At a Glance
As many are realizing, the education system is not teaching a neutral worldview because there’s no such thing as a neutral worldview. Instead, most students today are being discipled in an atheistic, secular, materialistic ideology that directly opposes the Bible. When is it time for us to stop playing into this false education and reexamine God’s design for learning and instruction? What core principles for education can we discern from the Bible that can help us approach every area of study? What is God’s view of math, science, history, and art?
What You'll Hear
- Introduction (1:20)
- God is Lord of all areas of education (15:50)
- Nothing exists apart from God, including math (27:58)
- What is the theology of children? (35:45)
- Is education void if it rejects God? (39:50)
- Education is downstream from culture (47:08)
- How can we reform education? (53:56)
- Final key principles for education (1:05:25)
- Conclusion (1:11:22)
Using the link above, you can read the transcript, listen along, and adjust the speed of the podcast while you listen.
"There is no neutrality, every approach to education out there is rooted in a certain set of presuppositions. The only question is, which one of those sets of presuppositions… actually make sense of the world that we actually live in? And make sense of the way that we live and give purpose and meaning to our lives?"
Scott Allen (44:43)
Quotes
- 22:55 “We think the Bible doesn’t apply [to education] because we are shaped by the sacred-secular divide… you study Scripture for spiritual principles… then you go to school to learn everything else.” Darrow
- 38:16 “Any system of education that doesn’t acknowledge that God is the creator and the sustainer of everything, and nothing can be understood apart from Him–and secondly, that we are made in His image, to govern over creation, to rule over creation, and to steward creation–any system of education that doesn’t acknowledge those two principles, Christians should have nothing to do with.” Scott
- 44:43 “There is no neutrality, every approach to education out there is rooted in a certain set of presuppositions. The only question is, which one of those sets of presuppositions… actually make sense of the world that we actually live in? And make sense of the way that we live and give purpose and meaning to our lives?” Scott
- 47:11 “We have to learn the skill, again, of thinking biblically about every subject. I think this is a big part of what it means to recover a Christian approach to education.” Scott
- 51:40 “I think as long as the church is willing to just play the role of only dealing with spiritual matters, I don’t think we’re going to change anything [in education]. Until the church catches the vision, that it’s all of life, then change can happen. But until then, we’re just going to wrestle thinking, well, maybe there is just this neutral world. That’s the easiest answer, right? I’ll just say it’s neutral. And raise my kids that way.” Shawn
- 1:10:18 “The most important thing between Jesus and His return is your own life, right? This idea that your life really matters, because God’s unfolding a redemptive plan and to be educated therefore is to be prepared to fulfill that plan.” Scott
- 1:10:55 “The Bible doesn’t distinguish or silo things that we do. We think of discipleship in a particular silo and it’s separated from education. And that’s something that happens in schools. Discipleship happens in my small group, or whatever it is. But the Bible doesn’t separate things like that. It’s all part of the same package. Education, in many ways ought to be discipleship.” Scott
Go Deeper
Don’t Let Schooling Stand in the Way of Education: A Biblical Response to the Crisis in Public Education
Darrow L. Miller, editor
STATE-RUN SCHOOLING IS IN CRISIS.
With alarming speed, our public schools have dropped any pretense of religious neutrality. As a result, our children are adrift in a sea of relativism. Many are abandoning Christianity, and those who don’t are left with an enfeebled faith that matters only one day a week.
Genuine educational reform will require more than a new curriculum. It will demand an entirely different philosophy of education.
Darrow Miller and a group of outside-the box educational revolutionaries will help you re-discover a compellingly biblical approach. Begin your journey of educational rediscovery in the pages of this book.
A Toxic New Religion: Understanding the Postmodern, Neo-Marxist Faith that Seeks to Destroy the Judeo-Christian Culture of the West
By Scott D. Allen and Darrow L. Miller
Make no mistake: This new ideology is deadly serious.
It is nothing less than a kind of cultural acid, eating away at the central pillars of a free and open society. Yale University is supposed to represent dialogue and learning. What happens when we can no longer openly dialogue, debate, and discuss different viewpoints because we fear offending someone who may claim our speech was “violence,” leading to our public shaming or loss of employment?
What kind of culture will this new ideology produce? Download the FREE eBook.
Recommended link
Blog article by Darrow Miller, “School vs. Education: The Difference Matters.”
The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age Without Good or Evil
By James Davison Hunter
The Death of Character is a broad historical, sociological, and cultural inquiry into the moral life and moral education of young Americans based upon a huge empirical study of the children themselves. The children’s thoughts and concerns-expressed here in their own words-shed a whole new light on what we can expect from moral education. Targeting new theories of education and the prominence of psychology over moral instruction, Hunter analyzes the making of a new cultural narcissism.
