I make no bones about the fact that I think Christian parents need to be seriously considering a Christian education for their children (Proverbs 1:7). While a true Christian school may be a possibility for some, home education may well be the obvious option available to most. The decision to home educate generally requires a parent (usually the mother) to stay home and make this happen. The concern I am addressing is this: if industrial quantities of mothers were to exit the workplace to teach their children at home, who would take their place? Would the workforce or economy become reliant on an increasing number of unbelievers? Could this ultimately have a negative impact on our nation?
It is an interesting exercise to think about the large-scale implications of biblical principles:
‘Older women… are to teach what is good, and to train the young women to love their husbands and their children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home…’ (Titus 2:3-5)
‘A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.’ (Luke 6:40)
What might happen If every Christian family truly took these verses to heart?
1. Beware of Pragmatism
Pragmatism says that the ends justify the means. A good outcome is justification for whatever action is taken to achieve it. So, for example, if our public services were to be filled with Christian workers, then this would more than justify parents placing their children in the government education system to free up the mother. Essentially, we need no longer refer to the Word of God. We consider a situation from different angles, think about possible outcomes and then decide our course of action accordingly.
The truth is that God is first and foremost concerned with our obedience rather than with apparent outcomes.
‘Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you.’ (Joshua 1:7)
How are we strong and courageous? By looking at a problem (the lack of believers in the workforce) and figuring out how to up the supply? No, we are strong and courageous by being careful to do according to all the law that Moses has given (Scripture).
God does not guarantee an apparently positive outcome to faithfulness. Nor does he necessarily allow us to see the outworking of obedience in this life. Before his death at the stake, William Tyndale prayed, ‘Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.’ The pragmatist may well claim that the life of Tyndale was a waste of talent and time since he was killed for obedience, but in God’s economy, obedience led to an unbelievable outcome. Within two years, Henry VIII ordered that a Bible be used in every parish.
As Christian mothers, we need to walk in obedience. We might fear that the nation could suffer by our exit from the workplace, but this is God’s business. Our business is to read his word and act on it accordingly.
2. The Outcome of Allowing the State to Disciple our Children
Let’s turn the question on its head: what would be the outcome if all Christian women were to hand their children over to the discipleship of the state in order to inflate the workforce with believers?
I wish I had a bunch of statistics to hand with which I could make my case. But over the years I have built up a few observations with the experiences I have had. Perhaps some of these resonate with you.
1. My husband and I ran a church toddler group for five years. Almost to one voice, mothers would say that their child’s behaviour went downhill once they were placed in nursery at the age of three.
2. I spent two years working with young people in crisis in a wealthy part of the UK. This involved Friday night outreach as well as giving drug education lessons in schools. Lots of young people from the schools were out drinking and smoking on Friday evenings. Many of them were clearly extremely troubled. Although I sincerely liked the children we worked with, I remember thinking that I would not want to put any of my children in the same schools as these young people.
3. I spent two years working in schools in Germany. The school children were largely disrespectful and their little minds (age 12-13) were full of sexual innuendo. Again, I formed good relationships with some of the girls, but it is simply untrue that government education discipled them in the ways of the Lord. Several of the girls went on to become teenage mothers.
4. I recently spent a couple of summers with a local church doing outreach to local parks and sharing the gospel with young people. We had some amazing opportunities to talk about the Lord, but again these young people were generally drinking, smoking and causally blaspheming. Large numbers of them said they were same-sex attracted and several of them were basically illiterate.
Of course, holes could be picked in my argument. Some children make it through the school system as believers and remain relatively unscathed. Some faithful home-educating families know the heartbreak of prodigals. But as general rule, I just do not see mass government schooling producing godly young people. This has not been my experience.
3. What Would Really Happen to the Workforce if Christian Mothers Stayed Home to Raise Their Children in the Lord?
When the state usurps the family, it requires more workers. This is false economy.
Many mothers (by dint of their naturally caring nature) wind up working in schools, hospitals and caring for the elderly. If colossal numbers of children were removed from the government system to be educated at home, would it not follow that the need for ‘workers’ should be reduced?
If nurseries had to care for fewer children, would the need for teachers go up or down? If Christians took a greater responsibility towards their own elderly, would there be the same requirement for care workers to be racing between different houses to provide half an hour of care here and there? Indeed, if mothers were at home ensuring their children were provided with nutritious food rather than microwave meals, what would be the effect on the demand for doctors and dentists? If children were raised in the security of a godly family, by their own parents, rather than by their mother and her live-in boyfriend, what would be the effect on our mental health services and insatiable demand for youth workers? Might there be less need for lawyers and clerks to mop up the mess of children caught law-breaking?
Again, I cannot statistically prove these things, but my instinct would be that biblically functioning families, and children raised in the knowledge and fear of the Lord would, in the end, reduce the need for the state to clumsily fill the gap.
Conclusion
Home education is most likely only for a season. Many of us are in the workplace before we have children; many of us return once our children have left the nest. Some of us earn a little extra income on the side. As believers in the workplace, we may well have opportunities to set a Christian example and to witness to other employees and clients. But where is our greatest impact? God can easily raise up workers to be salt and light in the workplace, but we mothers are those who are best positioned to witness to and disciple our children.
In an economy where ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church’ (Tertullian) we need never fear that a mother walking in faithfulness would ever dim the glory of God
