Ask the Pastors S7 E8: “Should Christians choose public, private, or home school?”

(00:04):

Welcome to Ask the pastors a segment of the West Hills Podcast where you have the opportunity to ask your questions and receive biblically grounded, pastorally sensitive answers from our pastoral staff. My name is Brian, your host, and I'm joined by our lead pastor Will a and pastor tha. Hello everyone. Whoa. Your gains high. That's on me.

(00:24):

I got them high gains.

(00:25):

That's on me for sure. I'm just thinking about the pastorally sensitive answers we're supposed to give. So if people get upset, does that mean we fail if people don't like our answer? Because I feel like this topic today could get dicey

(00:42):

For people. Not for us, not for us. But

(00:44):

Yeah,

(00:45):

It takes a lot to rock the boat for us. I agree.

(00:48):

Talking about schooling today, Mel Yeager wrote in, should Christians send their kids to public school, private school or homeschool?

(00:57):

And we'd like a one word answer. No, I do like doing the one word

(01:02):

Answers. Private homeschool,

(01:03):

Public private home. They should go

(01:07):

To school in some public school. Yes, they go to

(01:09):

School. That was my tha always. That's hilarious. Brian sent three podcast topic options to us to vote on and I said, how about schooling? And Thad replied back in the text thread. I'm against it, I'm against it. I love it. So that is could be a short one. As a student I was against schooling. Just skip all of them. Now Brian, maybe I'd like to start with you since I'm the host. No, I'm not. That's fine. Since you're the lead kind of boss said right before I'm the boss, right before we started you said, I wish I was homeschooled.

(01:50):

Absolutely. Stand by

(01:51):

That. Say more about that. Maybe that has nothing to do with this podcast. I don't know.

(01:55):

Well, I mean anecdotal evidence for why public schooling is bad is what I have to offer. No public schooling, my experience was not positive with public schooling. I just experienced bullying in junior high and it was really a pretty terrible experience. All of junior high. Junior high is just hard for everybody and for being tall, just around some people that were really mean, maybe jealous of my height. I don't know. People that were shorter than me that were, I don't know,

(02:26):

Probably I'm thinking of junior high, middle school. A lot of insecurity around being short. It's fun. I

(02:31):

Played basketball for that one year and people are just really mean. I mean that can happen on any sports team, but it was in the public school that I was a part of. I just remember being like, I wish this was different and I wish I could be in a safe nurturing environment more regularly. And for me that was not public schooling for most of my experiences was not public schooling.

(02:54):

So it's interesting though that you jumped right to I wish I been homeschooled as opposed to private school.

(03:00):

Yeah, that's true. That's fair.

(03:01):

So yeah, that was curiosity.

• Read more

  (03:06):

  I never really had a

  (03:07):

  Category if had a safe nurturing school environment outside the home. Would that have been the best of all worlds?

  (03:14):

  Absolutely. Okay. I think it could have been. I think I just didn't have a category for private school when I was just younger and it just stuck with me. I wish I was homeschooled. I just remember thinking that a lot. But I think it would've been content with being private schooled at a Christian school. Maybe things would've been different majority of the time.

  (03:32):

  Is it fair? Well, let me actually start with this. So let's start with our experience public school. Maybe wish you'd been homeschooled

  (03:43):

  Public school all the years.

  (03:44):

  I've

  (03:45):

  Got a mixed bag for sure. So I private Christian school, kindergarten through eighth grade, a homeschool co-op, ninth through half of junior year and then technical college for second half of junior year and senior year. Oh, I knew that. That's not super impressive considering. What'd you do? Technical

  (04:14):

  College?

  (04:15):

  I just did.

  (04:15):

  You should be a mechanic now. Is that what you're

  (04:17):

  Telling a welder? Yes. I wish I had that sort of skillset. So I've got a really mixed bag with it. And then your, let me, I'll just add, I've got two kids in the public school system. I

  (04:33):

  Was going to ask for that too. Yeah,

  (04:35):

  Public. Yeah. I'm Silver Spoon private school K through 12. Same school, same kid. Well, not same. I mean there was a handful of us that were all the way through, but so kind of sheltered in that regard I guess. I'm really grateful for it. I loved my school. Still love it. Helped do my 20th, no, 20th. 20th. Yeah, we had our 20th high school reunion last year. So anyway, yeah, fond memories. My kids are now in private. Mine was private secular, so we could also distinguish one that, because I was private, but it was West Tennessee and it was Judeo-Christian values, which meant on the wall if you didn't go to church you were judged, but some didn't. So yeah, but we were private secular. My kids are now at private Christian

