Reformation of the Christian School

The reformation in the early months of 2021 that brought us out of the Protestant Reformed Churches included a reformation of the schools. Even as the reformation of the church is not of the will of man but of God, so the reformation of the school was entirely God’s work. This was evident by the fact that we (to our shame) could find little desire to leave the schools where our lives were comfortable. To leave the church was relatively easy compared to leaving the schools. In spite of us, God began a reformation in our education by kicking us out of schools where we did not belong.

God, not man, has made the Christian school a battleground in the reformation of his church.

Through our short history God brought us to see the necessity of Christian education in accord with the vows made at baptism. At baptism each of us parents vowed before God to “see these children…instructed and brought up” in the doctrine of scripture and the creeds as taught in “this Christian church”: the church of our membership and confession (Form for the Administration of Baptism, in Confessions and Church Order, 260).

In the Protestant Reformed Churches, we had been taught that this was a vow of convenience. If we had a school available, then we had to use it—that is, if we were officebearers.¹ If the fathers were not officebearers, then their neglect to use the school might bring a grave and self-righteous shake of the head but not Christian discipline. If a school were not available, then the only requirement was to want to have a school but not to build one. Certainly, not to build one if building a school were deemed “impossible.”

God graciously brought us out from the inconsistency of the Protestant Reformed Churches to the principal necessity of both forming and using Christian schools to teach our children.

On this battleground there have been two recent developments in the Reformed Protestant Churches that gutted the school of its foundation upon the covenant. The first development was a claim that the essence of the Christian school is that students are taught together. The second development was a claim that the purpose of the school is that we teach our children to know God and that we teach our children to serve God. These ideas will guarantee that the covenant will not govern the education of our children as a living foundation of the school.

God has made the Christian school to be a battleground in the reformation of his church. Do not take your eyes off this battleground, no matter who tells you to look away. We must evaluate these new ideas that have recently entered the field of battle. We must reject what is false and continue to develop and apply a proper understanding of the Christian school.

A Living Foundation

It has been well established, and there is little debate that the Christian school is founded upon God’s covenant of grace. Even those who refuse to agree that the Christian school is a demand of the covenant allow for the covenant as the foundation of the Christian school. But for us to get this foundation into the proper perspective and to apply an understanding of this foundation, let us get this in our minds: What is the covenant?

Our God is a triune God of fellowship: three persons eternally abiding in the unity of the Godhead. This relationship of friendship in the Godhead is the essence of the covenant. Any time we think about the covenant as it touches us, whether with regard to the Christian school or in any other aspect of our lives, this is where we must begin.

God brings us into this covenant life through Christ. This is the gospel that is so dear to us: the promise that God has chosen us to be members together with Christ. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him” (Col 2:9–10).

According to Rev. Herman Hoeksema in his Reformed Dogmatics,

If this communion of friendship in the Trinity implies a perfect knowledge of one another, then also the covenant life of man must consist in knowledge and communion: God reveals himself to man, causes man to know him, reveals his secrets to him, speaks to him as a friend with his friend, walks with him, eats and drinks with him, and lives with him under one roof.²

Hoeksema again:

The covenant is the relation of the most intimate communion of friendship, in which God reflects his own covenant life in his relation to the creature, gives to that creature life, and causes him to taste and acknowledge the highest good and the overflowing fountain of all good.³

The point is that when we speak of the covenant, we may not simply stop with the covenant as a foundation. The covenant is not merely a basis. It is a way of life. It is not a foundation like the pilings under your deck that have no living connection to the discussion you are having there. Rather, the covenant is the foundation like the roots of the tree are the foundation of a tree. Certainly, the roots hold up the tree, and apart from the roots the entire tree cannot stand. But the roots are so much more! The roots of the tree also give life to the branches, leaves, and fruit that grow on the tree. You cannot speak of the branches and the fruit without speaking of the roots; they are one.

Likewise, the covenant is not merely a dead foundation that demands that believers teach their children. The covenant is the lifeblood of the school. The covenant will be visible no matter which point of reference we take to look at the school. Will we look at the essence of the school? That will show us the covenant. The purpose? We will see the covenant. The content of the education and the curriculum? We will see the covenant.

When we look at the Christian school from all these angles, what will stand out is Christ, the head and mediator of the covenant. When we look at language and logic, we will see Christ, the wisdom of God. When we look at science, we will see Christ, who was with God from the beginning “as one brought up with him” (Prov. 8:30). When we look at social studies, we will see Christ, the power of God who is given all power in heaven and on earth. When we look at history, we will see Christ sitting at the right hand of God and sending the horsemen of Revelation.

