Education
Let’s begin with some Latin, shall we? I owe Pastor Wilson credit for first pointing this out to me in one of his books. Ducere is a Latin word which means to lead. Both educate and seduce have this as its root word. Education, then, means to lead forth or bring out. Seduce means to lead away/astray. Being led is inevitable. The question before you is where are you being led?
You are either being led “onward and upward” into the high countries of God’s wisdom, or you are being led off like a hog to the slaughterhouse. Education, then is more than just getting you to remember simple facts. It is bringing you out of something, it is raising you up into something. That something we might simply describe as wisdom. You are either being educated or you are being seduced. You are either being brought up into the wisdom and knowledge of God and of His creation and redemption, or you being dragged off by seductions into any number of follies.
Christian
To simply speak of education (i.e. to lead forth) without understanding where you’re going is just another form of seduction. This is why it is important to emphasize that you are receiving a Christian education. Here is why that matters. I want you to think of the solar system. First, consider what sits at the center of our solar system. Each second, the sun puts out enough energy to power the USA for nine million years. If you were to take all the worlds nukes, multiply it by seven million, and blow it up (after standing at a safe distance of course) that is the equivalent of one second of the sun’s energy output. The average power plant can produce about 3-5GW worth of energy; by comparison, if you could plug into the sun, it’s energy output per second would allow for every human on earth to have the equivalent of ten million such power plants all to themselves. If the sun were the size of a basketball placed under the net on one side of a basketball court, the earth would be a peppercorn on the other side of the court. Jupiter would be a ping-pong ball over at Tri-State; but Pluto would be the size of a grain of corn flour on the crust of a pizza at Pizza Perfection. The point is that this solar system only works because there is something with the gravitational power to hold all those other heavenly bodies in their place.
Foolish man, in his sinful pride, imagines that he can replace the sun of Christ with any ol’ grain of sand and everything will stay in place. However, it doesn’t really matter what grain of sand you put there, it is not big enough to hold the solar system in order. People try to put different grains of sand in the middle of the solar system, things like wealth, physical pleasures, family, fame, food, or any infatuation. None of those things are necessarily evil in themselves. But if you think that putting the goodness of food at the center of the universe will make everything make sense, you are being deceived. Instead, Paul teaches us in Colossians 1:15-17 that, “[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
Wisdom does not arise from within you as you discover yourself. Wisdom comes from above. It comes to you principally in the Word of God made flesh. By faith in Him you come to understand that this world was made and redeemed by God for the glory of God, and you are to live in it accordingly.
Classical
This is what we mean when we say that you are receiving a Christian education. But what do we mean by that other adjective: classical? We mean two things. First, we engage with the teaching of the classics of Western Civilization themselves (Plato, Socrates, Augustine, Dante, Virgil, Shakespeare, Tyndale, Erasmus, Luther, etc.). Secondly, we order your education according to the orderliness of that system. That is comprise of the trivium: grammar, logic, rhetoric. And the quadrivium: math, geometry, astronomy, and music.
We find that throughout history men have grappled with the truth, goodness, and beauty of God’s creation. Their speeches, paintings, sculptures, symphonies, and writings are worth our attention insofar as they harmonize with the truth and wisdom found in Scripture.
Here are three things your classical education is giving you. A classical education first teaches you humility. You don’t know everything. You, at first, don’t really know how to learn. You are not the first person ever, and this means you should learn to sit still and listen to the “great conversation” in order that you might come to have something worth saying as you rise into God’s wisdom. This humility is your education is not merely about dates, equations, table of elements, although those things matter. You are first taught the grammar of a subject, in other words, what are the fundamental rules of this particular subject. Secondly, you are taught the logic of how these things all connect with one another, under there sovereignty and centrality of Christ. Lastly, you are given the rhetorical skills to be able to express these truths clearly and convincingly.
Secondly, from this posture of humility you are learning how to learn. Now, classical education isn’t just about finding the writings of people who lived a long time ago, and giving them priority simply because they are ancient. After all, there are ideas in the past, put forward by charismatic and talented men which have had disastrous effects. There are teachings from wise men that have been ignored to our peril. There are now, and there will be in the years to come, appalling ideas which will arise. Your education is intended to make you the sort of person who can cut through the hype and be able to refute the brain rot. In other words, a classical education is enabling you to rightly discern where there is biblical wisdom in what has been said in the past, what is being said at this moment, and what needs to be said in the future. Classical education doesn’t just give you the can of fruit, it gives you the can opener.
Third, by humbly learning how to learn, you are enabled to make your work worthwhile. Regardless of what your vocation is you need to be able to think freely. Too many people go into some vocation and are content with just being another cog in the economic machinery. Rather, the wisdom with which God has made the world, and which we are to endeavor to understand, enables you to take dominion of this world. Taking the wisdom of the Word, and the lessons from the past, enables you to confront future challenges and dangers. A classical education doesn’t give you muscle memory for menial tasks; it gives you muscle memory to consider how menial tasks fit in the grand scheme of subduing all things to the glory of God.
What We’re Trying to Turn You Into
Your parents and pastors and teachers want to turn you into something. We want to turn you into the sort of adults who not only know what they believe, but why your believe it, and why others should too. We want you to believe, deep in your bones, that in Christ all things cohere. We want you to be able to watch movies and see the lazy story-telling; or how they have to borrow the truth, goodness, and beauty of Christendom in order to mask their own ugly stories. You want to be able to listen to the promises of politicians and be able to tell when they’re committing logical fallacies. You want to be able to persuade others why the teachings of God’s Word are true, and that we should live according to them.
This is why you learn Latin, English grammar, math, and science. It is so that you understand what words mean, how to use them, and how orderly the world really is. All these are tools that help you think God’s thoughts after Him, in order that you might be a faithful herald of His truth to this world gone crazy.
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