Tim Sweetman is an 18-year-old journalist, blogger, and student who lives near our nation's capital,
Washington D.C. He is much more widely known by his "code-name," Agent Tim. This name also serves as
the name of his popular blog, which has received over 750,000 visits since its debut three years ago. Contact Tim 
“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is the foundation of all clear views of religion. He that is well-grounded in it will not generally be found a waverer, and carried about by every wind of new doctrine. Any system of training which does not make a knowledge of Scripture the first thing is unsafe and unsound.” –J.C. Ryle
The Myths have been issued by The Cherry Pitt, and I have been charged to respond (by my own self of course). Are you ready for the myths of the myths? Well then, let’s get started.
1. National testing scores are outstanding.
Don’t know where you are looking, but unfortunately this is not the case. Our education system is one of the worst in the world when it comes to testing. Here’s just one example:
Summary of National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs’ geography survey of young adult Americans:
Six in 10 don’t know that the border between North and South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world. Thirty percent think that the most heavily fortified border was between the United States and Mexico.
Here’s just a few more statistics on how well our education system is working:
And I’m barely scratching the surface. Read this, this , this, and this.
2. The enviroment is calm, positive, and upbeat.
This is a statement that applies to one school, not the system in general. This is where I come in and say “I can’t tell you what to do in your particular situation…you just follow the Lord and do what He has commanded you to do: give your children the best education that you can.†But, overall, things are not quite like this. Just visit a few schools in D.C. Or you could check out the statistics of the majority of schools:
3. Parents are not neccesarily the best teachers, and can do more harm than good if they do not have a solid academic foundation.
Once again, this is a very personal statement coming from an author who is not from the United States. Only rarely are parents not qualified to teach their children. 99.9% of the time it has nothing to do with a bad academic foundation. Just listen to my recent interview with Karen Braun, a well-known homeschooler, who speaks about this issue.
4. Most of [the students] learning is simply academic and rather nuetral in worldview.
And that’s the problem. We as Christians are called to either fully follow Jesus, or don’t follow him at all. We are either fully for Him or we are compeletely against Him. We are not to be “nuetral†in any way, whether it be in or belief’s or what we are teaching our children. Bruce Shortt said in a recent interview:
Christ tells us that we can’t claim to be neutral with respect to him: we are either for him or against him [Matthew 12:30]. Education is no exception. In fact, in Ephesians 6:4 we are instructed to raise up our children in the training and instruction of the Lord. Are a few hours a week sufficient? The answer is quite clearly “no”. As Deuteronomy 6:6-7 tells us, this training is to be going on all of the time. Why? Because as Proverbs 23:7 points out: “For as a man thinks, so he is…” Our education, in other words, determines more than any other single factor how we think. Christ makes this point forcefully in Luke 6:40: “A student is not greater than his teacher, and when he is fully trained, he will be like his teacher.” Thus, when we give our children over to a K-12 educational system that is Constitutionally prohibited from being for Christ, we have made an anti-Christian institution our child’s teacher. That is missing the mark - in other words, that is sin.
5. The majority of our school board, several teachers, and even our PTO president are evangelical Christians.
Now that’s great. In many situations a Christian leadership actually gives some level headeness amidst liberal and secualrism that has overtaken the majority of public schools. (See here, here, , , and . Just a few examples from one blog. You can just read the daily news on education to find many more..
In closing, make sure you read this other article by Albert Mohler to understand both my views on this issue, as well as his. We’re not calling to destroy the public schools, but are saying that most of them are flawed, the system is flawed, and we need to begin planning to get the kids out. We need a strategy for when it’s time to pull out. What I would reccomend doing to completely understand this issue would be to listen to this radio show, from 11:30 mark to the 18:00 minute mark. It will help you understand more fully what is trying to be said about this issue.
Related:
Tags: SBC resolution, Southern Baptists, Homeschool, Southern Baptist Convention
June 5th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
Tim,
Great post! I read you quote Bruce Shortt who said:
Do you believe that parents who send their kids to a public K-12 school that doesn’t allow to learn about God, Christ, to pray, and teachings from the Bible - are sinning?
June 5th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
At this point, John, no, I do not believe that it is “sin.”
June 5th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
Wow! Excellent documentation, Tim. I look forward to your coverage of the Baptist Convention.
June 6th, 2006 at 6:42 am
Most of the points are good, except for the 2nd myth.
- There are several million students in the Public School system. Having less then 5% of them dropping out is pretty dang good, with a 95% retention rate. There is also little evidence that in each case, they acctually left due to bullying, not because they were lazy.
- 51% of girls are afraid of being shot at school or at home. If you will look at the wording of this, it is a combination of home and school, totaling up to 51%. How many are at school and at home? We don’t know. And are these fears grounded? At home perhaps, and at school perhaps. But at school, there is a zero tolerance policy on guns, where a guy gets arrested because he used his dad’s pickup to drive to school, and it had a shotgun on the floor board. At home, its their parents, with whom they should be safe. So are they just fearful at that age? Probably.