  (05:38):

  School here in town and I mean I can just start with the short version of that. I mean Polly and I thought and prayed, listened to podcasts about, so I said I didn't do any reading or research or note taking for this episode and that's true. However, we did do a lot of that. I would five-ish years ago when Elle was coming to the end of her preschool and getting ready for kindergarten and really pre-K even, and we were thinking about, yeah, do we want her and kind just really trying to count the cause and think ahead too about long-term because it's always entropy, right? I mean it's always easier to keep going in the same direction. So I know just because we starter in Christian school in kindergarten or public school or whatever doesn't mean that that's going to be the whole trajectory, but it's the fewer, I think I really loved being at that same school and not having to go through all the changes. And especially at ary school now. For instance, all my kids' school right now, 95% of them go to the same private, Christian, middle and high school Westminster. So it's like if we changed and decided, yeah, no, we're going to get on the public track after this, it would be very probably hard

  (07:15):

  As far as just a whole new friend group and the cultural changes that come with that. It is going to hopefully be a little bit of a different culture when you're at a Christian school versus public. So all that I'll say debatable. Yeah, it depends. I mean it kind of does depend on probably the schools, right? Again, public that's a big part of it, especially a public school. And again, where I grew up, buckle of the Bible belt is also going to be very different than a public school in St. Louis. So all I think, yeah, geography and all of that plays a huge factor probably in some of, I don't know that we have any listeners period much less outside our church. But if do somebody helping to stumble upon this or share it with someone who lives in California or something, I'm not sure how helpful our context and answers to this question are going to be for them. There are certain parts of the country where I'd say like, no,

  (08:12):

  You don't even think about putting your Christian kids in that public school district or whatever. So I don't know, maybe we're jumping ahead too much or obviously started to answer the question. I didn't do any research. You say some stuff and say some words, I'll jump in. Oh, I was going to just real quick share the story of why we ultimately went with where we went. Not that we totally left it up to our 4-year-old, but it was that's very, Paul and I both do. I mean Elle's very mature even as a 4-year-old. She was, but we do both share the story and it was formative in our decision making for both of us that when we asked her, what do you love most about your preschool Bonham Presbyterian down the road here? She didn't say my friends, she didn't say recess or my teacher. She said, I love that I get to learn about Jesus every day.

  (09:24):

  And now if either of our boys had been the oldest one and we were asking, maybe we have a whole different decision making, but for me, when my child says that, to even think about now pulling her out of that to put her in a school and a school system, and this is not again, a judgment statement against our folks, yourself included, and others at the church that have made other decisions about public school. But for us, if we have the means and the ability to afford the private school, which we do, praise God. And so that's even an option for us. And if our daughter is telling us, I love learning about Jesus, it's hard to think about, for us it was hard to think about putting her in a, now we also went and toured our local public elementary school for us, which gets good ratings. Parkway Central, great School District, all that. We've got Parkway Central people listening. Again, no offense to anyone, but just even our experience of the sort of preview day at that elementary school was very underwhelming to say the least. Which again, why wouldn't it be? I mean they don't need to sell you. They're getting your tax dollars anyway. I mean let's just call it what it's getting paid by you for your kid going here, whether they do or not. So we don't really need them to come here and sell you.

  (11:09):

  So yeah, that was for us how it shook down. But now go ahead and share. Should we go ahead and start making it theological now? There's nothing in the Bible about school almost, right? Period. Can we say that? Is there, I don't know. Paul talks about studying under Gamal and I mean

  (11:31):

  That's a private Christian school, some

  (11:33):

  Of their rabbinic private Jewish school. I mean get, there's some school adjacent kind of training, whatever. But can we at least start the conversation by saying anyone's answer on this, if you're doing theological triage, first tier heaven and hell issues second tier, maybe we shouldn't be at church together, but we can still be in heaven together one day, third tier, we should be at the same church and we can just disagree on this. This is like fourth tier or something. I don't know. This is way down. You

  (12:06):

  Agree? Yeah. And I, a matter of

  (12:09):

  Personal conscience,

  (12:10):

  Christian

  (12:10):

  Freedom, freedom position and even your context and what individual school district, and

  (12:16):

  There's a lot of factors.

