Dear Andy,
Now that the school year is underway, it might be a good time for me to make some points about sending your children away to college. I know that yours are too young for that right now, but the matter is so important you need to make right plans well in advance.
Higher education often necessary
Every society is different and when it comes to working for a living, we have to live in the real world, not a make-believe one. Most of us would like to get our children through school as quickly as possible to minimize their exposure to a corrupt educational system. But in our society, that is not always possible if the person is to support a family.
It’s true that you hear of some people never even finishing high school and going on to get decent jobs. But that’s the exception — not the rule. Usually in such cases, you’ll find out the person is either very bright, very industrious or very fortunate because of family connections. If there is a family business, the education process can sometimes be short-circuited. Or if somebody has connections with one of the trades such as plumbing or electrical, they can sometimes get good work without advanced schooling.
In most cases, however, our system is set up so that a person has to receive some post high school education to get a job that pays enough to support a family. So I think you should assume that the boys, at least, will probably have to go on to college or university.
Difficult years
Now one of the things you should face is that this university could expose your youngsters to the most difficult spiritual situation they will ever face.
In the first place, when a person is 17-22 years old, they are still in the unsettled and rebellious years. They are still trying to shake themselves free from childhood with all its constraints and establish themselves as adults. They tend to rebel against past standards just because they associate them with childhood. This is a natural reaction. You can not prevent it but you can recognize it and try to minimize the harm that occurs.
Secondly, the university atmosphere is anti-God. One course after another urges the student to think for himself, challenge traditional notions of family and society and discover truth for himself
Of course it’s good to think for ourselves and be firm in our own convictions. But the other implications are catastrophic if applied to the standards and doctrines with which your children are being raised. The standards you are teaching them are not ambivalent messages of contemporary thought, they are the principles of eternal life. If your children throw them off in a spirit of independence, they are flouting the will of God. They can’t discover truth for themselves; they have to accept what is revealed in Scripture. The mind of the believer must be filled with divine teachings not humanistic philosophies of men. So the intellectual and moral atmosphere of the university years can be very dangerous.
The problem can be minimized by knowing the emphasis favored by specific teachers and by knowing the contents of various courses. But the most you can do is help reduce the problem; some exposure to the anti-God atmosphere is inevitable.
The situation is bad no matter what you do but you can make it much worse if you send your youngster to live on campus. If you do that, you will have added a third problem to the other two. They will have to live 24 hours a day with the world in an anti-God atmosphere during years when they are naturally rebellious and youthfully adventurous. Now if that is not a prescription for spiritual disaster, I don’t know what is.
If at all possible, try to have them live home while they’re going to school. At least see that they live with other mature Christadelphians. I suppose living with other Christadelphian students is also an option but, in practice, it can be little better than living with the world at times. They’ll all be going through the same problems at the same time and could well drag each other down to the lowest common denominator of belief and practice.
A better education?
You or one of the kids may protest that local schools are not as good in their chosen field as some out-of-town place. So what? What’s more important? Their eternal welfare or their secular education? Obviously their eternal welfare! What good will a degree from some prestigious school do them at the judgment seat?
There can also be the argument that no local school offers the program you want. Then change the major to something that is offered locally. Since when is the servant of God supposed to invite spiritual disaster just so he can work at a certain job?
Prepare in advance
There should be no last-minute surprise that these problems will occur. You have years to prepare for the situation. You can gently guide your youngsters into career choices where you know the education is offered locally or where they could stay with Christadelphians. You can also steer them away from those disciplines which maximize the exposure to anti-God philosophies such as evolution and humanistic materialism.
Furthermore, if you know, for example, he is going to face a heavy dose of biology, you can prepare him with all the anti-evolution arguments well in advance. I know this can be done successfully. One of your uncles went through all the evolution stuff and was so well-prepared to handle it, he could see every hole in the arguments and picked out many helpful points which confirmed the hand of God in the world of nature.
While it may seem extreme at this point, you can even consider locating in a city where your children can live at home and go to school. That should certainly be a factor when you move someplace.
The problem is a tough one, but with diligent faith and a right perspective as to what is important, you can really help your children get through some difficult years.
With deep affection,
Dad
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One