My OperaWhat's Special About Christian Education
Sunday, January 29, 2012 2:20:38 PM
One of the major concerns of Greek philosophy, and we see this especially in Plato and Aristotle, is "the good." What constitutes the good? what is "the best" or "the highest good?" They explore this extensively, and in multiple contexts, such as Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, Book 8, in which he argues that only the truly good person can be a good friend.
What our ancient pagan philosophers didn't realize, however, is that the answer to their investigation could only be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It could only be found in biblical revelation. Augustine, an individual very conversant with the Greek philosophical tradition, makes great capital out of this, pointing out in several places in his writings that it is the God of the Scriptures who is our summum bonum, our "highest good." No true goodness can be obtained apart from God and the grace of God offered through the Gospel.
Now, let's apply that fundamental truth to Christian education. Recently, I remember reading an article that complained how pervasive cheating was in the public schools, a far higher percentage than in the 1950's. My response was, pardon the expression, "no duh!" Public schools have long since abandoned any moral absolutes, and have modeled and taught moral relativity under various guises for decades now. Why are they surprised that their students take that teaching seriously, internalize it, and apply it to their own lives? Similarly with educational quality. If our educational philosophy has no ultimate goal or aim, if is has no absolute ground or foundation, then the quality of education will be socially conditioned. Preparing the student to succeed in society then becomes simple social engineering, and is subject to the subjective whims of those who have placed themselves in charge of the educational system. One only has to examine the many problems in most public schools to see the fruits of this. Thus, even in the best public schools, we find students watching movies every week during what could be prime academic time, or engaged in "projects" and "plays" to engage self learning. But how much learning is really happening during these times?
Now,in principle, Christian schools have all this beat hollow. Remember, only Christians have a shot at the highest good. Only Christians understand that this highest good is the ultimate goal of of the educational process, and only Christians have the Scriptures as the firm foundation for that process. Christians schools should provide not only a superior moral and spiritual environment, but a superior educational experience as well.
But what do we often get? I have found (and again, this is anecdotal) that often Christian schools are really simply an imitation of the government schools with a veneer of Christianity (sometimes thicker, sometimes thinner) applied. Curriculum looks suspiciously like what the kids would be getting down at PS 51 down the street, but they do have chapel and Bible classes...
Now, again, don't get me wrong, having chapel and Bible classes is a very good thing, but are we as Christian educators really striving for the highest good? Let me break this down -- striving for the highest good is only an abstraction unless we are endeavoring to do our best along the way. If the ladder to the top has defective rungs, how can we be sure of getting to the top? What we need to do is seriously rethink what we are really should be doing, from a biblical worldview, as opposed to what we are actually doing. If Christian schools are going to offer a truly superior product, not just morally and spiritually, but also educationally, then we need to make sure that our curriculum really matches the intended goal.
So, what constitutes this? What makes a superior curriculum? How does it break down to practical, day to day sorts of things? What makes the difference between training and social engineering and real education? Any ideas? Does anyone know of a Christian school that really does this? At the risk of sounding self-serving, I think The American Academy goes a long way toward doing so (or I wouldn't have my own children there as well as teaching there), but I'd really like to hear about more. Some of these questions I also plan to explore in future essays on this subject...
What our ancient pagan philosophers didn't realize, however, is that the answer to their investigation could only be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It could only be found in biblical revelation. Augustine, an individual very conversant with the Greek philosophical tradition, makes great capital out of this, pointing out in several places in his writings that it is the God of the Scriptures who is our summum bonum, our "highest good." No true goodness can be obtained apart from God and the grace of God offered through the Gospel.
Now, let's apply that fundamental truth to Christian education. Recently, I remember reading an article that complained how pervasive cheating was in the public schools, a far higher percentage than in the 1950's. My response was, pardon the expression, "no duh!" Public schools have long since abandoned any moral absolutes, and have modeled and taught moral relativity under various guises for decades now. Why are they surprised that their students take that teaching seriously, internalize it, and apply it to their own lives? Similarly with educational quality. If our educational philosophy has no ultimate goal or aim, if is has no absolute ground or foundation, then the quality of education will be socially conditioned. Preparing the student to succeed in society then becomes simple social engineering, and is subject to the subjective whims of those who have placed themselves in charge of the educational system. One only has to examine the many problems in most public schools to see the fruits of this. Thus, even in the best public schools, we find students watching movies every week during what could be prime academic time, or engaged in "projects" and "plays" to engage self learning. But how much learning is really happening during these times?
Now,in principle, Christian schools have all this beat hollow. Remember, only Christians have a shot at the highest good. Only Christians understand that this highest good is the ultimate goal of of the educational process, and only Christians have the Scriptures as the firm foundation for that process. Christians schools should provide not only a superior moral and spiritual environment, but a superior educational experience as well.
But what do we often get? I have found (and again, this is anecdotal) that often Christian schools are really simply an imitation of the government schools with a veneer of Christianity (sometimes thicker, sometimes thinner) applied. Curriculum looks suspiciously like what the kids would be getting down at PS 51 down the street, but they do have chapel and Bible classes...
Now, again, don't get me wrong, having chapel and Bible classes is a very good thing, but are we as Christian educators really striving for the highest good? Let me break this down -- striving for the highest good is only an abstraction unless we are endeavoring to do our best along the way. If the ladder to the top has defective rungs, how can we be sure of getting to the top? What we need to do is seriously rethink what we are really should be doing, from a biblical worldview, as opposed to what we are actually doing. If Christian schools are going to offer a truly superior product, not just morally and spiritually, but also educationally, then we need to make sure that our curriculum really matches the intended goal.
So, what constitutes this? What makes a superior curriculum? How does it break down to practical, day to day sorts of things? What makes the difference between training and social engineering and real education? Any ideas? Does anyone know of a Christian school that really does this? At the risk of sounding self-serving, I think The American Academy goes a long way toward doing so (or I wouldn't have my own children there as well as teaching there), but I'd really like to hear about more. Some of these questions I also plan to explore in future essays on this subject...
