education Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Kuyperian Commentary

On October 11, 2014 By Kuyperian In Scribblings Like

Van Til on John Dewey

“It becomes increasingly apparent that the teacher in Dewey’s schools must somehow know that these teachings of Christianity cannot be true. They must protect their pupils from the evil influences of such disintegrating and miseducative doctrines. So they must be sure that these doctrines are not true. They must know that it is impossible that they can be true. They must be able to assure the pupils that there cannot be a judgment coming. They must be able to make universal negative assertions about all future experience. And they must make such assertions on the basis of present experience as it is intelligible without reference to anything beyond itself. In other words Dewey’s teachers must first assert that man knows nothing of a transcendent realm. But they must also assert, in effect, that they know all about it. They must assert that nobody knows anything about it. This means that they who claim to know about it must be mistaken. And then they themselves, nonetheless, presume to know all about it. They must be omniscient in order to know that no one can rightfully claim to know anything about God.”

–Cornelius Van Til, Essays on Christian Education, 1979<>

On June 21, 2014 By Jarrod Richey In Culture Like

Of Course, the Lame Can’t Waltz: Refocusing Current Music Discourse in the Christian Church

Guest post by Jarrod Richey

Asking why the church doesn’t sing hymns or even why men don’t sing in church is a bit like lamenting over the lame man who can’t waltz on the dance floor. While it is a valid question, the more immediate question would seem to be, “why doesn’t the lame man walk?”

There have been a number of blogs and articles of late noting the lack of singing from Christian men in the church today. While there is plenty of commentary on the reasons for this, most of the analysis, I find, skips over the fundamental reason which causes such problems in the first place.

Remembering the basics

I am reminded of the well-known anecdote from hall of fame Green Bay Packers football coach Vince Lombardi. After a demoralizing defeat, he gathered his football team around him and cited the need to get “back to basics.” He then lifted a football he was holding into the air and calmly said, “Gentlemen, this is a football”. Likewise, we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves when it comes to music in the life of the Christian Church. We must make some similarly rudimentary explanations for music in the church.

Johnny can’t sing hymns because Johnny can’t sing

I’m thankful for the dialogue generated by books like T. David Gordon’s Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns. But before we question why Johnny can’t sing hymns or why men don’t sing in churches today, we must simply ask and answer the more fundamental question, “Why Can’t Johnny Sing?” It almost seems too simple to ask, but it is precisely the question we need to answer in our present musical discourse. But it must be addressed if we are going to reverse the modern musical trends in the Church.

The proverbial Johnny has not been trained to see the importance of music and singing in the creation in which he lives. As a result, there is little importance given to the training in music and in making music as a response of praise. I don’t want to start up a debate on music form in hymn styles, etc. Rather, I want us to back up and rethink why we are not training our children to sing at all. When we do have music programs and curricula in our schools, we often miss the mark in training our students to be singers who are able to use their voices skillfully in praise to God. Instead, despite good intentions we are only giving our students a survey of music. They are not given the tools to be music makers themselves. They are only able to speak about composers or significant points in music history. That is not what we want to settle for in the long term. Rather, we want to be able to “sing praises with understanding” as the New King James Version of Psalm 47:7 exhorts. As we grow in our understanding of who we are as children of God, we must grow in our understanding of what it means to better reflect the glory of the Triune God. The God whose glorified speech created the heavens and the earth from nothing is the same God whose glory echoes throughout creation.

God sang creation into existence

It is not adequate enough to say God spoke all things into existence. We would do well to refine that it means that He sang this glorious melody of life, and it continues to echo to His praise and glory in a grand symphony. He set the temperament, tuned the world and is continually tuning the world. Therefore, it is our business to view ourselves as part of this symphony. How we live each day is a part of the gospel harmony on a macro level. But at the micro level we must not miss the opportunity to resound the triune melody in new and more glorious ways. Music making is the tool for that. What a joy to grow in how we reflect the musicality of God. He creates; we go forth and “wee-create”. In singing and making music, we are being like God, and we are better able to exhibit what it means to be filled with the Spirit of God. This is why we must train our students to be such re-creative singers.