And what is the power that draws all life out of the roots of the covenant and into every subject? Faith! Faith as our union with Christ is the basic requirement of every participant of the Christian school, whether parent, teacher, or student. Not even subject matter expertise or a teaching certification is the most basic requirement, but faith.

Essence of the Christian School…Together?

Considering the living foundation of the school in the covenant, we must reject the idea that the essence of Christian education is merely that we work together to teach our children. According to a previous editorial in this magazine, “Wherever you have the parents’ and other believers’ joining together for the instruction of the covenant seed, there you have the essence of the Christian school.”⁴

The word “essence” can be defined as “the most important quality or feature of something, that makes it what it is.”⁵ To get to the bottom of this, we must get firmly rooted in our minds a picture of the essence of the Christian school, since that will help direct us in the great work of teaching the covenant seed. God’s covenant demands a school. What does this school look like?

Let us play a mental game. Create in your minds an image of the school in all of its aspects—everything that you can think of when you think of the Christian school. Begin to list out all the different things that belong to the school. Perhaps you start with the physical location, the building, the backpacks, the bus, the bells, the teachers, the books, homework, studying, tests, and grades.

Do you have in your minds a picture of the Christian school with all its trappings?

Good.

Now, start dismantling every aspect of the school that can be removed but not the parts that must remain in order for the school to still be a “school.” For example, take away the extracurriculars. Is it still a school? Of course. Remove the gymnasium? Still a school. Can we remove textbooks? I suppose that is possible. What about the students? Nope, not a school if we remove them. What about the parents? Or what about the teachers who stand in the parents’ place?

This is what we are talking about when we use the phrase “the essence of the Christian school.” How much can we take away from the school, such that what remains is still a school?

The October 2021 editorial claimed that “the essence of a Christian school…is believers’ [especially parents’] working together in the covenantal rearing and instruction of their covenant seed.” We may speak of the school as believers’ working together to rear and instruct their children, since that is a definite characteristic of Christian education. We might even include that working together with the essence of the Christian school, since if the education is not done together, there is no school. But the problem with this claim that the essence of Christian education is parents’ working together is that it takes away too much. There is more involved than parents’ working together to instruct their children. If all that is left is parents’ working together to rear their children, we take away so much that what is left is no longer a Christian school.

The first thing missing is teachers. Godly teachers are an essential part of the school, and without them we do not have a Christian school. The second thing missing is a purpose and goal, which gives the school a distinctively Christian character in contrast to every other school.

The Christian School and Teachers

In the series of editorials “The Christian School as Demand of the Covenant,” the editor denied the centrality of the teacher in the school. In the third installment of the series, the editor wrote:

If the Christian school is not a demand of the covenant, then why have a Christian school and why use a Christian school? Someone will say, “Because the complexity of modern society means that parents are not equipped to teach their children all that they must know today.” But today there is a plethora of comprehensive homeschool materials and curricula complete with textbooks, video lectures, homework assignments, and even institutions that will grade the homework.⁶

In this statement the editor presented a problem that since modern society has grown so complex, parents are not equipped to teach their children to live in this modern society. He solved this alleged problem by providing “comprehensive homeschool materials and curricula” and “even institutions that will grade” for the parents or anyone else who is facilitating the children’s learning together.

For the editor the teacher is not the imperative. Rather, the role of the qualified teacher can be replaced by “comprehensive…materials and curricula” and “institutions that will grade,” so long as the circumstance of the learning is still together.

Against this claim the teacher is imperative. Without teachers there is no school, let alone a Christian school.

It is clear from scripture that teachers are the means that God has ordained to rear the covenant seed. Speaking to both parents and teachers in whose place they stand, the Spirit tells the young church,

6. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

7. 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. (Deut. 6:6–7)

Pay particular attention in this text to the source of the teacher’s instruction. The Spirit focuses on the heart of the teacher. “These words…shall be in thine heart.” This is because the act of teaching is not merely transferring knowledge. A child can memorize facts from a book, but that is not the teaching as directed by God. Rather, teaching is an activity that engages the hearts of both teacher and students.

Solomon acknowledges this in the negative example of Proverbs 5:11–13:

11. And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

12. And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

13. And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

Solomon is describing here how the foolish son would not merely reject the content of knowledge taught, but he also actually rejects and disobeys his teachers.

This spiritual aspect of teaching is also shown in 1 John 2, which shows us that instruction is the work of the Holy Spirit.

