The Harsh Truth About Government Schools

Bruce Shortt has written what may be this decade’s definitive critique of the government-sponsored school system in this country. Shortt is a member of the South Carolina-based Exodus Mandate network. Along with T. C. Pinckney (who penned the forward) he was one of the co-sponsors of the recent resolution put before the Southern Baptist Convention to remove Christian children from government schools. The resolution was not adopted, but drew nationwide attention to the issue of our rapidly deteriorating government schools. Shortt’s book is aimed primarily at Christian parents, but can be read and appreciated by non-Christians.

Addressing Christian parents, Shortt contends that they are out of excuses. He cites Nehemiah Institute results on how teenagers raised in Christian homes but graduating from government schools tend to abandon Christianity within a couple of years of starting college, many never to return. He has answers for parents who say they don’t have the time or money or other resources to homeschool, or who believe their children are "the salt of the earth" and need to remain in a government school. Parents can homeschool around work schedules. Shortt cites a case of a working single parent he knows personally from his church who has successfully homeschooled five children. If she can do it, he says, anyone can. No one, of course, says that homeschooling is necessarily easy. It is a major commitment. But there are now countless resources available for the homeschooler to draw upon. Most states have organizations to assist homeschooling parents. Finally, many churches are getting involved. Some are starting up private Christian schools – which makes perfect sense given that church buildings frequently stand empty during all five days of the regular workweek!

By Steve Yates

On the 'sin' of sending kids to public school

Author shares harsh campus realities, urges parents to pull children
Posted: February 7, 2005
1:00 a. m. Eastern


© 2005 WorldNetDaily. com

The man who helped push the issue of public education onto the national agenda of the Southern Baptist Convention has
written a new book that blows the lid off government schools, showing parents the kind of worldview and values their
children are influenced by 180 days a year.

Bruce Shortt, author of "The Harsh Truth About Public Schools," presents myriad reasons why government institutions are
failing America's children and thumbing their noses at parents with a religious worldview.

New Book Explicates Realities of Public Schools

Bruce Shortt, the man who helped push the agenda of home-schooling versus public education before the Southern Baptist Convention, has written a book entitled "The Harsh Truth about Public Schools" that details the many failings of traditional public schools. According to Shortt, the school system teaches a worldview espousing "moral relativism (no fixed standards), academic dumbing down, far-left programs, near absence of discipline and the persistent but pitiable rationalizations offered by government education professionals." In order to rectify the problem among Christian families, Shortt suggests that the church need take responsibility in the direct educating of children, and only when public schools face the thread of collapse will there be true reform.

HOMESCHOOL? PUBLIC SCHOOL? WHERE'S GOD?

By J. Grant Swank, Jr.
MichNews. com
Jan 31, 2005



"At this point, there are many, many pastors and parents who need to be educated about our obligation to provide a
Christian education to our children," Shortt told WND. com.

"In time, most [SBC members] are going to understand better that the little red schoolhouse has really become the little
white sepulcher, and it's a seething cauldron of spiritual, moral and academic mythologies," states Bruce N. Shortt, a
homeschooling father. He also holds advanced degrees from Harvard and Stanford, according to WorldNetDaily's Ron
Strom.

The headline reads: "Baptist activists: Pull kids out of school."

Baptist Leaders Urge Christian Exodus from Public Schools

(AgapePress) - Southern Baptist advocates of Christian education are pointing to a rash of religious censorship incidents in Plano, Texas, as indications that local Christians are having little influence on the public school system there. Four families have recently sued the Plano Independent School District over its ban on traditional Christmas colors and on students handing out religious-themed gifts.

Plano is the home of Prestonwood Baptist Church, a "megachurch" pastored by former Southern Baptist Convention president Jack Graham. Although Graham declined to comment for this story, some SBC members have been eager to address what they see as an epidemic of anti-Christian discrimination in the public schools.

Where can I purchase the book?

This can be purchased at Amazon http://tinyurl.com/5ovfx

or at Chaldeon http://www.chalcedonstore.com/

Top Stories of 2004: Baptist Journalist Urges Christian Parents: Pull Kids Out of Public Schools

By Jim Brown and Jody Brown
December 27, 2004
(Originally published on May 12, 2004)

(AgapePress) - Southern Baptists are being challenged to pull their children out of public schools for "the good of Christ's
church and the strength of their own commitment to Jesus."

Two years ago, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family drew both praise and criticism when he urged California parents
not to send their children to state-run schools for fear they could be corrupted by a pro-homosexual agenda. While
acknowledging there were many Christians teachers in the California system who were "struggling mightily to do what's
right," he noted that kindergartners through high school seniors in the Golden State were being taught "homosexual
propaganda" and "other politically correct, post-modern views."