with all thine heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy might. And these words,
which I command thee this day, shall be
in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk
of them when thou sittest in thine house,
and when thou walkest by the way, and
when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deuteronomy 6: 1-7).
That looks like a good goal for any
course of study: to love the Lord with
all;your;heart,;soul,;and;might.;(In;Mark
12: 30,;Jesus;added;‘mind’;which;brings
no ambiguity to a later generation as to
where your thoughts are: heart or mind.)
It’s;what;we’re;supposed;to;do;and;what
we’re;supposed;to;teach;our;children;to
do. That is the goal of their education.
So we are to start with the fear of the
Lord, and end with loving Him with all of
our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
But;what;do;we;find?
The;government;school’s;teaching;re-
garding strength is to love oneself, not
God. It feeds into the cult of personality,
wherein the captain of the football team,
the;star;basketball;player,;the;champion
baseball player, the head cheerleader
builds strength in order to achieve per-
sonal greatness and fame. Where does it
teach that strength or might is to be used
for loving the Lord, or your neighbor as
yourself?;(Matthew;22: 37-39)
Public school, by charter, begins its
teaching of the mind with a rejection of
God and its learning is absent of Him.
Students are taught that self and self-discovery is the beginning of wisdom, and
are;then;taught;what;to;think;in;the;spirit
of;tolerance.;By;and;large,;they;are;not
taught;how;to;think,;but;only;to;regurgi-tate what is fed to them.
When it comes to the heart and the
soul, these are excluded from government school, or pandered to in the form
of tolerance, acceptance of all matter
of sins, and self-esteem. Anything that
resembles love of God (or neighbor, as an
outworking;of;the;former);is;relegated;to
an;hour;on;Sunday,;forced;into;“private”
opinion, or challenged outright as having
no place in the government school.
In all four cases, the practice of the
government school is to intercept and
corrupt what God has commanded us to
teach;our;children.;But,;that;should;be
expected from an institution that styles
itself as secular/humanist.
Is it any wonder that Christian parents
in droves are removing their children
from that system and bringing them
home to educate and train? We do well
by not bringing them home and then
using that system as a model for what we
do when they get there.
By;contrast;to;a;public;school,;a;home-school can begin its instruction and
wisdom-getting with the fear of the Lord.
We can start and end our day with prayer,
asking;Him;to;guide;our;efforts;and;turn
the hearts of our children toward Him as
we train them up according the bent He
has given them. We can begin every subject with the understanding that not only
is God relevant to the subject, but indeed
it is His subject and we should confess
(or,;“say;with;God”);the;same;thing;He
says about it and that without Him, the
subject would be meaningless, disjointed, and unable to be mastered.
When we bring our children home, we
must;let;God’s;Word;inform;our;courses
of study, our schedule, our learning environment, how we reward mastery, and
what;we;measure.;Knowing;that;the;goal
of training our children is that they love
the Lord with all of their heart, soul,
mind, and strength, we can then fashion
a course of study that cultivates that love
in everything they do.
