DYNAMICS OF CHANGE: EDUCATION*

That men may know wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight, receive instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity; that prudence may be given to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth--the wise man also may hear and increase in learning, and the man of understanding acquire skill, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles (Proverbs 1:2-6).

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37b, emphasis added).

Education increases knowledge and fosters wisdom.  It is a complex world in which we live so an education is necessary to understand how it works. It was for that purpose the book of Proverbs was written.  Education decreases anxiety and opens the mind to new possibilities and equips one to access opportunities that never would have existed without it.

God is not glorified by an undisciplined and ignorant mind.  If we love God then it follows that the mind will be educated and disciplined.  Faith in God does not glorify ignorance; God wants his people to be disciplined thinkers who can be powerfully influential by articulating their faith in a complex and unbelieving world.  Not only that, God wants his people to be able to provide for the needs of their families and educated people tend to do it better.  Educated parents are better equipped to break the destructive cycles of the families they came from.

The down side of much of public education is indoctrination.  Though there is to be academic freedom in education, many times a grade depends on agreement with the teacher's perspective rather than truth.  Many teachers and tests have a socialist, secular humanist agenda that they want their students to believe so it remains for parents to teach and model critical thinking skills to their children and to support them as they face the challenges of public education.

Grace&Peace,
Tom

*Dedicated to my great aunt Sylvia Scott who matriculated at the University of Mississippi as a history student when she was 90 years of age.  She is my example for life-long learning.