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| Would it concern Christian parents if their children were being indoctrinated in Buddhism at their local school? |
In the majority of U.S. schools today, it is not permitted to teach the way Noah Webster envisioned we should teach children. In declaring,
“education is useless without the Bible,” Webster condemned the wasteland of disoriented learning we see today. Did he not?
In most schools, it is no longer permitted to teach students that the Bible provides True North for adequately understanding every subject in school. Yet, it is allowable
to teach (directly or indirectly) that a framework of meaning is something students determine for themselves.
Here’s the big question: If it is a faith position to
teach students that the Bible provides the overarching framework of meaning and purpose for learning and living, is it not also a faith position to teach—or to imply—that it
does not?
If it is a faith position to say, “Jesus is Lord of
all, and by Him and through Him all things exist,” is it not also a faith position to say—in so many words or lack thereof—“Christ and the
Bible are irrelevant to our discussion of pronouns and math?” Are
not both statements faith positions?
To teach students that Christ and the Bible are irrelevant to pronouns and math can be done very effectively without telling them this directly. A teacher does not have to stand in front of a class and say “the Bible has nothing to do with our discussion” to communicate the message that the Book is irrelevant. In school, silence speaks louder than words.
If we think the U.S. system of education is religiously neutral,
think again. If state schools were indoctrinating children in Buddhism, Islam,
or Native American Animism, many Christian parents would hit the ceiling. Maybe.
But when it comes to indoctrinating children in John Dewey's "Common Faith" (the Non-theistic Faith in autonomous human self-sufficiency), Christian
parents are curiously passive. (See Dewey's, A Common Faith.)
Apparently enough Christian parents think Secularism is neutral,
and if their children can learn to read and write well enough to enter a
university, they'll give secularized/secularizing education a big pass. Apparently enough Christian parents feel that if teachers
don't stand up in front of a class and say, "the Bible is a fairy
tale," things are OK.
Yet, when teachers don't place a single academic subject
into the context of a biblical frame-of-reference over a period of 13 years,
are those teachers really being "neutral?"