I’m convinced that one of the greatest and long-lasting blessings of the Covid-19 era will be all of the children who exited our government schools. Google the phrase “Mass Exodus from public schools” and you will find numerous stories detailing some 1 million families who have permanently left their community schools over the last two years. Some did it because they happened to stroll by their child’s online training sessions and overheard Critical Race Theory being taught. Some discovered the perverted literature lining the shelves of their child’s school library. Some didn’t want their children wearing masks for 7 hours every day. And others were just ticked off at all the disruptions – “School’s opened, school’s closed, school’s open, school’s closed” etc. Of course, each of these issues of public education that have come to light over the last two years is indeed troubling and destructive, but there’s one that’s gone unnoticed for decades, and which I think is more detrimental than them all. Allow me to explain.
Any regular reader of Everyday Emmaus will know that the project of this blog is to draw attention to the many ways our Creator testifies to Himself through the works of His hands. The point of each post is not to write out my imaginative takes on things around me, but to develop what I like to call “faithful observation.” In other words, since Scripture tells me that God reveals Himself through what He’s made, I’m simply trying to discern what all these things are saying. I’m not creatively “reading into” all these things information that isn’t there. And while I may miss the message or meaning of a particular item I write about, the larger point is, it’s not saying nothing. Scripture assures me of this. But the project of the secular state is the exact opposite. It is actually illegal for our state educators to point out any intrinsic reference to God in their curricula. In their program, every element of education, every topic of study, comes to us without reference to the One who made and sustains it all. Do we really think this is okay?
If I had to pick one passage of Scripture as the defining principle behind everything I write here, it would be Romans 1:18-23. In this text, Paul says some of the most shocking proclamations in all of Scripture, especially to the modern, secular mind. In these six verses, Paul declares every man, woman, and child “without excuse” for their unrighteous life. And why? Because God Himself has been so kind as to clearly reveal Himself and His attributes through the things that He had made. “He did not leave Himself without witness,” Paul tells the idolatrous crowd that sought to worship him and Barnabas, in Acts 14, “in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” (v. 17) These everyday things like seasons, food, and rain were meant by God to be witnesses, not just to His existence, but to His goodness as well! And to what end? That we would recognize ourselves as blessed recipients, as subjects of a good and gracious King, and be thankful.
And this is where I believe the greatest damage is done by our public schools. Children are taught to look at every facet of their life with absolutely no reference to their Creator. It is a thankless education that looks at mathematics as something that simply is, without any reference to the eternal faithfulness of God that makes all those equations possible. Can one accurately understand the events of history without acknowledging that “the Most High rules in the kingdom of men”? (Dan. 4:17) Can one truly understand grammar without mentioning the Word whose speech upholds the Universe (Heb. 1:3), and who is Himself the eternal Subject, Object, and Action behind all things? Have I learned astronomy correctly if I’m not instructed that it was the Father of lights who said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3) and who “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good”? (Matt. 5:45) How can biology be precise without giving honor to Him who is Life Himself? (John 14:6) When our children learn these subjects devoid of their Creator, it is not a neutral education they receive, it is the fantasy of the atheist. It is the suppression of truth and it hinders the praise our God is due.
So why do I think this aspect of public education is worse than the Drag Queen Story Hour? Because holding dung in your hand is pretty obvious after a few minutes, but being handed a treasure and not being taught its value is exponentially worse. Teaching subjects without awe for our Creator is to hand our students a ready-made liturgy with no deity to adore and make no mistake, they will worship something. John Calvin taught that “the greater part of mankind, enslaved in error, walk blindfold in this glorious theater”, the “glorious theater” here being the world in which we live. Surely, as Christian parents, we should reject an education that wraps those blindfolds tighter and seek instead, one that fills our children’s hearts with wonder and thanksgiving for the One who made them and everything around them.
