Ken Ham slam dunks it:

However, the bottom line is that I would rather my children dig ditches and eventually go to heaven than be some highly educated person and go to hell because they received biblical-authority undermining teaching and then rejected the Word of God.

Tiana over at God Made …. Home Grown writes a great piece on why public school is not an option for her family. Her reasons are solid and compelling. On top of that, they mirror many of the reasons State Re-education Camps (a.k.a. public schools) and their government welfare are NOT an option here at the Pauper’s Hovel either. Check out what Tiana has to say:

“Even so, academic mediocrity, peer pressure and bullying, stifled creativity and liberal bureaucratic agendas are not my real reasons for homeschooling.

To say so would imply that if the schools were reformed–if all the legitimate concerns and criticisms about the government school system were to be fixed forever–that I would consider sending my children to public school.

But I wouldn’t.

Why Not?

Because God has said in His Word that educating our children is our job as parents”

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.godmadehomegrown.com/biblical-homeschooling/why-not-public-school-the-real-reason/#ixzz1WFg0XcAK

Today you have the chance to impact your children’s future for many years to come with a mere 15 minutes of your time. The question is will you invest the time to take your children with you to exercise your right and responsibility to vote or not?

Today you have the opportunity to disciple you family as they walk along the road with you (Deut 6:1-9). What better opportunity to implant your values into their heart will you have?

So take your family, get out there and vote!

“Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” Proverbs 31:29 (ESV)

Today was one off “Those Days” for Mrs. Pauper. I mean the kind that would leave even the most hearty among us a quivering gelatinous mass on the floor. From extended family issues to migraines and all of the details of life in between she had more than a full plate today. Which makes the scene that unfolded in our kitchen this evening even more remarkable.

I would have fully expected (and I even encouraged) her to take full advantage of my return from the office to take her leave and retire to her bed to sleep off the stress of the day and the migraine it induced. However, not only did she put the final touches on a batch of her famous (and “slap yo momma” delicious) chili but she also took time to bake cornbread while it was finishing. It was during the preparation of this added treat that I hear my wonderful bride in the kitchen teaching fractions to The Little Pauper using the measuring cups. As I hear this conversation from the other room, I could not decide what I was most thankful for or more amazed by: the fact that Mrs. Pauper is so devoted to the mission God has given her in life (raising warriors for the cross) that she refuses to let even the smallest opportunity escape to mold and shape our children OR the fact that every bit of what she did from 2pm today on was simply because she loved her family OR that she did all of it with her head splitting from pain that would make most of us turn into the worst drug-seeking crack-ho simply to stop the pain!

Did The Little Pauper walk out of the kitchen a fraction smashing genius? No, but a few more of the pieces fell into place and most importantly she walked away having participated with my wife as she modeled the attributes of a godly wife and mother. The Little Pauper once again heard and saw the importance of being a keeper at home (Titus 2:5) and watched firsthand as her Mom practiced sacrificial love.

What more could any godly husband and father ask for? I am truly most richly, undeservedly blessed beyond measure.

“He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” Proverbs 18:22 (ESV)

Here are 2 takes on the same issue and while their solutions may differ they both agree – Something is wrong in Mudville!

First we start with a secular filmmaker who takes a hard look at the education establishment in America. While I doubt I would agree with his solutions to the problem I find it interesting that a man who by all indications makes no profession of submission to Christ sees what Pastors and Christian Parents refuse to acknowledge – the youth ministry of the church of secular humanism (government schools) are horribly broken! It is to our shame that those without eyes to see the truth see in their groping what we who have had our eyes opened by Christ willfully shut our eyes against. Take a look:

The good news is, believers are beginning to wake up.

This next one is from Gunn Brothers Productions an award winning Christian production company who is tackling the issue from a distinctly Christian worldview. I really appreciate these guys and their work. I would most likely fall closer to their solutions to the issue and highly recommend you see this film when it is released this fall. Take a look at the issue through the lens of the scriptures:

“A disciple^[1] is not above his teacher^[2], but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Luke 6:40 ESV

(footnotes added)

¹ μαθητής – one who engages in learning through instruction from another, pupil, apprentice (1)

² διδάσκαλος – teacher (2)

Who then will your children be like?

