THE CHRISTIAN AND THE FUNDAMENTAL SCHOOL

OR

BACK TO BASICS IN CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

That believing in Christ is a way of life and not a set of dogmatic concepts, essential as those are, may be derived from another fundamental element in Christian education, namely that one knows the truth only insofar as one does it.
The difference between a Biblical concept of knowing and the commonly accepted secular one is profound. For most people, even for most Christians probably, knowing in the every-day sense means being able to explain in words what something means or how it looks or works.
Truth is something which is discovered by research or thinking, is stored in the brain, in books or in a computer, and has little essential connection with practical life. Truth in the Bible is a Person, Jesus Christ. He is the only and total truth, not less the truth in the field of history or science than He is in the field of ethics or theology. He gives meaning to the entire creation, and as the Redeemer He is the one in whom all things "hold together" (Colossians 1:17). To truly know Him is to love Him, and to love Him is to obey Him. Hence the Biblical theme that the truth is something which must be done. "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not the truth" (I John 1:6)
This is a fairly earthshaking concept which means that God is speaking to us in every part of the creation and that we are always responsible to answer Him with our lives, loving Him and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. Dorothy Sayers touches it when she says, "What we in fact believe is not necessarily the theory we most desire or admire. It is the thing which, consciously or unconsciously, we take for granted and act on." (see footnote 1) The measure in which we believe the Biblical doctrine we espouse is the measure in which we express it in our lives. Jonathan Kozol, without avowing Christianity, expresses himself in a surprisingly Biblical way:

Truth, in my belief, is something which occurs when actions take place: not when phrases are contrived. Truth is not a word which represents correct response to an examination, nor a well written-piece of prose. Truth is not a ‘right word’ which can be printed. It is (it only is) a ‘right deed’ which can be done." (see footnote 2)

When Jesus’ disciples were spitting-mad at each other over which should have the best places in the kingdom, Jesus took a child into his lap and told them they must turn and become like little children or they wouldn’t even get in. Then He went a step further and said that whoever received one such little child in His name, received Him! (Matt. 18:5). Here is a clue to the nature of participants in Christian education. Teachers are disciples of Jesus, being restored by His love and called to be image bearers of God once more. They are fallible, frail, and frequently fickle. But they have heard from His lips the words of eternal life, and they are committed to following Him. They receive their students as if each one were the child Jesus Himself. Obviously the student is not Jesus, but the teacher finds strength and encouragement for a demanding task by responding to the child as if he were. It is remarkable what this kind of expectation on the teacher’s part will lead to in the growth of students!
Here is clearly a very different situation from that in the secular school. Here the child is not seen as a little animal, high class and still evolving. Nor is he seen as an autonomous being with hidden god-like potential. Teacher and student alike are image bearers of God, deeply damaged by sin, but in the process of restoration through the Word and Spirit of God. They are learning together. One is farther along the road and so can offer leadership to the other, but they are travelling together and ministering to each other in the process.

THE EDUCATIVE PROCESS

What would you have done had you been Joseph or Mary, selected by God to bring up the infant Jesus till He became a responsible "son of the law?" What an awesome responsibility! Who would be able to perform such a task? Yet Jesus is saying in Matthew 18 that each parent with a new baby and each teacher with a new pupil faces that very sort of task. What does such a perspective say to us about the educative process?
The first and most important thing that Mary and Joseph had to teach the child Jesus was who He was. That is also the most important thing any teacher teaches a pupil. A child’s self-concept is the single most important factor in his entire learning experience. Calvin demonstrated his understanding of this when he wrote, as the first two sentences of the Institutes of the Christian Religion:

"True and substantial wisdom principally consists of two parts, the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of ourselves. But, while these two branches of knowledge are so intimately connected, which of them precedes and produces the other, is not easy to discover."

Teaching a child what it means to bear the image of god, to be loved by God (Matt. 19:14), and to be commanded by God to repent (Acts 17:30) is the first step in the educational process. So far from hindering an understanding of repentance for sin and of forgiveness, the sense of self-worth that comes with awareness of being an image bearer of God is the most powerful incentive to come to Him. In Christ’s dealing with women, children, and social outcasts, it was his treatment of them as important persons that drew them so profoundly to Him and to His redemptive forgiveness.
A proper self-image is the basis for all learning. Sachs says:

"The self-concept of any child is the single most important force affecting his academic progress as well as his growth in all dimensions of his personality . . . high academic attainment will be achieved as a by-product of the emphasis based upon Biblical precepts of building positive concepts of self-worth." (see footnote 3)

The teacher is responsible to lead and encourage the student into the fullest possible attainment of his God-given mission of advancing the kingdom of God in this world. He does that work on the foundation of a proper Biblical self-concept.

THE EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

A final basic element in Christian education is a Biblical understanding of the materials of education. They are as broad as the creation itself, visible and invisible, for "the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3). Romans 1:20 indicates that creation is revelatory of God. The business of the Christian school is to explore that self-revelation until the student begins to hear the voice of God speaking to him in every aspect of experience and learns to answer God form a heart full of love. The curriculum is as diverse as human experience. It is not exclusively intellectual, nor emotional, nor moral, nor aesthetic. Learning to know God in music and art is as important as learning to know Him in economics, language, history, mathematics, theology, or natural science. Each child has special gifts and a special calling. Each needs the opportunity to explore God’s world, with the needed skills and under the "responsible guidance of a godly teacher so that he may give "responsive obedience" (see footnote 4) to God in the course of his studying. The curriculum finds unity in that Christ holds it all together by His Word and gives it meaning because He is the Truth. It finds diversity in the rich variety of the creation. And it points to Him "of whom, through whom, and to whom, are all things" (Romans 11:36). The world is booby-trapped with the presence of God. It is the privilege and the pleasure of the Christian teacher to see that, and to point it out to his students.
These are seven basics to which Christian education needs to return again and again. If Christian teachers do so, the problems of academic excellence and of orderly classrooms will take care of themselves. These are fundamentals which we dare not neglect if we hope to hear Him say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

Editor: Al Greene

Alta Vista College

Footnotes:

1. Sayers, Dorothy, Christian Letters to a Non-Christian World. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1969, p. 27.
2. Kozol, "op cit," p. 159.
3. Sachs, Bernald, "A Distinctively Christian Philosophy of Education," Mimeographed, Dayspring Christian School, Greeley, Colorado, p. 4.
4. Steensma, Geraldine, To Those Who Teach. 6412 N. 30 Street, Terra Haute, Indiana 47805, Signal Publishing Co., 1971, p. 38.