The First Steps to Change

To start, we’ve got to put music back in the Christian school and homeschooling co-ops. Beyond that, we must have pastors and elders who exhort their flock to be like God, who joyfully sings and enjoys all of His creation singing back His praise. When we start, we must start small. Instead of viewing music as an artistic aside, we must think of it as language-like, in that it has components and tools that must be studied if proficiency is to be achieved. In other words, we must have students trained in music literacy in such a way that they can read, write, and sing (or think) in terms of music. This doesn’t mean they have to be career musicians. It means that our people will be musicians simply because they are humans made in the image of the Triune God. If the Lord calls them to a vocation in music, then we should value and encourage that. But we should not resist the idea of music training because we have a stereotype of what it means to be a career musician.

So, if you are reading this and think, “we’ve got to do more, but what first?” then you need to have someone help teach your folks to sing. Have your kids in music lessons, find courses on singing and reading music. Have folks who have experience in Kodály or other music philosophies that can give children to adults the sequenced tools that will enable them to grow as singers first and musicians second. That’s where you must begin. Then, if you are older, you must pour your energy and resources into the younger ones in your family and church. Use what provision and means you have to help others come to a better understanding of music than you have currently. This after all is what we are about as Christians. We are seeking to move from glory to glory. We want our children and our children’s children to build upon our strengths and understanding to new and more glorious ways of living and serving their creator.

Do not be discouraged. Do not be grumpy. We must not forget that The Lord is working his purposes out in his own timing and purpose in regards to music and singing. Our job is to be thankful in all things and to press on to see a more faithful generation that will seek to reflect God’s glory through faithful living and praising our Creator in songs and hymns and spiritual songs.

Jarrod Richey currently lives in Monroe, Louisiana with his lovely wife Sarah and their four children. He is both the Director of Choral Activities and Pre-K4 through 12th grade music teacher at Geneva Academy. In addition to this, he has been on staff at Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church since 2005 handling both church media and choral music responsibilities. Jarrod has recently founded Jubilate Deo Summer Music Camp in Monroe, LA that seeks to train joyful worshippers and young singers with the above goals built in to the very core of the camp. For more information on the camp visit, www.jubilatedeo.org or search Jubilate Deo Summer Music Camp on Facebook.com

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On May 8, 2014 By Kuyperian In Family and Children, Theology Like

Educating Royalty: Teaching Our Children to Be Kingdom Heirs—not Just Laborers in the Marketplace

Guest Post by Dr. Roy A. Atwood

“Who are you?” a university student once asked me after class many years ago.

Odd question, I thought. I’d handled countless student questions, but this one caught me unprepared.

“Uh . . . I’m a professor,” I answered weakly.

“No!” he shot back. “I don’t mean what do you do, but who are you?”

His question unsettled me. Like most North Americans, I’d been carefully, though not intentionally, catechized since a lad at my parents’ side that the first and most important question we ask adults at first meeting (after getting their name) is, “What do you do?”

I’d learned that catechism lesson well, repeating it literally hundreds of times in all kinds of social settings over the years. But that catechism had left me quite unprepared to answer this more fundamental question about my personal identity separate from my place in the market. That grieved me because, as a Christian, I had been better versed in the catechism of secular pragmatism than in Lord’s Days 12 and 13 or the Scriptures. And I knew I wasn’t the only one.

The Answer that Changes Everything

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ . . . .

—Romans 8:16-17a

As I have reflected on that encounter over the years, I’ve realized that the biblical and covenantal answer to the question, “Who are you?” is a glorious one that stands in stark contrast to the secular myth that our employment or “career” defines us. Of course, our work and callings as Christians in the marketplace are important. Providing for our families is a great privilege and responsibility. But the priority of work in both our lives and the education of our children is almost certainly misplaced and overemphasized today in Reformed circles.

