I’m happy today to host FREE Book Friday for New Leaf Publishing Group today!
This Friday’s book is called IndoctriNation – Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity. I recently reviewed this book and feel very strongly about the message presented in this book. Parents need to have all the information possible to make an informed decision about their child’s educational path. I know there are many sides and opinions to this topic.
Co-written by Colin Gunn and Joaquin Fernandez, IndoctriNation is the result of the experiences of several people. Sarah Laverdiere’s story really stood out to me and actually explains some of the behavior I have noticed from some people over the last couple of years.
Public Education Discipline: Is it Anti-Christian?
Sarah LaVerdiere is a former public elementary school teacher who became a homeschooling advocate after her very first day of working in the classroom. In October of 2010, she was ultimately forced to resign by her school district due to their “concern that [her] Christian views would influence the students and their parents.”
Sarah contributed Chapter 4 – Discipline Discipleship to the book, Indoctrination: Public Schools & the Decline of Christianity.
Morals based on what?
The word discipline means “training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character.” In this way, whoever disciplines — or disciples — your child defines the very morals they believe your child should have. Therefore, it is important to take a close look at how public schools discipline, because it reveals how they view the nature of the child and because it is partly by these methods that public schools have been so successful at discipling students away from the values and beliefs of their parents.
Darwinist Behavior?
A new discipline system has been implemented that is based on Darwinist behaviorism — and is diametrically opposed to the truths found in God’s Word. B.F. Skinner’s theory of radical behaviorism (1974) proposed that humans were deterministically controlled by their various responses to external stimuli. Essentially, radical behaviorism asserts that human beings are soulless, input/output
computers with given reactions for various conditions. We are all just robotically climbing up the evolutionary ladder into the future. Without acknowledging the all-knowing God of the Bible – the standard of truth – one cannot account for knowledge, let alone decide if the soul is blank at the time of conception (Prov. 1:7, 9:10).
Consequences?
School systems that matter-of-factly declare that “negative consequences detract from children’s ability to follow the rules” are also drug-free zones and have zero tolerance policies toward violence. So which is it? Isn’t expulsion for violent behavior or selling drugs on campus a negative consequence? To be consistent, PBIS schools would have to overlook this misbehavior and only focus on rewarding those who are not being violent or bringing drugs to school.
Entitlement
I (Sarah) believe the sense of entitlement that PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports) instills in children will be a considerable problem for our society as they grow into adults that continue to expect rewards for exhibiting standard moral behavior. The influence of socialism in our country has already produced many individuals who demand that the world provide them with a living, as demonstrated in part by the recent Occupy Wall Street movement. If my generation, which grew up getting trophies even when we came in last place, acts in such a way, what will tomorrow’s high school graduates do after they have grown up under an even more committed behaviorist system? Remember, the Bible tells us that children will not depart from the way they are raised (Prov. 22:6).
Would you like to win a copy of IndoctriNation – Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity? Follow the directions in the Rafflecopter widget to enter. The winners will be contacted by Master Books.
Liz McComas says
You asked us to share our pinterest pins on here (not sure if that was a typo or not). In case, mine is: http://pinterest.com/pin/120541727497725960/
Mike Austin says
Registering for Free Book Friday