  (12:17):

  How much money you got in the bank to afford. I mean there's lots of just factors.

  (12:21):

  Yeah, mean. So with that, again, I'm assuming for our listeners, this is not new information that regardless of schooling situation, you yourself are the primary discipler of your kid in every context. That's reality. Whether it's homeschool, whether it's private school, whether it's Christian school, regardless that God commands parents to teach them diligently. I think of our child dedication, parents dedicating their children to it. I would say largely there is for any of those options available, I think you can choose any of them and then mostly be a good decision. I can think of wrong reasons to choose certain situations. I think of going into debt to go into a private school of any variety, that's not a wise decision. And so what I would say different categories, again, we could paint a ditch on either side for,

  (13:28):

  Unless, let me just challenge you on that. Unless homeschool was not an option for some reason, let's say both parents work. I mean we never even entertained homeschool. My wife, God lover, very gifted in many ways, couldn't do it. She couldn't do it. I'm not quitting my job to do it. So if homeschool wasn't an option for some reason, and let's say you do live in a place where it's like, are we really going to, they are pushing the trans whatever ideology down your throat. Is there a scenario in which people go into even Dave Ramsey like, yeah, you can take on debt for your house or whatever. Is there a scenario in which this is important enough how my kids spend their eight to five that you could wrap, I could wrap my mind around even if I didn't have it in the bank going into debt to get them in the right situation for them. They're my kids. I mean, what's more important than that? Maybe I could maybe see in a context that there could be a case to be made for this is important enough that to do that. Again, I'm just trying to think from the other side of it and if we have,

  (14:47):

  But I'm saying because that's the question, right? In our particular context, I would argue probably not.

  (14:59):

  We've got enough good public schools that aren't so off the rails in St. Louis that even if you don't like this district, maybe it means moving to a different district.

  (15:10):

  So I think first in thinking about schooling, again, I don't want to put unnecessary burden. I think all of our parents should feel the weightiness of making sure they're caring well for their children. I don't think it would be fair for anyone in our church because we're putting this at a fourth tier to cast judgment on other people because of schooling decisions. Because I've witnessed this in our church. And so I'll just name that you should not be judgmental towards people in their schooling decisions. And again, people can be sensitive about that. We've got the spectrum at our church and I'm thankful that we do have the spectrum church.

  (15:55):

  We've got a lot in all three categories,

  (15:56):

  A lot in all of 'em.

  (15:58):

  Pretty bad. I'd have to sit down and count it, but I don't know if it's a third, a third, a third, but it's not super far off. It's not super far off from that. When I think about public, private and homeschool, which is interesting.

  (16:14):

  So I would say first in thinking through Melissa's question, should Christians, to move it more towards the specific individual is one, you need to know your child. That's going to be a really important part. What environments does your child thrive in?

  (16:31):

  Are they easily influenced? Have you talked to other people about your child? And for us, we did. And our youngest is still in a Lutheran preschool. And so even then from the preschool, that preschool typically feeds to a Catholic school in town. Interesting. Which yeah, very interesting. We could talk about that when we do our religions thing, but also it wasn't our first inclination to go there as we had talked, what would be really best for Reagan? What does she seemingly have a event towards learning style, talking to her teachers at the preschool like, Hey, how do you think Reagan learns best? We actually toured where the Deval sent their kids and tried and God closed that door in a capacity issue. Just not enough room. And so I think first thinking through your child and thinking through their unique giftedness, their personality and that that's one aspect to it. I think alongside and just as important is knowing your context and what's available and knowing what kind of public schools are in the area. For us, we live in St. Charles County, to which I would argue as far as some might point towards a reason for not going to the public school is certain agendas being pushed. St. Charles County is pretty low on the agenda of pushing

  (18:12):

  Less so than St. Louis County,

  (18:14):

  I think less so than St. Louis County and especially St. Louis City

  (18:19):

