With NYC public schools among the most diverse in the world and private Christian schooling extremely expensive, families are deeply divided. Can a child be thoroughly discipled while navigating a secular public school system, or does the formation risk outweigh the community witness?
Join the debate to comment
Reading is free. Members pay to post — that's why it stays clean.
Add your commentAlright I'll be the one to say the uncomfortable part out loud: a lot of the Christian schooling conversation in NYC is actually a class conversation wearing a theology costume. The families loudest about 'formation risk' are also the families who can actually afford alternatives. For working-class Black and Latino churches in the Bronx and Brooklyn, this debate is largely theoretical. Our kids go to public school. Always have. And our churches are not spiritually weak because of it.
The early church formed disciples inside the Roman Empire, which was considerably more hostile than PS 87 on West 78th Street. I think we overestimate the threat and underestimate our children.
Can someone tell me where in Scripture Jesus said to build a separate Christian school system? Because I keep reading about salt and light. SALT GOES INTO THE FOOD. It doesn't sit in a little Christian salt shaker congratulating itself.
Born and raised in Flatbush, went to PS 139, and I turned out just fine spiritually. My parents prayed over me every morning, we were at Canaan Baptist three times a week, and the diversity of my classroom literally gave me more opportunities to share my faith than any bubble ever could have. Stop acting like the Holy Spirit cant follow your kid into a public school building.
I taught Sunday school at our church in Astoria for eleven years. You know what I noticed? The kids who struggled most with faith in high school weren't always the public school kids. Sometimes it was the sheltered Christian school kids who had never had to defend or even articulate what they believed because everyone around them just agreed. I'm not saying one is better. I'm saying formation is complicated and we need to stop pretending one institutional choice seals the deal either way.
okay so i just moved here from rural Tennessee six months ago and the sticker shock on Christian school tuition literally made me cry in the parking lot. like $28,000 a year PER CHILD. we have three kids. so yeah we enrolled in the local public school and im trusting God with the rest because what else are we supposed to do, move back? some of us dont have a choice and i really wish people in these debates would acknowledge that before they start throwing around words like 'compromise'
To the people saying 'just do homeschool' — have you ever tried to homeschool in a 650 square foot apartment with two working parents and no yard? I love you brothers and sisters but the suburban homeschool model doesn't exactly port over to a walk-up in Inwood. NYC Christians need NYC answers not repackaged midwest solutions.
That salt and light argument sounds clever but it doesnt really apply to seven year olds who haven't finished being formed yet. You don't send raw clay out to be shaped by everybody else and call it witness. There's a reason Paul told Timothy to guard what had been entrusted to him.
With respect to the comment above — young earth creationism is actually a minority position in Christian theology historically speaking, and most serious biblical scholars don't read Genesis 1 as a scientific timeline. So your daughter's teacher wasn't necessarily contradicting the faith. Just the particular tradition you were raised in. Not the same thing.
I actually looked into this for our diocese and Catholic schools in the five boroughs still run around $7,000-$12,000 annually which is FAR cheaper than the secular private options people keep comparing them to. There are also scholarship programs through the Cardinal's Appeal most families don't even know exist. Do your research before you say there's no alternative. That said — I do think both paths can be faithful. I just hate the false binary of 'public school or $30k tuition.'
We've had three kids go through Queens public schools — Flushing, specifically — and honestly the exposure to different religions made our kids ASK BETTER QUESTIONS about their own faith. Our middle son came home wanting to know why we believe Jesus rose from the dead because a classmate asked him and he didn't know how to answer. Best discipleship conversation we ever had as a family. Public school started it.
lol at people debating this like its a simple question when nyc public schools aren't even one thing. a school in Tribeca and a school in East New York are completely different environments, different resources, different everything. treating 'nyc public school' as a monolithic formation threat is just lazy thinking
Nope. Hard disagree. You're handing your child's primary formation hours to an institution that is legally prohibited from acknowledging God. Do the math on how many waking hours that is versus Sunday school.
My daughter came home in second grade explaining that her teacher said the world is billions of years old and that contradicts Genesis. Public school. Done. We sacrifice a lot to homeschool now and id do it again in a heartbeat.
Should Christians pray to saints — or is asking Mary and the dead for help straight-up idolatry?
56 comments
Did Christianity give birth to modern science — or did the church spend centuries trying to strangle it in the cradle?
56 comments
Does God choose who gets saved, or do you choose God — and is Calvinism secretly making God into a monster?
55 comments
Do humans have an immortal soul — or did the church steal that idea from Plato and dress it up as Scripture?
55 comments