Our Calvinistic work ethic and sense of vocation—serving the Lord in all things—are a glorious heritage, but in our 21^st century context, they have become largely indistinguishable from the middle class idolatry common among of our unbelieving neighbors (i.e., having “another object in which men place their trust” [Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 95]). In fact, over 30+ years of university teaching, evenly divided between secular universities and Christian colleges, I can testify that the one question all parents—Christian and non-Christian alike—ask about higher education is, “What kind of job can my kid get when he/she graduates?” Intended or not, that question reveals deep worldview priorities. And such a question is certainly not the fruit of careful, prayerful parental reflection on what it means to educate covenant children as heirs of Christ who will seek first the kingdom.

By contrast, the Scriptures never identify God’s covenant children as people with jobs who happen to hold to a particular religious tradition. Instead, the Bible repeatedly calls us heirs of a kingdom, adopted sons and daughters of the King of the universe. We are not just Christians who happen to have various jobs or work to do. We are royalty (Rom. 8:14-17, Eph. 1:3-6, I Pet. 2:9). We will reign over all creatures with Christ eternally (Heid. Cat., Q. 32). We are the adopted children of God and fellow heirs with Jesus, with all the privileges of the sons of God (Luke 2:11, Acts 10:36, I Tim. 6:15, Rev. 19:16; Heid. Cat., Q. 34). We are princes and princesses of the King of kings! We are royal heirs! And that answer to the question, “Who are you?”—changes everything.

Like young Prince George, the child heir to the throne of England and the United Kingdom, a day mustn’t pass that we wonder who we are, why we are being educated, and what we are being prepared to be and to do. We are heirs to a throne and a Kingdom far greater and more glorious than the one in England. The House of Windsor pales in comparison to Jesus’s realm and our divine inheritance! How much more, then, should we, who are heirs of the King of kings and Lord of lords, prepare ourselves and our children to be thoroughly and faithfully educated in everything it means to be a son and daughter of the Creator, Redeemer, and Lord of the Universe. Thoroughly and faithfully educated in everything it means to be royalty.

This is no time for the wicked nonsense about “sowing wild oats” or setting a low bar of expectations for our children. That is the rebellious spirit of prodigals who forget who they (and their children) really are. Those who are in line to take their places in Christ’s kingdom as princes and princesses must expect more of themselves and of their children. “To whom much is given, much is required” (Luke 12:48). Because we are royalty in Christ, God has king-sized expectations and blessings in store for us and our children—if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.

The entire book of Proverbs is Solomon’s instruction to his royal heirs “to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles” (Prov. 1:2-6). Such an education must provide much more than an awareness of fragmented facts or specialized work skills for a place in the job market. Again, that’s not to say that facts and skills are not important. Nor is it to say that we should suddenly trade pragmatic, nose-to-the-grindstone sweat of our brows for pious sounding spiritual platitudes.

The issues are (1) where does the education of Christ’s royal heirs fit in our list of priorities and (2) what should that education look like.

Priorities: We are Royalty. So Start Acting Like It.

Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the instruction of the Lord, nor be weary when corrected by him. For the Lord instructs the one he loves, and corrects every son whom he receives.” It is for instruction that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.

—Hebrews 12:5-7

Those who are fellow heirs in Christ know that His regal ways are not the power-grabbing, lording-it-over-others, self-seeking ways of the ungodly. Far from it. Christ ascended to His Father’s throne only after sacrificing everything for His people and His creation. He gave himself away. His royal way is the way of selfless love and sacrifice. He died that we might die to sin and death. He lives that we might live in glory forever. Sacrificial service for the sake of the kingdom is the mark of true kingship, true royalty. It characterizes our Lord Christ. And it must characterize our Lord’s true heirs in their lives and in their education.

As Christ’s royal heirs, we dare not be content to prepare ourselves or our children merely to be cogs in the economic machinery of our secular consumer culture. Even the ancients understood that slaves are only trained to perform tasks. They have no rights of inheritance, no deeper identity. A slave’s identity is his work. But free citizens and royalty, who will dedicate themselves to the advance of the kingdom, must be educated deeply for the day when their royal leadership and service is expected. Similarly, we are called to a higher purpose and bear greater responsibility for how we live and prepare our children for their royal callings.

