You had me until God. Don't get me wrong. I consider myself a Christian... but I think you lost a good chunk of your audience right there.
You have a good story there without saying that the alternative to the schools deciding standards is God deciding standards.
The point here (at least in my opinion) is that parents should decide standard for their children. If the parent's get standards from God, so be it. But you can come up with good standards of living without being a Christian, or even religious.
Hmmm...seems to me that the parent was getting permission to read the story to all the children. I'm sure she did not need anyone's permission to read the story to her own child. I can well imagine that some parents might be offended at their children being taught about Jesus at a public school. It's not unreasonable for the school officials to have the final say on what gets read in the classroom at any school. I'm actually a bit surprised, in today's climate of political correctness and absolute separation of church and state, that the school officials gave permission to the parent to read the story.
This is a wonderful post. I couldn't agree more with your point. This is a very interesting way to state the problem of what is happening to kids today. Parents seem to just accept anything these days. As a teacher I can tell you that most parents have no clue what is happening in their kids school. They seem to just agree with anything. They accept teaching to the test, watering down of curriculum, lack of discipline, zero-tolerance policy applied to the wrong kids, and so many other things. Great post and absolutely on the money.
What a horrible advocate for homeschooling. The problem with today's public education system is that to many parents use us as an "outsource". We do not see ourselves in this role and strive hard to work together with parents. When people like you write diatribes like this against the public system, you make the problems worse. You teach your own children, fine, then leave us alone.
Interesting, comments. Thank you for them all. We can all learn something from each other and as long as the converstation is polite and respectful we are all better for it.
Jason: I appreciate your comments. You are correct that too many parents use you in that way and that is what I was addressing. However, who is ultimately in charge is the question. Who has the compelling interest and therefore the other party must yield control. My post was addressing the parent and not the schools.
As far as the part about me tearing apart the public schools...I feel as long as the state requires me to pay a tax to the system my opinion should be counted. When they stop taking my money I will be quiet. (I think I'll have alot more time to talk.)
Spunky
Nick, I understand your point about God and I thank you for making it. My intent was to be true to my convictions not just convince others of my opinion.
I think I am in good company when I bring up God. Fisher Aimes stated in Pladium Magazine in 1801,
"We have trouble in the classrooms, we are putting in new text books. Nothing wrong with new books but we are spending more time on them than the Bible; it is drifting to the back of the classroom. We cannot tolerate this in American education. The Bible's morals are pure, its examples are captivating and noble."
Great quote but who was Fischer Aimes anyway? None other than the author of the first ammendment.
Spunky
John,
Thank you for the encouragement.
Spunky
Joanna, you're right it is not unreasonable to expect that the principal would have the control. I said that in my post. My question is directed at the parents who then knowingly put their children in such a situation. The situation could easily be the same for any other issue and any other parent (Christian or otherwise). The point is, the schools will not reflect the standards of the parent and yet the parent still yields their authority and control for the sake of convenience thus the term Outsourcing Parenthood.
Spunky
Excellent post. I seemed to have missed the logic of the posts that viewed your post negatively.
Christians should understand that God has given parents primary responsibility for our children and giving up that responsibility is a sin.
Teachers may not want to view themselves as "outsourced" parents but for 8 hours a day they are the parents and the work and values that they dictate during that time affect parent's authority long after school is over.
As a psychiatrist, I worked with many parents who were intimidated by their child's school, teachers and administrators. They were afraid to speak up for their child's rights for many different reasons. I had to encourage them to take back responsibility and authority over their own families.
I will link to this post on my blog.
Thanks Victoria,
The more parents we can get to understand what is happening the better.
Spunky
Golly, gee, I am glad I found this after the dust has settled a bit! I am a big fan of the PalmTree Pundit--that's how I found you. Anyway, to the point--This was an awesome post. You know you've hit a nerve (as I'm sure you were already well aware) and that's what makes people cranky. If what you were saying was untrue, you'd have 0 in the comments tally 
Keep on keeping on--we homeschoolers need the encouragement!
thanks Jeanne,
Yeah, it does hit a nerve but my hope is to get people thinking a little bit.
Spunky
Just got a book from the library "Home-Alone America". The title of chapter 8 - "Specialty Boarding Schools: Tough Love or Ultimate Outsourcing"
why is comments always messing up? Ugh
Very well said. I'm a daycare provider (in order to bring in income so that I may stay home and be my child's mom) and I see firsthand the effects of parents oursourcing. Children who have no sense of bonding with their families. Toddlers who call me "Mommy" when their mothers come to pick them up. I even had a parent ask me if I would homeschool her child. One problem; this isn't her child's "home".
Thanks for telling it like it is. I'm sure many people won't like it one bit.
Kammi this is one post people either seem to really love or really hate. Oh well you can't please all the people all the time.
Spunky
Whew! This brings to mind an old folk-adage: "You can throw a rock into a pack of dogs, and the one that howls is the one you hit." (Just listen to those dogs howling!)
Spunky, you just keep on throwing them out there. You are speaking out the truth, whether all people agree with it or not.
thanks Carolyn I appreciate the encouragemnt especially from a master blogger like you!
Spunky, I thought it was a great post. Christian or not, parents are outsourcing parenthood. The non-Christian despairs because Christianity is taught in the classroom. Instead of taking back their parenthood, they demand that all the other children in the classroom be parented the same way (by the teacher).