  As well as. So for us, that was one aspect, knowing your context, knowing what kind of schools, knowing not just about the public schools, but also knowing the other options available. Homeschooling. Homeschooling has vastly changed where you used to do it at home as the name indicates. And now you have co-ops, which are more like an in-between homeschooling and private Christian schooling where you're going to go together collectively. And there's probably someone who has some sort of formal education who will be teaching sciences, maths, English, someone who might be, if you're homeschooling like, Hey, I recognize my own shortcomings in homeschooling. I'm not going to be able to do this for my own child. So what resources are available to me? We've got several families in our church who do a homeschool and so they go and it's more like a socialization as well as an education piece with it. Which again, if we're thinking what might people say about homeschooling, they'll be like, oh no, homeschooling your kids are going to be awkward and weird. And I'll just be honest. There's awkward weird kids in all of the categories. I can tell you I'm the youth pastor

  (19:36):

  And that's okay. So I think,

  (19:38):

  But you may have to work a little

  (19:39):

  Hard, but you may have to

  (19:40):

  Work a little hard. Like he said, social. It's just funny. We got a five month old old puppy and we're like, we need to get him around other puppies so we'll be normal and play well with others humans.

  (19:52):

  And so I even say with the context is also the freedom within that context that just because you make a decision one year doesn't mean you can't make another decision to the next year. Doesn't mean you can't make a different decision for another child. You have in a different avenue. I've known families that they've had kids in all of those different schoolings

  (20:18):

  At the same time

  (20:19):

  At the same time. Really homeschool private school, public school. And again, some of that is a knowing your child. Some kids depending on the public school, would not do really well and it's a matter of knowing that or and age

  (20:34):

  Is a huge

  (20:35):

  Factor and is a big factor.

  (20:36):

  I think all these, again, we've had the conversation when our kids are at one age and their young, again daughter's asking to learn about Jesus, but also none of 'em are baptized believers at this point or whatever. But again, that I think would have to change the conversation a little bit too as far as just, I don't know. I don't want to say too much about that without going into, because at some point I would like us to do a kind of quick pros and list.

  (21:11):

  Oh yeah.

  (21:13):

  But I was just thinking, I mean for us, I'll just share for us one of the biggest cons about if we keep 'em in private Christian school is that, I mean, you hear me every Sunday. I am out there, great commission, great commission. We need to, they're dying. We've got the cure of the medicine. We need to get Jesus into the culture. And then it's like, but you don't put your kids in public school and you're insulating your kids with just the other. Now part of what I've learned in being in the private Christian school, at least the one we're at, is that my kids are going to have plenty of opportunities for witnessing to their lost and who knows what my boys, I mean my boys, who knows how lost they're going to be in the year, but Ellie's probably already a Christian, but she's going to, I'll just leave with her.

  (22:11):

  She's going to have plenty of opportunities for witnessing to lost classmates and frankly Polly and I to their lost parents if we stay at Westminster down the road because yeah, I mean, I don't care what you sign on a piece of paper that one of the husband wife has to sign on a statement of faith that you can sign on whatever dotted line you want. But I mean, we've gotten to know these people now through coaching their daughters in soccer and volleyball and whatever, and they're not all Christians, but still that is the assumption and that's the environment, whatever. So that does, when I really start thinking about it, that eats at me that you know what man, and especially a kid like an Elle or a Reagan where it's like, and the discipleship we're doing at home that it's like the psalm of is it 1 47 like arrows in the hands of the archer or are the children that you're supposed to shoot out and pierce into the darkness with? We're supposed to be sharpening our kids to shoot 'em out like arrows into the world and be a force for good in the culture. And so that does get at me some, when I'm thinking about it sounds whatever self narcissistic to say our public school needs more kids like Ellery, but it's true, they do. We need more Christian families in

  (24:05):

  The

  (24:05):

  Public schools. So I mean that I think would have to be for y'all in thinking about putting our kids in public school, a huge pro, right? I work at a church, I'm rubbing shoulders with none at Christians all day long. Where am I going to rub shoulders with non-Christians and have opportunities for witnessing for great commission making disciples, evangelism, all that. This is a great opportunity through school and kids, parents of kids, friends and all that. I cut you off. Do you want to pick back

  (24:39):

  Up or no, it might be helpful to think about the pros and cons. I think so too, broadly speaking as well as to again, just restate that the choice of school is not a question of there's one universal correct answer that there's so many different factors that I would just encourage someone like Melissa and Alex who their kids are getting older, they're starting to think about it, that I would ask lots of questions of other people who one, have done different things, whether it's in the actual school district where your child will go or others who have done the homeschooling or done the private Christian schooling with that. But yeah, to do the pros and cons list for

