E is for Economics and Entrepreneurship

Jeremy Walker (00:16):

Welcome back to another episode of Preschool Pioneers. I am your host, Jeremy Walker. You can follow us on our parent network, CR101 Radio on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, [inaudible 00:00:30] and YouTube, and you can subscribe to this podcast on your preferred platform, so you never miss an episode, visit cr101radio.com/preschoolpioneers for these links.

(00:46):

Well, welcome back guys. Welcome back to one of my favorite subjects in the world, and that is Christian teachers and Christian parents making an impact in the world and discussing why Christian teachers are important and why Christians should become teachers. I want to start with this episode. It is entitled, E is for Economics and Entrepreneurship: How Children are Miseducated Regarding the Real World and How to Live Successfully in It and What Parents and Teachers Can Do to Help. Well, I want to start because we as Christian parents and Christian teachers, we have to have a heart for the future. You have to be able to look around and say, "I want to help those that I can, if they're my kids or if they are other people's children as well in the community, and I want to see them have a successful future." And one of the things we teach is not just basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, something that parents can do at home and, of course, schools can do as well.

(02:01):

My school and my wife and I work together in our preschool here in Southwest Florida and her family started the very first Grace Community School, which is the name of the school that we run, back in 1986 with one location. My father-in-law had the idea that Christians should not be starving servants. That's right, they should be paid and are worthy to be paid for their labor. For the longest time, Christian education has seemed to be a sacrifice on the part of the educator or the school when nothing is further from the truth. The sad part is that most Christians aren't too concerned about the real world. They're not too concerned about growing families, they're not concerned about economics, and they're not concerned about being able to care for that family, specifically the concept of preparing their children basically to run the world.

(03:10):

That's what it is in a nutshell, really, we're not going to be here forever and we are setting up the future to the best of our ability to influence the next generation of people that will have to take over. You only have so much time in this world and as a Christian parent and as a Christian teacher, your time to influence a person is even vastly limited beyond that. You get a very small window to help give children a look at what the world should be like and give them the tools that they will need to succeed in the future. I want to talk about economics on this episode and the reason why I do is because it's something that's never brought up. Modern education is horribly failing in the three R's, reading, writing, and arithmetic. It is not the goal of schools any longer and sadly for generations now to actually create educated people.

(04:17):

It has been the goal over the last generation or two to create submissive people who will give in and are going to be dependent upon someone else. That's right, independent people who can work on their own, be self-independent, make their own money, grow their own family, take care of that family, and not need the assistance of someone on the outside. It's maybe the church, it's definitely the state, but people don't want independent thinkers and independent workers anymore, people who are self-sufficient on their own. The idea that America doesn't have problems economically is insane. Everyone knows that America has problems, but they don't put their finger on it. And why is it we don't want to teach children math? Because if you did, then they could try to figure out how much of their money that they should be making is being stolen from them. When people talk about the problems, it's always about inflation and it's this and it's that, but no one talks about taxes.

(05:33):

The typical American today, the household is taxed over 50, probably 60% of their income goes to taxes, and then those taxes of course are not being used for their country as they should be, but are right now being given to people all over the world, so they can create alliances for a one world government, but not for our nation. That's what's going on right now in the United States. So, how does all this kind of come back to preschools? Well, first of all, when I was growing up as a child, there was an idea that I didn't have growing up, but other people did. The concept was the allowance. Maybe you're old enough to know what this is or somebody who's participated in this subject. If you're not, I'll kind of enlighten you. The idea is this, there are parents who will give their children money for free and they call it a weekly allowance.

(06:39):

When I was growing up, I knew some children who were in families where this was a common practice and every week these children were given this allowed amount of money, financing, to do kind of what they wanted, to buy sugary treats, or toys, or whatever they wanted, but this was almost a guarantee that the child was going to get this stipend every week. It was just going to come to them because this was the allowance that the parents were giving to them. Well, I didn't grow up that way. There was no such concept in my family. One of the things that is very important is teaching children at a very young age that nothing comes for free. It wasn't too long ago there was more of a political type movement and the concept was kind of against governments giving out handouts and the idea it was called, there's no such thing as a free lunch. If somebody is paying for your rent, for your meals, for your anything, somebody had to make that money and then it had to be taken via taxes by coercion and then given to you.

(07:55):

So, whenever you have people who think that they're getting something for free, they're literally mentally disturbed and teaching people that they have to be responsible for themselves, that things don't come for free, well, that's a revolutionary idea, especially in the state we live in today in the United States. People want the government just to dip their hand into that honey jar that's over there and then just pull out all these wonderful free things and give it to them, give it to them, give it to them, give it to them, and they think that's how the world works. Margaret Thatcher said, "The problem with socialism is that you always run out of other people's money." If children start at a young age with the concept that they're going to get money for free and they could spend it for free, as they get older, they're going to expect, "Well, who's going to pay for this? Who's going to pay for that?"