Unfortunately, we have, as the author of Hebrews suggests, forgotten the divine exhortation to educate our children in the nurture and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4, Heb. 12:5ff). We have forgotten in part because we have forgotten who we are.

A Royal Education: Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning.

This memory lapse is most evident in how we educate our children today. Education, even that which purports to be Christian, is now often devoted primarily to the goal of producing good little workers for the secular labor force, efficient widgets for our economy’s production line, and little more.

That falls far short of the biblical expectation that Christian children be saturated in the instruction of the Lord and grow up knowing what it means to be royal heirs of Christ the King. An education bearing the name of the King ought, at the least, to offer His royal heirs . . .

A comprehensive and integrative understanding of God’s world and of how all things cohere in the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:4-11). Such an education will give children the “big picture” of how all things, all spheres of creation, are interrelated in the glory of their Creator.The university itself was a Christian invention in the Middle Ages (the earliest established between A.D. 1100 and 1200), designed to give students an integrated Christian vision and foundation for all future learning. That was the original purpose of the classical liberal arts (meaning, the arts of a free citizen). For almost a millennium, Christian universities taught the classical liberal arts or the so-called Trivium and Quadrivium:
- The Trivium, or the Three Ways, stressed the good structure of language (Grammar), the way to discern truth (Logic), and how to express truth beautifully (Rhetoric)—all to encourage a student’s life-long love of goodness, truth, and beauty in words and language, as typified by The Word Himself in John 1:1-14.
- The Quadrivium, or the Four Ways, encouraged a life-long love of goodness, truth, and beauty in the use of numbers (Arithmetic), numbers in space (Geometry), numbers in time (Music or Harmony), and numbers in space and time (Astronomy), revealing the unity and diversity of creation and of our Triune Creator Himself (Deut. 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one,” and Matt. 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”).
- Together, the Trivium and Quadrivium, the original seven liberal arts, offered students essential insights into the harmony and wholeness of God’s diverse world and into the interrelated truth, goodness and beauty of its Triune Creator. They didn’t give students just the facts or skills for a job, but the tools of lifelong learning from a Christian perspective.

Unfortunately, today’s arbitrarily selected smorgasbord of academic subjects and randomly structured university curricula, following the modern analytic, scientific tradition, tend to do the opposite: they offer fragmented bits of information with no principle of coherence or relationship. But in God’s economy, the whole is always more than the sum of its parts. An education that does not teach us how to see the wholeness of God’s creation, and to equip us to understand how all things cohere in Christ, inevitably misses the big picture about creation and creation’s God. It is a partial, incomplete, distorted education.

Curiously, specialization at the undergraduate level was virtually unknown in North America prior to the late 19^th century. University students did not “major” in a narrow academic disciplines or vocational specializations prior to 1879. They couldn’t. “Majors” simply didn’t exist before then. Instead, all undergraduates received a classical, integrated liberal arts foundation. The universities gave them essential tools for learning that applied to all their various callings as sons and daughters, spouses, parents, neighbors, citizens, providers, voters, buyers and sellers in the marketplace, and parishioners. Their work skills and the job training needed to provide for their families were developed outside the classroom in on-site training or apprenticeships done in the context where the work was actually being done. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Kuyper, C.S. Lewis—all the greatest leaders in our Christian tradition—were so classically educated in the traditional, integrative liberal arts of the Trivium and Quadrivium and practically trained.

But pragmatists of the late 19^th and early 20^th century sold their Christian academic birthright for a mess of modernist career pottage. They turned schools into egalitarian job training camps for the workers of the world and abandoned the Christian pursuit of wisdom and knowledge in the Lord. The schools dumbed down and the church has grown steadily weaker ever since.

Reversing that trend will require that the King’s royal heirs expect . . .