  (25:34):

  All of 'em. So let me throw in a quick my maybe biggest pro, and I know poor, I'm a homeschool. Homeschool, I'll just start there. Well, I've already done the con for anything other than public. I think the biggest pro for public is I think that the discipleship and friendship with unbelievers and evangelism opportunities and all that, and also getting your well and if you

  (26:00):

  Experience not just in the schooling, but externally as

  (26:04):

  Well. Yeah, I think shelter can be a bad thing. I think we don don't want to over shelter our kids and I mean, they're going to be in the world one day. We're in the world, but not of the world. Jesus. So I think you're doing that and just more diversity, not just religiously, but I think typically the public school, you're going to get more probably socioeconomic, diversity, racial, whatever else. I think so. Sorry, let me go now to the, and we've talked about some of the cons with public already. And again,

  (26:47):

  I

  (26:47):

  Think it depends

  (26:48):

  On others. I'll just say one other factor, and again, this is going to be regardless of schooling choice, maybe least of which homeschooling, but an example of the common thing of like, well, your kids are going to be taught things by other kids and stuff like that for don't go to public school. You want to show up to them, protect 'em as much as possible. Reagan kindergarten comes off the bus, but some other girls in the neighborhood who are in fourth or fifth grade stopped by our car and had Nikki rolled down the window and just shared with her like, Hey, we just want to let you know Reagan was giving people the middle finger on the bus to which Nikki thanked them. Well, what had happened is she had seen someone else do that, she thought. And so two fingers up in the air for everyone, which again would say hello, it gave us a great opportunity to like, Hey, just I don't want to talk about that one and let you know that doesn't, that's not actually a really good thing to do, so please don't do that ever again before you get in trouble.

  (28:04):

  I don't know if it's the same with you all my girls when two three point with their middle fingers all the time. I don't know what it is. It's not learning it from me. It's not learning behavior at home. That's fine. But anyways, I share that story in light of, yeah, that was a behavior that my child learned at school, but also gave us an opportunity to correct that behavior. So anyways,

  (28:29):

  And they're going to get itprobably anywhere. I mean maybe it's more, I don't know, some of it that's going to get called out anywhere, but maybe there's certain other behaviors that

  (28:43):

  Lots of other, we could get called out more so in a Christian school than public or whatever. I think, I mean obviously pro is public, you're already paying for it and in many cases, again, depending on your context, could be just as good of an education too potentially. So I was excited to share about, I think a pro of homeschool, depending on for me, and this is idealistic, I've never tried it done it, but I really, depending on the parent and the kid, I mean if you're just talking about one-on-one attention like that, or even the next one comes old enough, two on one, three on one, that still is compared to what they're going to get in the classroom. My son's in kindergarten, I don't know, 16 kindergartners and one or two teachers daughter's in fourth grade, 20 something, fourth grader and one teacher. You put me in a room with my daughter, not my sons, not everybody but my daughter, and I'll say this and I'm going to sound prideful and I am probably a little, I'm confident I could have my daughter ready for college in about five years. I think my daughter could be going to college at age, at age 14. If with me teaching her and as smart and driven and inquisitive as she is, I mean just every day on the way to and from school,

  (30:26):

  I ask them, what do you want to know about the world today? And the question she comes up with,

  (30:31):

  I heard somebody talking about the stock market, what's the stock market? I'm like, oh boy, I'm going to have to do some research, refer to last week's podcast gambling. And I love that kind of, what is it? What's the weird kind of the discovery based learning stuff that the one that ally used to work for? Montessori. Montessori, the Montessori. I love that though. The kids just go explore and learn. Just drive the question just what do you want to learn? And that's what we're going to learn about today. It might be science, it might be history, it might be math. Is that what

  (31:05):

  It is?

  (31:06):

  I think, I don't know. Sounds amazing. I don't know. I'm just saying stuff

  (31:09):

  That's more like preschool, younger.

  (31:12):

  I think age there

  (31:13):

  Are,

  (31:14):

  Let's just let our kids, let's let, my boys would know so much about farming equipment and monster trucks and wrestling and MMA and my daughter would know so much about everything. And I mean, that's kind what I do at home with them. And I have fun with it. They have fun. We just we're constantly asking Siri, I don't know, Siri, tell us about that. I mean, you can get a Harvard education for free on Gemini AI these days. So school is just, school's

  (31:43):

  Not necessary.

