How we understand humanity should make a huge difference in our parenting and in the way we educate our children.
Here’s a quote from Betrand Russell. “That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the débris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand.” You’d better believe that this is going to significantly impact the education of the next generation. Small wonder in a culture where this worldview holds power in education, that despite attempts at positive spin, we have high rates of youth depression and suicide.
For Christians, we have a far more hopeful understanding of man. We understand that humans, male and female are made in the image of God. We are fallen, but being remade into Christ’s image. We look forward to the New Heavens and the New Earth. This view should impact the way we educate our children. Vaughan Roberts in God’s Big Design puts it this way:
That truth should be reflected in our own goals for life and use of time and in our education and training of others. Are we content in school education and at home simply to prepare the next generation to be economically useful? If so, we are treating them as little more than animals, mere units of production. Above all, we should be concerned to raise them as those who know their God.
Given the truth of the image of God in man, it is not sufficient for us to train our children in a Monday to Friday God-vacuum. Learning about his world needs to be combined with learning to know God himself. In fact, God’s world was designed to give him glory, to speak of him. Psalm 19 puts it this way.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
Creation speaks of God. It teaches us about him. If we educate our children, yet they fail to recognise this, we are creating intelligent fools. And this is precisely what we are aiming for, albeit unthinkingly when we hand over our children to be educated by those who do not believe the truth of this Psalm.