Truly godly and wise teacher-mentors (Luke 6:40). According to Jesus, the teacher—not the curriculum, not the lesson plan, not the technology, not the facilities, not the accreditation, not the tuition rate—is the single most important factor in a child’s education. “A student, when mature, will be like his teacher,” Jesus said. All the other bells and whistles may be nice (though they can often be more of a distraction than a help), but the teacher is key.Yet, in my experience, Christian parents often know more about a school’s university admission rates, or a college’s career placement rates, or tuition rates, or financial aid plans, or sports programs than they do about the character and spiritual health of the men and women who will actually be shaping the minds and lives of their children in and out of the classroom. Sadly, many Christian school administrators and boards aren’t much better, giving higher priority to paper credentials and standardized test scores and bricks and mortar than to the character and spiritual integrity of their teachers. Of course, academic expertise and standardized testing have their place. But parents, administrators and school promotional literature often stress most what actually counts least from a Kingdom perspective. And such misguided emphases have the potential to catechize generations of parents and children in what is least in the Kingdom.
The teacher is so crucial, as Jesus says, because all education is fundamentally personal. That’s because truth itself is personal. Truth is a person. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Truth is not some collection of brute facts or scientifically verifiable propositions. It is a living person. Teachers either faithfully represent or embody that Truth before their students or they don’t. Parents or educators who misunderstand this crucial biblical principle put their children and students at grave risk of misunderstanding the Truth and being catechized in lies and ungodliness. No matter how much parents think their child can be a “good witness” in a secular education environment, that child is not the teacher, but the one being taught. And no matter how mature we imagine our children to be (often overestimating), their “cement is still wet.” They are still students seeking to be taught and led into maturity, readily influenced by others older and more experienced. The question is, who will teach them and lead them into what kind of maturity?

Moreover, those who think that new distance learning technologies will provide a quality education without putting their children at risk under ungodly teachers make a similar mistake. Learning godly knowledge and wisdom is not a data download. A student will be shaped by his or her teacher, no matter who that teacher is, no matter how the instruction is delivered.

Finally, the education of the King’s royal heirs ought also to include . . .

The shaping of our desires for the things of the Kingdom

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? . . . For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

—Matthew 6:25, 32-33

Jesus did not say, “Seek first vocational-technical training, and all that kingdom of God and righteousness stuff will be added later.” Yet to hear parents of university-bound students talk today about their educational goals for their children, you’d think he had. The dominant secular vocational paradigm for higher education has influenced us more on these issues than our Christian schools, our catechism classes, and even our churches. For that, we must repent. Our heavenly Father knows everything we need to live and to thrive, and He will provide them for us by His perfect means according to His perfect timing. He tells us explicitly not to stress over the little stuff. Grasping at college majors and career preparation will not add one penny to our bank accounts, put one more meal on the table, or add one more second to our lives that He has not already ordained. So stop majoring in the minors. Instead, major in God’s priorities: Christ’s kingdom and His righteousness.

What our schools and universities must encourage in our covenant children is a deeply held heart-desire for the things of God and of His Kingdom.

As Calvinists who take the sovereignty of God—the crown rights of Christ—seriously, we cannot, must not, train our children merely to be good little widgets in the secular marketplace who also happen to go to church each Lord’s Day. We vowed to raise them for much greater things at their baptisms.

So, “Who are you?”

You are the royal heirs of the King of kings; start acting like it.

Your children are royalty; start treating them like it.

Your children are inheriting a Kingdom; so start educating them for it.

{Originally published at Reformed Perspectives}

Dr. Roy Alden Atwood is the president, and a founder, of New Saint Andrews College (www.nsa.edu) in Moscow, Idaho<>быстро продвинуть

On October 11, 2013 By Peter Jones In Culture, Family and Children Like

Charles Hodge on True Education

Marc Hays posted earlier the opinion of three different contemporary writers on Christian education, specifically public school. Here is a quote from an older Christian, Charles Hodge. This comes from his commentary on Ephesians 6:4.

