The Lens You View Life Through Matters
How does Christian education cultivate that lens compared to secular education?
This is a portion of my talk given at an event when asked to share my thoughts on the difference between a Christian and secular education.
After years of squinting and losing cheap reading glasses throughout the house and cars, I finally convinced my husband to go to the eye doctor. His career necessitates good vision so it has always been important to him and a bit of a sensitive subject. He finally scheduled an appointment and was issued prescription glasses that made everything much clearer. He didn’t realize how bad his vision had gotten until he looked through the new lenses. Now, whenever a lens gets even the tiniest scratch or speck of dirt on it, he is very aware of it and is bothered by it. The lens through which he now sees his world is clearer, more vibrant, and gives him confidence that what he is seeing is not compromised by the deficiency of his eyesight. What does this have to do with a Christian education? I was asked to share my thoughts about the difference between Christian and secular education and thought this was a good analogy.
What makes a Christian education different from a secular education? I would say it has to do with the lens through which students learn to view the world. A solid Christian education that relies on the Bible for its final authority, allows children to see clearly through the lens of scripture, all that God has done for them, given them and prepared in advance for them to do. Viewing life through this lens will likely make things clearer, and more vibrant, and give them the confidence that God will provide for their human “deficiencies” when faced with uncertainty. After years of learning to view life through the lens of scriptural truth, students will likely become keenly aware when something doesn’t seem quite right. A belief, behavior, or decision that the world deems appropriate, will bother them and they will feel compelled to go against the tide.
It should also cultivate and nurture a humble attitude of gratitude in students. A heart and mind overflowing with gratitude become the lens through which students experience the various people, places, and events they encounter along their life’s journey. This begins with the foundation that God, in His infinite wisdom and love, created each one of us as unique individuals with purpose and potential. That alone kindles the flame of gratitude and should spark the desire to reach that potential as a means of demonstrating it.
In my experience and opinion, this differs from the lens of entitlement that is so often cultivated in our consumer-oriented society, beginning with secular schools. Even well-meaning parents, teachers, and administrators will use the word “deserve” when pleading their case for newer buildings, better technology, or fancier equipment. Our students “deserve” to learn how to read, write, compute, and discover truth. They “deserve” safe, orderly learning environments free from the distractions of unruly students, inappropriate content, and activist teachers whose sole purpose is to promote a destructive political ideology in the classroom. The rest is a luxury, not a necessity. However, using the word “deserve” plants a seed of entitlement in the tender hearts and minds of students. If that seed is fed and watered regularly by a secular society focused on “needing more”, it could grow into a thorny weed certain to destroy any healthy shoots that were beginning to sprout.
So, what does this look like in practical terms inside the k-12 classroom? To begin with, Christian schools have the opportunity to incorporate scripture into every aspect of the day. They can start the year with Genesis and immediately instill in the children a sense of awe and wonder for their Creator and their place in His creation. When I visited The Dream Center Academy about a month ago, the students had just finished reading the Creation story. I was able to see the pictures they drew afterward. Most drew large trees, animals, stars, and oceans. If they included people, they were generally much smaller in scale. We know that God made man in His image and that we are different from every other part of His creation, but it is healthy for us, and for children, to know we are just a small part of a very big world rather than the center of that world. If we teach children from an early age that they, not God, are the center of the universe, they will have a very difficult time giving up “their spot” for Him later in life.
As a civics teacher at More Grace Christian Academy last year, I found it incredibly difficult to not include scriptural truths in my lessons. While we do not have a national religion, and some of our founders were not professing Christians, our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Even those who would never darken the doorway of a church knew that religion and morality were necessary for a civil society and a prosperous nation. I will never forget when I introduced the Declaration of Independence to my students. Several had never heard of it and most did not really know what it was about. This broke my heart because it is the foundation of our country and the foundation for the gratitude we should all have for those who risked everything for their posterity.
I equipped each student with the best resource I could find, a pocket Constitution and Declaration, and we read straight from the source. Of course, we stopped a lot along the way to discuss why the colonists saw the need to declare their independence in the first place. I explained to the students that, until that time, the king dictated the rights of the people and could endow or limit them as he saw fit. I then explained that colonists believed our rights come from God and could not be taken away by the government. One student slapped his hand on the table and asked, “why didn’t anyone tell me this before?!”. It is a hard concept to explain in secular schools because there is no way to get around the fact that our founders believed in a Creator. It is truly impossible to discuss “inalienable rights” without discussing Who those come from.
It is also challenging to teach about the courage of the 56 men who put their careers, families, and lives on the line to ensure those God-given rights would be regarded in this new experiment called “America”, without cultivating gratitude for their sacrifice. I actually spent a whole class period discussing the fate of each signer so my students could understand more clearly what they risked. I didn’t want them to be paralyzed by guilt. I wanted them to be propelled by gratitude.
