Christian Education: A Series

Episode III - Concerns with Home-Schooling

Rather than deal with the concerns intimate with public-schooling right off the bat, I thoughts I'd juxtapose the concerns commonly raised in regard to home-schooling. These are both several and real (whether they are admitted to being so or not), concerns that home-schooling parents need to be ready to answer or remedy (and there are many who are doing so or at least trying to do so). Here are three: socialization, academic quailty and educational breadth, and elitism.

Socialization:
Though most home-schoolers will scoff at this as a phantom, the socialization issue is a real concern amongst those who are considering home-schooling for their own children. A friend of mine was considering home-schooling his daughter but after observing the home-schooled children in our congregation (their personalities and interaction with others), he decided that he would prefer to opt for private-schooling or some other method.

While a few of of the home-schooling children I have known have grown into well-adjusted members of the community, the majority are still hampered by or struggling against inadequacies that were magnified by their particular education. It's almost certain that many of these kids would have been socially deficient in their maturity regardless of educational style, but it may be (and indeed is presumed by many) that home-schooling magnifies such deficiencies.

Some of these issues are tactlessness, dependancy issues, arrogance in the face of new ideas or people of other persuasions, obnoxiousness, that brand of social incompetance that makes one stick out (in a bad way) in a group, introversion, hyper-activity, and an inordinate love of denim as a clothing option for articles other than jeans. Much of this may be due to over-protective parenting (other other parental issues) and should be easily remedied with a little effort on the part of home-schooling parents, but home-schooling parents who really care a wit about what others think about home-schooling should be willing and ready to demonstrate how they intend to overcome this difficulty - whether actual or merely perceived. Demonstrating how a home education can address issues of socialization may even be more important to your cause than whether it does or not.

The Academic Issue:
This is important simply because academics within home-schooling is all over the map. Some children receive quality educations that should be the envy of any gifted child while others receive educations that are far below those in a good public school. I have known both types and a great number who stand somewhere in between. One family I know that maintains that home-schooling is the only proper means of education also allowed their children to count time playing Age of Empires II toward their history requirement. One girl I had known hadn't ever written an essay before Freshman Comp in college. Another home-schooler was completely unfamiliar with the canon of American and British literature; actually, finding home-schoolers who are familiar with such things is like a scavenger hunt - sure you'll find them, but hardly ever in the most obvious places. At the same time, another was quite well educated and her parents made certain that her education in terms of reading, writing, and history were well-rounded.

So, obviously, home-schooling can meet this concern with a concerted effort by parents, but again, to evangelize the disbeliever properly, the home-schooler must go to pains to show that he understands the concern and recognizes both the potential for deficiency and the existence in that deficiency in many home-schooling environments.

Elitism:
Granted, this is more a concern amongst the parents of home-schoolers than in the home-schoolers themselves - but this particular maladjustment can easily infect the attidtudes of children (especially as they spend so much time in their parents' company). While it is fine to prefer your type of education to that of another, there is a danger in believing oneself better than another for such a choice. An intellectually honest parent will admit that good things come from each of the primary educational choices (and that each is a perfectly acceptable option for godly Christian parents, if approached properly). I've known of congregations to be ravaged by the divisveness of home-schooling parents who actually had the gall to suggest that parents who publicly educated their children were in sin (or at the least, were weaker in their understanding of Scripture). It was a difficult time for the congregation while mothers became snide, haughty, defensive, and otherwise uncharitible over the brouhaha.

Christian Education: A Series

Episode II - Concerns with Public-Schooling

In a move of great controversy, I now post some concerns with the public school system and public schooling as regards to Christian parents and their children. For clarification's sake, I am not against public schooling per se and believe Christian parents can well educate and resposibly care for their children while using the public system. I call these concerns because they are difficulties that - given a little creativity and a touch of nuanced parenting - can be met and answered in a manner that should satisfy critics.

a) Level of Education
This is pretty hit and miss depending on the school, the child's desire to learn, and most important, the parent's involvement. Publicly schooled children range from brilliant to smart-as-day–old-hotdogs. Further, inner city schools face an even greater challenge than those in suburban areas. This should all be pretty familiar as we hear day-in and day-out the woeful state of the American education system.

