The choice to homeschool or send kids to public school has been stirring debate for decades. Several public schools have been aggressively pursuing controversial policies recently, which has brought the homeschool debate to the forefront.
Well-known evangelical leader Dr. James Dobson is once again encouraging parents to take their kids out of public schools to protect against what he believes is a hyper-secular, government-run education system, One News Now reported.
Dobson recently had E. Ray Moore, director of the Exodus Mandate, on his Family Talk radio show and the two encouraged parents to take their kids out of the public system and to, instead, put them in Christian education.
During the discussion, Dobson, a popular Christian psychologist, voiced his concern that Millennials and young Americans are being indoctrinated into a more secular worldview, saying, “They [have] been propagandized and given a philosophy that – in many cases – is contrary to scripture and what we believe.”
The evangelical leader has long been a proponent of homeschooling, though he also offered up his support for public school teachers, attempting to address some of the critiques he knows these educators will have of his comments.
“I know how they feel. I’ve heard from them and I used to be a public school teacher. I taught for three years when I was very young,” Dobson said. “I’ve got a real heart for public school teachers. I’ve been there. I’ve seen it and I know the good that you can do.”
But in the end he expressed his concern over the content and curriculum that young people are consuming in schools.
“I’m talking about the children … hearing things and learning things that contradict basic, spiritual truths, and they’re not going to learn it in a public school setting,” he said.
Moore agreed, saying that there’s “extreme indoctrination” going on. In turn, he said his organization is seeing scores of families turn to homeschooling as an alternative option.
“We’re seeing families that are homeschooling even through the 12th grade,” he said.
Dobson also said that he’s seen a repeated pattern during his many years in ministry: those who are homeschooled, he said, are more respectful, better listeners and are more involved than are children who attend public schools. Listen to the entire episode for yourself here.
This is hardly the first time Dobson has called on parents to reconsider using the public school system. In fact, a 2002 Christianity Today article recounts past comments he made about public schools — as well as his pleas for parents to take their children out of that system.
“This godless and immoral curriculum and influence in the public schools is gaining momentum across the nation in ways that were unheard of just one year ago,” he said at the time. “It’s as though the dam has now broken and activists representing various causes, including homosexuality, are rushing through the breach in ways that are shocking.”
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