Thoughts on College Education for Women -- Part 3

To close my series on college education for women, I have included excerpts of Mrs. Jennie Chancey's testimony of her college years found in So Much More. She also gives a similar testimony on her CD, "Jennie B. and the Pilot" currently available through Vision Forum Ministries. Her experience played a large part in finalizing the decision that I will not be attending college.

"...Having been homeschooled for seven years, I was well prepared for college academics. In fact, I'd won a full scholarship to college (my parents` own alma mater). Six months earlier, I had begged my parents to stay home, but the scholarship had made their decision firm, so I finally decided to make the best of things and dive into college life with all my energy. In spite of my homesickness, college life did have it's charms. I was truly in control of my life in a way I never had been before. Though I often sought my parents counsel over the phone, the final decision rested on my shoulders. I could pick the classes I wanted to take, set my own daily schedule, get involved in extracurricular activities, and go out with new friends (at all hours!). My parents had given me excellent study habits, and I found it very easy to keep up with the pace of my major (English with a concentration on writing). But something started to bother me only a few weeks into my time at college. When my Western Civ. professor declared that history was really a series of
"uncoordinated" and "random" events, alarms went off in my head. I believed that God sovereignty orchestrated all of the affairs of men --that history was really "His story." But I quickly quieted my fears, believing the professor would shortly explain himself and get us onto the right track. Well as his worldview continued to unfold, I could only sit in utter disbelief. My Christian professor made it quite clear that he was a theistic evolutionist and did not hold to the belief that the Bible is infallible...

...When one of my literature professors began to reveal her feminist beliefs and advocate 'women's studies' (including "love-poetry" written by lesbians), I wondered if I was really in a Christian school. The New Testament professor under whom I sat for several semesters used every one of his lectures to advance his pet belief that all the male-female roles in Scripture were solely 'cultural' and did not apply to Christians today. He inserted feministic jabs at the reliability of Paul's writings at every opportunity. I'd known before that there were people who rejected the plain teachings of God's Word, but I did not expect to encounter them in a small, 'conservative' Christian college. I purposed to keep my eyes open and my brain in gear as I sat in class and engaged my professors. But I didn't factor in the ability of the constant immersion in opposing worldviews to wear down my resistance.In almost every course I studied over the next four years, a subtle but definite shift began to take place in my outlook and way of thinking. As the seeds of doubt (in God, in my family, in the Church) began to take root in my mind, I felt my heart hardening. No longer did I possess the an unqualified joy in God's creation or even in His work in my life. After all, if 'science' had 'proved' the Bible wrong and outdated, Truth stood on a very shaky foundation. Could even logic be reliable in a world where Truth Himself could be called into question? Perhaps all of those injunctions of St. Paul's really were 'cultural' and irrelevant in our times. Perhaps my New Testament professor was right when he said that, if Jesus had come to earth in our day he would have chosen a woman to be one of his disciples! Three years before, I might have questioned that notion and fought it with all my being --but month after month, my foundations had been eroded to the point that I didn't even know how to argue any more. I just gave up and put the answers on the tests that would give me the coveted 'A'. Now, lest you think I was a 'sheltered' child before college, let me make it clear that my parents had not hidden me from the world's philosophies. In fact, they had worked hard to instill in me a thoroughgoing biblical worldview, teaching me to think, debate ideas, and stand firm on the Truth. Yet four years after entering college, I walked out a bitter, cynical, 'Christian feminist', turning my back upon all the things my parents had given me and determined never to marry....

...[My parents] were not worried about me changing my beliefs or losing my desire to marry and have children, because they had brought me up to embrace a biblical worldview from birth. I went to college totally committed to the Lord's design for marriage and family and focused upon developing my gifts to use later to bless and help my future husband and to train my own children. However when I returned home four years later, I was not the optimistic 19-year-old my parents had sent away. Four years of liberal teaching (heavily influenced by 'Christian' Marxism and the 'social gospel') had slowly worn away my resistance and left me confused and doubtful. But the liberal teaching really wasn't the crux of my change. I also graduated from college bitter toward my parents and certain the Proverbs 31 model was just not for me. I had lived in a false 'real world' for four years --a world that divorced me from my family, alienated me from the Church, and (after seeing serial dating in practice) convinced me that men live only for paychecks and trophy wives and are not to be trusted...

...It is amazing how far removed we are from our own history when it comes to the education of women. The notion that an unprotected young woman should leave her home and family to 'gain independence in the real world' is less than 140 years old. For that matter, so is the notion that a college degree is equal to a thorough education! We've become so shackled to the symbolic piece of paper that even we homeschoolers feel we haven't 'arrived' or 'proved ourselves' until we have a degree on our wall. While there are certainly occupations that require long years of institutional study (perhaps medicine or law), a college degree does not validate one as a thinking person...

...college put me into a kind of 'Twilight Zone' for four years, disconnecting me almost completely from the real world of home, family, little children, grandparents, and even deep church involvement. For four years, I lived in an environment totally unlike the real world I'd be reentering when I graduated. It was a world where my own preferences ruled: I could get up late, stay up at all hours, eat whatever I wanted, go out with friends at any time, take the classes I chose, and, most importantly, slowly disconnect myself from my own family back home. Their concerns were no longer mine. They were no longer closely involved with the decisions I had to make on a day-to-day basis, and I didn't feel obligated to concern myself with what they did, either...

...Shortly before he died, my father confessed to me that he felt he had made the wrong decision all those years before when he'd forced me to go away to college. He asked me to forgive him, then prayed with me, thanking the Lord that He had 'restored the years... the locust had eaten' (Joel 2:25). God is faithful! He can preserve us and protect us in spite of wrong choices. His grace is truly amazing! I am thankful for the good things He did bring out of my time in college --in particular two excellent English professors who worked closely with me to develop my writing skills --but I wouldn't wish those years on another young woman. I've heard many speakers advocate the whole 'college experience' as a must-have for young people. While I do believe men are called to go out into the world and establish themselves in the profession the Lord has called them to, I am willing to say openly that I do not believe there is a reason to send a young woman away to get an education."

As you can see, because of what the Lord has laid on my heart, I have been actively searching the Scriptures and have been researching this topic for quite a while, and as a result, my family and I have decided that I am not going to attend college. The main reasons for this are that I believe that the Lord's calling for women is to be in the home and because of the negative influence of college as a result of the secular worldview.

I do believe women should be educated and instead of college, I've decided to stay home under the authority of my father and continue my education on my own. I will have plenty of time to learn valuable skills that will prepare me for my future role as a wife, mother, and homemaker. Above all, I will continue to actively study the Bible and seek out God's will for my life.

Originally published Feb. 2007 - on Whiskers on Kittens

I would love to hear your view on this! Please leave a comment below.