Skip to content Well Versed - Chapter 9 - School Choice and Parental Authority Jun 9 · 9 min ...more
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Dr. Jim Garlow is a lifelong pastor who most recently served in San Diego, California, and now leads Well Versed, a ministry dedicated to bringing biblical
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Parental Authority Over the State 0:00 Hey, small groups. We're back with chapter 9, which is school choice and parental authority.0:06 Let me tell you a story. I was married to Carol for 42 years until she passed away of cancer about 3 and a half years ago. I I have since remarried. But Carol and I, my my late wife,0:19 we adopted 4 children. So I want you to picture the family. Here we are as a happy family. There's Carol and I, and we had 4 little ones. We were really blessed to get to adopt 40:30 4 children. And what a honor and blessing and joy that was. And we really loved family life. It was it was it was exciting. They got ready then to for formal education. It's time to go to0:42 school. And 1 of my children, we were contacted by a counselor at school, and he said, we were offering to meet with, with your child for some counseling. I said, I think that'd be0:54 great. Let's do that. What time do you want us to be there? He said, well, it's not us. I'll just meet with him by himself. I said, well, no. He's third grader, minor. And, as father, I'm I'm I'm going to be1:06 there. I care deeply about my child, care deeply about what's put in his life. And so I'll be there. What time do you need to be there? He said, well, no. We we don't we don't allow you as parent to be there. And I said,1:16 well, I don't allow you as counselor, who I do not know, to meet with with my with my child. So that's not gonna work out. I said, let me ask you a question. Who does the child1:28 belong to? Does the child belong to the parent, or does the child belong to the state? The reason I said state was because of public education. Does the child belong to the parent or does it belong to the1:39 state? Which 1? Well, the counselor kinda felt like he was trapped. He didn't wanna say, your child belongs to the state. So he said, oh, your child belongs to the parent. I says, no. You're wrong.1:52 Child doesn't belong to either. Child belongs to God, period. But God has given authority of the child to the parent until that time the child2:04 is able to function the way he should and move into adulthood. I tell you that story for a reason. Because in public education and much of education today, the role2:16 of the parent is being diminished. The parent is no longer important. And I encourage you to stand with scripture, what the scripture says about this issue, and stand and2:28 be the 1 who is responsible for the shaping, the well-being, and the education of your child. Now let me be very clear. We we had positive experiences through 992:40 percent of our experience. And with our 4 children, we experienced we experienced public school, private school, Christian schools, charter schools, homeschool,2:52 and what we in our state of California called non public placement. So we experimented with almost every component of education probably that's available. But throughout every 1 of those, there was 13:03 thing that was driving me and that is the understanding that I ultimately am responsible for the education of my child. That's why, by the way, of all the different representations3:15 of schooling, the 1 I love the best was homeschooling. And let me just stop here for a moment. I happen to have a doctorate degree and some other degrees, and my wife is well trained as well from a prestigious school.3:26 But but the issue was not our degrees. Don't think you can't homeschool your kids because you lack degrees. The issue is the inquisitiveness, the the excitement of learning, the3:38 joy of learning. I I wanted my kids, above all, I want them to get degrees, but what I really want them to do is have the joy of learning. The teachers I have in my own background, my favorite teachers,3:50 I some really favorite teachers. I I grew up in a home where my parents did not have a college education, but they had an awe and reverence of teachers. My dad saw teaching as such a high profession profession, and it4:01 is. Teaching, awesome. Teachers union? No. Teachers? Yes. What an what a noble and and a and a high calling. So I have my own personal teachers hall of4:13 fame. Teachers that impacted me. And what they did for me is they gave me the joy and the delight of learning. The goal of formal education is to get a person into a track where they're always4:25 learning, developing, keeping their mind very sharp. And so you as homeschool you as parents can homeschool your kids, not because you have a string of degrees. You don't have to have that. What you have to have is an4:36 inquisitiveness, an excitement for learning, the joy of a learning. And and 1 of the neat things about homeschooling is you