A lot of people in America talk about how higher education should be more affordable and accessible. What they don’t talk about is how to get there. Before you can go to college, you need to graduate high school or get your GED. There are so many people that can’t even get those due to financial insecurity, home instability, and religion. Yes, religion is a huge issue in the USA. There are so many religious schools throughout the country that don’t give you a proper education and get away with it. Honestly, I’m fed up with it. Unregulated education not only affected me but many of my family members and friends. 

One of my family members was crying to me on the phone recently about how she couldn’t finish high school because she hated the school she was going to. This particular school had a very long school day. The students had to stay in school from something like 8:30 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon. One part of the day was dedicated to religious education like the bible, and the other half was for secular education like math and science. 

Homeschooled While Learning Nothing

The problem is, she missed so many years of school because her family decided to “homeschool” her. So basically teach her nothing but the bible all day. How is someone with such a lack of the basics like math and science supposed to keep up with high school level classes? Now she is planning to get her GED but is extremely frustrated because she can’t even spell correctly or form proper sentences.

Honestly, I relate to her. My parents took me out of school at the end of third grade (about 9 years old). They “homeschooled” me until I went into foster care when I was 14 years old. During the time from 9 to 14 years old, I was put in two different Jewish religious schools for a short amount of time, but no proper secular (math, science, history, etc.) education was taught. So it was like I wasn’t even in school.

You Aren’t Prepared for the Real World

How is this lack of education supposed to prepare you for the real world? You can’t even write a cover letter or fill out a job application because your grammar and spelling are severely lacking? You can’t even create a budget because you don’t have any basic math skills. Luckily for me, when I went into foster care at 14 years old, I was finally put into a proper school. I spent a lot of time with tutors trying to learn all of the information I missed over the years. I did end up receiving an associate’s degree from a local college as well.

But can you imagine if you have a learning disability? Not only do you not have any foundation of information, but you also have a hard time learning. American schools already have major issues, this just makes it worse. How is it ok to keep children out of school or send them to religious schools that teach them virtually nothing useful for years?

The Government Lets It Happen

How were my parents not fined for faking homeschooling me? I think it’s a disservice to your children to keep them from learning about the real world. Those parents should be punished, and the government needs to have more oversight. I know that I can write all I want about this topic and probably nothing is going to change. I just want to bring awareness that religious people aren’t always the good guys.

I’m not saying don’t teach the bible. If you believe in it, go ahead and teach it. Your children can come to their own conclusions about whether they think it’s true or not. But do it in their off time. Provide children with a decent education and don’t make their futures hard as hell because you believe in a higher power. Children and adults should be given all the tools they can get to become successful, and most importantly, HAPPY.

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Do you think that parents should be allowed to control their children’s education because of religion?