Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Is public schooling the right option for christian children? A couple of decades ago, it was more or less the default for most christians because it was the default for most people in society to public school their children. You had pockets of christians here or there that had private christian schools or homeschooled, but most christian children went to public school. But that's not the same today. A lot of people seem to be questioning what's happening at the public school and what's being taught, but it does still seem like a valid question. Should christians consider public schooling as an option? Is there some validity to your kids learning how to interact with both secular ideologies coming from teachers and secular peers, and students learning how to have those interactions as children? I'm Eric Rasmussen. This is the concerning him podcast, and today is the third and final episode in our three part series on Christian Schooling. In our first episode, we had Stephanie Cunningham come on to talk about the benefits of homeschooling your children. In the second episode, Amy Rush came on the podcast to talk about private christian schooling for christian children. And today I'm excited to have on Heath Munson to talk about the benefits of sending christian kids to public schools. Notice at the end he spends some time talking about priorities and how each family's set of life priorities will have an impact on what they choose is best for their children. And I thought that section especially was the most helpful when we think about guiding all of us in making this type of decision on what is best for our children. If you listen to us on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it'd be great if you gave us a rating or review.
And if you watch us on YouTube, if you could like the video or subscribe to our channel, that would be really helpful. Thank you. Remember, the concerning Hymn podcast is brought to you by Emmaus Bible College. For more information about Emmaus, please visit emmaus.edu. And if you're interested in listening to more podcast episodes like this one, or reading biblically based articles, or listening to biblically centered and gospel centered sermons, please visit concerninghim.com.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Heath, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Happy to have you back on. Last time you were on the podcast, we got to talk about mental health and medicine for mental health and things like that. And that was a great conversation. Probably more so than today has to do with what you're doing on a daily basis, working as a counselor, which is great both for Emmaus and your own private practice, which is great. But welcome. I'm excited to have you back on the podcast.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Thanks. Yeah, it's a different conversation to plan.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: But yeah, today we're talking about public schooling. Right. This is the third in a three part series. The first we had Stephanie Cunningham talked about homeschooling, and second one we had Amy Rush, principal at tri State Christian School here in town, talked about private christian schooling. And today with you, I want to talk about homeschooling. I'm sorry. I want to talk about public schooling and why should a Christian consider sending their kids to the public school?
I think, as you know, that's becoming more controversial today than it was maybe 1020 years ago. It was maybe more of a default, certain people would choose to private christian school or to home school, but it was more of a default among christians than maybe it is today. There's kind of a rise of pulling kids out of the public school. I want to be careful with you today. I want to be careful because this is know, in a way, both the last two episodes, while they had some comments on each, some Stephanie was know, I'd rather homeschool rather than private christian school. And Amy was saying, I'd rather at private christian school as opposed to homeschooling. In reality, their biggest critiques were of the public school system and choosing one of these two things as an alternate. So I want to be careful with you and not just, this should not be an attack on you. There's no desire for this to be an attack on you, but I do want to raise some of their concerns and see what you've thought through. So you were home schooled, is that correct?
Public schooled? I'm sorry. I keep misspeaking.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: That's okay.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: You were public schooled?
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Yeah. So I went to public school all the way through preschool, through, technically, the preschool was at a church, but then public school all the way through high school.
Yeah. And so that's my experience.
I think that I also don't want to feel like I'm in the hot seat or speaking for all public schoolers, which I appreciate that. As we talked ahead of time, that's not what you're asking for, because sometimes it's availability and sometimes it's other priorities.
Part of it growing up in public schools was because that's what was available. I mean, I grew up in rural Iowa, and so there weren't any private schools. Homeschooling wasn't that big, and it just wasn't something that I remember even really considering you're in the area. That's what you mean. It's interesting, though, because even as we talk about some of the difficulties, like I changed public schools for my last two years of high school. Personal choices made as a family for some different reasons. But just so knowing that there can be some pros and cons, even with the different public schools that you get in, it's such a wide variety in picture. So knowing that there's a lot of leeway, a lot of space as we talk about public schooling, of millions of ways that that can look in different.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Contexts, I especially think know you talk about different contexts. I'm thinking of different cities or geographical locations across America. I mean, if you're talking rural Iowa, growing up in rural Iowa versus inner city Chicago or New York, that public school experience is going to look way different, both with the types of teachers and staff working at the school. But mean things that you have access to, things to experience are just going to be vastly different. And I'm not even attempting to say one's better than the other. It's just going to look way different. So that's a good point. And I do think it's important for us to say today, again, yeah, you are not really capable of representing all of public schooling because that's impossible.
