A few years ago, a staff member and I were discussing a statistic or timing issue. I once had estimated that the time that a child spends in school is more than the time a child will spend in church for over 5 years.The staff member thought that the difference was even greater. This led me to think about the math again.

If your child is attending a public school then on average they will spend about 7 hours per day. Multiply that by 180 school days and that turns out to be 1260 hours per year.

How much time do children spend in church? Well, that certainly can vary. If we assume a child spends at 3 least hours each week hearing God’s truth, then that is about 156 hours per year.

Over 12 years, the time in a public school = 15,120 hours. This would be the equivalent of about 97 years of going to church.

We do not believe it is wise that our children are in environment for 35-40 hours each week where the Word of God is not just ignored but even mocked and twisted.

Now I know that God is sovereign. Praise the Lord that He saves children who attend public schools. He must save children who are home schooled and who attend Christian schools also.

But why would we give the humanists so much time to teach and train our children in comparison to the time that they will spend hearing God’s truth.

Even the humanists have recognized their advantage.

D. F. Potter, the author of Humanism: A New Religion said this about Sunday School and government education.

“…education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American public school is a school of humanism. What can the theistic Sunday Schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?”

In thankfulness to the Lord and trusting in His mighty power, let us seek to provide our children an education that glorifies His truth and presents clearly the glorious message of the gospel to our children.