmatize Darwinism and convert my children to homosexuals in the public schools. Escaping from homeschooling was the right move for us.
I appreciate NotTheSon's comments about homeschooling. I encounter homeschoolers when they occasionaly visit our church interested in membership. And not too long ago there was a couple who created a community theater for homeschool children.
In some ways, I was in awe of them and understood their desire to give their children the best education. But it does seem wrapped up in right-wing conspiracy politcs and apocalyptic theology. It was hard as a minister to conceal the fact that I thought it was damaging to their kids. One family who visited for a while and didn't stay because we were too liberal had three children who were considerably bright and mature. That is until politics or progressive theological ideas came up. They shut down immediately.
As a public school teacher for 27 years, I have seen the positive and negative benefits of homeschooling. Some students with a homeschool background enter public school for the first time and hit the ground running. They are articulate, organized, academically sound, etc.. BUT, I have had many homeschool students who, upon entering public school for the first time, are woefully behind their peers in academics, organization and social skills, etc..
There is a point that you reach in homeschooling when the parents, if they are not careful, can do a disservice to their children because they themselves do not have the background in the subjects being taught.
There is a group of parents who homeschool in my community. Some of them attend my church. Homeschooling is the perogative of the parent, however sometimes it is undertaken because of misconceptions about public school.
Whether we like it or not, most of the pro-homeschool rhetoric out there is coming from Christians who have bought into every negative "fact" presented by Christians commentators such as James Dobson. I've listened to some of these facts, and for the most part they are based on isolated incidents and are in no way a reflection of most public schools.
We had an interesting situation here in Collinsville, where David Currie has visited; on June 3 of this year. The local library who at the time was well wrapped politically in local public school after school program with federal funds and the preacher's wife staffing, the library sponsored a sale that in conjunction with the local home school groups.
At same time my first cousin, now a public school teacher in an inner city school and award winning at that she is, homeschooled her children, the daughter of which is a seminary student at McAfee in Atlanta on track to become a Senior pastor ordained.
Hold Frank Page's feet to the fire on this one. His FBC Taylors is infested with public school teachers in a region ripe with Homeschool Exodus movement.
And his secretary is a 6 day creationist if my information is correct.
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