As we moved along in our study of the founding documents, we discussed the Bill of Rights. They appreciated the First Amendment because they value the right to speak their minds (as most adolescents do) but it led to an interesting discussion about compelled speech as well. I told them public schools could not even compel them to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and they said most of their former classmates did not. They even admitted that they usually didn’t stand out from sheer laziness. One student stated that she would always stand now that she knew how many people sacrificed so much for her freedom. She said she would encourage others to as well. Gratitude, not force, would compel her to stand and honor the flag and what it means going forward.
Over the summer, we began using the Abeka Civics Activity Book in my class. One of the first few pages asked the students to complete the statement “what makes my country special”. I loved reading all of the responses but one student’s response made me especially happy. After explaining what made her country special, she wrote, “I love America with all my heart and I am very grateful for it.” Gratitude, not force, will compel her to be a generous, responsible, kind, and productive citizen as she grows up.
Of course, gratitude is not just taught in the classroom. Giving thanks for the food they eat and the hands that prepare it every day incorporates thankfulness into the day. Thanking God for their teachers, classmates, and facilities helps stave off the natural tendency to take those people and things for granted. We have taken several outdoor field trips to various places and each time, we stopped and gave thanks for God’s amazing creation and the opportunity to spend time in it. We didn’t worship the beauty of nature, we worshiped the One who was gracious enough to bless us with that beauty.
Other elements set Christian education apart from secular education, but viewing life through the lens of gratitude is one that resonates with me. Although I faced some tough obstacles growing up and made some poor decisions along the way, I was blessed with eight years of a good Catholic education. I then attended a public high school, for which I am very grateful since I met my husband there. Unfortunately, I was fully indoctrinated into worldly views in college and went on to become that teacher who was going to save the world. I was not motivated by kindness or love. I was motivated by pride and arrogance. I thought I knew better than everyone else how to “fix society” so I charged ahead.
Thankfully, God slammed a lot of doors, sat me down for Bible study and prayer, and opened different doors in His time. After eight years of Catholic education as a child, God provided me with another eight years of rigorous Biblical education as an adult in Bible Study Fellowship. That time truly helped me understand how undeserving I was of all that God had provided and how faithful and generous He is to His children. That was the springboard to action for me, this time motivated by kindness, love, and immense gratitude. Over a decade has passed since that time. Last year, Pastor Cecil Blye and I were discussing the journey that led me to serve at More Grace. I remember him asking me why I do the things I do and without skipping a beat, I answered gratitude.
If we can instill that level of gratitude in students as we prepare them academically in school, we will be cultivating a generation of well-educated, kind, generous citizens who will give back to their community, help a neighbor, mentor a young person, start a business, and serve in their church as a way of demonstrating that gratitude. Gratitude, not guilt or force, will motivate them.
Aside from cultivating a lens of gratitude, what does Christian education look like compared to secular education in the day-to-day routine? Let’s consider discipline. Students who attend a Christian school are given clear boundaries, guidelines, and expectations based on objective truth between right and wrong. They don’t have to worry about that definition changing or the lines being blurred by the current culture’s definition. As Christian educators, we can and should spend time teaching students discipline (how to practice self-control) so we spend less time issuing punishments and more time focusing on academics.
When I am correcting students at More Grace (something I rarely have to do), I will refer to the “fruits of the Spirit”. I remind them that those don’t come naturally to us, but if we are listening to the Spirit, He will enable us to practice patience, self-control, or whichever “fruit” they are struggling with at the time. If a student is giving less than 100% effort, I might remind him of Colossians 3:23. I tell them that we should always be pursuing excellence knowing that we will not achieve perfection in this life. The pursuit will make us better and stronger and it will glorify God.
Compare this to the current environment in many secular schools. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for the rules in many cases. Terms like “my truth” and “your truth” are thrown around until nobody can define what the real truth is. If there is no objective truth, then how can there be clear rules or guidelines determining right or wrong behavior? Imagine how stifling that would be for young students. If they never know what the right thing is to say or do, they will likely tend to say and do nothing. That is not an environment that encourages creativity, curiosity, or intellectual growth.
There is also a trend in many secular schools to accept whatever level of effort a student gives without demanding more. It is considered compassionate and equitable. I have had teachers tell me that they were instructed by administrators to pass students regardless of their participation, attendance, or effort. These teachers are forced to settle for mediocrity rather than challenge their students to pursue excellence. In my opinion, that is a grave injustice to the students and will only perpetuate any inequities that exist in society.
I will close with the words of Noah Webster, who was the father of eight, Christian, and an advocate for quality education. “Education comprehends all…which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties.”
This is our responsibility and we cannot afford or risk neglecting it. We must make sure our children have a clear lens with which to view the world and a firm foundation to build their faith. A beginning so solid that the storms of life, which will inevitably come, cannot shake or weaken the integrity of the structure or the certainty of that faith. This is what parents strive to provide for their children and what Christian education can bolster if done well.