"why do you describe Christian schools as the 'Christian Right' "

David, I guess its because so many born again Aussie churches
are branches of US churches and rattling the tin for Jesus,
is so incredibly profitable!

I keep telling them, I was born fine the first time :)

You cannot deny that religion is huge business. Hundreds of
millions of $ pour into the so called US bible belt, from
all those TV programmes. Its an enormous industry!

Pushing peoples emotional buttons and extracting money
is clearly highly profitable, so it can't really be called
left wing.

In fact I can think of few industries as profitable. Sell
people a dream, on which you never have to deliver or
even prove that your product is any good, beyond fullfilling
emotional needs. The true believers cough up big time
and millions role in. Sheesh, thats alot easier then
farming, I should have been a preacher :)

BOAZ_David, a few questions:

What sort of ENDURING VALUES do you expect state schools to teach? How are state schools failing to teach them?

Which curricula do you disagree with, and why? How do Christian schools teach these curricula differently?

What is the source of your information?

What makes your view any more valid than mine? (Marks deducted here for any reference to the Bible.)

Arjay, I'm merely judging your post by the standards you set up for yourself (ie spelling, grammar and logic). As a moral relativst I couldn't possibly impose my own standards, now could I?

David

I await with bated breath your answers to JohnJ's pertinent questions.

Many Christian schools teach kids to bully, cheat, lie and to feel morally superior (even when they aren't). Hypocrisy and greed are other prominent values. Look for example at the prospectuses of wealthy Christian schools touting for academic students and sports stars. Look at how they treat students who show signs of not performing well in exams.

Can you provide the evidentiary sources of your opinion that 'our public education system has as its primary philosophical foundation "Truth is relative, and the only thing you can believe is that there is nothing to believe in"'? If you believe in Truth, you won't mind providing the truthful evidence for your claim, will you? (Or are you pulling an April Fool's Day stunt?)

Don't do a Pontius Pilate on us now, David.

It's always nice to hear from the Christian haters, and I see the nihilist are out in full bloom . The approved tool of the political correct and lefties seems to be reverse discrimination. Nothing two faced about that eh?

Yabby, I read your posts, you are a preacher. And if your looking for an industry that offers the world and never has to deliver I give you your leftist theology. The left has never had to deliver anything. Not one promise. Unless it was earned by the sweat of someone else's brow, someone else's money, or someone else's labour.
The Left is a social parasite supported by parasites who are constantly demanding more and doing less.
Superficial people.
And if you want another example of such an industry I offer you the industry of Cosmetics.
Superficial features.

BruceRaveRant, there are privately funded school for disabled or educationally challenged students. One of my sisters has a Downs Syndrome child and has been sending her to private schools since kindergarten. It cost a little more but, pays off with special attention and consistency.

FrankGol, "Many Christian schools teach kids to bully, cheat, lie and to feel morally superior (even when they aren't). Hypocrisy and greed are other prominent values."

I was going to refute this retarded view then thought better. Someone this bone deep ignorant has hatred and loathing so deeply ingrained into their victim psyche that letting them rant on might be the only cathartic experience they have in life. The emotionally constipated.
Way to blame Christianity and the Private School system FrankGol for the distasteful expression of low end human nature that can be found in every corner of society.

To Michael2
You flatter creationists by being so worried about them taking over the world. They are largely a collection of Bible students and science geeks, and get no government funding. If their ideas are catching on a bit, it is largely because of the paucity of real evidence unearthed supporting evolutionary belief in the last hundred years or so since Darwin and others made it popular.

Trying to stay on the topic of Christian schools and their place in education, Christians would champion many of your values expressed above, that education is about the ability to think for oneself, the courage to dissent, and the ability to be self critical, and to see another’s point of view. Part of the value of independent schools is that they can more freely follow such educational convictions, rather than the monolith of a State system which bows to the lowest common denominator.

However, try critiquing the sacred theory of evolution. If the occasional school board (in America, thankfully we’re not there) dares suggest that understanding the problems with evolutionary theory might be a valuable learning experience and help develop critical thinking skills, they’ll quickly be served with a writ from the ACLU. Not much tolerance for others' views shown there!

For these types of reasons (philosophical rather than money), there will always be a demand for independent schools to balance the State system.

runner: "At some schools the only thing free are the needles and condoms."

"You accuse me of lying even though at no stage did I say the Government schools provide condoms and needles"

Yes. Yes you did. Now you're trying to deny it, but it's there in black and white. You didn't say "some schools would like to have free condoms" you said, "at some schools, the only thing free are the needles and condoms"

When asked to back this up, you backed away from your statement and tried to tell us that you never said it in the first place.

You were being misleading, so you could rail against the state school system and pretend it is worse than it is.
I'm afraid that you have been caught out, and now you're doing it again in trying to deny it.

I for one, think the separation of church and state should extend to the school system. Religion should of course, be available to anyone who wants it - via a church each sunday.

Not everybody can afford to send their children to a better school. For the poorest students, the local public school is their only choice. If that school is a bad school, then these kids are going to have to work much harder to get ahead.