I more want to talk through some of the thought processes behind choosing. Because you do have kids attending public schools now. Correct. And what kind of age range.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah, so I have from kindergarten through high school this year. So kind of have the gamut. And they've all been in the public schools except for during COVID when we got to practice homeschooling with everybody else. And I say we, but really my wife, because she was the one taking on the bulk of that about however many years ago in trying to think through what do we do? Because there's homeschooling. Know, lots of people have family that do homeschooling. So I had some introduction to that even before then. And there's private school in the area, but it really came down to is my wife and I wrestled through what do we do with the oldest.
Kind of wanting to have some consistency.
I wanted to just throw it out there. If you're considering with private school, at least then it's, well, there's a cost consideration. And how do we think about that?
A couple of big thoughts that kind of I had or that we had as we were making this decision is one just what are the opportunities around you that the private school, there's a lot of private schools in this area is more Catholic focused. And so being able to say, okay, is the theology they're learning, fitting really well with what we would teach. And so for me, deciding, having it be very close, but have some things that I had personally, some questions with, and I don't have issues with Catholics. I know a number. But for me, as far as the schooling, that was a thought.
Another part of it, though, and probably the biggest consideration, even living, because even Dubuque is, I've heard it described as a big, small town. So we are more of a rural area and thinking of. So when I finished grad school and considering coming back to Iowa from Texas to do counseling, was thinking of it as a mission. And so when we think of going on mission to third world countries, okay, I'm going to give up a lot of my conveniences for the sake of these people that I love. I'm coming here. I want to talk about Jesus. I want to build relationship with them.
There were lots of christian counselors in the Dallas Fort Worth area with two seminaries there. There's not very many in Iowa. And so trying to think, okay, how are we being intentional?
So then coming back, seeing what we do, including putting our kids in school as a mission, that this is a really intentional way to prioritize building relationships with families, with teachers, with other students.
And part of it is knowing my own personality, that I love people, but I'm not great at instigating things. And so if I'm not in an environment where, hey, we're going to do these events with all of these different people regularly, I might just stay out of it. And so then I don't get to know those people. So it was this intentional choice to be in the public school so that we'd be going to concerts, we'd be going to sporting events, we'd be going to open houses, and we get to see these people and have opportunity and reason to have relationship with them, really. Not that it's like, hey, let me tell you about Jesus every time we talk. But then there is relationship, and we want to intentionally be in the community that we're a part of instead of, yeah, well, we're a part of this, but we don't claim that mascot or we're something different. And that's not to say that that's what people in private school or homeschool are doing. It was just for me, for us seeing, yeah, I'm going to feel more segregated if I don't have an intentional reason to really be a part of this community and be active in it.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: So that's interesting because I have heard Christians who send their kids to public school say, well, it's an opportunity for my kids to learn how to be missionaries. And people have combated that, saying, well, kids need to be trained first. You don't just throw kids out in the mission field. Right. But what you're saying is this is a more whole family approach of by my kid being involved in the public school. My whole family is now involved in the public school. So when my son or my daughter has a concert or has a sports game, it's not, we're going sitting the stands with a bunch of christians because it's a private christian school. Instead, we're sitting in the stands with a representative group of the community and interacting with them and seeing them and making friends and then eventually invite them to place dinner or to church or whatever it is to be able to. So rather than what some people have said, I'm just sending my kids in to go mission. It's more like, no, we're doing this as a family. Is that correct? Is that what I'm hearing?
[00:11:16] Speaker B: You say, yeah, that's the ideal. And I say that and it's like, man, I'm not doing that as well as I would really like to. But that's the thought in it. I think as we talked about it, it's just noticing that there's kind of two different views because there is that mentality in knowing people that have been in private schools that we need to train them so that then they can go out into the world. So make sure they have a really strong foundation.
I think another view is we're training them along the way. And so even as some of the things that can come up is, well, what's the school going to teach about this? Are they teaching about this topic that we don't agree with that or we don't believe that, or it's whatever terms they want to put to it.
And I've had some really good opportunities to have conversations with my kids, and sometimes it was younger than I expected or hoped for, but instead of being like, oh, they told you about what body part? It's okay, tell me about that.
