Down the end of my street there is a primary school.
In the next town over there is two schools, both a primary school and a secondary school.
In the other direction there is a town with five schools; three are primary, one is secondary, and one is a Christian school.
Hm.
‘Christian’ school; what exactly does that mean?
What specifically does this Christian school teach?
Can atheists go to this Christian school, or is it a school exclusively for Christians?
Does this Christian school teach NCEA accredited curriculum, or does it focus more on teachings of religious scripture?
Does a Christian school teach students how to be scholars, or how to be better Christians?
Hm.
In New Zealand we have public schools for regular folk who are happy to let the Government pay for their education and private schools for students whose parents believe it will be better if they pay for it themselves.
We also have ‘Christian’ schools; is a Christian school taxpayer funded, parent funded, or God funded?
Boys’ school for boys, girls’ school for girls; Christian school for people who think that everything they see was constructed by a 32-year-old carpenter named Jesus and his godly father.
Seems wrong, having a school that is basically the same as other schools, but which reserves its schooling for Christians.
If Christian schools teach Creationism rather than Evolution, does that mean their historical studies won’t mention dinosaurs?
Will it mean, at this Christian school, students won’t delve into the history of the Universe; will it mean, instead of going back aeons, world history for these Christian students will stop at around 10,000 years?
Where public schools are sometimes pressured to include in their teachings the myth of Creationism, are these Christian schools ever under pressure to forego their historical make-believe to include the reality of Evolution?
Hmm.
A Christian school made especially for Christians yet, like churches, not funded by God.
Geez, feels almost as though we’ve gone back to 19th century segregation; like having a white school and a black school – you know, in the same way that Methven has a blue pub and a brown pub.
No, of course, Christian schooling couldn’t possibly be spawned from something as serious as racial segregation; religion, after all, exists primarily in one’s mind – a belief system – while race is inherent reality.
Surprising, at a time where Political Correctness holds such inexplicable strength and being ‘woke’ is seemingly more important than getting your eight hours’ a night, that such a depiction of exclusivity as a ‘Christian’ school is still accepted by the masses.
Much like ‘cultural differences’, ‘human rights’, ‘disabilities’, or ‘body-shapes’, religion is a topic that, as a society, we appear have deemed ‘untouchable’ and thus, irrespective how inappropriate, repugnant or downright ghastly logic tells us one of these situations has become, it must be respected for what it is.
The ‘Theory of Wokeness’ maybe needs to be introduced as part of the curriculum in Christian schools.
Article by Tim Walker
Edited by Jesus H Christ
Photography by Sam Ara Tonne