Christian Philosophy of Education
A Christian Philosophy of Education calls for an educational process that puts the Bible at the center and asks the student to evaluate all he/she studies through the lens of God's Word. Because God is Truth, He brings a unity of truth to all of his creation. No subject can be taught in its totality if the Creator is ignored or denied.
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" (John 14:6)
"...all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." (Colossians 1:15-17; 16b-17)
"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." (II Timothy 3:14-17; 16-17)
Christian education elicits learning that is integrated with the eternal rather than segmented and temporal. Knowledge becomes purified by the recognition of God's place in it; emerging from such knowledge comes wisdom.
"For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding..." (Proverbs 2:6)
"Wisdom is a tree of life to those who take hold of her." (Proverbs 3:18)
In addition to an integrated approach to knowledge, a Christian philosophy of education calls for the whole child to be educated for life - spiritually, mentally, socially, and physically. Jesus admonished His disciples, "Permit the little children to come to me for of such is the Kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 18:3) In Christian schools, students can come to know Jesus on a daily basis, as they are discipled as complete creations in Him. Spiritual mentoring and modeling, godly self-discipline and Christ-like expectations of how to treat one another can be woven into the fabric of each child's life.
"...You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind... You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37- 40; 37,39)
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10)
The Word of God is clear in making parents responsible for the education of their children. "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." (Deut. 6:4-9;7) In entrusting the church and school to help them in this task, parents rightly ask, "What is to be the end result of learning?" John Milton, in 1644 wisely answered, "The end, then, of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love Him, imitate Him, to be like Him."