b) Non-Christian Perspective
Obviously, there is no guarantee that teachers in a publicly funded educational system will believe or teach concordantly with a Christian parent's particular religious perspective. In fact, it is far more likely that Christian parents will disagree with numerous ideological issues that will doubtlessly creep into their children's educations. This concern is shared in private schooling as well, for it is impossible even in a private institution that teachers beliefs will align with parents - of course, the chance is slightly greater in private schools that concordance might be possible.

b2) A common corollary objection comes from those who hold to a specific view of creation - advocated, I believe, by VanTil or Bahnsen or someone - that the correct understanding of any matter can only be reached by those of a redeemed consciousness (i.e., by believers). Therefore, it is common - especially in Reformed circles - to find those who believe we should pass along quadratic equations in the context of a Biblical worldview. For these, no matter how outwardly moral the student body may be, no matter if the teachers are not teaching evolution, sex-ed, ethical tolerance, etc, - still public-schooling must be the wrong choice for Christians because non-Christian teachers can never teach anything right by virtue of the fact that they are unaware/in rebellion to the truth of things (after all, they suprress the truth in unrighteousness).

c) Dearth of Morality in Student Body
In a public system, there will be students of a wide make-up of backgrounds, ethnicities, creeds, and orientations. This is part of the point but also a huge deficit - for there is no reason for non-Christians to hold to Christian morality. Therefore, every non-believing student is a potential "bad influence" on believing children for the non-believing students will advocate whichever non-Christian set of moral principles to which they themselves hold; and Christian children taking up aspects of a different set of moral principles is unacceptable to a Christian parent.

These are probably the primary issues at stake for Christians in their approach to the public school system and I agree that each one of these is a grave and important concern indeed. Well, except b2), which is founded in an errant view of common grace - so I won't really talk about it here (another post though, probably). Before I speak more about these concerns, are there any prevailing concerns that I'm missing?

Links to Previous Articles in Series
• Episode I: The Privilege of Public Schooling

Getting away from homeschooling for a moment, does anyone else find it ironic that VH1's Save the Music festival should be featuring Rod Stewart?

Christian Education: A Series

Episode I - A Privilege of Public Schooling

In recent conversation with a couple of friends about home-schooling and the mentality of many Christians who opt for educating their children in this manner, I came across a number of interesting thoughts. This will be one of them.

First of all, let me clarify that I'm not opposed to home-schooling or private-schooling. I believe there are strengths and weaknesses to each brand of education and so, obviously, there are difficulties involved in private-schooling that aren't present in home- and public-schooling, and difficulties involved in home-schooling that aren't present in private- and public-education. I'm not going to talk about those difficulties. Instead, lets look at something seen as an insurmountable problem by many Christians who take their kids out of the public school system.

Let's be honest, one of the primary reason that Christian parents home-school is that they don't want their children in a place where foul language, illegal substances, and sexuality are commonplace. They also wish to have they children segregated from an institution that promotes sex-education and evolution. And I have to admit that I see where they're coming from on this. I think I would probably have a tendency to be over-protective as a parent too.

That's right. Over-protective. This is not to say that all home- and private-schooling parents are over-protective of their children, but it certainly is a trend.

Still, how can I say that wishing to keep one's child from such influences is over-protection (if really, as I said, I understand the impulse)? Simply because it seems not concordant with Scripture. We who believe are called to be lights in the world - in the world yet not of the world. How can we do this if we hide that light under bushels by segregating ourselves from the world in which we are called to minister?

But... but... these are just children!

Yes, children who are lights in the world as much as you or I. I think the first thing that happens when adults become parents is that they immediately have the memory of their childhood erased by the worries and stresses that naturally come about when one has a new mouth to feed, bottom to clean, and life to care for. I've said this before and I'll say it again (and I'll probably continue saying it until I'm a parent and forget...): children can be much more capable than we give credit for.

For instance...

