Why, Where, and How of Education
by Jeff Voegtlin (1993 Graduate, Dean of Education, Fairhaven Baptist College)
Why?
The subject of education is addressed in the Bible when Paul speaks to the Ephesian parents, and particularly fathers, by commanding them not to provoke their children to wrath, but rather to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." The word that is translated "nurture" could also be translated "tutorage" or "education." Because parents are to bring up their children in the education of the Lord, and the Lord rules over every aspect of life, this command carries with it the implication of the total education of the child. In order to understand this biblical responsibility, we must know the premises, purposes, processes, and places of education.
Before we can discuss objectives, teaching and learning, or educational institutions, we must lay out some foundational premises and assumptions related to education. We must understand the nature of Truth, the nature of man, and the nature of educating man with Truth.
Everyone is concerned with Truth. When the Lord Jesus Christ stood before the Roman governor, Pilate spoke for all men when he asked, "What is truth?" We are not interested in learning or teaching falsehoods or lies; we must have the truth. Because of this, we also insist that Truth be relevant and meaningful. For this to happen, Truth must be external, fixed, and absolute. There are some who claim that this cannot be; however, Truth itself cannot originate within us. It cannot change, and it cannot depend upon anything else. This gives Truth an exclusive quality. Because Truth is exclusive, those who would like to think of themselves as being open-minded are sometimes adverse to it. But claims of Truth automatically claim that something else is "not true." If someone claims a principle to be true, he is also asserting that anyone who disagrees does not believe the truth. Truth, by its nature, is exclusive.
Every religious and philosophical system in the world has a body of "truth" that is exclusive in some way. The Hindus find "truth" in the Vedas. The Muslims find the "truth" in the Koran. Even those whose "truth" teaches absolute tolerance are intolerant of those who admit that Truth is exclusive. The problem that all other religions have with Christianity is that our body of truth is actually in a living person, Jesus Christ. Jesus said himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." He claimed to be the truth, and then he excluded all others. Truth is exclusive. When we see Jesus Christ as the embodiment of Truth, we recognize that Truth has eternal, immutable, absolute and indivisible qualities. Christ is "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever," and so is Truth. It is eternal and immutable. Christ is not dependent upon other persons. He is God, and He is one with God. In the same way, Truth is not dependent upon man or man's interpretation, impression or experience. Truth is true and indivisible. The fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, and therefore, gives Him and Truth a comprehensive quality. All Truth is in Christ. There is no Truth outside of Christ. Therefore, all Truth is Christ's.
Man stands in stark contrast with Truth. He is distinct from all other created beings, yet he is a fallen creature. Despite this, every man has a divine purpose he should fulfill. Because man is a created being, he is dependent upon his Creator for all things. Because man is created in the image of God, he is the crown of God's creation. He has been given dominion over the rest of creation while still a creation of God himself.
Because God is one and man is created in God's image, he is also one, organically. Because we are a creation with finite knowledge, we cannot completely comprehend God or his creation. We can better understand man by dividing him into "beings." Man is intellectual, physical, social, and spiritual. Organically, the essence of these cannot truly be separated, but we can organize our thoughts about man by putting him into these divisions. As an intellectual being, man is rational, valuing and historical. Adam named the rest of creation exhibiting his rational abilities - he could communicate and categorize. We put a value on everything in our lives, and we think in terms of time - yesterday, today, tomorrow - making us historical beings. Man also has a physical body, a social aspect, which allows us to interact with other human beings, and a spirit, which gives us an eternal quality. This spiritual aspect is what sets mankind apart from the rest of creation. God breathed into mankind spiritual life.
While man was created perfectly in God's image with the freedom to do right, he rebelled against his Creator and chose to disobey God. Because we all were in Adam when he sinned, each of us has a sinful nature that was passed upon all of us. In our fallen condition, we still have the freedom to do what is right, but our sinful nature is bent toward rebellion against God. Because we no longer are the perfect creation of God, we have limited intelligence. This is particularly seen in those who do not acknowledge their Creator. When man does not recognize that he is a created being, his capacity for intelligence is severely limited. Yet, as a creation of God in His image, mankind is still quite capable of brilliance. All scientific and technological advancements made in history are a testimony of the abilities given to mankind in creation. No other "species" has made any discoveries that advanced the conditions of the species. Man is the creation made in God's image and capable of intellectual brilliance.
Man was created in order to bring glory to his Creator. Throughout the Bible we are taught to glorify God and that our purpose on earth is to do just that. In fact, when we know God and do not glorify Him as God, God works against us and gives us over to foolish, reprobate thinking. When man recognizes God as his Creator and trusts in His Son for salvation and freedom from the bondage of his fallen nature, he is given another reason for being. When Christ saves a man, he gives him the ministry or duty of reconciliation. Christian men have the responsibility to glorify God and to call the world to God. We are His ambassadors.
