The Goal of Education... or should it be something else?

Ultimately, our goal for education is comprised in one word, righteousness. We seek to do that by teaching our children in the culture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

However, education is not really the best word to describe our mission, because education primarily connotes an academic spirit. To be more precice, our modus operandi for teaching is not only acadmic but also concerned with topics of a moral nature. To be more precise, it is really a matter of discipleship.

So then, we have three objectives from which our discipleship proceeds. They are called the three G's.

The child needs to know:
1. Who God is.
2. What God requires.
3. What God has done.

Here's how the three G's manifest in practical terms.

1. Who God is. This concerns teaching the child that God is a real being from which we can relate and have a personal relationship similarly to how they do with their parents. Just as our children were born from their parents, even more so, God is the sovereign creator who made the first man and woman that ever lived... The first parents.

2. What God requires. This is about learning obedience. We need to understand that God demands righteousness through His law. But there are two forms of law. There is the letter of law, and the spirit of the law. The letter of law is basically understood through the Ten Commandments. But the law is also realized in spirit; that is through the Fruits of the Spirit. Both aspects of the law should be taught in order to fully appreciate what God requires of us. To better explain, a person can follow the Ten Commandments in a rigid, cold way, and be in full compliance, but still violate the spirit of the law. It is not enough to be technically righteous, but also righteous in heart with the fruit of love holding preeminence.

3. What God has done. This is basically the academic form of education. Since God is sovereign over all creation, this is about teaching what God has done through history (i.e. nations, conquest, the redemption, etc...), creation (sciences - mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, geology, etc...), language studies (English, Latin, etc...), etc...