  (31:43):

  It's not, it's right. It's really not at all. But so I say all that to say, I think that's a huge pro of homeschool, the flexibility and ability, number one, the individual attention. And again, homeschool moms are going to listen and laugh at this. You have no idea what it's like and try it with your boys and they're probably right. But the one-on-one attention or more attention, the go at your own pace, the flexibility of taking this where, what are you curious about and what do you want to learn today? I mean, I think, again, I'm not a super structured kind of person anyway, so I don't know that, yeah, my approach definitely not, wouldn't fit for a lot. Get our workbook, have a system work pages. I get it. You need a balance of the structure too. I just think that that's appealing to me. I think that in a different life, I would love to just be able to just, my job is just pour everything I know and everything I don't know, but I'm going to learn so that you can know into this one or two or three humans and y'all are just going to be absolute studs by the time you're 11, 12 years old. I think the flip side of that then is like, yeah, maybe you are weird because other kids aren't doing that, other families aren't doing that. And

  (33:13):

  The social thing.

  (33:14):

  I was going to say, I don't think our homeschool families do that. Well, no, I didn't say that. I would just say to just emphasize the potential for involvement and discipleship woven into every aspect of life.

  (33:32):

  That's a really cool,

  (33:34):

  I'm just going to say an appeal for homeschooling would be that not just the individual attention, although I think that's great, but also to do that. And I would just say that's something that's important to think about of also knowing your child if you're doing it at home or doing a co-op, is your child going to listen to you to do homeschooling like work, but also to know yourself as a parent of where your limitations may lie, just as a holistic thing. Because unfortunately, I've seen people who have done homeschooling and I think they've done their kids a disservice educationally, unfortunately. So that's the pain of negative.

  (34:21):

  But

  (34:22):

  All the data right now shows that homeschoolers are twice as smart as the public school education system. I shouldn't say that. I don't have actual data, but when I hear from homeschool give the survey survey, when I hear from homeschool people, that's the kind of,

  (34:38):

  They say they're twice as smart. They say they're twice as smart.

  (34:41):

  But again, I've seen both positives and negatives in that. So yeah, I think the socialization, the potential towards just being more and more home-based in the negative sense of not being out and not being aware of surroundings of even almost cult-like behavior of that. Again, the negative, not our families, but just saying, I've seen the swath of it all, private school.

  (35:20):

  I think some of the biggest pros you might get, the discipleship aspect. I mean, it is certainly a private Christian school. It's going to be that similarity of worldview in teaching that discipleship reaffirmed at school that they're hopefully also getting at home. I mean, my kids are memorizing scripture every week. Bible is one of the classes they take. They say prayers all the time throughout the day in terms of how they discipline and run the classroom. I mean, all that's going to be through that lens biblically. And then I think a pro should be that, but you're not sacrificing the socialization piece and you're not sacrificing, hopefully, the educational excellence piece. Again, some homeschool parents are great at that. But yeah, no, our kids teachers, I mean, could have gone and been a public school

  (36:38):

  Teacher and all that, but they specifically wanted to be in this kind of a setting where there is the Christian culture and worldview and support system and all that. So much so that they were willing to take a pay cut to do it because pretty much always, unless you're like, I don't know, maybe I can't say that anymore, but I mean that was certainly always true growing up and private school teachers who got paid less than public school teachers quite considerably. But anyway, so those are all pros. I think again, just the culture of the families, and again, I think there's just a certain expectation of an assumption that I can make when I'm, again, coaching my kids' sports teams and I'm doing an end of season party with 12 different families or whatever. I might not know what church they're at or this or that, but I mean, I know that they've at least signed on the dotted line that we're actively attending a church. We believe the same things, orthodox Christianity that you believe, whatever. We're trying to raise our kids kind of the same way. Anyway, again, some of that gets called into question. Some of that depends on your private Christian school or whatever. There's a whole other category of course, of private non-Christian, like I said, that I'm not talking about with any of this.

  (38:15):

  But yeah, I think those are all pros. And then again, cost and opportunities for the relationships with non-Christians and exposure to the real world and not the Christian bubble kind of thing. And I'm sure others, other things that stand out to y'all as pros, cons, and any of that.

