Eleven years ago, I began my career as a high school English teacher at a school smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt.
It was the same sort of school that would be required to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom under one of the many bills now being considered in states throughout the South. At the time, I was a fresh graduate of a Southern Baptist university and I was burdened with the weight of glory: “You may be the only Jesus these students ever see.”
Rebecca Johnson
I was confident the literature curriculum I taught would provide me with a platform for gospel-centered conversations that could lead to real, substantial life change in the hearts of my students. At the time, if I could have displayed a copy of the Ten Commandments in my classroom, I would have.
But as I got to know my students and understand the depth of their needs, my confidence faltered. I came to the stark realization that the classroom is not the environment for spiritual transformation.
“I came to the stark realization that the classroom is not the environment for spiritual transformation.”
In my years as an educator, I have taught at nearly every level imaginable: elementary, middle and high schools; public, classical charter and private Christian schools; urban, suburban and rural schools; West Coast and Bible Belt schools. I’ve seen a wide swath of the American education system and the students it serves. While I agree our children are in the midst of a spiritual, mental and emotional crisis, the solution is not to be found in the mandated display of religious symbols or the breakdown of separation between church and state.
Clearly, schools are suffering. Violence and apathy are common among students. Attention spans shrink. Even the youngest children spend hours a day online. Teen mental health is floundering in never-before-seen ways. Teachers are fleeing the profession in droves. Standardized testing devours more and more classroom hours with little progress to show for it.
None of these problems are isolated to specific grade levels or types of schools; elementary, middle and high school students are equally rife with anger and apathy. Public, charter and private schools are similarly overburdened and under-resourced. Some on the left suggest that these issues could be fixed with increased funding, and some on the right seem convinced that a Ten Commandments poster and prayer in schools will make schoolchildren decent again.
In reality, there isn’t a silver bullet to solve all these problems. Grave cultural weak points require a regeneration that can only be brought about by the Holy Spirit, not state legislators.
Our children are struggling because our families are struggling. Often, the biggest barriers to student flourishing I’ve faced as a teacher have come from parents themselves. If Christian education starts in the home and continues in the church, the state has no role to play in discipleship.
“When we outsource the Great Commission to our public school teachers, we neglect to reach the most important people in our students’ lives.”
When we outsource the Great Commission to our public school teachers, we neglect to reach the most important people in our students’ lives: their parents. What if the evangelical right redirected all the energy it spends on culture war legislation into showing up for hurting families in local communities? Surely the church’s efforts at reaching the culture would be better spent by providing free medical clinics and family therapy, hot meals and tutoring and child care in Jesus’ name. Instead, we risk giving the cause of Christ a black eye if an entire generation associates it with nothing more than a classroom decoration and a source of contention.
I cannot force my students to say the Pledge of Allegiance, show up to school on time or complete their homework. How much less can I make them obey a God in whom they don’t believe?
Bills like those proposed in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas that require the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms put children on the front lines of the culture wars because we find it easier than actual disciple making.
Others more knowledgeable than I have written about the many ways in which these Ten Commandment bills are unconstitutional. Others can and should argue that any display of the Ten Commandments as one of America’s foundational historical documents is revisionist history at best and Christian nationalism at worst. For my part, I am convinced these bills will be ineffectual in changing the spiritual or educational landscape of our country and will actually make it harder for those invested in evangelizing and discipling the younger generations.
Rebecca Johnson has been an educator across three states in both public and private schools. She is currently a member of a Baptist church in Henderson, Nev., where she serves with her husband, Matt, in youth ministry. They have two adorable kids.
Related articles:
Why I’m a pastor who opposes a Ten Commandments bill | Opinion by Preston Clegg
Texas House joins Senate in bill requiring Ten Commandments
Court strikes down Louisiana Ten Commandments law