As a Christian, I tend to look at all of life, even education, as something God can and will use for His glory. I try to pass this onto my children as we go about our various studies.
I didn't always think this way. When I first began homeschooling, my mindset was attuned to the public school mindset I had been exposed to as a child and as a parent. I didn't see everything as relating to each other in any way, and everything relating to God. I had my "subjects" in my mind. And while I still have "subjects" that we cover, so many of them overlap now.
(LONGEST RUN-ON SENTENCE I'VE EVER WRITTEN!) My personal prayer life overlaps with my study of the character of Christ, which overlaps with our Bible time in the morning about "Crazy Love", which overlaps with the faith of the Pilgrims that my daughter and I are reading about in History, which overlaps with the genealogy study I am doing which traced my husband and my line both back to the famous "Separatists" that fled from England to Holland and eventually to America to escape religious persecution, which overlaps with the modern persecution we see happening all over in Iraq and other places, which overlaps with the growing disdain for Christianity in America and the reduction we see in religious liberties here, which overlaps with teaching my children to stand strong and have their faith be their faith and not mine, which overlaps to my homeschooling methods and my prayer time.
God wastes nothing.
I read books like Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto and I cry. Why is it acceptable to most parents that our education system in the U.S. is not giving the quality of education that we could sixty years ago? I can't understand why it perfectly fine with Christian parents to fight for their child to have a "quality" education, even though compared to sixty years ago it is not "quality"; but don't see the fact that most of our children are walking away from Christ?
When did a "good job" and "college" become more important than salvation and learning about Christ? There is nothing wrong with a child getting a quality education, though I am sure my opinion differs from the public schools about what constitutes quality. I long to go back to college myself, so I have nothing against a college education... depending on the school and the views taught. However, If my goal is to teach my kids to simply be able to get a "good job" one day or to get into a good college, but haven't taught them about Christ; as a Christian, that is ridiculous.
I find it an important observation that, the more we took God out of public education, the more the curriculum was dumbed down, and the more our educational standings in the world diminished. Yes, I do believe there is a connection. There is a connection to parents encouraging literacy and learning about the world because we believe it will lead to a closer relationship with God and the ability to learn His Word for ourselves. That was a commonly held belief, that education had a purpose beyond just filling our brains with facts for that "good job". There was a purpose to education beyond ourselves and our temporal lives.
My step-daughter turned 18 a couple of weeks ago. While she has some high school time to finish, she is legally an adult. I ask myself often if I am giving her more than just an "education". Am I giving her a foundation in Christ? Will she be able to take what she is learning and make her faith her own? Will she develop a dependance on the Lord that will last her through those years when many her age walk away from their faith? I don't worry about her SAT scores as much as the world thinks I should. I don't stress over which college she will choose as much as the world thinks that I should. I worry that she won't have developed the personal relationship with Christ that she will need to carry her into eternity.
I pray.... A LOT! I pray for each of my daughters daily. I pray about their relationship with Christ. I pray for their future as servants of the Lord, not students of some college or workers in some "career". If they are following Christ, He will guide them in those areas. My job is to ensure that they have the skills to learn whatever they need to learn to do whatever job God has called them to... whether that be a business woman or a missionary. As a servant of Christ, they will represent Him at college, in the workforce, and in their homes as wives and mothers. Christ wants them to have a strong foundation in Him. That means we don't dumb down everything and then expect them to grasp things such as the Trinity, the Holy Spirit indwelling in them, the Gifts and Fruits of the Spirit, the Covenant relationship with Christ, the enormity of God compared to the smallness of humans on Earth - one planet in a one galaxy amongst an untold number of galaxies. These are not concepts that we should make smaller, because to make them less would make God less. Instead, we should see that all education points us to Him.
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