  (39:00):

  Yeah, I think, again, some of it's going to depend on the school. Again, whether it's a public school or a private Christian school, homeschool can make their own options. Some of it's going to be some of the extracurricular music programs and different things like that, exposure to at certain private schools, you can take classes on things that wouldn't be offered at a public school per se,

  (39:31):

  And maybe vice versa.

  (39:32):

  Maybe vice versa. Like Reagan, she's in a gifted program at her school. She's learning about 3D printing right now. In second grade. I'm like, I don't even know anything about 3D print printing. Interesting. But again, that's depending on the school. I will just say one potential, again, there's so many variables in it, but a potential for, again, this false assumption of faith that can happen within a Christian school. And again, I perhaps am a little more jaded than some of my experience with those who have gone to Christian schools of I've not loved the product that I've seen. And that's a probably more apparent thing than an actual schooling going to

  (40:28):

  Thing. I think you definitely can get kids turned off to the hypocrisy of these kids are no different than the kids down at the public school. So you call this Christian, I don't want any part of that.

  (40:42):

  Yeah, I think that's in all also say some reasons again, where I grew up, again, not here in St. Louis, some of the reasons why certain kids were in a Christian school is because they got kicked out of the public school and the only other option was homeschooling or Christian school, private school pay for it. And so the parents were like, well, I'm not homeschooling this kid, so I'll pay for them to go. And again, that's a difference between how some private Christian schools or private schools in general do their admission process. It's very different. So where you're at, that would not happen at all. I think it's the opposite where I know a number

  (41:27):

  Of families that have been kicked out of that school had to go. You mentioned the 3D printing. One of the ones for us, and one of the things that was underwhelming about the public school we toured in our neighborhood was we went to this preview day thing. And one of our big questions was, we want to know about technology and the classroom. And so Polly asked, can you tell us about the use of technology with the kids in kindergarten at the younger ages, specifically the principal doing the thing? Totally. I don't know, again, if she cared or if she just badly misread where we were coming from on it. Our concern was overuse of technology. You're going to slap my five-year-old in front of a screen all day long. The principal used it as an excuse, an opportunity to brag about every one of our kids gets their own Google Chromebook

  (42:27):

  And they're going to know how to use that sucker. And we're like, yeah, that's not, if you're trying to sell us, that's not what we were. And again, that's another, some of that is not necessarily a public private, it's just what's the school where, where they at that teaching Kirk is very much old school like paper and ink. And you're going to get plenty of technology. We assume at home and elsewhere, you're going to know how to work a smartphone. We're not worried about that. We're worried about you knowing how to be a human being and learn the old fashioned learn handwriting. And anyway, some of it, I even rolled my eyes out Ellerie, no one cares what your handwriting look like, looks like. You're never going to have to write incursive ever again. Everything is on a computer. Who cares if you've got to be anyway. But some of those are, again, not even theological things, but I don't know. We should wrap up anything

  (43:33):

  Else? Yeah, I think with all of those of, I would just encourage anyone listening to be confident in how the Lord has directed you in making those decisions. I don't make the assumption that anyone made it lightly or is considering any of these things lightly. It is really important. But also just the comfort of knowing that one, salvifically schooling, again, salvation's up to the Lord. So regardless of the schooling options that you choose, but also that the Lord cares and is with you, and he is sovereignly working all of these things out and guiding and directing you, and there's a great comfort in that of knowing that salvation belongs to the Lord. The Lord entrusted these children to you and has equipped you and gifted you and placed you in a specific location as a part of his plan, including for those listening at West Hills, like at West Hills where we have a diversity of schooling options and a diversity of families who've chose different schooling options.

  (44:47):

  Ask around, pick the brains.

  (44:49):

  And there's a lot of wisdom and a multitude of counselors.

  (44:52):

  Yep, that's a good word. And pray. Just pray and trust the Lord to lead you and your spouse and whatever to the right decision on that. So it's a good word. Thanks for your question, Mel. Thanks

  (45:05):

  Mel. That's it for this week's episode of Ask the Pastors. Remember that you can submit your questions by visiting the info bar or by submitting them online through our website at www.westhillstl.org. And if you enjoyed this week's episode, hit that like button, subscribe and share with a friend. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll catch you right back here next week.