Monday, April 25, 2011

Why Would You Send Your Kids to Public School?

Pin It Now! Why, as Jesus-lovin' people, do we send our kids to public school?

I am not against private schools or homeschooling. I know people have good reasons for homeschooling or private schooling their children. Our son is only in first grade and our daughter will start kindergarten next year and we will evaluate how they are doing every year. But at this point, we feel strongly about having our kids at our local, public schools.

There are a lot of bloggers who are homeschoolers, who blog about homeschooling, who offer support and encouragement for fellow homeschoolers, who share ideas for homeschooling, and feel really called to homeschool. Some of them follow this blog! I like them. I love their hearts for their children and their obedience to what God has called them to do.
(If you are a homeschooler you should check out 1 + 1 + 1 =1 blog. She is full of great ideas and used to be a kindergarten teacher.)

Maybe I don't blog surf enough, but I have not seen any blogs (they must be out there somewhere?) who offer encouragement for believers who go the public school route. This blog is not going to become a school-focused blog, but I thought I could offer some posts of insight, explanation, encouragement Christians who are considering sending their kids to public school or who have already done so.

So I will start by giving you just one of the reasons we send our kids to public school. I will post some of my other reasons in future posts and they will be done in no particular order.

Reason #1 for sending my kids to public school:
My life was significantly impacted by the fact there were Christians in my public school when I was a kid.

This is Ben Decker. He and his family came over for dinner a few weeks ago which motivated me to finally start doing some posts about why we send our kids public school.
Ben and I have known each other since 4th grade when we met at a music concert. He went to a different school, but a bunch of schools got together for a musical extravaganza. Ben and I both played trumpet. I was better than him. We kept in touch in our fourth grade ways (on the phone) and he even asked me to "go" with him. The next year I transferred to Ben's school because our love was that deep. Or rather, because we moved less than a mile from Ben's house and that switched me to his school. We stayed friends when the "going" was over (almost 6 months of going, I think). We even ended up carpooling to school. And for the record, his nanny was a bit looney and drove like a drunk woman.

(Getting our yearbooks signed at the end of sixth grade. Ben is the one about to be overtaken by my side pony tail.)

Around this time I was seeking to find out more about God. My dad was agnostic and my mom was Catholic, but not really practicing. We went to Catholic church sporadically - mostly on holidays. I went to CCD for a year. I was seeking. I went to Mormon church quite a bit with one of my girlfriends. I was interested in spiritual things. I looked at creation and the world around me and knew there had to be a God. I would sometimes lay in bed thinking about things - if this came from that, then what did that come from? And it would take me to the uncaused cause. What was the uncaused cause? I was not lonely, miserable, desperate. I was living out my dream of acting and at this point had done several commercials and print work. I had a lot of friends. But I knew there was more to this life.

It is a longer story, but after talking to a cousin and a family friend who had become Christians I decided to hand my life over to Jesus. I just prayed by myself in my bed one night. My friend, who was several years older and lived a few towns away left me with a Bible and an Amy Grant tape. Besides memorizing "Sing Your Praise to the Lord" what was I to do? Now what? I knew I could go to church with Ben.

It wasn't that sixth-grader Ben was an evangelist. He didn't particularly stand-out spiritually from all his friends - he used library books to practice skateboarding tricks like all the boys. But I knew he went to church. I knew he went to youth group. I knew I could go with him. So I did. And that is where my faith flourished - where I learned more about God, the Bible, serving others, and what it really meant to be a Christ follower. And Ben's dad (who was a widower at the time) was my Sunday school teacher so it totally overpowered the crazy nanny.

(Here we are at junior high winter camp at Hume Lake. I am in the middle with the awesome sweater and Ben is far right with the cool-guy look on his face.)

(Ben and I at high school graduation.)

I can't help but think - where would people like me be without the Ben Deckers of the world in my school?
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