Rethinking Education

Education (part 1)

I have been involved with Christian education (home schools and day schools) for over thirty years, as a parent, pastor, teacher and board member. I owe a debt of gratitude to many who have written, spoken and led the way as pioneers in the resurgence of this important work. I have also had the privilege to work alongside an army of dedicated and sacrificing parents, teachers and administrators, and I have witnessed much progress and the lovely fruit of those labors. Thank you! These "Education" posts are taken from a series of lectures I put together several years ago. My research was drawn from several sources but I especially want to acknowledge Samuel Blumenfeld's book, Is Public Education Necessary?, published in 1981, as being most helpful in helping me understand the history of American public education.

One of the problems we have when we come to consider the topic of education is that we ourselves are the product of some kind of education. It will therefore take a conscious effort on our part to rethink the educational and philosophical issues in terms of what God has to say about them. The intellectual climate of our nation today came primarily from the government schools where most of us were schooled to think. Government education, because it is nearly universal, monolithic and a self-sustaining institution, has more power to create our worldview and character than almost anything else in America. It strongly influences what we feel and how we will do the work of the mind (even when we don't realize its influence). This should not be surprising when you think about it. Growing up, each week we spend two or three hours in church and thirty to forty hours in school.