Minister’s Workshop: Parish Support for Public Schools

Public education, originally intended to be under parental control, is now controlled by the state.

Public education ought to be of concern to pastors. By far the largest proportion of school children in our churches attend the public schools operated by local government. The education of the children in his parish or congregation is a subject in which a pastor has a vested interest. The public school certainly must be reckoned with as it concerns the education of Christian children.

There are at least three benefits of public education. First of all, students can acquire and develop certain basic life skills, including communications (reading, writing, verbal expression), computation (useful in balancing a checkbook), and a sense of cosmic awareness or of participation in a larger world.

Second, public education is a guardian of much that is of traditional value to American culture. Despite recent inroads by nihilism, socialism, and other less-than-desirable world views, public education today remains a reserve of our basic traditional, historical, literary, and political heritage.

Third, public education provides a wealth of specialized training in all vocations. Whether mechanic or lawyer, forest ranger or physician, the public sector offers programs of preparation, whatever a student’s career aspiration may be. For Christians who believe that every legitimate calling is sacred and a potential means of serving God, this is an inestimable service.

At the same time, however, while we are willing to acknowledge the benefits of public education, we must not fail to note its problems. It is because these problems are so large that the pastor should be concerned about the education of the children in his parish. The gravest problem in public education is that there is no satisfactory philosophical/moral basis for “doing” education. In its totally secularized environment, educational philosophies motivated by behaviorism, existentialism, and evolutionism, oiled by a prevailing air of pragmatism, plant antitheistic thinking in the minds of children who have been taught that there is no difference between themselves and a pool of slime. This “humanistic” approach to pedagogy is actually the most dehumanizing aspect of public education. Gone or going are such traditional values as human dignity, human uniqueness, and human compassion, while increasingly present are ideas of mechanization, manipulation, and “self-actualization.” Such ideas are derived from relative life perspectives: they are of limited value to children, who need to know how to get along in the world. When the new interest in socialist education is added to this, one perceives that the dominance of the state over all of human life is not far behind.

A second problem is that there is virtually no local control over the schools. The decisions that must be made in order to carry out the work of education in a school district are not made by parents or by local school boards. They are made by appointed rather than elected public officials and federal judges. At issue is money, and local school districts that refuse to adhere to the standards, criteria, and judgments imposed from higher levels are in danger of having their funds cut back, withheld, or totally withdrawn.

A third major problem is that schools lack a sufficient authority base. As home and family relationships have declined in recent years, so has the doctrine of in loco parentis. With the authority to command attention and to discipline difficult students severely restricted, teachers have been put on the defensive and are asked to teach in often impossible situations. The threat of bodily assault, the ubiquity of drugs, and a general indifference to learning, make a devoted teacher’s work a struggle against frustration and despair.

What can a local pastor do for the children of his congregation who attend public schools? I would like to suggest six possible areas for ministry.

1. Be thankful for the good in public education and let those public educators who treat their work as more than just a job know that you appreciate what they are doing. Cultivate good relationships with administrators and teachers, and let them know that as a community leader you support the good they can do. Pray for them—and let them know that you do.

2. Be informed about the problems of public education. While this will happen naturally because of your new relationships, you can also learn about them in other ways. Read about public education; journals such as the Kappan or Educational Leadership are helpful. Ask parents and students to describe the problems as they see them. Attend PTA meetings when possible. Think the problems through and try to formulate some opinion about them.

3. Establish a relationship with the school-age children in your parish. Invite them for lunch; teach them in a Bible class; do all you can to get to know them and to let them get to know you. Be a model for them who thinks, feels, prays, and lets his Christianity affect everything—even his views on public education.

4. Develop a ministry to families. Seek to strengthen the home and to help open channels of communication between parents and children and the Lord. Show families how they can create an atmosphere of mutual appreciation, concern, growth, and awareness of problems. When you minister to this basic building block of society, you make use of the most natural and influential method God has provided to protect his people against the incursion of evil.

5. Develop educational supplements or alternatives for families and especially for children—and take the ministry of your church’s Sunday school program seriously. The sooner we eliminate the Mickey Mouse in church education, the sooner we will experience God’s blessings. Work with your teachers to help them become better at their jobs. Make excellence your standard and strive to reach realistic educational goals in your church.

You might prepare a reading list for parents on the subject of general education, and encourage them to become more informed about its problems and possibilities. Explore the possibility of starting a noon hour Bible study in a home near a local school. Start a class in catechesis. Find other ways to have a direct hand in the education of the children in your parish.

6. Finally, pray for your children, and pray for those who, through the public school, exert the second strongest influence upon their lives—an influence that is often stronger than that of the church.

As pastors, we cannot afford to neglect this area of concern. In today’s atmosphere of increasing unrest, let us demonstrate that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings stability, purpose, and hope, not only to education, but to all of human life.—T. M. MOORE, minister of education, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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