Are Public Schools Constitutional?

Recently a homeschooling friend of mine told me that the establishment of compulsory public schooling by the federal government was unconstitutional. Being that she is more politically savvy than me, I suspected that she could be right. I have a lot more research to do on this. I'm sure it is covered in The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto. This is a huge tome which will require much time to wade through, but you can begin with his youtube videos. I found this link to the issue of constitutionality that makes for another good start: http://www.newswithviews.com/Stuter/stuter9.htm. The author cites the violation of religious liberty as the basis of the unconstitutionality of public schools. This is interesting, since government schools claim to protect religious freedom by eliminating any references to God.

Yet, it can be argued that government schools actively teach secular humanism:

Noun

Humanism, with regard in particular to the belief that humanity is capable of morality and self-fulfillment without belief in God.

Is secular humanism a religion? Religion does not only refer to one's beliefs in God but relates also to beliefs about God. The origin of the universe, questions of morality, and the meaning and purpose of life are tied up in religion, whether or not one believes in God or feels that God is necessary.  Atheism is a religion. Humanism is defined as a belief in relation to morals, self-fulfillment, and the existence of God. Sounds like a religion to me, and one of its primary tenets is the philosophy of moral relativism, which you can read more about here: http://carm.org/moral-relativism. The basic idea is that morality is based upon no absolute truth, but is always relative to personal opinion, the particular situation, popular culture, historical time period, and the like. This is the religion taught in government schools.

"The anthropologist Clifford Geertz defined religion as a 'system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.' " (Wikipedia)
Darwin's theory of evolution is also a tenet of secular humanism. Is creationism even taught as a scientific theory anymore in the public schools?

Secular humanism, moral relativism, and Darwin's evolutionary theory fit Geertz's religious criteria. As the HHS mandate attempts to infringe upon the First Amendment rights of the people of the United States, we need to be especially vigilant to guard against further violations of religious liberty in the public schools and in relation to homeschooling laws. Give the dragon an inch, and he'll take the whole highway.

Christian Homeschooling

When I was in high school, a group of students including myself would call out to the others while passing in the hallway, "Attitude check!"  The response given to this was, "Praise the Lord!"  How well would this go over today in the public schools?  Would such students be hushed, sent to the principal's office, put in detention, even suspended?  In the last couple of years a student was suspended for wearing a Rosary in honor of his sick grandma, on the pretense that it could be interpreted as a gang symbol.  This was a good student with a clean record and no history of violence.  Would bowing one's head in prayer even be tolerated in the classrooms of today?  Some schools no longer include the Pledge of Allegiance because of the phrase "under God".  God has been kicked out of school.

I did not choose homeschooling for religious reasons.  God calls me to homeschool, which I understood from the beginning.  However, I didn't use a Christian curriculum.  If Beezy wanted to hear the Bible, I would read it.  We have always prayed together as a family at the dinner table, and bedtime prayers are a nightly routine.  But our studies did not revolve around Christian material.  I wouldn't have called myself a "Christian homeschooler" until recently, when being Catholic became the focus of my life as a wife and mother.  I did notice early on, though, that I was hearing a lot about God's being expelled from the public schools, and it bothered me.  The logic goes that by not allowing religion of any form to be part of the school day in any way, no one's religious or atheist sensibilities would be offended.  Do school children not have First Amendment rights?  Their parents pay taxes, don't they?  I pay taxes, even though my child is not in the public school system.  I have the right to object.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that parents are the primary educators of their children, regardless of the schooling method.  I think that most Christian homeschoolers give precedence to getting their children into Heaven over getting them into Harvard.  The character of the child and his or her spiritual formation is the top priority.  There is little use in book learning without a firm religious foundation.

What I don't think gets enough press is the spiritual warfare being waged between the forces of good and evil as it concerns us homeschoolers.  It only occurred to me recently that attacks against my homeschooling efforts have their origin in Satan.  My new motto is, stop feeding the dragon.  The devil wants us distracted from our sacred purpose.  He wants all parents distracted, but I think the ones who are making a point of focusing on religious instruction get his special attention.  Those keeping their children out of harm's way, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, are going to more acutely experience his wrath.  Enmity has been placed between the dragon and the seed of the Woman, and since the serpent couldn't conquer the child born of Mary, he is going after the rest of her offspring.  This is taught in the Book of Revelation.

I think we need to grow thicker skins.  God has given us a great task, and the devil will do anything to make us doubt ourselves and to thwart our efforts, and to turn others against us.  The best way to defeat the dragon is to stop feeding him ammunition.  He eats anger, low self-esteem, depression, self-doubt, fear, guilt, malice, hopelessness, and despair.  He is repelled by Faith, Hope, and Love.  Shove those in his mouth, and he will be silenced.