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Can a Christian Work in the Government School System?
By Karl Priest September 9, 2009 (revised 1-20-14)
(Grateful acknowledgement goes to an anonymous source for help with this article.)
Some are positive that it is wrong to work in the government school system and use the analogy of “I wouldn't work in a bar to support my family so I will not work in the public school system.” Someone else says, “Many businesses and corporations have non-Christian owners who use products and funds in an unrighteous way. All the systems, both public and private, are becoming more godless. Even being a loyal citizen of the USA means we allow our tax-money to be used for some un-godly activities—including property taxes to fund government schools.”
How does one decide whether or not to work in the government schools?
What if one is actively involved in urging others to remove their children from government schools and still works in that corrupt system? How would that person appeal to someone who says, “If you work there it must not be too bad.”? I f people lack deep conviction from Word of God that Christian schools or homeschooling is commanded as part of the walk of faith and obedience, then they will use any excuse to keep their children under government control. If absolutely no Christians were government school employees—compromising Christians would find other excuses to ignore the dangers that subject their children to for the sake of ease, comfort, love of money, etc.
It would be ideal for no Christians to assist the ungodly system of government education. If they have no other choice, it's not wrong for a person to drive a school bus or work as a cook, custodian, secretary, teacher, etc. to provide an income for a family—. The family bread-winner needs to protect his income in this current bad economy. Jobs will become harder and harder to find and retain. Providing extra-income for some luxuries is a different matter.
If the head of the family could replace that income it's always good not to contribute to helping government schools in any fashion, but the issue is not what adults do, it’s the children’s education and spiritual well-being.
One thing is for sure, a Christian who works in the government school system should be wary of hiding his/her light and compromising. Many Christian public school teachers become enablers for Christian families to leave their children in government schools. It is easy for a teacher to effect children for Jesus. A Bible on the desk, a regular comment about church activity, sponsorship of Christian clubs are a few ideas. Other employees can find ways that are specific to their individual jobs. Also, those inside the system can see first-hand what is going on and provide eye-witness accounts to others.
The final decision rests upon God’s Word. “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.” (Romans 14:12-13)
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A controversial subject regarding Christian teachers in public schools is evolution.
Following are some secular source snips to give you the gist:
Larry Booher
For 15 years, in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling, Larry Booher taught creationism in his high school biology class. He even compiled a textbook of sorts and passed out copies in three-ring binders.
The school superintendent didn’t know what was going on. Neither did the school board president. Then, they got an anonymous tip.
Booher has agreed to revise his lesson plan, though he maintained that he handed out the book, titled “Creation Battles Evolution,” to his Biology 2 students only as a voluntary, extra-credit option.
“He told the students, 'You may read this. You don’t have to. It has some Bible references in it',” said Alan Lee, superintendent of Washington County (Virginia) schools. “This teacher felt like he wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
Lee described Booher, 48, as “one of the finest science teachers I’ve ever been around” and said Booher would return to the classroom in the fall since he agreed to stop distributing the creationism materials.
“He must teach evolution exclusively — observable scientific fact, not beliefs or religion,” Lee said. “I fully believe he will comply. He just stepped over the line.”
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8169240/ns/us_news-education/t/teacher-told-revise-creationism-lesson-plan/#.X4JLiWhKjIU
Roger Dehart
On the 10 days each semester that he devoted to teaching evolution, he spent one day talking about "intelligent design" theory. But that was enough to prompt an ongoing fight with the school board and the ACLU.
Intelligent design splits from the mainstream scientific view that Darwinian natural selection and random genetic mutations led to life on earth. Intelligent design argues that evolution does not fully account for the complexity and diversity of life — that these were the result of the work of an "intelligent designer." To some, that means God.
DeHart quit his job there in summer 2000 after he was told to teach earth science instead of biology.
He said the controversy wasn’t a "religion versus science" debate, but a battle over two different interpretations of scientific evidence on the origins of human life.
"I think when it’s framed in that manner then people say, ‘Well why can’t you present that in the public schools? What’s wrong with having that debate?’ As opposed to saying this is religion versus science. Everyone says, ‘Wait a minute; we can’t have religion in the public schools,’ " he said.