Because education involves finite man and infinite Truth, it is a process that is never complete and never neutral. No one human being, truly no collection of human beings, could ever comprehend the riches and depths of knowledge and truth that is in Christ Jesus. The more a man knows, the more he knows how much he does not know. As we acquire more knowledge, we recognize that there is even more to be learned. Education is never complete. Education also can never be neutral. Because it involves Truth, and Christ is the Truth, only those who teach Christ and His truth are truly educating. Anyone who attempts to teach otherwise, whether opposed to Christ or merely neutral about Christ, is teaching a lie. All who do not support Christ oppose Him. All Truth is His, and if we do not acknowledge His lordship over all of life, we lie about life.
The primary purpose of education is to prepare man to fulfill his divine purposes. Since his created purpose is to bring glory to God, man needs to know all that he can about God and His creation to be able to glorify God. As a redeemed Christian, he also needs to be equipped to proclaim the gospel to the world. Webster's (1828) definition of education includes four objectives of teaching - enlightening the understanding, correcting the temper, forming manners and habits, and equipping for useful service. These objectives clearly reflect the need to be prepared in order to fulfill our God-ordained purposes. To glorify God, we must have our knowledge and understanding of His creation enlightened. To accomplish this, our fallen nature needs to be corrected, and right manners and habits must be formed. To be God's ambassadors to a fallen world, we must be equipped with the knowledge, desire, habits, and skills necessary to proclaim the gospel and defend our proclamation of it.
Noticeably, these purposes say nothing about traditional school subjects, such as mathematics, science, language, or social studies. This is because the Christian educator's priorities go beyond the mundane knowledge of these subjects. All specific objectives for these types of subjects must fall under the umbrella goals of enlightening, correcting, forming, and equipping. To be sure, each of these subjects and several others are tools that can be used to help reach the goals of enlightenment, corrected tempers, well-formed habits, and useful service. As we learn mathematics, language, social studies, and science our understanding is enlightened with the truth. As we accomplish the necessary exercise of learning, our tempers can be corrected and we can learn productive habits. The knowledge and skills we gain help us to be fit for usefulness as a Christian. Education's purpose is to prepare us to accomplish our divine purposes.
How? and Where?
If we are going to be successful in education - preparing students to fulfill their divine purposes - we must understand the operations or processes involved. Teaching is "arousing and using the student's mind to grasp the concept." This is a skill and a study, an art and a science. In order to present the concept, it must be known. One cannot teach unless he has knowledge. He must know the subject he is teaching and methods to arouse the student's mind to grasp the subject. He should study his topics and his students. He should also practice. As he does, his skills of expression and explanation will be developed and he will be learning the art of teaching. Because the teaching involves the student, the student must be a willing participant for effective teaching to occur. Admittedly, many have been taught by experiences for which they did not volunteer. Someone can be a "student" and learn something unwillingly. But we learn more from the teaching when we anticipate and desire to gain from it.
Learning occurs when someone grasps with his own understanding the concept that is taught. This involves much more than regurgitation. If the student can repeat the lesson but does not understand it, or know how to apply or creatively use it, he has not truly learned anything useful. Useful knowledge or productive learning involves comprehension of the subject and purposeful applications of the knowledge. There is a reciprocal arrangement between teaching and learning. While different individuals do each action separately, neither is present without the other. Teaching cannot be given without someone present to learn, and learning cannot be acquired without someone present to teach. Teaching must be present for learning to be accomplished; learning must be accomplished to substantiate the claim of teaching. If no one has learned, no one has taught.
In this arrangement of teaching and learning, there must always be a teacher and a student. The teacher is someone who knows the lesson. It is important to point out that teachers must know something. Teachers should attend to their own education seriously. Not only do they need to know principles and skills of teaching, but they also must know the foundational and graduated concepts of the subject they are teaching. The student is the one who attends to the lesson. If the student has no desire to listen or learn, the teaching and learning interaction will be unsuccessful. This means that the student must be serious about his own education. This does not take all responsibility off of the teacher. While the student must attend, the teacher must grab the student's attention and instruct him in the importance of the subject so that the student wants to attend to the lesson and be serious about his education.
