The
Primary Purpose of Education
The
primary purpose of education should be to train
the whole person for lifelong, obedient service
in the knowledge just as it was in Bible times
(home was the center for education then). God
never changes. He still has the same desire for
us to know Him.
Our
first goal must be to teach our children God's
ways and His paths. We, home schoolers cannot
be so worried about fractions or spelling that
we skip the one needful thing: sitting at the
feet learning from our Master, through Bible study
and prayer. We can prepare him or her for what
we direction their gifts and talents lean, however,
God may take them in another direction. A Christian
striving to find God's will be equipped in the
important traits, prepared for anything in life.
To
learn true wisdom a curriculum should spend a
significant amount studying God's Word. For the
word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper
than any two edged sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerned of the thoughts
and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:12).
The
Bible verse home schoolers lean on is not just
a mandate to teach our children. It is a command
to teach them God's Word!
Now
these are the commandments, the statutes, and
the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded
to teach you, that ye might do them in the land
whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest
fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes
and his commandments, which I command thee, thou,
and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of
thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged¼
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto
thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou
sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest
by the way, and when thou liest down, and when
thou risest up. Deut 6:1-2,7.
We
also claim a wonderful promise in Malachi 4:6a
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers
to the children, and the heart of the children
to their fathers¼ but often for get
verse 4 telling us the promise will happen when
we remember God's ways. Remember ye the law
of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him
in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and
judgments.
The
ultimate desire for Christians should be for their
children to have a heart of wisdom--true wisdom
from God.
David
Mulligan explains the importance of Scripture-centered
curriculum book in a chapter of his book
Far Above Rubies: Wisdom in the Christian Community.
He also reveals the surprising hesitancy Christians
feel about this approach to curriculum. He states:
The
idea of spending a lot of school time on the
study of Scripture may at first be disturbing.
We are so used to dividing "religious"
activities from the rest of our time it seems
as if Bible study just does not fit, except
in a minor way, in our regular school day. We
think of Bible study as suitable for family
devotions, church services, Sunday school classes,
and if the study gets "deep," in the
seminary. How much Bible can children get without
detracting from other studies?
In
asking this question we uncover in ourselves
something of the tension that exists in the
Western world between learning and religion.
We know somehow the question is not right; we
should be first giving place to Scripture, but
can not quite let go of the other side of things.
And rightly so! The other side, God's creation,
is vastly important, but still Scripture should
come first, and all other studies find there
place in relation to it. We should turn the
question around: "How many secular studies
can a student pursue without detracting from
his knowledge of God's Word?!"
Christian
education must be built upon a pattern that
maintains Scripture at its center and bring
all subordinate studies into the circle of light
radiating from thence.
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