How do you respond to that? What do you think about that? And so then it makes it more accessible. And I don't have to be the one to come up with all the conversations, but it's kind of teaching them how to engage with people along the way. And in some of those conversations, then we've had the opportunity to have many conversations about some of those hardest kind of cultural church topics.
But then how do you respond to someone that disagrees with you, with respect and with love, and what does that look like? And so kind of just talking about that and then hearing a couple of years later like, oh, yeah, I had this conversation and they thought I'd hate them. Or maybe it wasn't that strong, but even just that, yeah, we got to ask questions and they asked me questions and I asked them questions.
They're practicing it along the way rather than feeling like we have to wait until they have this full foundation.
But they're getting some of it and then practicing and getting a little more and practicing and doesn't mean that it's not hard on both sides at times.
But do you do all the training first or do you do training simultaneous? Is kind of, I think, where neither of them is right or wrong. It's just a different approach.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: And what I'm hearing you say, too, is that part of as a Christian, having your kids in the public school is in a certain aspect, you aren't just saying, well, I'm not going to teach my kids anything.
You're saying, well, we're going to teach them a lot of stuff. We're going to let them experience, have these experiences, learn these things, and then they're going to come home and then we're going to teach them some more about, well, this is what the Bible says. This is what we believe. This is how to engage with these people and have nice and kind and loving conversations. So what you're doing is not saying, well, this public school is doing all the educating you're embracing. Am I correct? We're still educating our children in tandem with the school. Is that correct?
[00:14:18] Speaker B: And yeah, and I think that that's where there is that mentality that you have teachers that christians are not.
I've had a lot of really good teachers, had some not as great ones at times, too, in various ways, but really good teachers that can teach about how physics works and how math works. So you can get that in these places. So not negating it just because it's not a christian school, because looking back, some of them were christians and they didn't proclaim it, but it's like, okay, I can see that. I can tell some of that.
But then when trying to be intentional when they're coming home of what are you learning about? Hey, tell me about that. And part of it is I like to know things and like to share things that I know. So that's fun for me.
But even just this week, one of them talking about, yeah, we're learning about ancient Mesopotamia and cuneiform and like, great. And so they're talking about the epic of Gilgamesh and like, oh, well, I know some of that from the public school. I know some of that from seminary and historically. So how does that fit with the biblical narrative? So it's just being able to not expect, and it has to be somebody else who knows all of those things. It's great if they add that in. And so that's where I think there can be good times, where people choose private school. Like, yeah, that can be fantastic. I think that there could be great opportunities for homeschool.
So some of the ideas of, you can really tailor your education when you're homeschooling, and I think in many ways you can.
I know, I've heard of a number of situations where there were needs. Either the student just had some special learning needs, but maybe just even to a depth that the parent couldn't meet as well when they're already there, because even some of my kids have been able to utilize some of those resources to say, wow, here's an opportunity that's really going to take it. The next step, which goes back to, even as we talk about different public schools, in changing schools, it was amazing. Even the difference in the opportunities that were there. I didn't even consider going out for soccer those two years because it had never been an option. And looking back, it's like, man, that would have been a lot of fun.
So then coming here, like, Emmaus has a soccer team, it didn't even cross my mind because it was never available. So it was never mentioned as an option.
And so it can really change things. But I think that having some of those opportunities, and I know a lot dual enroll, so you can do sports or you can do band, or you can get some of those things.
And that's where it really is. Deciding what's the highest priority for your family, I think, is where I would come down to. So it's not just because I was public schooled, but seeing what are our priorities in this and teaching our kids along the way. As we talked about it, it wasn't something that my wife and I really wanted to spend the time homeschooling. We did it for the year during COVID as I said, and it's like, yeah, that was a lot of fun. And is that really where we're going to invest that time?
And I think it's. I had another thought.
Yeah, I know there's another reason. It'll come back to me. I'm sure.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: Well, as you think about that, I want to ask you, in the other two episodes we've talked about the gender issue that's happening. That's a hot topic in public schools especially. You consider these, you have teachers, especially young, kindergarten, first grade, second grade teachers, these stories of they're teaching like a gender fluidity type of idea, saying if you feel like you're another gender than what your parents say you are and you don't want to share that information with them, you can share that with me. I'm not going to report it to your parents. In some schools, you're not even allowed to, even if you wanted to.
All of that type of stuff that's happening today, that is, I think, a big reason why a lot of people have started to pull away from the public schools or be skeptical of the public schools. A lot of christians have. Does that concern you? Do you have thoughts about that? How do you approach conversations about that type of stuff with your kids?
