Debating which is best for our children’s education—public, private, or homeschool—is missing the mark. Education is discipleship!
I’ve had this idea taking shape in the back of my mind over the last several months as I have spent time in God’s Word, read books about the state of our society, and talked to parents about educational philosophies. When we debate the education of our children and whether we should send them to public school, pay for private school, or keep them home and homeschool, I think we are missing the mark.
Our society has led us to believe that the purpose of education is to get a job. We need to educate ourselves so an employer will hire us and we can support our families financially. And this isn’t limited to college because without a top notch K-12 education, we won’t get into college where we get the education to get the job! But is that truly the purpose of education? The answer is a clear, resounding “No.” I have come to realize that education is so much more than job preparation. Education is discipleship.
The seed of this idea was planted when I was reading Deuteronomy 6:4-9. This is a familiar passage because it begins with the Jewish Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (v. 4, ESV). But it goes on to tell the Israelites that the things they have heard (the Ten Commandments) need to be taught to their children diligently when the family sits together, walks together, goes to bed, and wakes up. They are to teach these things, “talk of them,” “bind them,” and “write them.” Verse 5 seems to sum up the purpose: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” This doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with getting a job.
I spent the month of July reading and re-reading the book of Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar seemed to understand the concept of discipleship through education. Daniel begins his book by describing the process the Babylonians followed to assimilate the conquered people into their culture. They chose smart, good-looking boys and taught them their literature and language. They fed them foreign food until they acquired a taste for it. They gave them new names. And they did all of this for three years. Once the boys were trained, they were put in positions of authority over their own people but under the control of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar understood that loyalty came through assimilation.
I’ve read a lot of books that try to explain the state of our current society. Many of these books demonstrate how Marxism has taken over and godless ideas have replaced the Bible-based concepts spelled out by our founding fathers. But I have struggled to understand how exactly this happened, that is until I read The Battle for the American Mind by Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin.
In the book, Hegseth introduces the idea of paideia, a Greek word from which we get our word pedagogy. The word doesn’t have a clear translation into English, and Hegseth goes to great trouble to define it, illustrate it, and demonstrate it. But when it was all said and done, the word that came to my mind that best fits Paideia is “Worldview.” Pedagogy is “the act of formulating a culture in children” (Hegseth 30). As G.K. Chesterton said, “Education is not a subject and does not deal in subjects. It is instead a transfer of a way of life.”
So when we take another look at how our society views education versus the true purpose of education, it is clear how far off we’ve been. If education is discipleship, who should be the discipler? How should we make educational decisions? What should be our motivation? And ultimately, no matter how we choose to educate/disciple our children, the buck stops with parents according to the passage in Deuteronomy.
It isn’t really a question of public school, homeschool, private school, etc. It is a question of how we are going to instill a biblical worldview into our children so they will “love the Lord [their] God with all [their] heart and with all [their] soul and with all [their] might.”
Continue the discussion at the next blog post: Babylonian Education Tactics Used in Our Society.
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