All Comments for: Do Christian Schools Make Students More Religious? | Christianity Today

Free Newsletters:

RSS Feeds |

Audio |

Twitter

Home > 2009 > February (Web-only)

Christianity Today, February (Web-only), 2009 |

Do Christian Schools Make Students More Religious?

A new study says they might, but adds that parents and peers have more influence.

Tobin Grant | posted 2/11/2009 11:17AM

Parents deciding between religious and public schooling face many unknowns. One of the most important factors is how the schools might affect the faith of their children. Yet for all the debates over ...

[Reader Reviews]

Average User Rating:

Rate and Comment on this article

Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 comments.

Page: 1

Show All

andrew tucker jc

Posted: February 18, 2009 10:44 PM

Christian schools can be nice.Major problems are that aristocracy in the church.What programs has franklin jensen , rod parsley,joel osteen produced.A group of snobs using christianity to feel safe. Simple preach against snobism and help poverty stricken in church.Poverty stricken caused by satanist.If supernatural powers and no helpful fighters.Bible story was of moses in war.Book of job. And other stories of war.Also now usa government allowing huge antiabortionist christian before getting saved targeted over30 times by crazed criminals that he did not see go to jail.Some took hostages.Now USa gov officials allowing more abuse of that man.Group of teens being snobish at his church when he gave best on furthering info about the bible.Very little christian business in the usa. no meinke or chick a fil in my town.Also ignorant christian heavy metal record companies constantly producing blood and skulls on their t-shirts, and cd covers.What has God done.Jerk God.and the SICKO usa.warning

Jonathan

Posted: February 15, 2009 2:07 AM

Working at a church that has home school, private, and public school students in nearly the same ratio, (30%, 30%, 40%, respectively) I have found some very interesting things. One, there are many students at private Christian schools that are not saved. They drink, party, and live in sin like the stereotypical public school kids. What makes this worse, however, is that they become hypocrites. This temptation to compromise can be even worse than seeing the blatant sin of a public school. Two, my public school kids seem to read their bibles more on their own, and pray more, because they see the darkness in their schools that much clearer. Putting students in private school does remove them from the world system, but does it prepare them for the world after high school? What happened to Jesus' words from John 17:15-16 - "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of this world."

Lee	Posted: February 13, 2009 4:37 PM

We chose Christian school (K-8) for our children not only because of the integration of Christian beliefs with subject matter, but also, and for us, equally important, because we knew the power of peer influence. We wanted those formative years to be ones during which they were given every opportunity to build a solid, tight foundation without the many distractions of public school. It has been a worthwhile expenditure, and our children have gone on to public high school solid in their faith and wise in their choices. If peers have such a strong influence on our children, then to me it's a no-brainer to put them in a situation where their peers will be exerting positive (generally, anyway...) influence.

Anonymous

Posted: February 12, 2009 2:04 PM


As a teacher at a private Protestant Christian school, it is not our goal to MAKE students more religious but our goal is to provide a Christian environment which encourages the students to develop holistically, which is not always possible in a public school environment due to the implementation of various legistlations or peer pressure, etc.

Getwizdo0m

Posted: February 12, 2009 12:25 PM


The climate of the public school I believe depends on what part of the country you live in. I heard in the south, Christianity has found its way explicit and implicit in public schools. I assume that is because it is in the Bible belt. To broadbrush all public schools as the same does not make sense although I do believe many are committed to a secular worldview in some form or another.

Law	Posted: February 12, 2009 11:15 AM


One consideration I don't see being discussed is that putting your child in a Christian school you are taking them out of the public school environment. Public schools have become anti-christian, anti-God, anti-creation and pro-sexual perversion. Even if you are not a Christian, a christian school is a safer place for your child. http://inhisword.net

alison

Posted: February 12, 2009 9:11 AM


More religious maybe. Not necessarily more Christian.

Anonymous

Posted: February 11, 2009 6:28 PM


Often I've seen parents devoted to a particular schooling method, rather than knowing and understanding the needs of their children individually. Children's needs change as they grow. Parents have to grow in their understanding of their children alongside them in order to make the best education choices that are available to them.

Robyn

Posted: February 11, 2009 5:01 PM

Parents should take into account the needs of their individual children. For some, Christian school is best. For others, public school works best. Some really flourish in homeschooling. Parents know their children best to make that decision. Having attended Christian school grades 4-12, I noticed that the students were either much more faithful, or extremely hypocritical. It can go either way. In addition, making ONLY Christian friends can make students ill-equipped to deal with the world once they leave their parents' homes, and also denies others of the light of their Christian testimony.

George T.

Posted: February 11, 2009 3:45 PM


Protestant(Any denomination) and Catholics are the best formation schools.

Fraulien

Posted: February 11, 2009 3:27 PM


I think the hope would be that a student attending a private Christian school would make more friends who are also Christians. I realize that is not always true but I think it may be true more often than not. However, more information in terms of how they obtained their data would also be helpful.

TSJ	Posted: February 11, 2009 3:23 PM

Simply having the kind of parents who would send a child to a religious school indicates that the child would be more religiously conscious. However, many parents seem to think that sending their children to a Christian school absolves them of responsibility to teach their kids Christian values. We initially wanted to put our kids into a Christian school, but our oldest son was discriminated against by every school we contacted because he has spina bifida. The only private religious school that was interested in him was run by the local synagogue, but he couldn't go there because of the stairs. We remembered their kindness when our second son got old enough to attend school. He spent two wonderful years there receiving an excellent early education, and we exercised our own parental responsibility to teach Christian values to our kids. We feel much better, having not sent him to a "Christian" school where physically disabled kids are viewed as lesser beings.

Page: 1

E-mail this page

Write CT

Print this article

Post a comment