I will say that there are those who cannot homeschool, and therefore must turn their children over to another authority for a time. But they must be extra-vigilant against abdicating all their parental authority at the schoolroom door, simply for convenience sake. They would do well to take the cautions warned here instead of becoming defensive.
Nick, I didn't read Spunky calling anyone else to answer to God. She said that as a Christian she was called to a higher standard. Non-Christian homeschoolers may feel called to a higher standard for other reasons. Ultimately, they are still refusing to outsource their parenthood, and she is not denying that.
In answer to Jason, I don't doubt that there are too many parents who use the teacher as a surrogate parent -- that's Spunky's point. I am glad that there are still teachers who are as wary as you about accepting the parenthood that is being thrust upon them by those parents.
Thanks for telling me about your post, Spunky---I enjoyed it a lot, and I think we're kindred spirits. Just recently there was a story in my local paper about a woman who charges over $500 to toilet train other people's children, and she is in great demand. There was a sidebar to the story that mentioned someone who will teach your child to ride a two-wheeler....for a fee. If that's not sad, I don't know what is!
testing comments
I am struggling right now with a public school system which believes it is their right to parent my children.
I live in Sweden and we are the first family in this area to educate our children at home. The director of the school board is incensed that I would dare to have control of my own children without asking permission from the state first. Right.
This man professes to be a Christian and yet the sanctity of the family seems to mean nothing to him. He only cares to win the battle and he shows little ethics.
The government doesn't own my children; I don't even own them! But I was appointed by God to raise them to His glory and I take that VERY seriously.
Alyx thanks for the ocmments. Hang in there. It's hard to be a pioneer i changing the culutural trends. But persevere and God will make a way. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.
Edit your article to end with "And I am thankful!"
Very nice. I really liked the rhythm you got into with "and we are thankful." You certainly seemed to have found your voice there I guess.
Keep it up.
In Jesus' name
this was a fantastic blog article! i'm sending to "certain" friends!
Wow. Great post. I so agree. It is my job to educate my children, not the job of the government.
My husband and I have observed over many years in Children/Youth ministry the very same trends, even in spiritual matters (the churches are responsible for teaching children Bible/religious topics). My husband has often stated that in our society a parents job has been reduced to food (at least one meal a day), clothing, shelter. For everything else, they readily give over the control/teaching/training to others. I think in many cases, it is such a gradual shift of responsibilities that most parents do not realize how much control they are giving away. Kinda like the frog in a pot of tepid water that slowly heats to boiling...he never even knew he was being cooked to death. But then I like to see the best in people =)
Great post!! I have been reading through a lot of your posts. I really appreciate your point of view. Found you through TOS...I will be reading and commenting a lot, hope you don't mind...=)
In fact, I have been inspired to (perhaps~it's not been started yet) start my own blog! I am certain that it will be no where as deep or informed as yours, though. Perhaps I will just link to you *grin*!!
Welcome Phyllis. I appreciate comments good and bad. Unfortunately, some of the comments under these posts have been archived by the service I use for commens. I'm working on getting them on archived. There was quite a lively discussion under this thread.
If you start a blog let me know. I'll link to you as well. I'm sure you'd have plenty to add to these thoughts and provide a few interesting topics of your own.
I have been reading through your blog for a few days now and have appreciated the information and viewpoints you have listed. Thanks for the great reading! Jennifer
Thank you for making it so plain and clear what our role as parents should be. I've been homeschooling for over 9 years and the people around me don't get it. Now, I have something they can read and finally get an understanding to what we have been called to do as parents! I love your blog and will read it as often as I can.
Brilliant! Absolutely dead-center bullseye. As you can see, I'm reading through your blog, in a catching up sort of way.
I also believe that parents use the church, and church activities, to do their parenting. I've been talking about the mission field of motherhood on my blog and the response has been tremendous. It seems to strike a cord with many mothers.
Brilliant! One of the best blog posts I've ever read. I am in complete agreement.
We are faithful readers of World Magazine, and this is on a par with something you'd find in that publication.
Spunky,
An amazing post! You have revealed something here that transcends public, private, and homeschooling and knits together a common problem. All parents are guilty of outsourcing their parenthood.
I hope you don't mind, I want my readership to be familiar with your blog so I am going to post a link.
Blessings.
Excellent post. One of my responses to questions of our own homeschooling decision is as follows:
In my experience, elementary school is 80% crowd control.
Thanks for your encouraging blog.
I'm not Christian, I'm pagan, and I've homeschooled my children their whole lives (now 14 years) for just this reason! I hate the idea of someone ELSE being parent to my kids, and someone ELSE telling them what to think. My mom felt the same way, but she didn't know about homeschooling when I was a kid. She's always telling me how if she had known about it, none of her kids would have gone to school! And back then kids didn't go to school for 8 hours plus!
I love this post! Thanks
Christine
Single Mom Homeschooling Blog
Guess what? I live in Italy and yesterday I was talking about "school that parents our children" issue with my hubby.
I was wondering why people accepts and pays a terrifying amount of money for horrible food and teachers who work more as babysitter than teacher, rather than downsizing their expenses and try to train their children the way they think would be right; I think it is because parenthood implies responsibility, which means sacrifice...and they just don't think the sacrifice is worth it.
BTW I do work outside my home with my husband, but my family's my priority...
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