It is possible to go to a school and not receive a very good education, and it is also possible to be educated without the formality of school. What is the purpose of school? The short answer is to educate or to teach knowledge and how to use it.
To be an educated person includes, but is not limited to, school or institutionalized systems of learning. Martin Luther King Jr. said that character and moral development are necessary in order to give the critical intellect human purposes. A morality that reflects the great moral principles of Scripture is essential for the best education.
A worldview is something everyone has. We may not realize it, but we all have a way we see the world. We do not have it at birth, but it is developed as we are schooled and educated. Our three Baptist universities in South Carolina all have a strong emphasis on a Christian worldview. When the academy, the church, and the home share a biblical worldview, the impact on a student is powerful. When a worldview that is not Christian is modeled and taught, that, too, will powerfully impact the learner. What kind of worldview a person has will influence what kind of person and citizen he or she will be.
Whether it is public school, private school, Christian school, home school or some other structure for training and instructing, morality and values will always be taught. The question has never really been “Can we teach morality?” but “What kind of morality will we teach?” Our courts, Congress, president or other officials may pass laws or create legal standing, social acceptance, and advocacy for sin, but that does not make it any less wrong and immoral.
Harvard College, founded in 1636, stated in its declaration of rules that every student should be “plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.” That statement reflected the beliefs of Harvard for many years, but Harvard changed. America has changed. Education has also changed in this country. There have been improvements, but also changes that have left our public schools secular in nature. There can still be the presence of biblical morals, but most often that is not the case. The myth of neutrality is pursued, while the values that help make us all better people are ignored.
To follow the theories or legacies of educators like John Dewey, who espoused a secular school system, is to miss the most significant part of a full education: the knowledge of God. Albert Mohler, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president, wrote in his blog that “any debate over education is an ideological debate — a worldview clash. There is no neutrality in education. The education is designed to produce some kind of result, some kind of citizen. There is no way that this can be separated from character, morality and worldview.”
Mortimer Adler, building on the theories of progressive education adherents like John Dewey and George Counts, cited three objectives in educating our children and youth: the development of citizenship, personal growth or self-improvement, and occupational preparation.
But education must be more than that. If it is not, the very foundations upon which our great republic has been built are in danger of collapsing. To have the best education, we must have more than knowledge. We need wisdom, and real wisdom comes from God. We need to be skilled in the sciences, math, civics, history, language and technology. But we need to know more than these to be better educated. If the chief aim in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, we cannot neglect God or His truth.
As school starts back, all children will not be exposed to godly morality in the classroom. Many will be experiments in social engineering. Children need to be shown what is true and right. They need to be educated but also nurtured and protected. The most basic education, especially in values and morality, may have to come from the institution God ordained before any other: the home. Unlike Las Vegas, what goes on in the home does not stay there — we carry it with us throughout life. Schools educate. Churches educate. So do homes.
Very few parents will actually go to school with their children, but they can, and should, be involved in the total education of their children. The goal of a balanced education is not simply knowing how to make a better living, but how to live better.