Although I’m not studying to become a professor, I wouldn’t consider myself the black sheep of the family. My mom, dad, and sister—all undergraduate English majors—now teach some brand of literature, writing, or public relations. I, on the other hand, teach nothing, and my prospects in that direction don’t look too promising. Of course, that’s only natural, because I don’t feel called to teach. Instead, for the time being, I feel called to litigate. In fact, I’m so confident that the law is where God wants me that, if I knew how genes worked, I might say it’s in my DNA.
We as a family do, however, have a similar passion: education. We simply have a different means of promoting it. I’ve read too many stories about the ACLU, the NAACP, or some prejudiced school board denying students—almost always Christians or conservatives—their basic freedoms to sit by idly and do nothing. Now that I’m finally in a place where I can fight to preserve these freedoms, I’m chomping at the bit. As Rudy might say, “I’ve been waiting for this my whole life!”
Working in another area of law might make me a millionaire by the time I turn thirty-five, but I’ve never had a lot of money, so I don’t feel any pressure to make a lot. Thank God! And, really, no money would be enough to clear my conscience. I take seriously what God has called me to do, and I don’t think I’d ever feel right doing anything besides litigating to protect those freedoms that the First Amendment guarantees every student in every classroom across the country.
Environment is a powerful thing, affecting people no matter how resilient they believe themselves to be. Public schools these days are hardly healthy environments for kids, and they become even more toxic when basic freedoms are denied. Sadly, though, modern academia seems not to mind an increase in the number of Charlotte Simmonses. And as for the innocent and ignorant youth, there seems to be little stopping the lies that humanism feeds them.
But the light cannot be turned off, and we can’t just give up and walk away from these kids who need our help. I feel such a burden for these students because I am convinced that their worldview is heavily influenced, whether consciously or otherwise, by what they hear each day in the classroom.
The way I see it, protecting a student’s freedom of speech or freedom of religion is merely the means to a greater end. Freedom without a purpose is like faith without an object: worthless. But if by preserving a student’s freedom of speech he can hear or, even better, profess Truth in the classroom, then we ought to fight for that freedom with everything we’ve got.
Truth may be powerful enough to stand on its own, but it needs knowledgeable, passionate, and articulate advocates to influence society—to disturb people and shake them out of their complacency and to inspire them to move their culture in a positive direction. My desire to be that advocate drove me to law school, and once I pass the bar, I intend to actively engage the legal battle to defend our basic freedoms so that we might ultimately preserve Truth.
far from, but right at, home 
Go for it, Tim. You’re so right: walking out on the public schools is not an acceptable option for Christians. Like it or not, the vast majority of American youth will grow up there, and if we turn our backs on them, we have no right to complain when tomorrow’s leaders don’t know where they’re going.