Pillarization is the phenomenon of creating social cleavages based on community distinctions. Since especially the Dutch started this practice, the church has in its own way welcomed the divide between sacred and secular by pursuing Christian versions of media, educational institutions, hospitals etc. Think Godtube, Westminster Seminary, TBN. In evangelicalism today, this has continued and is at least in some sense beneficial. Publishing companies, seminaries, certain television channels are often both necessary and beneficial. When it comes to early childhood education though, the reason most parents choose private Christian schools or homeschooling as opposed to public is because they question the values being passed on in public schools. Most parents genuinely fear that schools will rob their children of their faith. I find this to be troubling because if Christ’s presence is not in the world through his church, it will only continue down its wayward path. For this reason, we need to trust that Christ in us is greater than he who is in the world, and that the Spirit in us is able to overcome fear, and that we are to remain in the world but be not of it.
I will be the one to tuck my child into bed. I will be the one to teach her to ride a bike for the first time. I will pack their lunch for school. I will pray with him before meals, and when he is scared, and on many other sorts of occasions. When she practices her most enchanting hobbies, spending free time in a way that most pleases her, I will be the one next to her.
I will be the one that celebrates these moments with them. I will be there whispering in their ear that they are loved by me, and loved even more by God in Jesus. What could be more powerful a safeguard than that?
Are you limiting your argument to just early childhood education? Or education in general?
Early childhood education especially, but higher education as well. We should not be surprised at the debauchery of campus life and the worldviews which colleges and universities are operating from if the church withdraws from these institutions. It is my contention that we need a presence in every niche of society!
well, in their formative and most impressionable and tender years, I believe children NEED to be kept in a greenhouse of sorts (not farmed off to the state for 6-8 hrs/day) until their roots grow deep and they are able to withstand and discern who the enemy is that is at work in the world…THEN they will be able to be in the world, not of the world — salt and light. just my two cents….