Christian Superintendent Protests Universal Criticism of Public Schools
by Jim Brown
April 13, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A public school superintendent in South Dakota says he wants to dispel the notion that all public schools are harmful to children. Christian administrator Dr. Gary Harms contends that many public schools do not fit the description of some liberal education institutions on the east and west coasts and in some urban areas.Harms, a school superintendent in Aberdeen, South Dakota, believes a strong Christian influence remains in many school districts in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Kansas, and down through the Bible Belt. As evidence of that influence in his district, he notes, at least 11 of 19 songs performed at a local high school's spring concert had their roots in the church.
In addition, the school administrator says, student-led prayer at graduation and off-campus faith-based instruction during school hours are permitted in his district's schools, and abstinence is at the core of the school system's sex education curriculum. "Our district patrons would be disappointed if we did not carry through with the values that are started in the home and are also reinforced in the churches," he notes.
"We're limited, of course, by law in what we can and cannot do within our buildings," the Aberdeen superintendent says, "but it doesn't mean that we are as liberal and as disallowing as some of the schools in California and Massachusetts."
Of course, Harms admits that liberal efforts to squelch Christian expressions of faith and free speech in public schools do occur, even in the heartland. For instance, three years ago veteran teacher Barbara Wigg successfully sued the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, school district over its ban on her participation in an after-school Bible club.
However the Aberdeen school official insists that such religious discrimination does not occur in his district's schools. And, although intelligent design and other alternatives to the theory of evolution are not officially a part of the district's science curriculum, he says Aberdeen teachers are not discouraged from discussing intelligent design theory or creationism with their students.
"There are many Christian administrators and teachers within our country," Harms insists, "and for us to be generalized as public schools that are creating some controversy either unwittingly or knowingly is really unfair.
"There are some absolutely wonderful public schools that are encouraging students to hang onto what they believe and what they've been taught, both at home and in the church," Harms adds. For that reason, the superintendent says, he gets really tired of hearing "generalizations" warning people against educating children in public schools.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