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that's a good question. I think there are a lot of people that are concerned in that so far. There are definitely topics that come up. So that's some of the conversations that we've been able to have. And I think that even teaching things and talking about things with my kids from a biblical perspective, I think the biggest biblical perspective that it gives them an opportunity to practice is love your neighbor as yourself. And so rather than saying, oh, I'm scared that they're going to think that it's this other thing. We've had conversations since they were born of, hey, God made you and God loves you, and even praying over them as kids and making that choice of saying, God, this child is yours, you made them. Thank you for letting me be a caretaker for them. Help me to do that. Well, so then it's shifting my perspective from, I'm afraid I'm going to mess things up or what are they going to learn or how are things going to break to. There's a lot of ways things can break. The fact that knowing what I know of how even biology, the fact that babies are born as often without difficulties, blows my mind. Okay, so let's rejoice in that. So then as I talk to them, we can talk about, okay, how do we think about some of these? But it's starting with how do you be a good friend? And so if they're telling you, well, you have to believe this, well, we can have a conversation because sometimes, well, the sun is hot and warms the earth, I don't know that we can really argue that people can, but we don't have to get up in arms about it.
But if they're saying, well, I believe this for me, okay, well, I don't have to spend all my time with you if you're being mean about it, but I can still be kind and treat you more respectfully than maybe other people do. And so, personally, I haven't been confronted a ton with teachers really pushing.
What I've seen is a lot of giving opportunity for the students who identify in those ways, saying, hey, I'm a safe person to talk to. This is a safe place.
But I've not seen them pushing, hey, and you need to agree with it. And no, stop talking to, you shouldn't talk about the Bible.
I think some of it is knowing the context, knowing how does it compare between the different schools.
And I think that it's easy for us to work up in our minds, like, this is a much bigger thing.
And I think for us it's been more, I don't want them to learn kind of everything from the beginning and at the same time not being so afraid of them learning things, because I think as the creator and sustainer of everything, God has an answer to every question, and it's either here's the answer or nobody can really know.
But we get an opportunity to teach that when we're confronted with, well, but this person's different. Well, lepers were different in Jesus time, and even women were treated fairly poorly in Jesus'time. And he treated them with love and challenged some of those overriding beliefs of, yeah, stop doing that. But you still matter.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: When I discussed with Stephanie about homeschooling, I think a big topic that we talked about was the social lives of the kids of a homeschooler. Right. You often hear about homeschoolers, oh, your kids are going to be socially awkward if they're homeschooled. And we talked about that. On the flip side, with public schooling and thinking about the social experiences of your kids, oftentimes, christians are less concerned with public schooling, about their kids being socially awkward or whatever, and it's more about what social things are they going to experience that you would rather them not experience. I mean, you can think about the extremes of alcohol and drugs and stuff like that, but you also talk about music that your kids might be experiencing or ways of using language that your kids might experience. How do you, do you worry about those things, and how do you address those things with having your kids at public school?
[00:22:33] Speaker B: Good questions. I think, do I worry about them.
Maybe not outwardly very much.
I think they cross my mind, what about this? And what about that? And I think, again, I keep coming back to, am I being intentional with the time that I do have?
Because there's a part of it.
If kids want to get into things, especially with the Internet nowadays, they can find basically anything they want. And as someone who tries, because I know about computer stuff, networking is not my thing.
And trying to limit that down, it's really hard because there's always loopholes. And so just realizing, okay, I can't put up a fence to protect them from everything. Public school. Yeah. Probably exposed to a lot more of that language or some of those music or movies or ideas.
I think part of it is finding a lot of it just goes over their head because it's not something that they hear elsewhere, so they don't realize, oh, that's actually a really offensive thing, or actually that's a really inappropriate thing.
I think some of it is just trying to help debrief afterwards, which it's been different for every kid because they're different people. And so then this thing is a huge problem for one. And the other one, oh, that happened today, I didn't even notice. And it's not good or bad. It's just we're more attuned to different difficulties or different even good things.
I think that.
Sorry, I lost the question a little bit.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: It's about the social interactions.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: Yes. Thank you. I think, too, is even with homeschooling, because even part of when I changed schools, I was told, because I was trying to take it like an advanced class. No, you need to be in this more remedial class. And it's like, why? Well, because you need social skills.
