Education: Where to begin?

Education is vast! Where in the world are you supposed to begin? There are a lot of programs, different curriculums, styles of teaching, and even various philosophies when it comes to educating your children. We are blessed to have so many options and helps available to us today! With so much at stake and the characteristic parental zeal homeschoolers are known for, things can tend to get complicated fast.

So let us start, as we would any great teaching lesson for our children, with some definitions. Welcome to the science and art of teaching! But first, we must answer this:

What is teaching?

Teaching, though we may not recognize it as such, is also the philosophy of training. “It is a process in which definite forces are employed to produce definite effects; effects that follow their causes.” -John Milton Gregory This is a succinct way of stating that once the process of teaching is complete, the desired result is that the student should look like their teacher, that is, embodying the lesson taught. Pupils should be changed by the things they have learned. Teaching is the passing on of one’s experience.

In the Christian context, this includes one’s faith. Success as a teacher, then, is seen when knowledge is effectively communicated, correctly applied, and retained over time. This process is complete only when the information is effectively replicated or passed on. Teaching is the shaping or molding of the mind to bring an understanding and comprehension of a lesson (or truth).

Whether we realize it or not, the lessons we teach, and the things that we value will be passed on, communicated, and absorbed into the very depths of our pupils. Teaching impresses upon their heart and mind images and concepts that transcend the words we used to describe them. From algebra to philosophy, no subject is purely objective or singular. We live and communicate as human beings, with thoughts and affections intact, able to be used for good or for evil.

In our communication of any subject, our underlining bent and biases will be found out for they are woven into the way we see and understand the world, even truth itself. This is why there is no neutral fact or figure in education. You may teach algebra as a cold, hard rigid structure, an infinite riddle with alien correlations or as a beautiful, intelligent code written by an infinite and loving God; confusing at times and not completely knowable, but true and good in its entirety, nevertheless. These two approaches, while falloff the same facts and figures are worlds apart in their understanding and depth.

Therefore, as we teach, we need to be careful to only speak that which is true. I do not mean that we should not read fiction or enjoy the imagination, but that, in no way, should we give merit to teaching that embraces the world’s systems, twists truth, or embrace what is false in an attempt to compromise. These will undermine the good and have the ability to plant seeds of sin and doubt among your children. By all means, let the Lord be your guide, uphold scripture as holy and sufficient.  Prepare your children for the objections and adversity of the world. Help them to lovingly disagree with others but never undermined the truth.

This brings me to a second point: the best teaching comes from love. Love rooted and flowing from the Father(God), love of the subject or lesson taught, and love of the student. This is not mere sentiment. This is love that will act, that will study, that will ask for detail and work through difficulties. This is love that answers tough questions, that is patient and kind. This is love that does not envy or boast, that is not arrogant or rude, that does not insist on its own way, and is not irritable or resentful. This is love that rejoices in the truth. (See 1 Corinthians 13:4-8) Truth is true, and God can handle any questions we or our children have for Him. He is the one who marries the scientific and the miraculous, the rote, logical, and concrete with the ethereal and abstract.

Teaching is a call to make disciples. We tend to think of disciples as those found in the Bible, that ragtag group of 12 or the many others that follow Jesus today We treat the word disciple as a religious term alone when really it simply means student. In this regard, all of our students are disciples of someone.

Who are your children following….In life or online? What are the influences they are learning from?

Maybe you’re like me and you have chosen to homeschool because you would like to have more of an impact in the lives of your children. Perhaps you too, carry a burden to cultivate their appetites for that which will honor God and love others well. It is a sacred calling and mission.  It is the priviledge of teachers to introduce their students to good literature and art, subjects that will captivate their imagination, warn of the numerous dangers of sin, and ultimately bring beauty and joy into their lives.

Friend, be encouraged! Whatever curriculum you use this year and whatever your strategy is to teach your children: you can do it well. Just keep the ultimate goal in mind. Sure, we want well educated, well rounded, kind, and creative individuals who can engage with culture and love others. Unless our children have their own relationship with Christ, we will have only succeeded, at best, in moralizing them and, at worst, equipping them to sin more covertly. Proximity to Christ without repentance and submission of heart too often inoculates sinners to the truth. Therefore, it is paramount that we, as parents, take the time and opportunities afforded to us, by God, to deal with the innermost heart of each child in the everyday crucible of life.

This is a marathon, not a sprint! Teaching our children about the Lord and training them in righteousness are the bedrock of many gospel presentations. With much prayer and by God‘s grace, we pray that all of our children will pursue the Lord, that they will love him with all of their heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, and that regardless of their failures, they will return to Him again, and again in repentance and faith.

This is an education in truth, this, is of primary importance. We teach algebra, but while we teach algebra, we also teach Jesus, not as a separate subject alone, but integrated into every jot and tittle, ioda, and dot.

“For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” -Matthew 5:18-19