Gifts to Give Our Children-A Truly Christian Education
All of history can be summarized (likely too simplistically) as the story of authority. Who has the right to build, act, take, write, vote, think, decide or be is the primal question of human interaction. Hence, education, the training of our progeny, is not exempt from this history. I am going to tell you a brief history of authority in education now.
Once upon a time, in days incongruously called “the Dark Ages,” a light of knowledge was founded upon the authority of God. As the final word on all knowledge, God was clearly the proper end of all education. Rightly so, then, could any task, from the humble farmer tilling the ground, to the elevated King governing, be considered an act dedicated to the Glory of God. The liberal arts were also considered the proper study of man, because the liberal arts properly belonged to God. Pupils and pedagogues of this enlightened era relied on the authority of Tradition and the authority of Great Texts from the Bible to Aristotle.
But one day, a man named John Locke enthroned reason as the authority for all matters concerning knowledge, overthrowing Tradition. He did not mean, I do not think, to overthrow all traditions, such as the tradition of morality; however, whatever authority educators submit to, will grow a very long and powerful arm reaching into regions never before imagined. Charlotte Mason notes that John Locke “promulgated the doctrine of infallible reason. That doctrine accepted, individual reason becomes the ultimate authority, and every man is free to do that which is right in his own eyes.” When reason is presented as the ultimate word on all Truth, teachers should not be surprised when their students reject their lessons and even their faith.
The sequel to this story of education occurred a bit over 200 years ago when Jean-Jacques Rousseau claimed that man is inherently good, and that society corrupts that pure nature; therefore, man should return to a state of nature. An education following in the footsteps of Rousseau places individual freedom and feeling on the throne of authority. While reason has, at least in theory, an appeal to something solid, stable, and universal, the appeal to the self as the ultimate arbitrator of Truth has had disastrous results on our society, including a hyper individualism that worships the self, even at the expense of everyone else.
However, there is a hero on a white horse in this story. Much like the medieval conception of education, Charlotte Mason proposed a truly Christian education placing God as the authority over all things pertaining to knowledge, meaning He has the final word on not only those things pertaining unto salvation, but also on mathematics, physics, grammar, and even handwork. Mason said clearly, “We do not merely give a religious education, because that would seem to imply the possibility of some other education, a secular education, for example. But we hold that all education is divine, that every good gift of knowledge and insight comes from above, that the Lord the Holy Spirit is the supreme educator of mankind, and that the culmination of all education (which may, at the same time, be reached by a little child) is that personal knowledge of and intimacy with God in which our being finds its fullest perfection.”
Recognizing God as the Authority of all knowledge, and the Holy Spirit as the Teacher, we can reduce the endless litany of “things” many schools have tried to do (like measure outcomes via quantitative data on the Locke-ian end of the spectrum, or reinforce a student's “self-expression” and “freedom” at the expense of others on the Rousseau-ian end) to simply three things: 1) create an atmosphere that is not only conducive to learning, but actually contributes to learning; 2) present Ideas worthy of our attention, primarily found in living books; and 3) discipline children in habits that give true liberty.
These three goals of a Christian school will be explored in future blogs and at Family Interest Meetings coming soon. Please visit the Saint George School website for more information: saintgeorgedenton.com.
