Christian education and the search for morality.

• Author: Boys, Don
• Position: Christian school textbooks

THE SEPTEMBER 1993 issue of USA Today contained an article by Albert Menendez entitled "Dangers of Fundamentalist Schools" wherein he alleged that students are "absorbing visions of reality abhorrent to the vast majority of American." Of course, that is his opinion, not a fact. Various charges are leveled against Christian school publishers, specifically Bob Jones University Press and Pensacola College Press. It is alleged that Christian schools are hindering and hurting students by insulating them. Those publishers are accused of disregarding facts; glorifying war; mocking Darwin's "scientific" ideas; disdaining science; criticizing higher education; not respecting American Indians, blacks, and various religions; and generally producing mediocre and inaccurate textbooks.

Critics suggest that church schools are insulating students from modern life and culture, but the schools reply that they are insulating them from destructive influences. Those destructive influences are death, sex, and drug education (where kids are not told that drugs are wrong and illegal); values clarification; self-esteem (not selfrespect, that must be earned); psychotherapeutic techniques; thought control; sensitivity training; outcome-based education, etc.--all designed to produce, in humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow's words. "a new image of man." Many conservatives don't like that "new image" for their children or any children.

Since kids are the responsibility of parents, not the state, many parents have chosen to protect them from some public school teachers they maintain are certified, but not qualified. There are hundreds of examples. Former California Superintendent of Schools Bill Honig admitted that 31% of new teachers in California failed that state's Basic Education Skills Test--one that the president of the California Teachers Association indicated "any competent high school student should be able to pass." The head of the California State Parent Teacher Association wrote a letter to a pro-voucher group in which she made 17 errors. She even called the public schools, "public" schools!

Why pick only on California teachers? The Council for Basic Education reported that, when prospective school teachers in Pinellas County, Fla., were tested for teaching jobs, two-thirds of them failed. Students at a private North Dallas (Tex.) high school took the test and did better than the public school teachers and administrators. Maybe they should have fired the teachers and hired the kids.

It is interesting that this attack on Christian education appeared during the same month the U.S. Department of Education released a $14,000,000 study entitled "Adult Literacy in America." Among the findings, it was revealed that half of America's 191,000,000 adults can not hold meaningful employment because of various degrees of illiteracy. The report indicated that 90,000,000 adult Americans can not write a letter to complain about a billing error or fill out a bank deposit slip. About 20% of those who did the worst had high school diplomas.

Public school advocates seem to think that throwing more money at the problem is the answer, but that only exacerbates it. That is the answer liberals have for most situations, and it never works. Elementary/secondary education spending amounts to $300,000,000,000 per year, employing more than 5,000,000 people. Yet, with all that money and personnel, American kids are being handed diplomas they can't read.

Maybe critics are referring to parents who insulate their children in Christian schools so their values will not be altered to fit more comfortably in the New World Order that is coming. Most concerned parents teach their offspring to speak clearly, thoughtfully, and precisely without resorting to street vulgarities. Nevertheless, one public school textbook tells students that "Experimenting with swearing is often a stage in maturing for both boys and girls." That kind of lesson undermines what parents are trying to instill in their children, and no one says they don't have that right.

What about the textbook telling students that "sexual diseases are easily treated"? Surely, the authors are not referring to herpes and AIDS!

Another tells high schoolers: "Contrary to past belief, masturbation is completely harmless and in fact can be useful in training oneself to respond sexually." No wonder so many parents--including public school teachers--have fled the public schools. Public school teachers are the largest professional group with their children in Christian schools. What does it say for public education when so many teachers have...