I remember being in school, knowing for a certainty that I was different than those around me. That I was called to a higher purpose. That I was to be a light, a witness of the life available to any who wanted it. I remember knowing that I was held to a different moral standard and while my friends would cuss and drink and smoke out and have sex with anything that would have them, I, simply would not - because Christ was in me and I in him. And I was aware of this as early as third grade. I knew that evolution was a theory awry. I knew that my friends (a Jew, an atheist, a Jehovah's Witness, a lipstick-Satanist, and a whole bunch of agnostics) would have all kinds of great ideas that were wrong on the face of them because they were born of an outcast ideology. An ideology other than mine.

And why did I know this? Because my parents taught me this through word and deed.

And so, growing up in schools fraught with the depravity of the world, I learned many valuable things. I learned that the difference between myself and those around me was simultaneously not that far and leagues apart. I learned early on to think critically about everything I was taught. I learned how to view the non-believer as the real-live person he is, deserving of all the compassion I can muster. I learned that Christians can indeed thrive in their sojourn through this world not their home. And best of all, I learned, even as a grade-schooler, that God keeps his own and that I need not worry that I would be brought low by the world around me for the gospel is far stronger than the world's binding ties.

In short, I learned to trust God - to believe him and take him at his word that I would in nowise perish.

And so, the question I have for those considering home-schooling their child: have you considered the great opportunity that you will be denying your child? Are you of faith enough to allow God to keep your child despite the fact that they sojourn even as you do? Are you parent enough to teach your child and raise them in the ways of godliness whether they learn their arithmetic at home or abroad? Are you willing to send your sheep amongst wolves, knowing that the true shepherd will protect them - knowing that the only true place for sheep on earth is amongst wolves?

Now, while there are good arguments demonstrating that transubstantiation is a goofy, goofy thing, can anyone tell me how the idea that Catholics are recrucifying Christ in their version of the Eucharist was ever accepted by anyone as an accurate charge against Roman doctrine?

I mean, really, if Catholics are doing so in their Eucharist, then so are Lutherans, Presbyterians, and, well, pretty much anyone who participates in the Lord's Supper. So they do it physically. Lutherans do it illocally. Presbyterians do it mystically. And dispengelicals do it symbolically. Seems like if one group is doing it, they all are.

Are you susceptible to the effects of the full moon? And werewolves?

Why Not?

What I believe about Baptismal Regeneration
Recently I was asked what the organization I work for believed about baptism. Though the question was a little broad, a little open-ending, a wrote up a couple paragraphs. Somewhere in it, I mentioned that baptismal regeneration was for saps. Or something like that. Very soon after, I received the following:

I take it that you teach and believe in the "Sinner's prayer" then? What about in Acts 2: 38. Where Peter told the people , when they ask what they should do, to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins? Also, In 1 Peter 3: 21, Peter writes that Baptism "now save you". I would like to understand where these scriptures fit in for you?

Though I despise receiving questions that appear to be honest question but are really just the beginnings of an argument masquerading as something worthy of my time, I thought it couldn't hurt to answer him. So, here is my answer:
_____________

In presuming I hold to teaching a "sinner's prayer," you presume too much. I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with someone praying in his first moments as a Christian that God would take his tattered life, cleanse it, and make use of it for divine purposes. Still, I don't think it proper for such a think to become known as formula for salvation - as it has in some circles.

Perhaps if I explain where I believe faith, repentance, baptism, sanctification, and the Lord's table fit in the redemption of a man, then you'll better understand where I'm coming from.

The first thing we understand is that man is befouled by sin, made by his nature a hater of God. Man's every work is one of sin. Even deeds that on the surface seem good (like caring for one's family) are mere camouflages that only resemble righteousness. From this, we know that no work of man can merit his redemption. Faith, repentance, baptism, and all the rest are works - and therefore, cannot merit righteousness.

Therefore, God must act on our behalf. He must first love us that we might love him.

So, God pours out his grace upon whom he wills. This grace, he has ordained, is delivered primarily through the vessel of the hearing of his word for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord. As well, we are assured that his word does not return void.

So, God pours out his grace on a man. This grace works in a man, recrafts his nature, makes a new creation out of him. In the moment of this recreation, the man is born anew - given a life eternal, one that he could not ever merit by any work or deed. And from that moment, he begins to show forth the evidence of his new life. He exhibits the faith of the saved, he repents of his sins, he is baptized for their remission, he unites with Christ in his suffering, he takes on the sacrifice of the Lord in partaking in the Lord's table, and he, still by the grace of God, continues to grow in his sanctification.

