They assume, as do their pastors, that government schools are the normal educational path. They admire those who undertake the great expense of sending their children to Christian schools or the great inconvenience of teaching their children at home. However, they see Christian education as a preference, not as a moral obligation. They are largely ignorant of God s command to them concerning the children He has given them. Pastors, for the most part, aid and abet this ignorance by either avoiding the topic of Christian education altogether, or by qualifying their preference for Christian education with the empathetic recognition that some people simply must, for various good and understandable reasons, avail themselves of the government schools.
Most pastors send their children to government schools as well.
The Scriptures, however, are unambiguous in their declaration of who bears the responsibility of training the next generation of covenant people. Psalm 78 serves as a virtual Magna Carta of covenant education. It declares that fathers must instruct their children in the ways of the Lord. Fathers must also impress upon their children the critical importance of passing it on to the next generation. This simple instruction alone, if it were followed faithfully, would serve as an effective barrier against covenant ignorance in any generation.