Governors Work to Improve Highschool Education

This is a telling article that comes from some interesting sources. For one, this article was posted onto Yahoo's Asia news website. Second, it takes quotes from the likes of Bill Gates, of whom is not on my list of people to admire (check my other blog, Computing Matters, for that topic).

However, in this instance, I have to give Gates and others the article quotes some credit. At least they are acknowledging the modern U.S. school system is broken. Gates is even quoted as saying the modern U.S. high schools are obsolete.

Here is my assessment. They are still in the dark about finding a real solution to the problem. Consider this metaphor: All these high profile officials from business and government are meeting in a room that is totally dark around a large round table. Now they have realized that there is bomb ticking as the center piece of the table. They are beginning to realize they have problem, and they need diffuse the bomb. Time is ticking away. How are they going to diffuse this bomb. No one in the room has any true wisdom concerning the matters for bomb diffusion of this sort.

In the same way, the solution for the school system is to diffuse the modern educational process with a better approach to education. If man in all his wisdom and know-how has in fact reached heights of intelligence never before attained, why is it that we are having this problem at the center of the table. It is easy to point out that we need more rigor and challenging discourse in the classroom. But how does a social program implement such an enormous change without causing the parents to hemorage over putting too much stress on their dear little children.

The problem is occurring long before the child enters high school. The problem is occuring from the very beginning, even from birth with regards to our modern philosophy towards education. God, the master Designer and Creator of matter itself, has already given us wisdom on this concern. His solution is complex and very few can understand it. But I will make an attempt here to explain it.

In a capsule, God essentially commands parents to teach their children. End of sentence. It is not to be a passive responsibility. It is not the government's responsibility. It is not the village's responsiblity. But God has ordained in His word that the responsiblity rests on the parents to teach their children.

More specifically, who does God direct this command at? Is it the mothers? Has God commanded, mothers bring up their children in the training and admonision of the Lord? LOL. Of course not! God commands the fathers to train up the children in the way they should go. Does that mean that fathers are to stay at home, and mothers are to go out to work and provide for the family. Taking the whole scripture, God's word is saying is that fathers are to be the headmasters and to have close oversight for their own school and the method in which their own children are instructed.

For more on this topic, check out these other blog entries:
Training Up Children
Classical Education Links
Books for Providing a Classical Education
Introducing the Westminster Catechism
A Vision for Ministry to Children and their Parents