-If 75% of students are bullyied, then they are learning something. Bullys exist on and off of school grounds, and sooner or later, a person is going to have to learn to deal with it. Its easier when your younger. It may not be right to have bullys, but they exist in life.
June 6th, 2006 at 8:51 am
Palm Boy,
1. We have to remember that this 5% is part of a larger percent. 5% drop out because of bullying, however many else drop out because of low grades, some other percent drop out because of [insert something here.] The fact still stands that there is a problem with fear. Just ask some kids at your local public school if they avoid some kids or areas in their school, and they will probably answer “yes.”
2. Good point–but again, we’re still seeing an issue, not only in schools, but also in the home. So it can turn on you. But I have no fear of being stabbed or shot.
3. That can be argued either way. It really depends on your definition of bully: is it someone who just makes things miserable for others? Is the bully one who beats people up (who are much younger or smaller)? Or is a bully someone who just cusses you out every time you walk past him?
Now, if my 8 or 9 year old is getting beat up every other week by some bully, I don’t think they’re “learning” how to deal with “life bullies.” You don’t learn to deal with getting pounded all the time. In fact, most people will just fear the bully, taking time away from their schoolwork.
Let’s quickly switch to some D.C. bullies–do you like getting threatened with knives? Guns? Yeah, I don’t think so. I don’t learn to deal with that.
June 6th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
1 -5% say they drop out because of bullying. BTW, I acctually looked up the number of students in the US education system. As of 2000, 37.9 million. That number is likly over 40 million now. That makes the number of 160,000 less then 0.4% of students who claim to drop out due to bullying. Pretty small when you look at the big picture, isen’t it?
2 -I’m glad you don’t have a fear of being shot, I don’t either. But I fail to see how a statistic from a skiddish age group that combines home and school issues is supposed to be a problem only with the schools, or how the schools are supposed to fix it. Are they supposed to provide a ‘Safe place’ at everycorner? Send CPS every week to make sure the kid isn’t afraid at home?
3 - I don’t think this issue is debateable. You learn through adversity, and you excell with competition. If someone who you don’t know or don’t care for can get under your skin on a regular basis, it’s time you grew a thicker skin. If they beat you, tell the controling athorities. Then stay away from the jerk.
4 - Don’t get me wrong, I think homeschooling is a far far better alternative. But I think the characterization of the public schools, at least in regard to bullying, were very unfair. Threatening with Knives? Thats a legal problem and there are rules and enforcement procedures that take place, at least in my neck of the woods. If the DCSDs are not doing there job, then it is that region, not the US education system that is at fault.
And yes, you would learn to deal with a knife threat. You learn something from everything. You’ll either give the guy whatever, find an way out, or fight, in which case you either get hurt or he does. Anyway, you learn something, and how to better deal with it next time.
And how many cases are there of knife threats anyhow? Just throwing out the worst possible scenario is not a good way to have a discussion.
- 5. In regards to point 3, parents may not be the best teachers in some cases. Would you want the bum of of 4th street teaching his kids? Sorry, that was extream.
In most cases, the parents are great teachers, much like you and me have. But the statment about the parents needing a solid educational foundation is compleatly true. If the parent doesn’t have a very good education, how well will he/she be able to teach the subjects?
June 7th, 2006 at 11:42 am
Interesting discussion Tim. I hope our son turns out like you. We’ve been Homeschooling since he was in 2nd Grade and our daughter since the beginning. Honestly, I wish we could put them in public school because my poor wife is wiped out. It is physically, emotionally and spiritually draining. But God won’t release her. I would never tell another parent where to send their kids, but I can go to work with peace knowing my kids are in the care of the woman I love.
June 8th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Tim,
I have a question about the exit resolution. We homeschooled our sons for a few years. They spent most of their years in the public school. My oldest just graduated from a Baptist college, and my youngest is halfway through the same Baptist college. Obviously I believe in educational options. And both of my sons are strong Christians.
I understand the message of the exit resolution. Since you are someone that supports it, I’d like to hear your perspective on how it helps our witness as SBCers. In your The Myth of Evangelism In Public Schools post, you say, “Nowhere in Scripture does it point to teen missionaries…” I was under the impression that a Christian of any age could tell people about Jesus. But I don’t want to debate your views regarding parenting and public schools. Many of us in our evangelism still encounter a lot of backlash regarding the Disney resolution. The resolution didn’t change the Disney situation, and was finally repealed, so to speak. Aren’t there better ways than an official resolution to deal with the schooling issue? How will the exit resolution, if adopted, help our witness as SBCers?
June 10th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
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