turn every experience into an educational process, a joy and a delight.4:48 We loved homeschooling. The reason I'm telling you that is because, biblically speaking, biblically speaking, you as parents are responsible for the education of your children. Now, let's go back. Here we4:59 are with with Carol and me When we had 4 children and and we had 4 kids and they were going to school and I mentioned about the counselor, here was the teachers. We had the it was appropriate biblically5:12 for us to hire effectively tutors. We call them teachers today. And to hire them, how do we hire them? Well, through either either paying in a private school tuition or through public school taxes or whatever. And5:24 that's the hiring of tutors to assist in the educational process. That's not disallowed by scripturally. However, as the parent, as the mom and the dad, we were still completely responsible5:36 for the education, for the shaping, for the well-being of that child. The reason I'm making this case is because there is an incredible push today. Let's go back to this family. Here we5:47 are. Mom mom and dad and kids, and there is a push today to eliminate the role of the parents. And the state thinks they control. The5:59 government thinks they have the right to control. Let me give you so this is not just anecdotal. I'm gonna give you some real evidence of this. The Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Department of6:08 Education, released a document on this in which they said, well, we we know parents have an important role and so we are equal parent we are equal partners with them. Catch that phrasing.6:19 We, as the government, our teachers, are equal partners with the parents. Government, no you're not. As the parent, I'm responsible as6:31 a dad. A mother's responsible. A mom and dad are responsible for their children. They're the ones that give the covering. I was once, meeting in a counseling situation with my child, and the6:43 counselor, this was an odd situation, he simply would would not allow my wife and I to speak. He did this multiple sessions. Finally, I said, I'd really like to speak up in this in6:55 this session. And he wouldn't he just would cut us off and maybe give us the last couple minutes of it. So finally, the next session, I went I said, you know what? I'm paying your salary, and I'm gonna talk.7:07 I'm gonna speak. My my wife and I are gonna speak. We want our child to be able to speak as much as the child wants to, but we're gonna talk as well. And you're not going to stop us as a counselor who, for some reason,7:19 does not want parents to be involved in this process. You know why? I said to the counselor. Because I would take a bullet for this child. I would do anything for this child. I've been with this child since the7:30 point of birth. Our children, remember, were adopted just when they were 2 and 3 and 4 days old and some were a little bit older than that. As I've been with this child from almost literally from from birth and we're7:41 fiercely committed. And as long as I have breath, I'm standing with my children. I'm gonna do whatever it takes for my child and you're in his life, her life for just a few minutes, and then you're gone. I'm gonna speak7:52 up because what I say, what my wife says, is important. We work together as a family system, as a unit together. Moms and dads, I tell you that. I don't want you to be intimidated andBiblical Duty and Rejecting Government Overreach 8:03 bullied by a statist view. State the state. In other words, the government saying, no, the kids belong to us. Because across this land, there is an elimination of parental8:15 rights. And I say, stand up based upon the scriptures and defend your parental authority.8:25 So this chapter was interesting you guys. It was on school choice and parental authority. And I had many great teachers growing up in middle school and high school, but none more important than my mom and dad who who8:36 taught me and raised me in the ways of the Lord. And to this day, I I still follow.8:40 I feel the same way about my parents. We didn't have much money growing up and we depended on some government assistance, but my parents were constantly pouring into us and were always the focal point of any decision8:50 that they made.8:51 I totally agree with you guys. My mom, when I was younger, she, actually told me a story about how my dad, before I was born in her womb, would actually read us the scriptures. Yeah. And it gave me a joy for learning the9:03 scriptures. And 1 of the first scriptures he actually taught me from reaping the harvest of him, reading me the scriptures was Proverbs 22 6, which says, train a child in the way it should go. In his old ways, he won't9:13 depart from it. And I get to, it's a joy for me to9:20 still see the harvest of that. That's beautiful.In this video 0:00 Parental Authority Over the State8:02 Biblical Duty and Rejecting Government Overreach
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