deepbrew

Where I teach–at our church school here in Stuarts Draft–high school is optional.  That’s because we’re “Amish” and Amish don’t have to go past the 8th grade, thanks to the 1972 Wisconsin vs. Yoder Supreme Court ruling.  While many students elect to take high school, some “graduate” from the 8th grade and quit.  To take high school or not has been quite the controversy this year in my class.  One of my students presented a convincing speech on the issue–and gave me permission to post it here.   I thought she did well in not only talking about the high school question, but also about our responsibility to learn

Dorcas Yoder

Mr. Hershberger

Tenth Grade English

10 October 2007

High School: Its Purpose and Benefits

Is high school necessary? Is it really good for teenagers to spend their time studying or should they be working and learning practical skills? Is high school just a boring waste of time or an unnecessary amount of hard work? I don’t think so. While it may be impossible to prove that high school is necessary, there are good reasons for doing it. High school is required by Virginia law. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it’s a good way to train your mind in order to use it for God and for the fulfillment of God-given responsibilities.

According to Virginia state code 22.1-254, every child who is between five and eighteen years of age is required to attend school or be home schooled by a qualified teacher unless he and his parents are opposed to it because of religious beliefs, he cannot attend school because of his health, he cannot benefit from the education given, or he has already completed high school. Because of our Amish background, the government will probably never force us to do fulfill their education requirements, but should we let that stop us from doing so? Romans 13 says, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God: …ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.” Are we really doing our job in trying to fulfill government laws? Do we really have religious beliefs against high school education or are we just taking advantage of our Amish background to let us skip following a law that we don’t think is necessary? If we are to follow the laws of the government not only to stay out of trouble but also for our conscience’s sake, we should take seriously the fact that high school is not only commanded by the government but also by God.

In addition to being a God-given command, high school is good because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It’s free and easy-to-do. Adults who want to further their education have to deal with limited time and money while most young teenagers don’t. Teenagers are free from responsibilities such as jobs, church offices, families, etc. They have plenty of time in which to work. Besides this, they don’t even have to pay for their education. Any adult who wants to learn more is going to have to deal with a job which will limit his study time and a pocketbook which will limit his spending. A good college course can cost from $250 to $800. A Saxon algebra textbook costs $55. Highschoolers have the privilege of using this priceless treasure of information, an algebra book, at no cost to themselves. High school is a unique priceless opportunity. Even if some schoolwork seems irrelevant to you, you’re not likely to regret learning it. Although a person’s learning should never stop with his formal education and it is quite possible to learn things later in life, going to school is one of the easiest ways to increase someone’s knowledge of the world. It is also true that there are many things besides high school which could be learned during this time and prove useful later in life, but doing high school is one good way to learn a lot during the teenage years.

Besides helping us to obey the government and to make good use of our teenage years, high school can help us to train our minds and use them for God’s service. It can help us to fulfill God-given responsibilities. One of these responsibilities is to be good stewards of what God has given us. Genesis 1: 28 tells us, “Have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” If we are going to take care of the earth and use its resources wisely, we need to know how things work. This requires us to study things such as science, history, geography, math, etc. so that we can know how God created the earth and how we can best use it.

Another responsibility God has given us is to be salt and light in a dark world. “Ye are the salt of the earth,” Jesus told us. If we want to influence our world, we need to prepare ourselves for the intellectual challenges we’ll be given. We need to train our minds and be able to give Christian perspectives on subjects such as science and history. C. S. Lewis wrote, “If all the world were Christian it might not matter if all the world were uneducated. But, as it is, a cultural life will exist outside the Church whether it exists inside or not. To be ignorant and simple now-not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground-would be to throw down our weapons…Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered. (Lewis 58). Many people in today’s world know only warped and twisted philosophy. Are we going to give them a chance to hear the truth? If we let the Bible be our standard for judging truth, we can develop a Christian worldview that will help us to bring truth to the world around us. Although the amount of formal education a person has received doesn’t need to determine how well he is prepared to fight for the truth, a good Christian education is always useful.

We can see, therefore, that there are at least three good reasons to do high school. It’s commanded of us by the government as well as by the Bible. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it’s good training that can help us to serve God and fulfill God-given responsibilities. High school may not be necessary, but why should we care about that? Life would be boring if it were only composed of “necessary” activities. High school is good, interesting, enjoyable, stimulating, and challenging; and that should be reason enough for us to do it.

Bibliography

Beiler, Sarah. Personal Interview. 10 October 2007.

Harris, Gregg. The Christian Home School. Gresham: Noble Publishing Associates, 1995.

Lewis, Clive Staples. “Learning in War-Time.” The Weight of Glory. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001.

Moreland, J. P. Love Your God With All Your Mind. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1997.

9 October 2007. http://www.mcpsweb.org/files/Virginia%20Compulsory%20Attendance%20Law.pdf.