We speak of these things as "saving" not because the actions have any power to save in or of themselves, but because for a believer to do them is evidence of his true redemption. And more, God has ordained his saving grace to continue to pour through what we term "the means of grace." These means are the hearing of the word, prayer, and the two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's table. God continues to pour grace through these vessels in order to continue his redemptive work of salvation. So in a sense, of course faith, repentance, baptism, and communion save. Of course they do - though not in themselves. Rather, God continues to pour through these vessels the very grace that originally redeemed the man.

Last Wednesday, as part of my brain cloud testing, I had an eye examination consisting of those kinds of tests that require automatic dilation. My pupils were drawn wide and my irises turned green. And I was given ultra-cool cardboard glasses for going out in public. The thing I never quite got was this: why on earth are there small directions typed on the paper container for the glasses as if anyone with pupils the size of olive pits could actually read anything on there anyway. Below is the original packaging followed by how it appeared to me when I actually needed the glasses.

Craig Thompson's Blankets - A Review

The sweetly disturbing sentimental journey that was seeded in Craig Thompson's Goodbye Chunky Rice finds pregnant fruit in his nearly-600-page opus, Blankets. Semi-autobiographically chronicling (via chrono-thematic structuring) his early life - from his establishment in faith and his discovery of love to his abandonment of that love and his subsequent abandonment of faith - Thompson plays honestly at all times with his story elements, thereby lending his tale an uncanny credibility. And while flashbacks and tangents proliferate, the overarching chiastic structure verifies the reader's intuition that Thompson knows well where he is headed and is going to take you there whether you like it or not.

Thompson's illustrated avatar acts, at all times, with striking realism and the chaos of his thoughts is entirely believable - if not exactly illustrative of the average thought process. The Thompson that frets and plays in Blankets is highly introspective and acts often in the heat of his youthful emotional turmoil - rather than from a simple, sensible motivation. And though one may often wish to chastise him for such sillinesses, this faulty humanity will more than likely endear Thompson to readers as they recognize more than a little of themselves in him.

This book is a masterpiece of form, symbol, and structure. Tokens bend and writhe and carry narrative significance throughout. Thompson's art here is fluid and is of that less-polished variety found also in Goodbye Chunky Rice and serves well to establish the variety of moods described in his several vignettes.

From the perspective of one whose own faith has grown and matured through the weathering of time and circumstance (though not without injury), I found his story particularly compelling and his rejection in whole of Christianity particularly tragic. Surrounded by hypocrisy and a weak-kneed, moralistic fundamentalism, the source of his disillusionment is not difficult to see. Perhaps Blankets's greatest quality is the empathy it exerts from the reader. I pitied and cared for Craig. I felt the same for his brother, his parents. I mourned for Raina, Thompson's love interest in the book. I grew despondant for her family. More than anything, I wanted to hug each of these characters and make it all right and sensible again.

In the final outlook, Blankets is an evocative work that should not be missed by any who would appreciate a serious, heartfelt, and magical telling of the tragedy and wonder what it means to come of age.

Over the last year, I've been making an effort to acquaint myself more thoroughly with Japanese animated fare out there. A lot of it is the crap that we've always suspected it to be (much like any country's televised programming...). After watching quite a bit of stuff - though very far from all (or even most) of it, I thought I'd do a Top 5. It's been awhile since a I did a Top 5 and I've missed them. So...

