Each family has to decide the right path for educating their children. Parents will consider class sizes, extracurriculars, cost, and accommodations. Yet, I am convinced that far too few Christians consider the spiritual element of childhood education.
My kids’ schooling has taken different forms throughout the years: homeschooling, homeschooling as part of a co-op, and now, attending a university-model school where they spend three days a week in the classroom and two days homeschooling. The form of schooling has changed, but the overall substance of their education has remained. More specifically, our kids are receiving a classical, Christian education. In this two-part series, I want to unpack both of those terms and encourage parents to give careful consideration to the education that your children are receiving.
In today’s article, I will start with the more foundational of the two terms: Christian.
Discipleship in the Classroom
When you hear the word “discipleship,” you may immediately think of a program that runs on Sunday or Wednesday night at your church.
Discipleship, though, is an inevitable aspect of education, regardless if it happens in a church or school building. Particularly in public schooling, there is a belief that education is morally and theologically neutral, as students are trained in skills to prepare them for success in college and beyond. However, there is no education that is neutral. Every education system is built upon foundational beliefs about the nature and aim of humanity.
For instance, the mission of our local public school system, as described on its website, is “to develop empathetic, involved, productive, and responsible citizens by providing every student with high-quality educational experiences that empower each to become enthusiastic lifelong learners.” Notice that the mission is far more than information transfer or even skill acquisition. Rather, fundamental to the mission of the school system is the formation of character. In other words, it’s discipleship, an effort to develop a certain type of person.
The idea of developing the citizenship, like the school system’s website promotes, is not new in education. Rather, it flows from the Greek idea of paideia, which was the Greeks’ enculturation of children for the sake of forming good citizens. Formal schooling was one aspect of the paideia, but it also focused on cultivating character and virtues that would allow the culture to flourish.
Similarly, in order for our local school system to develop empathetic and responsible citizens, that requires a vision of who we are, who we should be, and how we get there. These are fundamentally theological categories. The problem is that they are often implicitly baked into the classroom or school culture. The question becomes, though, Where is our authority for answering these questions? Broadly speaking, secular education is exactly that. It’s built on the foundation of beliefs that either ignore or outright reject Christianity.
The issue, then, is not whether an education should be theological. Rather, it’s what theology or philosophy will be driving the education.
Connecting the King to the Classroom
As Christians, we believe that the Lord is the Maker and Owner of heaven and earth. All that we know about ourselves and the world should be oriented to him because he has created all things for his glory. Education that is thoroughly Christian is meant to be a unified vision of the world, set in relation to the triune God, and aimed at cultivating young people who worship the Lord with their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
In each subject studied at school, there are underlying questions that are answered in the curriculum. These questions make all the difference in whether our understanding of the world and our place in it is Christian or agnostic, at best.
Consider how this plays out in various subjects in a normal curriculum:
- Science- How do we explain the nature of creation? Where did it all come from?
- Literature- Is there an objective meaning in texts that we read, or is it simply subjective and individualistic? Is there criteria to evaluate whether a piece of literature is good and true?
- Art- What do various art forms communicate about the artists’s view of truth and the world? Is there a criteria for evaluating the beauty of a piece of art?
- History- Are there overarching frameworks by which we understand the progress of history? Are students taught to understand and critically interact with the events of history? If so, what is the criteria for evaluation? Is it taught merely in naturalistic terms, or is there a category for the supernatural?
More could be said about each subject, but it is clear that the pursuit of knowledge in each field is built upon the foundation of a greater understanding of the world and our place in it. Christian education explicitly approaches the task of education with a posture of worship, striving to connect all of our knowledge with its starting point in our triune Lord.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4–9)
Christian education is not meant to be siloed instruction where each subject is treated in an isolated manner. Rather, the goal is the cultivation of a Godward orientation in all of life. A thoroughly Christian school embraces the discipleship aspect of education, carefully considering how the school’s practices and curriculum cultivate disciples of Jesus.
The problem is that Christian education has often failed in its mission. Rather than a robust vision for shaping the next generation under the kingship of Christ, Christian schools have far too often slapped a few Bible verses on a shoddy curriculum that lacks rigor or is built upon the same theological foundations as a secular education. The emphasis has often been on making rules about dress code and going to chapel. But forcing students to attend chapel once a week doesn’t make a good Christian education.
To say it another way, Christian schools often operate from a posture of fear, seeking to isolate students from the world around them. While there is wisdom in keeping a close eye on the things our kids are exposed to, Christian education should be built on posture of worship, not a posture of fear. We want to teach a holistic view of life under Christ. Why? Because, as the apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1:16–17, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Jesus is the means by which and for which all things were created, so we want to submit all of our knowledge about his world in proper relation to him.
What about the church?
Some may ask, “But isn’t the church the institution that Christ has ordained to make disciples?” As a local church pastor, let me give a hearty “amen” to the primacy of the local church in Christ’s global mission. The family and the local church are the fundamental spheres in which our children should be trained in the Lord.
One way in which parents exercise this God-given authority is by intentionally instructing their child in the knowledge of the Lord. However, too many parents have become passive participants in the discipleship of their children. But even if parents are reading the Bible with their kids regularly and instructing them around the dinner table, the question then becomes, are the roughly 35 hours a week the child spends in school complementing this education or undermining it?
Families and churches must consider how they can participate in this whole-life education. For families, it means digging more into the curriculum that the kids are taught. Better still, if possible, would be for the parents to provide a robust Christian education either through homeschooling or private school. Churches, likewise, may consider hosting a homeschool co-op or even starting a Christian school, which the North American Mission Board is encouraging congregations to consider. What does the next step look like for you?
In Part 2 of this series, I will explain the “classical” side of a classical, Christian education.
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