Once upon a time, my children went to public school. In fourth grade, they invited my son Kevin into the prestigious “Academically Capable” program. We had lots of trouble that year, but nothing so profound as the “Oregon Trail” fiasco. You may well wonder what could possibly go wrong in an Oregon trail unit study! Each student was given a family identity, and followed them through the Oregon Trial. One day the teacher told the students that they might have to fight, steal, or kill in order to get food for their families. That evening, my husband and I began to “debrief” Kevin, and explain that there are OTHER options besides breaking the Ten Commandments. The next day, the teacher again stressed situational ethics. In the evening, more debriefing. Poor Kevin, who was only in fourth grade, was so confused by the contradictory messages coming from parents and teacher! Even after I spoke to the teacher, she still stressed the importance of doing “whatever it takes” to obtain supplies on the Oregon Trail.
That was when we knew we had to homeschool our children. We could not continue to allow our children to learn messages that contradicted everything our family believes in.
Fast forward ten years. In the news yesterday was a story about the effect of situational ethics in modern young adults. Here is a link:
“Law catches up with modern-day Bonnie and Clyde … They stole credit-card and bank-account information from friends, co-workers and neighbors to finance lavish purchases and travel, prosecutors said.”
You have probably seen it on your news as well, since it made the local, national and international news. Guess what? The young man in the story – our young “Clyde” – lived five doors away from us in our old neighborhood. He attended the same elementary school and was in the same “academically capable” program. His parents are wonderful, caring, and sweet individuals. On the video clip you can see the street we lived on a few years ago. We were shocked!
But not surprised…. Why should we expect a better result when the public schools teach children that values are conditional and truth is relative?
Another reason to homeschool through high school!
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