“This whole process of education is to be religious, and not only religious, but Christian. It is the nurture and admonition of the Lord which is the appointed and the only effectual means of attaining the end of education. Where this means is neglected or any other substituted in its place, the result must be disastrous failure. The moral and religious element of our nature is just as essential and as universal as the intellectual. Religion, therefore, is as necessary to the development of the mind as knowledge. And as Christianity is the only true religion, and God in Christ the only true God, the only possible means of profitable education is the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That is, the whole process of instruction and discipline must be that which he prescribes and which he administers, so that his authority should be brought in constant and immediate contact with mind, heart and conscience of the child. It will not do for the parent to present himself as the ultimate end, the source of knowledge and possessor of authority to determine truth and duty. This would be to give his child a mere human development. Nor will it do for him to urge and communicate every thing on the abstract ground of reason; for that would be to merge his child in nature. It is only by making God, God in Christ, the teacher and ruler, on whose authority every thing it so be believed, and in obedience to whose will every thing is to be done, that the ends of education can possibly be attained. It is infinite folly in men to assume to be wiser than God, or to attempt to accomplish an end by other means than those which he has appointed.”

Hodge makes some excellent points in this paragraph, which I would like to draw to your attention.

First, education must include the will and the moral character if it is to be called education at all. I would add that education will always be religious and moral in nature. The only question is will the religion be explicit or hidden. Public schools train our children to worship and form their moral character all the while claiming that they are morally neutral.

Second, God, since he is the only God, is the only right source of education. To try to gain a proper moral formation, that is true education, apart from God is like doing heart surgery with a butter knife.

Third, notice how Hodge says that the child’s heart, mind, and conscience must be brought into constant and immediate contact with God’s authority. This is a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 6:7. Here is why an education that excludes the Lord is a lie and is no education at all. God really does rule the world through His Son Jesus Christ and we really are to trust in Him and obey him and his Word really is the foundation for everything. To eliminate God’s authority from education is to eliminate the primary lesson that is to be learned.

Fourth, God is to set the curriculum. That curriculum is to make our children like their Savior Jesus. That does not eliminate math or science or literature. But it does eliminate math or science or literature without Jesus. This also means that returning some vague, amorphous “god” to public education is insufficient. It must be “God in Christ.”

Fifth, any attempt to educate our children any other way is infinite folly and guaranteed disaster. We cannot eliminate the Creator and the Savior from our education and not also ultimately eliminate wisdom, joy, beauty, truth, and righteousness.

Sixth, many Christians have adopted the mindset that education is primarily about earning a living wage. We get a good education so we can get a good job and earn money. This is insufficient as the end of education. Education’s end is the glory of God through making disciples of his Son Jesus Christ who apply his Word to all of life.

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On September 17, 2013 By Steve Macias In Scribblings Like

Steve Macias: Will Smith’s Son Slams Education System

In the late 80’s, Will Smith made his career with the hit, “Parents Just Don’t Understand” but today the hip-hop and Hollywood superstar’s son is making headlines over his criticisms of the government education system.

School Is The Tool To Brainwash The Youth.

— Jaden Smith (@officialjaden) September 12, 2013

Jaden Smith

Jaden Smith, Will Smith’s son, is himself now homeschooled and represents a growing unrest among mainstream thinkers in regard to the failure of socialized government schooling.

Here in California our state is literally going broke trying to fix government education by throwing more money onto the fire. For decades the teachers, parents, and education unions have promised that more money would equal a higher quality education. Billions of dollars and programs from both Democrats and Republicans have failed. Both Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” and Obama’s “Race to the Top” proved of no benefit to the dying education system.

Today, Dr. Ron Paul released his newest book entitled, “The School Revolution: A New Answer for Our Broken Education System.”

Where the Twelve-term Texas Congressman, Presidential candidate, and Liberty-minded bulwark promotes his ideas to fundamentally change the way we think about America’s broken education system in order to fix it.

In his introduction, Dr. Paul begins, “A free society acknowledges that authority over education begins with the family.” What a radical statement today, when the state claims ownership over everything from your private property to your own flesh-and-blood children.

Ron Paul: The School Revolution

As an advocate of homeschooling, I stand by Dr. Paul and give a hearty amen when he claims education as the “second wave” of the liberty revolution. I hope that “conservative” parents would awaken to the reality that government schools have one true purpose: “School Is The Tool To Brainwash The Youth.”

Our role is to take back education with the Christian optimism that Dr. Paul has,”We will win the battle for the minds of men and women. We will win it student by student.”

