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{"id":18412,"date":"2016-10-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=165"},"modified":"2016-10-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T00:00:00","slug":"school-exodus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/10\/school-exodus\/","title":{"rendered":"School Exodus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A<\/span>llison Benedikt doesn\u2019t know me, but she thinks<\/a> I\u2019m a bad person. Not \u201cmurderer<\/em> bad,\u201d mind you. Just \u201cruining-one-of-our-nation\u2019s-most-essential-institutions-in-order-to-get-what\u2019s-best-for-your-kid\u201d bad. That<\/em> kind of bad, which is \u201cpretty bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a bad person because I\u2019ve never sent my kids to public school. My wife and I home-schooled all of them at least through elementary school, and then sent them to private Christian schools. I\u2019m worse than most because I\u2019m guilty of not-sending a whole bunch of kids. In fact, Benedikt may think I\u2019m bad just for having<\/em> as many kids as I do. An issue for another day.<\/p>\n

Benedikt acknowledges that she got a horrible education in public school, but she thinks the schools are worth saving and that they can be saved, so long as everyone is invested, really<\/em> invested. <\/p>\n

She doesn\u2019t understand why people have abandoned the public schools. She doesn\u2019t try to understand. Apparently, her only research was to ask her \u201c(morally bankrupt) colleagues\u201d why they send their kids to private school. <\/p>\n

Her explanations are of this order: \u201cRich people will always find a way to game the system.\u201d Some parents send their kids to private school \u201cfor prestige or out of loyalty to a long-standing family tradition\u201d or because they hope their kids will grow up to be Allison Benedikts who write for Slate<\/em>. She acknowledges that some have \u201creligious reasons\u201d but doesn\u2019t seem curious to find out what those religious reasons may be.<\/p>\n

I suspect Benedikt exaggerates for the fun of it. Does she actually regard her colleagues are morally bankrupt? Can anyone close an article with \u201cDon\u2019t just acknowledge your liberal guilt\u2014listen to it\u201d without a flicker of a wink? I hope not.<\/p>\n

Benedikt, in any case, is flat wrong to assume that parents like her colleagues are leading the flight from the public schools. Many parents who home school or send their kids to Christian schools don\u2019t belong to anything close to the category of \u201crich people\u201d and they aren\u2019t seeking \u201cprestige\u201d or a column at Slate<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Most didn\u2019t abandon the public schools until the public schools abandoned them. Once upon a time, public schools reinforced parents\u2019 faith and morality. If schools were merely neutral<\/em>, many religious parents could stomach it, and fill in what\u2019s missing with religious education at home and at church or synagogue. But the public schools aren<\/em>\u2019<\/em>t <\/em>neutral. A Court-enforced prohibition of prayer isn\u2019t a balanced stance between the options of \u201cpraying\u201d and \u201cnot praying.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not complicated: Parents are paying for an education that won\u2019t subvert, but will support, their beliefs. They want schools that will encourage their children to adopt those beliefs because they believe those beliefs are true<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A<\/span>nother, subtler shift is at work too. Over the past half-century, Christians have learned to think in \u201cworldviews.\u201d Whatever the problems of worldviewishness, it hit on a basic truth: Since Jesus is Lord of all, He is relevant to all. Jesus isn\u2019t merely the Lord of Sunday or of religious life; He is Lord of the week and of everything in it. If it\u2019s actually true that \u201call treasures of wisdom and knowledge\u201d are hidden in Christ, then an education that ignores or marginalizes Him can\u2019t be communicating wisdom or knowledge.<\/p>\n

Parents gripped by this vision of life aren\u2019t satisfied with a secular curriculum with a patina of prayer.<\/p>\n

Benedikt does get one thing exactly right: The abandonment of the public schools is a high-stakes move, higher stakes that many might realize. The public schools were conceived catechetical schools for democracy, eventually of secularism. Leaving them is a breach of the secular social contract, and it is indeed a threat to \u201cone of our nation\u2019s most essential institutions.\u201d <\/p>\n

By creating a parallel educational system, believers began to form a parallel America. The jury\u2019s still out on whether the two Americas can hold together.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"