Education Emphasis

       We worship education!  Our nation spends about three-quarters of a trillion dollars on schooling each year while we only have less than a third of a billion people in our country.  That means we average spending more than $2,000 dollars each on schooling year in and year out; yet a fifth of high school graduates are not functionally literate!  

A while back I looked up in the Bible the words teach and taught because I wanted to know what subjects we were to teach and how they were to be taught.  I would recommend others who want to know more of God's plan for teaching do their own similar search.  What you will find is that the scriptures do not command us to diligently teach grammar or mathematics but rather God's word.  Some of the specific terms used to refer to the matter to be taught are: ordinances, laws, commandments, statutes, judgements, the fear of the LORD, the way we should go, wisdom, understanding, and other similar things.  One obvious thing is that the Bible has a completely different emphasis for the content of teaching than that which is required by the government and society.

Because of this significant difference, when we make schooling too important we are in danger of changing our priorities from those which God has given to those which come from the world.  An example of this is when we require children to do their schoolwork but we leave their Bible reading or study up to their own personal desires.  I'm thankful that my parents allowed me to spend time memorizing the Bible even if it meant I was more relaxed in how I studied my physics. 

We also tend to prioritize schooling over real research of important things that are extracurricular.  In other words, we make the learning of  common core subjects more significant than pursuing wisdom and understanding.  

I could go on and write about how we make school more important than work or family relationships but for now I will wrap up.  The conclusion is that we need to have different priorities than the world.  We all have a tendency as humans to want to be like everyone else around but in the areas of schooling, the world is mistaken. We need to look to the Bible to see what God's will for us is in teaching children.  We need to focus on teaching the things which God commands, how He commands to teach them and fit other things in as they relate to what God does command but give them secondary importance.