My advocacy for Christian schools is more connected to Christian families being able to have their kids educated in their faith. Every faith based family deserves that right, no matter what they believe. I don’t choose Christian education because I think it is better academically. I have worked for public school systems that were better than most private schools and I have worked in some that weren’t. I have also worked in Christian schools that were horrible academically and some that weren’t! At the end of the day, most institutions are trying their best to meet the needs of students. My husband is a product of public schools and is one of a small number of Black chemical engineers and also has a degree in computer engineering. He is absolutely brilliant. I know way too many people who graduated from public schools who are too intelligent and successful to make the case for public schools being horrible for all children in the general sense. Also, too many families need public schooling because it is their only option. Children from challenging homes, find the local school is their only haven and protection. To discount their importance is to literally hurt CHILDREN! Our fight against them, for political reasons is one of the most selfish things I have seen in our current culture. There should not be a fight over what schooling should be allowed to exist, because all children need different options to meet their individual needs. Everyone who is fighting against public schools or talking about them negatively fails to consider the many children who will NEVER have the opportunity to go to a private school. Instead we should be praising most if not all schools (some schools public and private are some trash!), because of how they are helping nurture our children.
So this post is not going to seek to discuss Christian education because I think it is better or because I think public schooling is inferior, but this post is about why some families with a strong religious foundation desire a faith based school. I will speak as a Christian, but most if not all of what I am saying will connect to any family that is rooted in their faith. My denomination of Christianity teaches the family to pass on its teachings to the children. For many Christian families there are a couple of ways to fulfill this requirement: homeschooling or Christian schools. There is nothing wrong with being bold about choosing an education because it supports the faith based teachings of the family. Our country was created so all types of families can live out it convictions.
We get into trouble when we try to paint public schools as the enemy against children, because it really doesn’t hold up. We have seen private schools hurt children too. Instead, we should talk about faith based schools in light of our Constitutional right to educate our children in their religion. So when I talk to parents who want to leave The Living Water School to attend a public school, I don’t try to convince them of how scary and “evil” they are (growing up in predominately White Christian schools in the 70s, 80s and 90s, I got some hair raising stories to tell!) or how bad the education is (too many public school educated humans who are doing amazing things exist to prove that to be true). Instead, I focus on if the family wants to have their children educated in their Christian faith more than in secular beliefs. Having our children educated for 6 or more hours a day in a worldview that contradicts our religious faith makes it hard to raise up children who will continue to walk in that faith as adults. In fact, if a parent places their child in a public school and does not consistently teach them about their faith, hold up the standards of their faith, and continue to have conversations with their children about their faith, they will most likely stray away from that faith.
My children staying with the faith of our family is very important to me. Actually, it’s more important to me than academics (even though I don’t play about academics). So, I am an advocate for Christian schools for this reason. I have a dear friend who lived in a communist country as a missionary. By law she had to send her kids to the approved school. She chose not to and she educated her kids herself. When she was discovered, she had to flee the country with the clothes on her back. I am so thankful I don’t live in a country like that. I am so thankful that I can write this blog about why I love Christian education, without breaking the law. The law gives me freedom to decide that I want to give my children a Christian education.
Sadly, there is a dark history with Christian education in America. Christian education was birthed out of a desire to nurture racism and segregation. When desegregation was made law, Christians started church schools as a way to use the Constitution to justify their “religious” belief that Black people are inferior and thus it is sinful to mix with them. Eventually, that was proven to be unconstitutional and Christian educational spaces had to allow for Black people to come in. My family was one of the few Black families to enter a Christian school in Maryland in the 70s and our teachers, principals, and staff made it clear that we were not welcomed and that they only opened the door to us to obey the law. My parents protested, met with leadership, were in a constant fight to change the racist culture of the Christian schools we attended. By the time my brother and I graduated, my dad was doing the prayer at the graduation ceremony. Being part of that fight to break Christian schools free from its racist history has been a major inspiration behind the work that I do. This fight caused me to love Christian school more, because I saw sincere relationships were forged. I saw more understanding of scripture take place. I saw hearts and minds change. So this is where I continue to labor, in the work of making Christian schools a safe space for all families that want a Biblically based education for their children.
If you are a Christian and you have the means to do it, I encourage you to consider Christian education for your child. If your school is weak in welcoming diversity, instead of leaving in a huff, be the change! Fight for a Biblically based philosophy for welcoming diversity. Some schools may just need the guidance to break free from its tradition of color blindness and White supremacy. We sometimes underestimate how important it is in the spiritual development of our children. Even though the Christian schools I attended had a racist foundation, I have so many memories of Bible lessons being taught where I grew in my faith. I have memories of teachers that were NOT racist (many were NOT) who ministered to me and to this day, I remember how they poured into me spiritually. No school is perfect. Where a Christian school may have its challenges with welcoming diversity, a public school is often not the healthiest place for Christian children to grew in their faith. In fact, I KNOW many Christian children who attend public schools are bullied and mocked by students and teachers for their beliefs (man all schools can be so brutal). At the end of the day, each parent has to be heavily involved in their child’s school life, instead of just dropping them off at the school to be raised. Ultimately, it is our responsibility to raise up the next generation to love the Lord with all of their heart, soul and mind, but partnering with a school that shares the same belief helps Christian families to do that and to me that is more important than anything. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added. Making Christ the center of your child’s education places God on the throne of their lives and helps to shape their Christian foundation so that their faith will be used to make a difference in the world.
Below is a short video that gives an example of how White supremacy is in Christian children’s literature. The curriculum we use in Christian schools can exclude the presence of people of color and subtly continues the tradition of White supremacy in Christian schools. I am merely advocating for ALL children to be represented in the curricula and literature we use in the classroom throughout the school year. I believe children should read books like Little Women or the Little House books, but they should also read Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters or The House on Mango Street. I do not believe that inclusion means to exclude the narratives of others. The classroom should be a journey around the world so ALL children learn to see the value in one another. Look for resources that change that narrative. Petition publishers and other media companies to be open to showing diverse people in Bible stories, etc. Together we can make our Christian spaces a representation of what Heaven will be like and therefore help all of our students to understand how God so loved the WORLD. Teaching them this, will help them to be true citizens of the world.
Dr. Anika T. Prather 