What Is Education?

Lying and Cheating Were Once Considered Inconsistent with Education

Prior to 1900, practically every serious educator understood that the primary purpose of education was "the formation of moral character." American liberal arts colleges treated lying and cheating as completely inconsistent with being an educated person. Those caught doing this were generally expelled and seldom reinstated.

We Christians have the Word of God, which is eternal Truth, settled in heaven forever. By contrast, there is secular humanism, which asserts, "everything is relative," and "there is no absolute truth." Both statements are logical contradictions. If they are true they are also false.

For Christians, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom:"(Prov. 9:10) fear meaning awe and respect. The revealed truth of Scripture should be the first foundation of education. "Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not."(Prov. 8:33) The Book of Proverbs is what particularly inspired the great flowering of universities in the twelfth century, which has carried down to the present day. Most universities, including the ones now dominated by secularists, were founded by Christians. They were part of the Christian cultural milieu. And as Christian influence declines the elements of genuine education evaporate. Morality and integrity are disappearing. History is conceived as propaganda a la 1984 and the evolution myth is misrepresented as science, which it is not and cannot be.

Logic is another bedrock of serious education. Only if the real is rational and the rational is real do we have a basis for knowledge and education. Logic is formalization of the way the human mind works. You cannot seriously deny that 2+2=4. One liberal student confronted with this replied petulantly: "2+2 is approximately 4!" How can you know something is approximately something without a standard?

Contrary to much popular opinion, morality is also a bedrock of education. Without it science becomes myth and history is mere propaganda. Everything becomes just a matter of opinion. The basic question is simply: "Is there any absolute truth?" If there isn't, there is not, of course, any relative or approximate truth. What resembles a Snark? If you don't know what it is, you can't tell if it approximates or resembles anything. Lewis Carroll had a lot of fun with fuzzy minded people. Those who deny the existence of absolute truth, and there are many, have nothing to teach. Western philosophy really got off the ground when Plato developed concepts of knowledge which were plausible and acceptable.

As for building on these foundations, this brings us to Dorothy L. Sayers' classic essay The Lost Tools of Learning, in which she asserts that schools need to get back to the medieval trivium of grammar, rhetoric and logic. If you have a firm grasp of these, you have a basis for tackling any subject.

The study of history is also an essentially Christian concern. Without history you do not know who you are or who God is. He is the Lord of history, who created the heavens and the earth and man; who called Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses; who is incarnate in Jesus Christ who died for us and our salvation; who has surrounded us with a cloud of witnesses, and who is coming again to wrap up history and to usher in a new heavens and a new earth.

Another dimension of history is cultural or social history. To understand any subject, we need to understand something about its development and its cultural milieu. Is Islam a religion of peace? 13 centuries of warfare deny this idea, as a reading of the Quaran will confirm. This brings up the fact that there is a moral obligation to be intelligent and not bear false witness.

You cannot understand American or English literature apart from the Bible and the histories of these countries. Literature represents the very soul of the people. This includes religious writings, such as the Bible, the Quaran, along with the writings of the Confucians, Hindus, and Buddhists, etc.

True education has a moral, a Biblical and a logical foundation. "Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." (Prov. 4:7) In this frantic, restless, secularized world, we can do nothing better than ponder the Book of Proverbs to find the answer to "what is education?"

This article was previously published on Associated Content.

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