(08:56):

I knew a family when I was growing up and when I grew up, I grew out in the country, and we had lots of chores. It was tons of chores inside the house, outside the house, and our chores included raking leaves, chopping down trees, clearing areas, mowing the grass, cleaning the pool. It didn't matter what it was, these were your jobs, you had to go out there and do them, but no one was paying you for this. I knew a family that didn't have that concept of teaching work ethic to children. So, what I'm going to do now is I'm going to start with two bible verses as we're discussing these subjects of how this all goes hand in hand with child-rearing education and the future for our children. And if you're a Christian parent, this is something you absolutely need to pay attention to.

(09:45):

Christian teacher, if that's you, then this is something that you should be trying to instill into your students. It will help them ensure success. Two passages both, from Proverbs. The first is Proverbs 10:4, "He becometh poor that dealeth with slacked hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich." The second is likened to it, Proverbs 12:24, "The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute."

(10:25):

These two passages are something that God wants you to understand about how the real world works, and because of that, it's something that we need to pass on to our children specifically and our students, but you only get that small window to instill into them to everything that they need to succeed in the future. You cannot be lazy and expect wealth to come your way. If you think that you're going to have all the things that you not only need, but also things that you want, those luxuries out there, but you're not going to have to work hard for it, you're not going to have to toil, you're not going to have to take time and diligence to do that, then you are not raising a Christian, you're raising a humanist.

(11:20):

You are raising somebody who believes that they can prosper in the future while they're lazy at somebody else's expense. There was an old Jewish proverb that R. J. Rushdoony was fond of quoting, and it goes along these lines, "He who does not teach his son the law and a trade, teaches his son to be a thief." It means that if you do not teach your children God's law, that they will not restrict themselves based on God's law, thou shalt not steal. And on top of that, if you don't teach them the work ethic that goes into any type of trade, not necessarily a specific trade, then you're teaching them to be a thief because they cannot and do not have the personal discipline and ability to care for themselves, and that's what Proverbs 12:24 was talking about.

(12:18):

They, if they're slothful, will bear tribute. There's going to be somebody who's going to be above you all your life and you are going to be beholden to that person, that organization, that group, that government, that whatever, but you will never be self-directing. You'll be a perpetual child who's always in need of their allowance and to get that allowance, well, you're going to have to dance to their tune. In the United States of America today, that's exactly what is going on. It's full of people who have not been raised to be independent, they've not been raised with God's law, so that they are restricted in how they can get things, nor are they dedicated enough to be able to care for themselves. It's vitally important that as Christian parents, we teach our children God's law and we teach them a trade or teach them how to be diligent.

(13:19):

My wife and I have the wonderful ability because her family started these schools and I started in Christian education when I was young, about 19 years old, and came to work with her and to help run Christian schools and so as I grew, our family grew as well, and we not only were able to take care of our own family through this kind of a concept of running schools, but also were able to help those in our communities as well. There are lots of people who don't have a way to help their children get a Christian education because there aren't Christian educators out there. It's all state run stuff and they are not going to be teaching God's law as I had an inspector one time say, it's okay to teach virtues but not laws from God. So, it was good to teach humanistic values to children but not commandments from God.

(14:17):

The state did not want to see itself as beholden and restricted by God's law. What they do want are lots of little children to grow up and to be under tribute. That is absolutely what they want. My wife and I have the ability to control our children's educations because we don't have to give them to somebody else to educate, and on top of that, we're able to help other people, but people think that the biggest thing about education, like homeschooling, the answer is homeschool. Get your kids out of those state run facilities and into the four doors of your home, get your wifey to stay at home and to teach those kids, and that's the answer. Well, sadly to say, most of the homes in America today are not going to be providing a Christian education. The vast majority of professing Christians who "homeschool" are not going to be providing a Christian education either.

(15:23):

Now, they will be far superior because they're limiting the temptations that will be upon children in government schools and education, especially the terrible indoctrination and evil that's going on today in the United States, but it doesn't mean that they're getting taught a Christian education and it's not necessarily about reading, writing, and arithmetic. It's not, that's only part of it. Success in life is not an academic concept or premise. It is a whole life function. When you read the Bible, it's not talking about your intelligence that's going to propel you into success in life, but your ability to live with wisdom and knowledge and understanding and those things, if you read the Book of Proverbs, are all based on knowing the word of God, God's commandments, and living according to God's prescribed character.

