Recent years have seen a big shift away from public education in America. Beyond private school options, charter schools are popping up across the country, and homeschool curriculum options are expanding. As a public school teacher and a Christian, I’ve empathized with friends as they pray and toil over the weighty, complex query of tips on how to educate their kids.
I think we will honor God in any education selection. Are you loving Christ? Are you caring on your neighbor as yourself? Are you discipling your kids? Parents living inside these biblical guardrails have much freedom to discern God’s specific will for his or her circumstances, including where they send their kids to high school.
But it’s essential to understand that our individual selections have communal consequences. As enrollment drops across public school districts, what students remain, and what happens to their education? How does our absence affect probably the most vulnerable throughout the neighborhood? Christians can and will support public schools even when we now have kids enrolled elsewhere—or no kids in any respect.
As Christians, we’re called to hunt the welfare of our cities (Jer. 29:7), and partnering with a neighborhood public school is a uniquely effectual strategy to do that. Where do children in poverty congregate day by day en masse? Where do orphans construct healthy attachments? Where do homeless kids get clean clothes? Where do students with disabilities learn fundamental life skills? In much of America, the reply is: At your local public school, every Monday through Friday.
The variety and variety of needs in a public school classroom might be overwhelming. It’s far too great a load for the shoulders of 1 teacher. If an educator, an awesome start can be to periodically ask, “Is there anything your students need this week?
I speak from personal experience. In fact, I sometimes wonder if I’d still be in education without the consistent and abundant support of the local church. I’m certain my students and I wouldn’t be flourishing to the degree that we’re.
Over the last seven years, singly and in official church programs, Christians have donated school supplies, snacks, uniforms, and meals for college kids of mine who don’t have enough to eat over the weekends. Christians have tutored, mentored, volunteered for profession day, and decorated classrooms. They’ve read us books and thrown class parties and chaperoned field trips. They’ve provided us with dental hygiene kits, brought clothes when houses have burned down, donated stuffed animals to students facing homelessness, and delivered groceries when primary caregivers have been incarcerated. They’ve even brought their sometimes-tired teacher friend a coffee, a lunch, or some flowers.
This past May, when my fourth graders met their national academic growth goals, I asked them to type up suggestions for what they’d want for his or her hard-earned reward. Most students asked for something realistic: a pizza party, Takis, or fidget spinners. But one kid skipped the typing and immediately blurted, “An Xbox!”
I smirked at him from across the room and joked, “What do you think that I’m, manufactured from money?”
“Hey, that’s an idiom!” He smiled. “But also, you can probably ask a few of your mates. You know, put your money all together.”
The earnestness in his demeanor caught me by surprise. Of course, I couldn’t help but giggle on the audacity of a nine-year-old. But secretly, I wondered if this meant he’d noticed how his Christian teacher’s friends had spent that faculty 12 months generously giving of their time and their money. Maybe, just possibly, this kid was starting to acknowledge that these people shared all things, and that amongst them there was no need (Acts 2:44–45).
My hope is that he’ll someday know our God due to our love (John 13:34–35). And I hope that other kids in other schools will make the identical connection after experiencing the identical generosity. Here are a number of practical ways to support your neighborhood school:
- If you might have school-aged children who don’t go to public school, search online for a district school supply list for his or her grade level, buy groceries together with your kids, and drop the items off within the office of the closest public school. You might even leave your contact information with the guidance counselor and ask them to succeed in out as needs come up all year long.
- If you’re employed a 9–5, give one lunch break every week to being a mentor or reading buddy at the general public school closest to your work. You can go to that faculty’s website and email the guidance counselor, they usually can plug you in to assist meet a student’s need on campus.
- Seek to know the reality behind what’s happening inside your local public schools, especially in the event that they’ve turn out to be controversial in your circles. False rumors too easily flow into, and misinformation could damage imperfect but ultimately helpful institutions serving probably the most vulnerable children in your area. Though there are undoubtedly exceptions to be found, it’s very likely that the great at your neighborhood school far outweighs the bad, so work to talk about it fairly and graciously.
- Finally, if your loved ones is debating a college selection, don’t prematurely rule out your neighborhood school. Ask to take a tour of the campus, meet with an administrator, and look up data online. Ask an educator friend to aid you interpret the nuances behind the knowledge you discover. Pray throughout the method. It might just be that your child could thrive right down the block from you, and opting into public school could bless your community in addition to your loved ones.
However you select to support public schools, I implore you to achieve this. May we not mollify our consciences by pretending our personal decisions haven’t any wider effects. May we refuse the trail of apathy toward the flourishing of our neighborhoods. May we all know these are little children whom Jesus deeply loves, and as we work to share his love with them, may they arrive to know him too.
Courtney Vineyard is a teacher and neighbor in Fort Worth.