The language medium and the lesson content are also important aspects of teaching and learning. In order for the teacher to communicate his knowledge and for the student to attend to the lesson, the language used must be common to both the teacher and the student. This is an obvious statement if taken only to mean that if the teacher is speaking French, then the student must be able to understand French. But the principle goes further than this. Even if English is the only language spoken by the teacher and the student, and the words of the lesson are not foreign, communication will not take place unless the vocabulary is common to both. The student must have the same definition of a word in his mind that the teacher has. If the teacher uses a word, phrase, or concept in a sense that is "foreign" to the student, he may as well speak in a totally different language (1 Corinthians 14:19). One of the teacher's responsibilities is to ensure that there is effective and efficient communication between him and the students.
Not only should the language and vocabulary be common, but also the lesson must begin with common knowledge. The student will have no place to categorize the lesson if it does not begin with some known concept. Because all knowledge originates in God, we should always be able to relate the lesson to something that is already known. If we do not, we portray a disjointed body of knowledge and a disorderly perception of God. The subject matter, what most think of first when they think of school, is the ground of the interaction between teaching and learning. While we can honor God and glorify Him through learning all about His creation, each subject is a means to accomplishing our primary purpose in education more than an end. The subject matter is where the teacher and the student interact. In a sense, it is a "tangible" that is taught and learned in the overall scheme of education. It is the individual lesson the teacher communicates to the student, and it can be a barometer of how well the student attends and learns. While it is only a means to an end, we must have subject matter to accomplish our ends.
Having determined the premises, purposes and processes of education, we may now determine the proper places of education. There are three common educational institutions - the home, church and school. Each of these institutions has legitimate responsibilities in education. The home is the place of natural and original responsibility. We can see from nature that children remain with their parents until they are ready to establish their own families. The years children spend with their parents should be years of preparation, and such preparation should be primarily educational in the Christian sense. It is also clear from Scripture (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) that in all of the daily activities of a family, the parents are to teach their children the law of the Lord. The Old Testament home was to be a place dominated and permeated by the teaching of the law. Interestingly, we find that the law not only taught about "spiritual" subjects, it also taught about every aspect of life. Parents, then, must be teaching their children all the time about what God thinks concerning all aspects of life. Parents have natural and original responsibility to educate.
The church's place in education is both commanded and logical. When Christ commissioned the church in Matthew 28:18-20, He commanded the disciples to teach (with the gospel), baptize, and then to teach all the things He had commanded them. The church's great commission includes evangelism, baptizing, and education. From the letters written to the churches, it can also be logically deduced that churches should educate. There are several places where children are addressed directly in these letters (Ephesians 6:1-3; Colossians 3:20). If children were not part of the church and not taught the things written in these letters, the churches would have been neglecting the duties pressed upon them by those letters. It is logical that the church should educate, and it is also commanded in the Great Commission.
As parents band together and churches help their members, schools are established that provide a concentration of power and resources; and some responsibility for the education of children is delegated to the administration and teachers of a school. The school, therefore, is a place of resourceful and derived responsibility. Parents, on their own, could legitimately establish schools to help each other bear the weight of their educational responsibilities. Churches, however, can do a much better job of providing help to their members by starting schools. Because education is ultimately a religious enterprise, it is evident that the members of a church should want their children taught and trained by like-minded individuals who have a common philosophy and purpose. The administration and teachers in a school carry out their duties in loco parentis, or, in the place of a parent.
For education to be successful the home, the church, and the school must work together. Parents cannot begin to think that they can be successful without the help of their church. God ordained the church as a legitimate institution of society and we are to be active in our church. The church is the tool that God has ordained to accomplish His purpose in the world today. We cannot neglect our place in the church or refuse to take advantage of all that our church provides to help us be better parents. The church must not forget that original and primary responsibility for the education of children lies in the parents. While the parents cannot successfully rear their children outside of the church, it is not the church's responsibility to rear their children. The church is responsible to teach parents and children all that God has commanded. Schools have similar responsibilities to churches, but we must also remember that they are utilitarian in origin. Unless administered by the pastors of a church, they have no biblical authority to educate-only derived authority from the parents that support it. Each of these institutions in society must understand its responsibilities and act within this understanding to successfully educate students.
These places of education must exist in our society; and as much as society involves the social aspects of mankind and education is concerned with the social learning of students, education is related to society. In a broader way, as much as society involves individuals and education is concerned with the total education of the individual, all of education is closely related to society. If by society, we infer that the civil government is where these places of education must exist, we should be clear that the government has not been given any authority to provide education for children. The proper and legitimate places of education are the home, the church, and the home- or church-sponsored school. The government's duty is to protect good and punish evil, not to perpetuate itself by educating the citizenry. The premises of education are significant to understanding the proper purposes of education. Once these are known, the processes and proper channels of education may be determined.