Excused Absence: Should Christian Kids Leave Public Schools?

Get them out, now. That's the argument, and Douglas Wilson makes it without hedging. In this short but pointed book, he calls Christian parents to do something most of them resist considering: remove their children from public schools. The command is not his own invention. Scripture is clear that parents bear the responsibility for raising their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and that responsibility cannot be delegated to unbelieving teachers and peers for six hours a day, five days a week, for twelve years. Wilson makes the case from Scripture, and he makes it bluntly. But he also makes clear that withdrawing from the public system is only half the battle. Parents who think a Christian curriculum alone will fix what ails modern education are going to be disappointed. The real work is forming children, their minds, their bodies, their hearts, so that they are prepared for a world that will not be friendly to what they believe. That is a demanding calling. Wilson doesn't pretend otherwise. But he also points to the God who commands it and promises to help those who undertake it. Short, direct, and impossible to dismiss as extreme once you've actually read the argument.