My Philosophy of Education
Just in case you were wondering what my thoughts are on education, I thought I'd post them for you here. Enjoy.I believe that true education, wrapped up in all of life, must begin with the Hebrew Shema, recognizing that the Lord our God is one Lord, and that our purpose is to love Him with our heart, soul, strength and mind. Education must be focused on teaching this truth and its implications clearly and comprehensively. Education must have as its goal the revelation that Christ is before all things, and in Him, all things hold together. God has employed parents as the primary educators of their children, and their responsibility extends to both formal and informal education. Classical and Christian Education exists to support and partner with parents in this endeavor, and is only acceptable when parents are aware of and involved in the education process. The method of the medieval trivium coupled with the content of the Western canon succeeds in matching pedagogy with the mental and social maturity of a child, resulting in learning that is natural and satisfying, and is thus a superior tool for the Christian educator.
posted by DrewDog at 12:22 PM
4 Comments:
For me, the discussion is somewhat academic, as all my kids were in the public schools. Our last one is there (sophomore) and undertaking a trivium approach at this point just won't produce the goods.
For you, however, or for those with young children, it's a live option. I'm guessing this approach is not available in the public system in your part of the world. So what are your actual options? A private school? Home schooling? Some combinatio of both?
bq
There is a Classical Christian school somewhat close to our house, but I'm not sure I'll be able to foot the bill.
I don't know if I ever told you, but I am a CE pastor, and one of the things I have been doing for the past few years is introducing classical education to parents and children within my ministry. I have a dream to one day be involved in building a classical school, but I'm not sure how exactly this will occur. For now I am just getting people acquainted with the philosophy (as well as teaching the students Greek, Latin, Logic, Classics, etc) and trying to prepare my wife and myself to be good classical teachers in the home.
All that to say, not sure yet. But I imagine it will either be homeschooling, or a small group of families that are committed to Classical and Christian edcuation.
PS- I too am a product of the public school system, which might explain some things.
You know, you just may have a hugmongously busy future ahead of you. Joel Belz at World has an interesting editorial about the collapse of public education. I read it with great interest, because I have watched his predictions coming true in our own local public school system.
My youngest is getting the last, barely acceptable education that can be attained in our local schools, and Belz's "prophecy" is the reason why. During her sister's attendance, the old guard teachers were departing year by year (retiring), to be replaced by new versions whose skills and mastery of materials is far, far below that of the retirees.
Meanwhile, every private school within 50 miles of us has long waiting lists. I expect them to get longer. Private education is going to be a great growth industry in the next couple of decades as the unacceptable product of public education becomes impossible to spin or finesse.
Good on ya!
bq
Nice post! I believe in a more "classical" approach myself. But I think that classical means that the structure involves more weight on teaching (the child) how to research and write about what they research. Women and liberals have captured the publishing field in many ways. And this is why I think many "classical" teachers turn to the more historic writers…because it is very hard to find prolific and thorough writers of our day.
The parent thing…yes, the Scriptures command the parents to teach (raise) the children. I think a biblical model would be one that involves CE pastors visiting homes to guide parents to teach and then teach the orphan and neglected children in-house. The puritans had a system similar to this, but the “academy” philosophy snuck in; believing that since the older “kids” were in the university, then the younger children should have the same kind of structure.
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