And when the argument is framed that way, it helps the majority of the scientific community that supports Darwinism. "Here is something they’ve spent their whole lives studying. They don’t want to face the possibility they may not be correct," DeHart said.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/controversial-teacher-resigns/
John Freshwater
A 20-year veteran Ohio middle school science teacher who was fired in 2011 for teaching creationism in his class will have his day in the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday when his lawyers will argue that his firing was a violation of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to free speech and religion.
"In coming to veteran science teacher John Freshwater's defense, Institute attorneys argue that the Mount Vernon City School District violated John Freshwater's academic freedom rights-and those of his students-by firing him in January 2011," said the statement.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-science-teacher-fired-over-creationism-to-head-to-ohio-supreme-court.html
Kris Helphinstine
Officials at an Oregon high school have fired a biology teacher who distributed fundamentalist Christian material in class and compared the theory of evolution to Nazism.
Kris Helphinstine was hired by the Sisters School District in central Oregon to teach evolutionary biology, but he quickly departed from the accepted curriculum. In a supposed attempt to “give accurate information” and get kids thinking, Helphinstine distributed an essay from Answers in Genesis, a fundamentalist Christian ministry that wants “young-Earth creationism” taught in public school science classes.
https://www.au.org/church-state/may-2007-church-state/people-events/oregon-teacher-fired-after-remarks-linking
Anquinette Jones
The latest chapter in the debate over how to teach the origins of human life is unfolding closer to home than many in the Grady (Georgia) community would have ever expected.
A PowerPoint shown to a freshman biology class featured a cartoon depicting dueling castles, one labeled “Creation (Christ)” and the other labeled “Evolution (Satan).” Balloons attached to the evolution castle were labeled euthanasia, homosexuality, pornography, divorce, racism and abortion.
The PowerPoint was assigned for the students to view on the website Blackboard as a part of Anquinette Jones’ freshman biology class. Jones declined comment, saying that the PowerPoint originated with APS.
The PowerPoint, which has more than 50 slides largely consisting of material about evolution, was downloaded from SharePoint, an APS file-sharing database for teachers. It was uploaded by Mary E. King, a project manager at APS who has also uploaded more than 2,000 other documents. Phone calls and emails to King have not been returned.
“Evolution is part of high school biology curriculum,” the PowerPoint reads. “You are entitled to challenge everything and encouraged to believe whatever you would like.”
Several students and parents were offended…
https://thesoutherneronline.com/29658/news/creationism-in-classroom-causes-concern/
Rodney LeVake
According to other teachers at the (Faribault, Minnesota,) high school, LeVake "was openly professing his Christianity. He would argue things from a fundamentalist point of view" (Leiblich 1999). His colleagues became uneasy about his approach to evolution, which was decidedly negative. The science chair at the high school, biologist Ken Hubert, talked with LeVake and decided that he needed to meet with the principal and the district science coordinator to discuss how he was teaching the class.
During that meeting, LeVake claimed he was willing to teach evolution, but also wanted to teach the "evidence against evolution". The administrators requested that he prepare a white paper that would describe more precisely what he intended to teach.
https://ncse.ngo/minnesota-teacher-sues-district-over-evolution
Phil Lucason
A district biology teacher has been accused of casting doubt on the theory of evolution during a Jan. 14 lesson, in favor of more religious explanations of the origin of species.
Phil Lucason told students that “evolution only goes so far” and that passing the Regents Exam in biology requires students to “play the evolution game where evolution is the answer to everything,” according to a letter sent to the Holland Patent Central School District by the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation earlier this month.
Those comments, and others Lucason allegedly said, violate federal law, which does not allow for the undermining of evolution or the promotion of creationism or any other religious theory of creation, according to the foundation.
Asked for comment, Lucason said In an emailed statement to the O-D that the situation won’t happen again.
“I recently taught a 42-minute lesson on the science of evolution,” the statement reads. “Having taught about evolution for 20 years, I know that our students hear various theories on the origins of species. I enumerated some of them by way of example. My mention of those other theories led to the concerns that have been articulated. In the future, I will not refer to other, non-scientific explanations and will clearly teach the science and theory of evolution as the explanation for the development of life on earth as provided by the New York State standards.”
https://www.uticaod.com/news/20200301/holland-patent-biology-teacher-accused-of-unscientific-lesson
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