I think what few people realise is that the final reality communicated through education particularly through the sciences is, 'impersoanl'. Biology's single cell organisms which have developed into their current complexity over time purely by chance or evolution as they call it. Chemistry reduces humanity to chemicals of the DNA template and physics and astronomy reduce humanity to the Big Bang theory. English when extended leads to Linguistic Analysis and Mathematics deals only with the machine portion of the universe and the machine portion of man. Not a single living soul is addressed by any of the sciences. When Francis Crick the predesessor to Richard Dawkins was asked why he studied biology he responded this way; "You could say I study biology for religious reasons." Why because Crick believed that science providided a better basis for answering the questions of metaphysics (being) and of morals (personality). All the science lay claim to a better account of the origins of everything than the Bible. This is what education teaches our children begining from day 1. When they get to university the teaching method is accelerated and this 'impersonal' reality is the default reality in any university. So whilst education is important it is more important for any parent to understand the logical conclusions of what our children are being taught through education. The idea of the private school is that this world view will be better understood as the expectation is with the better universities. It is important also to realise that prayer before and after a class period doesn not make much inroads into five hours of solid empiricist education through the sciences. In conclusion I think it is important for the Christian and the Christian schools to realise that what they teach essentially contridicts what their faith teaches them through the Bible. In education they have to teach evolution although evolution is generally not accpeted by the scientific community as a sufficient scientific base for origins. So we must realise that education is not geered toward the Christian idea but rather is set against it because all the science lay claim to the truth about origins. But as Christian's we understand that without the personal infinite creator God we have no explanation for the existence of 'personality'. On the other hand the science in the end teaches that humanity equals a zero because 'personality' cannot exist in the sciences because they begin with the 'impersonal'. One of the difficulties Christian children will face irrespective of what type of school they attend, is the many questions that arise out of these contrary world views offered by the sciences. Often these questions will be beyond the intellectual capacity of most people particularly the youth. If we as parents cannot answer the questions that confront our children, then they will become disullussioned over time. I say this because as Christian's they understand the responsibility of communicating God's unchanging truth into our current post-modern context. Our inability to do this will be felt as a part of our Christian experience. Talking about Jesus to the non-Christian and having meangful dialogue with them are two different things. Most Christian's assume the non-Christian filters their Christian message trough the same set of pressupositions as the Christian. But this is not true because as the abortion laws show us the Christian consensus is a weak one. The non-Christian reason through a different set of rules to the Chrisitan. If we don't understand this, we will be talking to oursleves. And the sense that our message isn't being understood will be apparent to us. The reason it isn't being understood is because of the two different frameworks for appraoching the questions of truth and knowledge. If we understand what is meant by the term post-modernism, we will understand the questions that arise out of the post-modern world view and hence answer them. There are only two basic philosophic question that have mattered since the fall. We could say them like this, who am I and where did I come from or who am I and what is wrong with me? If you think hard enough about education, they are asking the same questions but answering them through a different set of rules. Why because the world behaves as if Chrisitanity is real. Our 7 year old daughter knows Jonah got swallowed by a big fish. Why, because she knows those precious things like love, peace, joy, are real because she understands the Trinity were always in loving communicating relationship. She also understands that the Bible begins with the Trinity, "In the begining God (Elohim/plural) created.." She has no reason not to believe the Bible, and she is the tender age of 7 and in 1 st class. She is also number ten of twelve children who all share a common world view when it comes to Christianity. And their world view is understood in contrast to the other non-Christian systems that dominate our world particularly in education. They understand the questions that arise out of these contrary world views and are able to have meaningful dialogue with thei non-Christian counterparts.