Pick up a copy of Dr. Paul’s new book on Amazon here.<>online game on mobile

On August 6, 2013 By Thomas Kidd In Books Like

Do Christian Kids Need Christian Education?

There’s nothing like having school-age children to get you thinking about education. Yes, I went to college for eleven straight years (from B.A. to Ph.D.), and yes, I have taught at the college level for eleven years, too. But I had never thought so much about education — specifically, what kind of education is best for kids in Christian families — until the last few years, as we have been homeschooling our children. (We are part of a Classical Conversations homeschooling community.)

I recently reviewed David Dockery’s book Faith and Learning: A Handbook for Christian Higher Education for The Gospel Coalition. Although this excellent book is focused primarily on collegiate education, it helped me reflect on broader issues in Christian education generally. In the review I asked,

How badly do Christians need Christian education? And what exactly does Christian education entail? The answers are not always obvious. Even among evangelicals, there is no consensus about whether to put children in Christian schools, or at what level. If parents send their children to a Christian school, it is most likely to be at the collegiate level. Students often make key decisions about their faith in college, an unparalleled time of intellectual formation. Many figure that the extra expense of a private Christian college is worth it. Still, factors such as financial resources and children’s personalities weigh in the decision, made for the most part without official pressure from churches (excepting some Anabaptist and Reformed traditions).

With all due deference to people’s judgments about their own children, and to their financial circumstances, I wonder whether churches should prod Christians more directly to consider Christian education, even when public schools are not openly hostile to the faith. (Doing so would require churches to help make Christian schooling more feasible in cost and accessibility, and to make sure that the Christian schools they sponsor or recommend are truly worthy options. Just because a school is called Christian does not make it a good school.)

As I noted in the Dockery review, some very thoughtful writers have argued that Christian education is essential:

Prophetic voices throughout the past century as varied as J. Gresham Machen, Christopher Dawson, Douglas Wilson, and Anthony Esolen have insisted that placing children in state-backed, secular schools at any level is unlikely to produce Christian adults capable of proper thinking. Even if secular education is not overtly anti-Christian, these critics say, it tends to produce people who are vocationally trained rather than seriously educated. As Dawson provocatively wrote in 1961, state schools seek to create functionaries for bureaucratic and industrial systems; they form “worker ants in an insect society.” If these prophets are right, then some formal Christian education is extremely important for training intellectually adroit Christians.

Some Christians will argue that withdrawing Christian children from public schools also withdraws their Christian witness. And I know a number of Christian families who have given serious thought to educating their kids, and for a variety of reasons have settled on public school. But I suspect that many other Christian families have simply given little thought to the question. This may especially be the case in places like Waco, Texas, my current home, where parents can pretty reasonably assume that Christian students at public schools will not be harassed for their faith, at least not by teachers. But still, do the values of public education, even in towns relatively friendly to faith, accord with those of Christian education? (The question of the quality of public education is, of course, a related concern. And please note that I am a product of public schools from 1st grade through my M.A. degree.)

Public education, and private secular education, is floundering to identify any purpose these days, other than perhaps “math and science” training, and the ever-popular “critical thinking skills.” (Excellent standardized test scores and successful football teams are also good.) The modern public school system was originally intended to form citizens for democratic citizenship; perhaps that purpose lingers in some public schools today. But Christians should be wary even of education for democratic citizenship, which can easily shade into nationalism and cloud a child’s understanding that her ultimate citizenship is in the city of God.

What we know for sure, of course, is that whatever combination of public, private, or home education a child receives, the parents’ influence on a child’s mind is preeminent. But I still think that evangelicals and other Christians need to think hard about what education for their children should accomplish. This deliberation should occur as early as possible. Two great books with which to start thinking are Christopher Dawson’s The Crisis of Western Education and Anthony Esolen’s satirical Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, a book I reviewed at Patheos.

Representatives of the state will tell us that public education is the only normal option, and that only public schools provide the proper “socialization” of children. But Christian parents know better than to automatically defer to the wishes of the state for their children.

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Originally posted at Patheos<>google реклама на