Stacey Miller, Head of School, offers some answers to common questions about school choice.

Don’t Public Schools Need Christian Kids To Be “Salt” and “Light”?
(See Matthew 5:13-16 if you are unfamiliar with that phrase.)

This is the rationale that Christians sometimes employ in their personal school decisions and often raise as an objection to Christian schooling in general.  Their basic argument is that public schools need a Christian influence, and Christian children need to learn how to exert Christian influence: therefore, Christian parents should send their kids to public school so that both needs can be met.  So, should Christian kids be sent to public school so that they can be “salt and light?”

The short answer is NO.  However, there are a number of valid reasons why Christian parents may choose to put their child in public school.  Circumstances vary.  Depending on the family situation or the needs of the individual child, public school may be the best choice or even the only choice.  Nevertheless, I do not believe that the opportunity for personal evangelism is a sound reason for choosing a school.

My primary objection to this line of reasoning is that schools are made for children and not children for schools.  A school should be chosen on the basis of what students will LEARN not what students will TEACH.  A parent must evaluate a school based on educational and developmental factors.  If a parent conducts that evaluation and decides to enroll the child in the public school then the student should certainly strive to set a Christ-like example.  But to bypass the educational evaluation all together in the name of fulfilling the Great Commission is misguided and disingenuous.

One of the main reasons to send a child to Christian school is so that they will be trained to think and live in a distinctly Christian manner.  But training is a process and it takes time.  Missionaries typically go through extensive training which may consist of studying the Bible, theology, and apologetics as well as learning the language and culture of the people to whom they will be ministering, and developing specific skills they need to carry out their mission.  They get all this training AS ADULTS.  We would be naïve to think our children need less training than adults do in order to be “missionaries” in public schools.