written by Dan Sarian

“A few years ago the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved bowls. The measure’s sponsor explained the measure in part by saying that it is cruel to keep a fish in a bowl with curved sides because, gazing out, the fish would have a distorted view of reality. But how do we know we have the true, undistorted picture of reality?” (Hawking and Mlodinow, 2010). There can be no greater pursuit in education than defining what is really real. As an educator I am instructing my students how to observe and interpret their world through some type of lens which pre-supposes a perspective on my part of what is real. If I believe that the world and all it contains is an illusion, then I will teach from that bias. Even the Apostle Paul stated that our present vision is partially blocked from seeing the true nature of reality in its full glory when he wrote, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face” (I Corinthians 13:12, NIV).

We live in a material universe as material beings and are subject to the laws of nature. If I jump off a six-story building, the law of gravity takes hold and will send me hurling towards the earth. I am free to make choices, but those choices must be made with respect for the laws that govern a physical universe. But there’s another law or principle at work in me. I have emotions, thoughts, memories and opinions. I am more than flesh and bone because parts of me aren’t satisfied with just sleeping, eating, working and recreation. Even if all of my needs for food, clothing and shelter are satisfied, I’m still quite restless. I’m an inquisitive soul who desperately seeks meaning and purpose in life. I am meta-physical in that I long or “ache” for something which nothing on a material Earth seems to be able to satisfy. C.S. Lewis wrote, “If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world” (Lewis, 1960). I educate from the position that my students are seeking to know more than just the “what,” but also the “why.” The “why” answers lie outside the realm of the scientific method and yet are the most critical of questions for mankind. So my instruction must address these questions of existence.

Carl Sagan once said that, “The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be” (Sagan, 1980). If that’s true then our world is a closed system, devoid of God, and human beings are truly the result of some random accident with no one but themselves to answer to. As Protagoras said, “man is the measure of all things.” But this isn’t my understanding of reality. Jesus Christ taught that, “for this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth” (John 18:37, NASB). Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines truth as “that which has fidelity to an original.” Fidelity means “the same as or equal to,” so when Jesus testified before Pilate that he came to bear witness to the truth, he was essentially saying that he was reality because he was the same as or equal to God. Therefore, to know Jesus is to know God and to understand the nature of my existence. If I am truly the result of God’s special creation, then I now have a framework on which to assemble my worldview. As a Christian educator my philosophy of education is based on the foundation that truth is found in none other than relationship with Jesus Christ. Truth is not just propositional, but highly relational. God reconciling me as a sinner to Himself through the sacrifice of His Son answers the most fundamental question of all time: Who am I?

Frederick Nietzsche once wrote, “Hope in reality is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man” (Nietzsche, 1879). He spent the last 10 years of his life going mad. When a person gives up on any hope that ultimate reality exists, he is left to his own devices. I teach from the foundation of the Word of God, which guides me in what is true about mankind, my origins, my problem and my need and gives me hope in ultimate justice and peace. The Bible provides me with a unifying framework from which to interpret the world. And this is what schools should be about. “The term ‘university’ is actually a composite of the words ‘unity’ and ‘diversity.’ When one attends a university, he is supposed to be guided in the quest to find unity in diversity—namely, how all the diverse fields of knowledge (the arts, philosophy, the physical sciences, mathematics, etc.) fit together to provide a unified picture of life.” (Geisler. Turek. 2004) University. Schools are about training students to discover the truth about the universe and their place in it from a reliable foundation and perspective.

Every school and teacher operates from pre-suppositions. Pre-suppositions are assumptions about what is true or ultimate reality. Students should not be told what to believe but given the tools to discern truth from error. But in order for a teacher to provide these tools they must pre-suppose that there’s a standard of right and wrong, truth and error. To be told what to believe is not education but indoctrination, because ultimately a student leaves the instruction of their teacher(s) and moves into a world that offers them a smorgasbord of ideas about life. A good example is the Creation-Evolution debate. I believe all students should be taught both the Darwinian and Creationist view of how all life came into existence and allow students to weigh the evidence and come to a conclusion. However, in making this statement there is also a pre-supposition on my part that a student has been trained in the scientific method and in logic. So a school is responsible to not only teach content, but to also instruct students on how to be critical thinkers, form hypothesis, examine evidence and, on the merits of such things, come to conclusions about the nature of reality. The church does its young people a great disservice when it feeds them information about the Christian faith, but doesn’t equip them to make judgments based on evidence. Because of this, Christians have become known as those who love God with all their heart, soul and strength, but not with their minds. My dualistic view of mankind (man is body and spirit) compels me to ”….test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (I John 4:1, NASB). There are legions of false prophets in this world, so my role as an educator is to prepare my students to do the hard but necessary work of sifting through the rubble of error, deceit and lies and live according to God’s truth. People pursue that which they consider valuable, therefore teaching must have a filtering, processing, storing, and critical thinking component to it or we are doing our students an injustice. This is why the teaching of debate, speech and apologetics is must-have curriculum.

Teachers are to be relevant in their instruction. In other words, if students don’t see the connection in what they’re being taught in terms of the “real world” they will be far less motivated to learn. If we are just teaching students to take tests then we have failed. Students must be active learners and wrestle with difficult questions and issues that will challenge them for the rest of their lives. School should be the safest and best environment in which to wrestle with these life-long issues. But more importantly, a school should offer students the tools in which to dig for the truth for the rest of their lives.

Education is not morally neutral! A public school isn’t tolerant of all views (if it was then Christmas would be celebrated and songs about the birth of Christ included in winter concerts). In the same manner a distinctively Christian school isn’t tolerant of secular humanism being espoused. So it’s nonsense to claim that public education is founded on a morally neutral, non-sectarian platform when every teacher and administrator comes to their role with certain assumptions about the nature of reality.

My philosophy of education begins with the nature of man (anthropology). Men are made in the image of God and partially reflect His glory and majesty, but we are all born with a sick soul which is bent on seeking after self rather than after God. Secular Humanism thrives on the belief that man is indeed the measure of all things. But while in our gloriously ruined state we have been sought after and found by the one who exchanged his robes for nails and paid an awful price to purchase me back from the bondage of sin. My philosophy ends with a life that has been raised out of death, ignorance, blindness and bondage and into freedom as a child of God. As Jesus said, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32. NIV).

References

1. Hawking, S., & Mlodinow, L. (2010). The Grand Design. New York, NY: Bantam Books.
2. Lewis, C. S. (1960). Mere Christianity. (p. 119). New York, NY: Macmillan.
3. Sagan, C. (1980). Cosmos. New York, NY : Random House.
4. Tripp , D. (n.d.). The consequences of sin. Retrieved from http://www.christianity.co.nz/ident.htm
5. (2012). Merrium-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/truth
6. Nietzche, F. (1879). Human all too human. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge Press.
7. Geisler, N., & Turek, F. (2004). I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books.