Dreher spends a good bit of his time in ‘The Benedict Option’ speaking about education – often the battle ground of the ‘progressive agenda’ and the place where most Christians have trouble in the responsibility of parenting, or in the case of teachers, at work. He recommends that Christian communities look, at the very least, to supplement children’s eduction as a community with Christian based learning, and in many cases there may be no option but to withdraw from the system as things get progressively worse. Similarly, I know many teachers who stay and seek to hold ground, and many who choose to walk away. None are of these is inherently wrong – it’s a choice to be made – but I am also aware that not every Christian parent has the ability or resources to withdraw their child from school, and so surely we have to walk the tightrope of supporting Christian teachers to prayerfully enable them to remain within the system and support all children with a different vision of life and morality.
I write as a parent of three, as a husband of a teacher, and as one who occasionally has the opportunity to go into schools as a Christian and as a pastor to get involved. I speak as a pastor who has sat with teachers on a number of occasions to support them in their teaching vocation in some very challenging contexts. I’ve firsthand experience and testimony of educators to draw upon, both primary and secondary.
Christians in education are walking a fine line, and you’d have to look deep beyond the surface to get a true measure of what is really involved to remain in these settings. Their influence can only be like yeast in dough in the current climate. To be overtly outspoken would inevitably mean dismissal, and to no Christian influence in schools at all. We need to weigh it up – we either engage or not, and if not, we need a robust strategy for alternatives. We also need to really understand the principle of ‘being as wise as serpents and innocent as doves’, not just in this area, but in many of our approaches to being a witness – salt and light – in a world growing darker. It’s also worth saying, however, that I’ve also known some schools where the level of Christian influence has been carefully and powerfully maintained.
My life was profoundly influenced by teachers who were never free to name the name of Christ in the classroom, but shone by the quality of their lives and ultimately were the key witnesses who led me to seek after Christ. It is possible to maintain the light, and until other things shift significantly, it is perhaps naïve to hope for anything more revolutionary – same with local and national government, health service and the business world. We haven’t just all-of-a-sudden arrived at this point in history, and it won’t be possible to change it in a day. Nevertheless, change is possible!
The Christian parent has the opportunity to speak outside the context of the contract of employment, and can speak in a more influential way when done wisely. We need insiders and outsiders. The influence of the Kingdom has many facets. We either get heartily involved and help shape the agenda, or we withdraw. Both valid options – conscience will inform you. If you know a Christian educator, pray for them too.
The homeschooling movement has gained significant grounds in recent years and I wish the church had something solid to offer those parents. There are many times where I wished I had the resources and time to have homeschooled myself. It is perhaps time for churches to ask these questions together and see what can be done. But honestly – having tried homeschooling during the COVID restrictions, I take my hat off to anyone trying to teach a child!
For generations past, the church has led the way in the education of our children, and indeed in areas like health and medicine. Sadly, abuse scandals in church schools in the past have drawn shadows on this principle, but it has been done, and its time has maybe come again. Benedict’s monastic communities were schools that preserved the wisdom and light of the gospel and of classical civilisation for several generations. Does the church need to do so again? That will increasingly become an easy question to answer, barring a significant revival!
The UK is no longer a Christian country. Sad in many ways, but an opportunity for the church to shine ever brighter as a city on a hill…an outpost of the Kingdom if we DARE to put action where our words are – not just to speak, but to DO. I’d happily invest in the building of Christian schools, but there needs to be significant resource and effort to do it – a collective and concerted effort.
It all comes down to conscience as to how parents engage: do we seek to work over the long haul as salt and light (and suffer in the process) or do we make the sacrifices and withdraw? Suffering and struggle guaranteed both ways! Both are valid options, but both need Christian community to unite in the cause for the sake of a generation.
Andrew S M Clark 