With some of the most activist public-school curricula in the nation right in their backyard, Greater Boston Christian parents are fiercely divided: stay and be salt and light, or protect children by pulling them out entirely. Where does faithful parenting end and cultural withdrawal begin?
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Add your commentI taught for eleven years in Somerville public schools as a committed Christian and I want to say something people in this debate almost never acknowledge: the kids who came in with a solid, loving home behind them — homeschooled transfer students OR public school kids — did fine. The kids who struggled were the ones whose parents, whatever their schooling choice, were absent and disengaged. The school is not the variable. The parent is the variable. Full stop.
Hot take nobody wants to hear: a lot of the Boston-area Christian anxiety about public schools has less to do with theology and more to do with race and class anxieties that we never want to name out loud. Which families are fleeing to which schools and WHERE exactly are they fleeing FROM? Ask that question before you dress it up in Scripture.
Born and raised in Dorchester, went through BPS all twelve years. My faith survived just fine, thank you very much. My kids are in the same system now and honestly the conversations we have at the dinner table BECAUSE of what they encounter at school are some of the richest theological discussions I've ever had. You want to raise kids who can defend what they believe? Let them meet ideas that challenge them.
My grandmother taught Sunday school at Tremont Temple for forty years. She used to say the church gets soft when it only talks to itself. I think about that a lot when I see homeschool co-ops that are basically just bubble-wrap with a Bible verse printed on it.
Can we please stop pretending that homeschooling automatically produces spiritually mature kids? I know plenty of homeschooled kids from our church in Needham who hit college and completely abandoned the faith because they had zero practice engaging with the real world. Sheltering is not discipleship.
I think people romanticize the 'salt and light' argument as a cover for just not wanting to pay for private school. Be honest with yourselves. There's a difference between being a missionary and throwing your eight-year-old into a situation they're completely unprepared to navigate spiritually. Missionaries get TRAINED first. Your third grader hasn't been.
lol at the guy who said Deuteronomy 6 is about homeschooling. Moses was not talking about curriculum design for the 21st century bro. that passage is about continuous, integrated faith formation throughout daily life, not a specific institutional choice. please do not proof-text your way into a school policy position
okay so i moved here from Alabama two years ago for grad school and wow. i grew up thinking boston was basically godless but there are SO many serious Christians here doing incredible work in the public schools as teachers, counselors, coaches. like maybe instead of fleeing we should be talking about how to get more believers INTO those buildings as adults??
We do a hybrid — three days at a small classical Christian school in Waltham, two days homeschooling, and our kids are in youth group with public school kids every week. It costs us a lot and we drive a ridiculous amount but honestly it feels like the most faithful option for our specific family. I bristle at people who act like there's ONE right answer here for every Christian family in every neighborhood in Greater Boston. Belmont is not Brockton. Lexington is not Lynn.
The 'mission field' framing makes me genuinely uncomfortable. Your child is not a missionary. They are a child. They have a developmental need for protection and formation before deployment. We would never send an adult into cross-cultural ministry without years of preparation — why do we casually talk about kindergartners as evangelists?
Nope. Hard disagree. Pulled our three kids out of Newton public schools four years ago and have never once looked back. Some hills are worth dying on and my children's souls are one of them.
My wife and I prayed hard about this for months before kindergarten registration. We felt God calling us to keep our daughter in the Arlington public schools. Two years in she has a teacher who loves her, friends of every background, and asks better questions about God than I did at twice her age. Every family has to discern this for themselves. Stop judging people for the choice they made in good faith before the Lord.
Actually the Bible is pretty clear that parents, not the state, are responsible for educating children in the faith. Deuteronomy 6 doesn't say 'send them to the Cambridge School Committee and hope for the best.' The family is the primary institution, not the school.
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