Why Education
Matters
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:6
Children average 30 hours a week in school, which influences the way they think and view life. In contrast, the church is often only given one hour a week for spiritual education. It is within these so called 'neutral' schools the most forceful secularisation of our children is taking place.
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Compared with in 1983, when 66% of the population identified as Christian, in 2019, the statistics had decreased to 38%. This decline that we are seeing is generational. Christian parents only have a 50% chance of raising believing children. In effect, we are seeing Judges 2:10 played out amongst our children; 'When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.'
"Every education teaches a philosophy; if not by dogma then by suggestion, by implication, by atmosphere. Every part of that education has a connection with every other part. If it does not all combine to convey some general view of life, it is no education at all." - G.K. Chesterton
You see, education provides children with the foundations for their developing worldviews. A worldview is the basic set of beliefs you hold about the world through which you interpret the whole of life.
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The government tells us the education system is neutral, and many are calling for the complete removal of prayers and hymns from school assemblies. Yet as Christians, we need to recognise that there is no such thing as neutral ground. Jesus states in Matthew 12:30, 'Whoever is not with me is against me.' If they are not teaching our children a Biblical worldview, a Biblical framework through which to interpret all of life, secular schools are teaching an alternative one.
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Consider it this way:
Would you send your children to a Muslim or Hindu school and expect them to grow up as strong Bible-believing Christians? In our nation, the education system has adopted humanism, the goal of which is to remove any mention of God or knowledge of Christ. In becoming 'neutral,' schools teach that Christianity has nothing to do with truth, God is not the source of wisdom, and that the government is responsible for your well-being.
Christian Worldview
Secular Worldview
Origins: Special creation
Truth: Objective
Ethics: Objective, universal
Origins: Chance evolution
Truth: Subjective
Ethics: Situational, relative
"The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth." -Erasmus