Fair point. I may have been really socially awkward at that age, I'm not sure. But I think this emphasis on, we need to put them in these scenarios for the social skills of it, because I think that in the public schools, it is good they get to interact with people from all different. I mean, depending on where you are, many different cultures, or even just family cultures, thought processes, you have to learn to interact. And I've seen some studies, even through Covid, finding that some of the, I think they were talking about political beliefs, but I'm not trying to get into that here, but finding that people's beliefs in general got more extreme during the lockdown because you didn't have to sit across the lunch table from somebody who's saying, oh, I can't believe this is going on like, wait a second. I actually think there's some good in that. So we're both kind of honed a little bit as iron, sharpening iron by being faced with people we disagree with. And so I see there being some benefit of, instead of it being, hey, we all believe in the same Jesus in very similar ways to, yeah, we're having this intentional opportunity to see people that think things very differently. And so, oh, these things are good. Oh, but I'm missing something here, actually. I think they help me see. And I know personally as a counselor, just as a human being, I have learned so much from people that my initial thought would be, they are not going to like me. We are so different. And then it turns out, wow, we have a ton in common. And I'm challenged in, wow. I thought that this was a steadfast, but I think I was taking the Bible farther than what it really said. And so they helped pull me back into this is how Jesus really thought and acted, seemingly, from what I can tell. I think it can help balance it.
And again, maybe my kids are socially awkward like me. I'm not going to try to say I know exactly. I don't know that they are. I think they do pretty well. And I think a lot of it has to do with the intentionality of just because they're to the public school, it's not, well, your job, go take care of it. It's okay. You're doing these things. There's going to be some benefits where I don't have to do some of that. Like I don't have to relearn physics, but I might have to have more conversations about some of the social stuff.
[00:26:40] Speaker A: Somebody is, again, the purpose of these three episodes is not, again, to have a definitive, this is the right way. Every Christian, everybody connected with Emmaus Bible college that listens to the concerning him podcast has to school your children this way more for me, I'll even say it's partially an exercise for me with a two year old and trying to think through, okay, I've got to make this decision pretty soon.
[00:27:05] Speaker B: It's really nice to be able to call on experts to say, okay, well, experts, people who know something and help me to decide this.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: So that's having these different conversations of strong opinions of, why would you do this? What's the benefit?
If you were to give guidance to someone? If you want to use me as your standing, you can, but you don't have to. Who's trying to make this decision of maybe they've got a three or four year old and they're trying to think through kindergarten. What are we doing? Is it the private christian school? Is it the public school? Do we home school?
Or maybe they've got kids already older in school and they're trying to think through should we keep them where they are? Should we do something different?
How would you guide someone who is thinking through all of these things?
[00:27:53] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a really good question. I think that I would start with really, what are your priorities? Okay.
There's priorities in life, but in some of those is. So where are those priorities going to take you? Because if you're prioritizing as a family, okay, this particular kind of job, well, where are you going to do that? And so then there might only be one school within 100 miles. And so then you have two options. That school or homeschooling. Yeah, some of it is prioritizing. Where are we going to be? What are the options available to us there? And then kind of who are you and who are your kids? Because I think that those have to be two big questions because I think that sometimes kids can do really well in public school and sometimes they don't because maybe seeing kids that are more sensitive to kids getting louder or yelling at each other or something. And I think it seems like that happens more in public school, from what I've heard, only attended the couple.
And so if some are more sensitive. Okay, is this something that is so much that it's going to stop them from being able to learn or is this something that, yeah, they can learn to practice in some of this? Because if it's really detrimental to that, then I think it is. Okay, maybe we need to look at some other options.
And sometimes, depending on what the options are locally, if you really want the best education, like I want the best opportunities, they're going to have the best teachers and the best ways to be able to go to the best colleges and do these things? Well, depending on where you are and kind of financially, I don't know which choice that could because sometimes that's a public school and sometimes that's a private school. Sometimes it's homeschooling. Like, hey, we need these opportunities. I was just listening to a different podcast by a writer and podcast lawyer, David French. I'll just mention him by name, but I liked the point that he made. So I wanted to give credit because he talks about, if you want to be a lawyer, if you want to be a lawyer in Kentucky, going to this university in Kentucky is going to really connect you to the people in Kentucky doing law. And so you're going to go there. So maybe you'll get a better education at Harvard or somewhere, but, like, that's where you want to be. So maybe be there because it gives you those connections. But if you want to be in the speaking cycle, I don't remember what all he said with it, but it's just thinking through the context matters. And so if you want to be here, well, everybody that works there maybe goes to Harvard or goes to Emmaus or goes to. We don't have a law school, so I don't have to talk us up necessarily in that.
