Monday, May 25, 2015

We love Jesus and our child's teacher believes in evolution .

Our son Logan is a 3rd grader this year at our local elementary school.  He's been in the public school system for 4 years now. He came home this year and expressed to us that his teacher believes in evolution.  No, we didn't even bat an eye about pulling Logan out of that class. Let me back up just a little bit.

   When Jason and I became parents, we both were very certain that our kids would go to public school. We both had gone to public school and had also been raised in good Christian homes. Our experience with the public school system had been really good.  We had not felt the pull in any other way for our kids schooling. Once Logan began kindergarten , I was surrounded by a lot of people who had either gone the Christian school route or chose to homeschool their kids. I felt very alone as a Christian sending my kid to public school. Even at times , I felt judged. I started second guessing our choice. Am I doing the right thing, will my kids be safe, and am I failing? I didn't have a core group of friends on this same path as I was at this time. So I looked for a book or a blog of some mom or dad who went the publics school route. I had a hard time finding any blogs! The only blogs I could find were these blogs of these super human, super moms who homeschooled. Which lead me to be even more discouraged. 
 I finally stumbled across a book called "Going public," by David and Kelli Pritchard.  This couple has lead a Young Life group out of Tacoma Washington for years.  So this meant that I finally found a great Christian family whom had sent their kids to the public school and wrote a book about it!!:) I was so thrilled. I ordered and read it in a week!
  What I loved about this book was that the key point of it had everything starting at home!! In our homes, we are to train our kiddos, teach them TRUTH, and get them prepared for life! I felt relieved, refreshed , and content with Jason and my choice in putting our munchkins into the public school.
 Shortly after that, Jason knew he wanted Logan (age 6) to start reading and studying on creation. This was super important for Jason as this is his passion. He love studying truths and backing up the creation story that we believe from the word of God. We ordered a kids version of "Answers in Genisis," by Ken Ham.  " The Answers book for kids." Logan soaked them in and this became a habit for he and Jason every night. (Side note- we just began these books with our daughter Peyton who is now 6.)
  Fast forward to this school year. When Logan came home and told us this about his teacher, the first thing I asked Logan was what he thought about that?Logan was  concerned for his teachers belief. He said the bible is true and he believes in creation. He couldnt believe we came from apes and that we just " happened ." During his whole school year, Logan and I have had many talks on the way to school concerning creation and theology.  As well as talks about this amazing, all powerful God who also wants a personal relationship with us. But we also had a lot of talks about respecting his teacher, even though he doesn't always agree with him on things. Logan later went on to write a paper on "Anti- Evolution," in which he got a 100%. His teacher didn't agree with its points but as Logan had shown him respect all year, his teacher showed him the same respect.
  I understand that some may not agree with our choices in the area of public school or allowing Logan to stay in a class that the teacher taught and believed in evolution. We feel so strongly that our kids need to be raised at home in the truth and trained for the world.  We are pretty set on having this take place as they are still living under our roof.  But please know that we don't take this calling lightly !   Our kids are covered in prayer daily and nightly. I believe so much that the Lord wants them to be the little lights in their classrooms and it really gives me a satisfying joy when I think about it .  Our kids attend the public school but there is no doubt that our kids are "homeschooled" in Biblical truths. 

 "One of the most inportant armaments you must give your children as you send them out the door to the public school is a relationship with God that fills theirs minds" 
  " Let it be said about ourselves and our children here in free North America, that we love God more than normal." - (going public- David and Kelli Pritchard
*****side note:I know other parents have a different calling in the area of homeschooling or private school for their kids . I think it would be so amazing if we as parents fully back each other up in whatever schooling choice we make for our kiddos. How cool would that be?? Let's do it :)

1 comments:

Robin hill farm said...

Yes! I agree totally Krista! We should never judge other Christians for the choices they make about schooling and lots of other things. You two are doing an excellent job in raising your kiddos. We love Answers in Genesis, too. It makes learning about creation fun!
Beth.