My Top 5 Animated Japanese Television Shows

(in no order beyond alphabetical)

Azumanga Daioh

Cowboy Bebop

Haibane Renmei

Last Exile

Seriel Experiments: Lain

I've actually only run into one person who didn't think Azumanga Daioh was just really pretty funny. The humour is honest and the characters remind me of people I know in certain ways. Or maybe people I feel like I could know. I forget. Cowboy Bebop is just stylish enough to overcome its clichés and its music pumps in just enough juice to make it an excited watch (I actually wish the soundtrack was more readily available - it's that enjoyable). Lain was one of the first Japanese animations I'd seen apart from movies like Akira and Princess Mononoke and the old Hormony Gold revamp I'd watch in sixth grade, called Robotech. It's crazy. Odd. Strange. Mystifying. And maybe even a little senseless. But dang does it look pretty. I think it'll always be among my favourites. Haibane Renmei is a third (?) work by the same creator of Lain and is perhaps even better (though just as slow in pacing and my roommate at the time and I cracked ourselves up pretending to be the voice actress used for the principle, enunciating different forms of "Uhh"). And finally, Last Exile is just so amazingly cool and inventive and astonishing to look at. G.I. Joe never looked like this. If it had, I wouldn't have felt so bad about watching it as much as I did.

Some almost-made-its include Satoshi Kon's version of Lain, Paranoia Agent, which has become one of the most compulsively weird shows I've ever seen. The first five episodes of His and Her Circumstance are perfect, romantic, and heartfelt. Unfortunately, the series continued after five episodes. Also, a far eighth is the first two seasons of Rurouni Kenshin. They took me a loooooong time to get into, let alone respect, but by the end of season two, I really had to admit enjoying myself. (p.s. many thanks to NetFlix for that one - there's no way I would have gotten past the first few episodes if it wasn't so cheap and easy....)

When recently asked why God kills more in the Old Testament than in the New Testament (and if this reflects a change in his character), my response was such:

It may be beneficial to note at the beginning that God kills as many people in the NT as he does in the OT. In fact, he kills 100% of all people both before and after Christ. This is the natural result of Adam's fall. God, reigning in supremacy over his creation, both gives every life and takes every life - and therefore, it is unrealistic to complain that for him to take a life at age thirty is less fair than for him to take a life at ninety (for every minute of either of those lives occurs only by his manifest grace and extending mercy).

The difference between the OT and NT is not in the character of God, but in the focus on the covenants he makes with men. Though there are certainly covenants of grace to be found in the OT (e.g. God's unconditional promise to bless Abraham and his spiritual children forever), the covenant of focus is the Mosaic covenant - the contract God struck with Moses on behalf of the people of Israel upon the mount of Sinai.

The Mosaic covenant was a contract of works and so, its sanctions were noteworthy when its stipulations were crossed (as they often were). The purpose of such a strong stipulation/sanction interaction dominating the more dramatic elements of the OT was to the end of demonstrated the inadequacy both of man and of his ability to fulfill his end of such a covenant.

Therefore, it is not so much the fact that God kills people in the OT that is of interest. It is that he does so with such drama (swallowing them into the earth, with a fiery reign from heaven, etc.). God would have killed these people anyway - for that is part of his business with this fallen race - but he does so in the OT in such a way that a valuable point is illustrated to those who remain. In this sense, their deaths have value - more value than they would have had otherwise.

Question for all the female readers: honest opinion of Cactus Cooler? Go!

The kitty was a nice touch, huh?

I've been batting this around for a number of months now (and some of you may have seen the signs), but I think for the sake of honesty, it's time I came clean at last. And out of the closet.

Yeah, so over the past five years, I've been struggling with my homosexuality. It's not an easy thing to deal with - especially with how ferocious the prejudice is toward those of my "ilk" in the church (and yes, I believe). Admitting this publicly (though how public is a blog really?) is a scary thing. I've dealt with this alone for so long that I just don't think I can do it any longer. I want so badly to have this weight off my shoulders. It's weighed me down so heavily. Maybe now things can begin to look up at last; maybe now my honesty will be rewarded and the struggles will finally lessen.

In any case, thanks for the ear. And if you're a girl I know and you're asking yourself if this is somehow your fault, I tell you now that it is.

Vidblog #40: My New Place

I had planned on doing this vidblog soon after I moved into my new domain in November; however, with the onset of my brain cloud, such a thing quickly became the least of my concerns. Still, while posting vidblogs won't again become a weekly endeavor for me, I thought that it would be fun to celebrate the holiday with a quickie. [p.s. brain cloud update: I'm being tested now for glaucoma and viral damage to my optic nerve and sometime soon I get to have my eye biopsied. Yippeedoodle.]