Many of you know that Katie and I have decided to homeschool our children. There are many reasons for this - many which I may reserve for another post. Because we feel this is God's will for our lives, I have been trying to read all I can on Christian Education. The question I have constantly lingering in the back of my head is this: What makes a Christian education fundamentally different from a non-Christian education?
Well, I am learning that there are many major differences. For a brief primer on some of the most foundational and fundamental differences, I highly recommend Foundations of Christian Education: Addresses to Christian Teachers by Louis Berkhof and Cornelius Van Til.
Some of the language in this book is a bit steep, but overall it is well worth the time pondering the concepts and looking new words up in a dictionary!
A simple prayer, memory verse, and/or a Christian ethic has very little to do with what distinguishes Christian education from secular education. These things are important; but unless they are accompanied by a deep understanding of the Christian worldview, they will provide little ammunition for us and our little ones during this current cultural crisis. Secular education realizes this, and has therefore formulated an assault that aimes at the depths of our being. It does this behind the mask of neutrality, claiming that it has as its primary agenda to educate the child so that he may understand and encounter the world with an open mind.
As Christians, under the Lordship of Christ, we must call a spade a spade. There is no such thing as neutrality. And there is certainly no such thing as an open mind. If the science teacher gives no praise to Jesus Christ when the experiment works, he/she is ultimately not telling the whole truth. If the math teacher does not give praise to the faithfulness of God after teaching the multiplication table, he/she is robbing our children of the ultimate reason and substance of all education - a personal, absolute and faithful God.
The purpose of education is to bring our children face to face with the Triune God - not to help them understand that they can know this or that fact without Him!
Van Til puts it this way, "The whole point in dispute between a theistic and a non-theistic interpretation of reality is this question, whether "facts" can be facts without being theistic. It follows then that to say that the facts are facts without saying anything further is to give yourself over soul and body to the mercy of your enemy, who likes nothing better than that you should give up the battle before the first blow has been given. As theists our contention is that there are no facts but theistic facts, while the contention of our opponents, expressed or unexpressed, is that facts are facts whether God exists or does not exist. For us to admit this at the outset would be complete admission of defeat and would spell utter bankruptcy as well as the uselessness of Christian education."
To teach a child (whether actively or passively) that God is not absolutely necessary in education, is to create arrogance and autonomy, not Lordship and humility.
Whether your kids are in public, Christian, or homeschool, our understanding and commitment, as parents, to raise our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord is our Biblical duty (Deut 6; Eph 6:4). It is simply not enough to know how to read, write and do math. We and our children must know why.
Similarly, history is most essentially theology. Science is most importantly a monumental lesson on the faithfulness of Yahweh! And yes, as teachers, our aim is to bring our children to His throne of Grace, even by means of Algebra, so that they will respond to such an education with repentance and faith in Christ the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment