My first memory of school is from kindergarten. We had been given papers printed with a mosaic of shapes, and instructed to color the shapes to discover the picture. We were to color squares blue, triangles red, and so forth. When, because of a total lack of interest in coloring, I failed to complete the exercise, it was sent home with me as homework. I remember sitting at the table all evening miserably filling in the shapes until finally the picture was complete. Relieved to be finished, I showed it to my father, who’s immediate response was criticism of my coloring skill because I hadn’t done each section the same direction.
This memory epitomizes my entire educational experience. Elementary school was torture, high school a long, slow bore and college a crushing disappointment. The tragedy of this is I was eager to learn. I was an avid reader, retained facts easily and quickly understood patterns of data. In elementary school, I was banned from the library because I read too much. My educational experience spanned the range of traditional options from public school to Christian school to curriculum based home school, and none fit me. Although I was knowledgeable, intelligent and curious, I spent my entire educational career feeling like a failure.
This led me to spend a great deal of time investigating and considering learning models. When our children came along, I determined their experience would not mirror mine, and I made a thorough study of the Scripture to understand how God had intended children to be taught and to learn. It is out of two decades of study and consideration as well as several years of practical experience with my children that this paper comes. I hope it opens eyes and hearts and perhaps helps to deliver children from an educational experience such as mine.
James, I think that education in our country is thought of like of lot of other programs, ONE SIZE FITS ALL. Anyone that doesn’t “fit” into this model is thought to be a trouble maker, but to me the teacher should be challenged by the student that doesn’t fit this model and find a way to teach this student, anyone can follow a pattern that is done over and over, but it takes a really gifted and talented teacher to show students different ways to learn and find out which one “fits” each student. love reading your posts. Love to all, Sandra Hall
The church we were with in Singapore in the late 1980′s had a baptistry outside of the building in the garden. The men of the church had built it out of concrete block with a concrete floor. The block had been parged and the baptistry looked nice. The church used the baptistry for a couple of years and it served its purpose until – one day just before the pastor immersed the person being baptized, the walls began to break and the baptistry broke apart. No one was injured but many were wet.
It seems like the men that built the baptistry had an idea of its purpose but not of proper construction methods. They had not laid a foundation to set the concrete blocks on nor interlocked the blocks. They had cut the grass area away and filled the area in with a layer of sand. They then poured the concrete on the sand and laid the block on the concrete. The baptistry looked good and functioned for a while, but in time it broke apart. A good foundation had not been provided.
The Lord gave an illustration of building techniques in His word and warned that a good foundation is necessary.
The educational principle set forth in Scripture is direction, discipline, and accountability. The form may vary but the foundational truth is set. God revealed the results of “self direction” in the book of Judges – Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
The ability noted in the essay-
“I was an avid reader, retained facts easily and quickly understood patterns of data.” was the result of direction, discipline, and accountability. A good foundation had been laid which enabled the writer to expand his knowledge and experience.
The writer also reveals his misunderstanding of accountability through his own words when speaking of the homework incident. He revealed his attitude toward the work required by his teacher – “When, because of a total lack of interest in coloring, I failed to complete the exercise, it was sent home with me as homework.” We are not required to only study those things that we are interested in. When interest is not a motivating factor, respect and submission to authority should be. Also the writer said “I remember sitting at the table all evening miserably filling in the shapes until finally the picture was complete. Relieved to be finished, I showed it to my father.” The writer used words to reveal his attitude toward the work -”total lack of interest, miserably, finally, relieved.” He seems even at this time to not understand that the criticism had nothing to do with ability but with attitude.
I will be very interested in the coming essays on philosophy of education.
Dear James, I enjoyed your article. Are you going to gather your articles and put them in a put of essays? I am reading E.J. Carnell’s, “An Introduction to Christian Apologetics. It is pretty intense. God bless and take care and send my love to all.