(16:29):

Part of that is the first thing to teach children is authority. This is where we're going to teach the authority of the parent and the authority from the parent comes from God. The children have to learn that they are under authority and will always be under authority their entire lives and that authority that they're supposed to be under is God and his commandments. When this is taught to children, not only does it limit them, but it also limits authorities that might come into their life and then try to tell them what they should and should not be doing. Without a proper foundation in the concept of authority built off of, God the creator, and the word of God, children do not understand and cannot understand moving forward how to act or not act when encountering various authorities that they come their way and then of course if they can't understand it, how can they become them?

(17:32):

How can they then become godly authorities, understanding their limitations, and how to exert authority in a godly manner? Given a proper Christian education also teaches diligence as we're talking here, children that don't need an overseer. They don't have to have somebody who stands over them and watches them at all times or they're not going to get the task done. That is a failure, that is a child who will grow up and be a failure and they will constantly not understand why they cannot succeed because they don't see that it is their own laziness, their own lack of ability to be diligent, their lack of work ethic that is holding them back because they're not self-driven and all this goes into the concept of earning money, where it comes from, it comes from work, it comes from productivity. People want to get paid without performance. That's not how the world works.

(18:44):

This is why you have high schoolers and college kids and all the rest growing up and going, "Well, I got a piece of paper, I have the degree, so why can't I find a job?" You can't find a job because the paper doesn't give you what the real world requires for success. Understanding authorities, being in subjection to those diligent, trustworthy, a person who can be self-driven, an employer can go, "I can trust you with something and so you can move up the ranks." Earning money for yourself is not complicated. See, the economic part that we need to teach our children is not just how to earn that money, that ability to provide for themselves, and for their children and their own families, but also how to spend that money wisely, how to save their money in a proper manner, how not to just be wasteful about everything that they touch and go near, but that's not something that's generally taught.

(19:47):

My wife and I, because of our situation and running Christian schools, we have the ability to teach our children these concepts every single day. They can start out by helping with various things once their schoolwork is done, and that's something that over the years that's been astonishing to people because they're thinking, "Well, it must take eight hours, 10 hours for your child to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic." No, it doesn't. In fact, if you have your lessons for schooling or homeschooling or however you want to call it, educational goals, it does not take much time of a day to go over lessons and then progress throughout the years. It's actually a very simple concept. The schools that we operate here in Southwest Florida can teach children as young as four years old, before kindergarten, to read, and as they continue to grow, they are years ahead of their peers.

(20:53):

Now, is that because we have a great, wonderful educational system and teaching phonics the proper way? Well, that is true, we do do that, we excel at that, and mathematics, and writing, but what undergirds their success is the religious foundation that is necessary. You cannot succeed educationally unless you have morality that undergirds it with a proper religious foundation and on God, otherwise you have failure. This is why the government schools have been failing for generations and will continue to fail because their goals are not founded on God. They don't want to teach people to become mature adults who are independent to live under God. They want perpetual slaves, people that are going to be under tribute and need somebody to be mommy for the rest of their lives, that's what they want. They do not want children to grow up and become independent and prosper, to be able to handle themselves, to control themselves, grow their own wealth, to get married, to stay in that marriage, and be stable, which will then further propagate them.

(22:13):

Marriage is the best thing that could ever happen to a man or a woman ,and then have children, and then those children grow up and support the family. The last thing that a tyrannical government wants is a truly educated people and education does not mean intelligent. It means a people who are disciplined and know God's law, obey God's law, and expect others to do so as well. It's not a magic potion, success is not, but you could say that it is definitely supernatural. Economics and entrepreneurship, you can teach children not just how to be an employee their entire lives. My children have been raised up in our schools and now I have two of my older children who are running schools. They have their own family and they are now able to run schools with their family in the same manner that I did when I first started.

(23:15):

We have a generational ability to raise up families, to be self-independent financially and evangelical. It can be done. My family is proof of that and others can do it as well, but it starts with the foundation that we have to start understanding that as Christian parents and Christian teachers, it starts with a religious foundation. That's where comes from. If we don't do that, then we're setting up our children for complete failure. Do you want failure? Do you want your children to fail? Do you want somebody to look back and say, "Why didn't tell me the truth? Why is it you didn't help me try to understand how I needed to act to be successful?" I don't want that.

(24:14):

Well, I am very thankful for having your ear, dear listener, christian parents, hopefully Christian teacher, or prospective Christian teacher, do not lose heart, but remember what your goals are. We must teach children the truth and how to succeed and that starts with a foundation on God, his commandments, and their ability to obey. Thank you for joining me and God bless.