Every day I meet families who have
a different reason for choosing a Christian school. They want Christian
teachers instilling truth into their children; they’re ready for smaller class
sizes and more individualized attention; they want a like-minded community to
partner with in educating their children; they want to remove their child from
a hard social situation and give them a new chance to make quality friends.
These are all good reasons. Yet I’ve never heard a family say, “The Christian
liberal arts tradition was the norm for nearly 2,000 years, and formed most of
history’s great thinkers and leaders. This is why I want a Christian education
for my children.” Yet this, I believe,
may the best reason for choosing a Christian school.
In Robert Littlejohn and Charles
Evan’s fantastic book Wisdom and Eloquence, they outline the role of cultural icons like John Dewey in the
shaping of modern education. Heavily
influenced by pragmatist philosophers like William James, Dewey helped to
construct a “progressive” education. Dewey believed that schooling was a method
of social change, and through putting the student at the center of the learning
process and tracking them to economically beneficial careers, society could
“progress.” Progressivism was also deeply tied to modernism, which relegated
religion to a personal opinion, and placed science and social change at the
heart of the educational process.
Although today Christian schools
are seen as the cultural rebels, and often as separatists, Littlejohn and Evans
point out, “It is important to remember, however, that modernism overthrew a
2,500-year-old tradition. It, and not the culture we are recovering in our
classrooms [the authors lead classical Christian schools], is the insurgent.”
So what was lost in progressive education around the turn of the 20th
century?
Faith vs. Skepticism
From the
Greek pagans through the time of Augustine, it was assumed that people were
inherently religious. Solomon wrote
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10).
Augustine took passages like this to heart and believed that an understanding
of God impacts one’s entire worldview, from the view of the self to society,
and even to one’s view of language and math. (For an excellent treatment of
numbers and Christianity, see Stratford Caldecott’s Beauty for Truth’s Sake.)
The purpose of education was to deepen one’s spiritual beliefs and tie
them to a student’s place in the cosmos.
In
contrast, modern education replaces doubt with skepticism. Instead of leading students to ever
increasing levels of certainty, the academic badge of approval, primarily in
our universities, is questioning all perspectives. Students are taught that only science is the arbitrator of truth.
To know is to be arrogant. To be a skeptic is to be academically accepted among
one’s peers.
Fallen Nature vs.
Evolutionary Progress
The view of human nature has also
undergone radical change. The Greeks viewed human nature as unchangeable, and
the Christians view human nature as created good yet fallen, able to be
restored through redemption, but still not in constant flux. In contrast, since
Darwinism has moved into the social sciences, evolutionary psychology views
human nature as improvable through self-awareness. Knowledge alone, without God, can improve students and thus
society through schools.
If nature
is in constant flux, the traditional and cultural context of the student
becomes less and less relevant. For example, if we are now more “advanced” than
ages in which slavery was accepted as a norm, we have very little to learn from
thinkers like Cicero or Thomas Jefferson. What could they possibly have to tell
us about humans now if we’re now fundamentally different from back then?
Objective Truth vs.
Subjective Values
Finally,
the Greeks and the Romans believed pursuing the good, the true, and the
beautiful were knowable, like we
believe today the number of hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water is knowable.
Christianity raised that tradition ever higher, believing that these characteristics
were in God himself, who made himself known
in Jesus Christ.
In
contrast, both modernism and post-modernism (both having their root in the
Enlightenment) rejected absolutes and instead embraced the notion that all
competing views of goodness, truth and beauty were equally valid. This
rejection of authority, whether Christian or pagan, led directly to the
skepticism we see in classrooms today.
Despite
many school districts that try to instill values like kindness, integrity, and
honesty as a part of their overall objectives, when these issues come up in the
classroom, the reigning postmodern epistemology can only leave teachers and
students with questions. Whether or not Nazi concentration camps were morally
wrong can ultimately only be a matter of private opinion.
Littlejohn
and Evans believe these three factors have led to an “educational disaster.” I
tend to agree with them. How can any
true education seriously avoid central questions of what it means to be human
and the ultimate purpose of human life?
A recovery of the liberal arts tradition, which found its root in the
Christian gospel for nearly two thousands years, is a necessity for those who
are actually serious about “educational reform.”
As a father
myself, I can identify with parents who want a Christ-centered, educationally
rich environment for their children.
Yet rarely to we look to history’s “great cloud of witnesses” when
making educational choices for our kids. Perhaps I’ll make this a part of my
next campus tour.
