One has to have empathy for the public schools these days. They are expected to do everything: prepare students for college or vocational technical jobs, enable both brighter and slower students to excel at their respective levels, inculcate the “right” values, teach proper sexual behavior, teach students to think critically, raise the self-esteem of students, discipline children, prevent them from turning to drugs, alcohol, or suicide, teach a wide-ranging curriculum, create racial, sexual, and gender understanding and harmony, win ball games, and do it all in a manner that is pleasing to the students so they will not be bored or discouraged.
They are indeed doing yeoman’s work. In spite of these grand expectations, most government schools are not quite sure just what their ultimate mission actually is supposed to be. In the midst of a host of bugle commands, they are unsure which way to charge.
In an age of cultural rootlessness, moral relativism, religious pluralism, social disintegration, and future uncertainty, not to mention massive budget cuts and 40 students to a class, how can we expect anything other than educational disarray? Unstable times are a call for Christians to return to the time-honored theological foundations of education.
In education, Christians have too often seen the Bible either as a book to be studied as a separate subject, i.e. Bible class, or as a devotional book. Christian education must teach not only Bible details, but systematic biblical theology. From that theology, Christians must develop a worldview that applies biblical concepts to every area of life. Thankfully, this has been done numerous times in the history of Christianity. The historic forms or examples can be found where Christians produced educated, biblically literate, discerning students. The historic form can be called classical Christian Education.
Classical Christian education is designed to produce a student to develop the mental discipline and ability to read a challenging book (even one with more than one hundred pages), write discerning, thoughtful essays on the book, present lectures or debates on the contents of the book, and evaluate its contents in light of a Christian worldview. And here is the big secret – students love to learn in this way and find it stimulating and inspiring! Shallow, secular humanistic curriculum, multiple choice tests, computer games and entertaining films cannot accomplish these incredible results. Classical Christian education has produced exceptional students throughout the centuries and will continue to do so in our present age.
For more information about Classical, Christian education, contact Trinity Classical Academy at 661-296-2601 or visit www.TrinityClassicalAcademy.com.