So finding what are those contexts that you're going to be working in? I appreciate, even for my job. So I have the seminary degree in counseling. And so then I think that gives me credibility with some christians. But sometimes people are skeptical. Like, you have a seminary degree for your, like, should we really trust you? Because do you trust science? And it's like, I have a bachelor of science from Iowa State. Oh, okay. And then it's like, that gives credence to some people that might otherwise be skeptical. Like, yeah, I'm good with both. I can speak both languages, kind of.
What are your priorities? Where are you going to be? And so we could have prioritized. We're going to go to whatever city has the best schools to give our kids the best opportunity.
God opened up opportunities here. I think there's a need for us to be here. And so then, yeah, there's some really great teachers who've really loved our kids.
Are there other opportunities, other places? Sure. Could we do the homeschooling?
[00:31:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: When we did it for a year and we have lots of family that have continued it since COVID even.
But for us, it was a good fit. And so then it's, I think to some degree, not saying public school is evil because they talk about things from an ungodly perspective.
Yeah. And so does the rest of the world. And so instead of being trying to avoid that perspective finding, how can we train them while they're going through it to engage with it?
So I don't know that there's a right answer. I think it's been good and challenging for me, for my kids at times, but to just be really present and then to feel like, yeah, I can do this and I don't have to worry about, well, what if I meet somebody that talks like this or looks like that? Like, no, I've done that hundred times and they disagreed with me and they were mean about it, and then I figured out it might give some practice where otherwise, that kind of singular culture might limit it a bit more.
[00:32:33] Speaker A: I think your thoughts on priorities puts a good capstone on this whole series, actually. So thank you. Because I think that it can be hard sometimes. I'm trying to communicate in such a way that is saying, hey, these are some different options.
Let's create some episodes that help people think through this. And there's probably some people would say, why are you just saying, truth is, relative to different people? Isn't there just one best thing to do? And I think what you're talking about is every family has their priorities as a family, and we would hope, christian families, their ultimate priority is, how could we glorify God? Right. But then within that, not every family is moving to Iowa to do christian counseling. Correct. Right. So everybody has different priorities and how that's actively playing out. And as a result of these priorities and how, you know, focusing on different things as a family, different options might become more or less clear, more or less obvious, and maybe there's not an obvious right option, but it does seem to really connect with, well, what are we doing as a family? What's our purpose as a family? So I really appreciate those thoughts. I think it's a really good way just to Capstone kind of these three episodes.
So thanks for coming into Heath today. Heath. I don't know if there's anything else you want to mention quickly before we wrap up here. I don't want to cut you off. If you have a good thought.
[00:33:54] Speaker B: No, thanks for having me. And I'm glad that that's a helpful thought. And so I think, just for clarity, because I'm trying to hold several ideas, and that I think homeschooling can be a great option for many families. I think that private schooling can be a great option for many families.
I think that public school can be a great option for many families. So if anything sounded like, oh, I really think poorly of it because of this, I'm not going there, I do think so. That's where our choice was. Yeah, we're going to be intentional in this way.
And I don't even know. I mean, with COVID that changed. And so recognizing things can be fluid from kids from year to year. And so rather than feeling like, well, I'm a Christian, so we have to do homeschooling, because that's what every Christian in my church does, maybe. And that's what you said from the beginning is just saying, no, it's not saying that. There's one right way, recognizing there are good reasons for multiple choices. So I appreciate that. And I think that's just what I would reiterate is I think there's lots of things. And so rather than saying there's one size fits all is, you really have to consider it, which is harder, so much harder to mean I have to choose by myself.
Just tell me what I should do. Doesn't the Bible, no, the Bible doesn't say how exactly. And so then I think God gives us so much freedom and a ton of grace. So did I choose wrong? Maybe.
But I also trust in God's grace to use even whatever choice for our good and for his glory. And so that's where I kind of rest in it.
[00:35:27] Speaker A: Amen. Well, thank you for coming on today.
[00:35:29] Speaker B: Thanks for having me.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to concerning him an Emmaus podcast. Ministries like concerning him are possible because of the generous contributions from our partners around the world. For more information about partnering with us, please visit Emmaus.edu partner.