(1) – William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, “Based on Walter Bauer’s Griechisch-Deutsches Wr̲terbuch Zu Den Schriften Des Neuen Testaments Und Der Frhchristlichen [Sic] Literatur, Sixth Edition, Ed. Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, With Viktor Reichmann and on Previous English Editions by W.F. Arndt, F.W. Gingrich, and F.W. Danker.”, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 609.

(2) – Ibid, 241.

“He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.”  – Charles Peguy

This is one of the leading quotes in the latest edition of “The Continuing Collapse” over at Voddie Baucham’s blog. Please go read this well researched monthly feature on the state of education in America. Every parent needs to be informed of the direction and state of our schools and these gentlemen have done the leg work for you but have also clearly documented their sources for your own research so that you might be a Berean in your daily walk.  Read the full post

Kelly at Generation Cedar raises a good question originally posed in the Washington Post:

Is the Classroom Harming Boys and Society?

Need another reason to homeschool?

“…we’re not as concerned as we ought to be about the millions of young men who are floundering or lost.

But they’re there: The young men who are working in the lowest-level (and most dangerous) jobs instead of going to college. Who are sitting in prison instead of going to college. [My note: I would also add "instead of becoming entrepreneurs", understanding the great opportunities that await and are not limited to those with college degrees.] Who are staying out of the long-term marriage pool because they have little to offer to young women. Who are remaining adolescents, wasting years of their lives playing video games for hours a day, until they’re in their thirties, by which time the world has passed many of them by.

Root Problem

Whether in the prison system, in my university classes or in the schools where I help train teachers, I have noticed a systemic problem with how we teach and mentor boys that I call “industrial schooling,” and that I believe is a primary root of our sons’ falling behind in school, and quite often in life.

Two hundred years ago, realizing the necessity of schooling millions of kids, we took them off the farms and out of the marketplace and put them in large industrial-size classrooms (one teacher, 25 to 30 kids). For many kids, this system worked — and still works. But from the beginning, there were some for whom it wasn’t working very well. Initially, it was girls. It took more than 150 years to get parity for them.

Problem With Industrialized Schooling

Now we’re seeing what’s wrong with the system for millions of boys…Beginning in very early grades, the sit-still, read-your-book, raise-your-hand-quietly, don’t-learn-by-doing-but-by-taking-notes classroom is a worse fit for more boys than it is for most girls. This was always the case, but we couldn’t see it 100 years ago. We didn’t have the comparative element of girls at par in classrooms. We taught a lot of our boys and girls separately. We educated children with greater emphasis on certain basic educational principles that kept a lot of boys “in line” — competitive learning was one. And our families were deeply involved in a child’s education.

Read the Rest of the Post

If your child knows geometry better than he knows the Proverbs, then you have a problem with your priorities. – Kevin Swanson

read the source

Boys like to kick over rocks because you never know what will scurry away when the light shines. There are often fascinating creatures hiding from the sun under there and for those brief seconds you get to see creatures that you normally would not.

As you grow up you learn that there are other types of rocks under which things hide. Unfortunately the creatures lurking under these rock are not so nice or fascinating. Often under these types of rocks are entities waiting to devour you and your children as causalities of the cosmic battle between our Loving God and the loathsome usurping snake who currently plays at being king of this realm. It is never easy or pretty to look these loathsome creatures in the face but as a believing father I must if I am going to be the Protector God has called me to be. That is why I am thankful for men like Dr. Bruce Shortt who do the research and kick over the rocks to expose what lies beneath. I often do not want to hear what he finds but hear it I must if I am going to be found faithful as a watcher over souls both in my house and in the House of God. In his latest edition of “The Continuing Collapse” Dr. Shortt points out what many have known for years but is now just dawning on the leftist education establishment:

DOTH MINE EYES DECEIVE ME?

(A LIBERAL THINK TANK CASTS DOUBT ON THE ABILITY TO REFORM SCHOOLS)

The Brookings Institution has always stood ready to supply public policy rhetoric for the left. In an unaccountable recent fit of candor, however, Brookings released a study that says what many “non-experts” have known all along: Nobody knows how to fix our broken government schools. Click here to keep reading