The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. (v. 27)

This text may initially seem to make the point that teachers are not needed, but that is not the thrust of this text. Rather, by showing the centrality of the Spirit in teaching, the text shows the importance of the living bond that the teacher and students both share in that same Spirit, which is the confirmation of the truth between them.⁷

This idea that teachers are necessary to the school is not new to us. In his book Reformed Education, originally printed in 1977 and used since then as the essential handbook for Protestant Reformed parents and teachers, Prof. David Engelsma taught the centrality of the teacher in the school.

Although it is slight exaggeration to say that the school is its teachers (for God has blessed and used schools that suffered for a time with poor teachers), the thrust of the exaggeration is correct: Christian education is Christian teachers teaching covenant children.⁸

In the Christian school godly teachers are not optional. God, give us teachers!

Know God…And?

The second element missing from the previous editorials regarding the essence of the Christian school is the purpose and goal of that education. It is this purpose and goal that give the school its distinctive character.

We teach our children together, but so do other schools. Where are we pointing our children in that education? What is our purpose? Are we teaching them to be landscapers or bricklayers? engineers? teachers? nuclear physicists? How should this change if the school were run by farmers and restaurateurs? Depending on the answer to this set of questions, the character of the school will be very different.

Although this question was not answered definitively in the series of articles on the Christian school, the question was answered in a lecture given after the series concluded. In this lecture Reverend Lanning proposed that the purpose of Christian education is not only to rear the covenant seed to know God in all his works, but “parents also come together with other believers to rear the covenant seed to prepare them to serve God in all of their callings.”⁹ According to Reverend Lanning in the lecture, this also directs the content of the education: “There is the whole curriculum of the Christian school: know God in all of his works and serve him in all of your callings.”¹⁰

This, according to Reverend Lanning, is the twofold purpose of and content for Christian instruction: know God in his works and serve God in our callings.

The problem with this statement is not the idea that it is the calling of the child of God to serve God in his vocation. That is undoubtedly true. Regardless of our vocation as a teacher, minister, farmer, salesman, painter, mailman, or physicist, we are called to serve God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.

The problem with this statement is that it finds itself as a purpose of our children’s education alongside the purpose that we teach our children to know God.

These purposes are not equal. They are not even in the same category.

Properly, only one is a purpose. The other is a fruit.

The one, great purpose of education is that we teach our children to know God. This is the emphasis of Deuteronomy 6, the great passage on education: know the Lord and teach your children to know him! This is also the purpose given in the great high-priestly prayer of our Lord prior to his sacrifice on the cross.

2. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

3. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:2–3)

The purpose of God in his people is simply not pointed at life on this earth. The great purpose of God in the election and salvation of his people is that he gives them eternal life, uniting them to him by faith and making them to know him. This is inclusive of the education of their children, as our fathers held dear even in persecution over the education of their children.

The authors of the law of 1806 saw these statutes as a means to develop useful citizens for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. To further the nation’s well-being in this world—not the next. Seceders were not concerned with this world. They were not of this world…for them, the education of their children’s souls was of much greater importance than the mere development of their minds, which only led to perdition.¹¹

The purpose and hope of the child of God are not set on this earth, but his heart is fixed in heaven. As we sing in Psalm 49,

God my waiting soul shall save,

He will raise me from the grave.

Let no fear disturb your peace

Tho’ one’s house and wealth increase;

Death shall end his fleeting day,

He shall carry naught away.¹²

The purpose for education as explained in scripture and applied by our ancestors resounds in unison: that our children know God in this life and the next. Whatever work they do in this life does not sit alongside this calling to know God. It flows out of the knowledge of God. Just as the good works of the believer are fruits that flow out of the knowledge of faith.

In the operation of our schools, this fact makes all the difference.

If practical training were to sit alongside training our children to know God, then in every school subject we would have to decide—will we in this subject, semester, unit, or class period teach our children to set their hope in God? Or will our focus be life and vocation in “modern society”?

The world has an answer to this question. The world answers this question by orienting everything that is taught toward student success in this world. One path may be the college track, where students are given all the college preparatory and advanced placement courses to succeed. Another path to success gets students out of high school and into skill centers or work release where they can learn a career. Government departments of education are closely aligned with this idea, and they have rewritten their standards to allow for multiple paths, so long as the students are “career oriented.” The world insists that students pursue success in this world.

The answer of the Christian school will be antithetical to the world’s answer, and it will flow out of the root of the school, which is the covenant. The proper education of our children will focus them not on temporal life but on their eternal hope.

All learning—practical, theoretical, or otherwise—must flow out of this one purpose of education: that our children know the Lord. While the children of this world will learn with their eyes on this world, our children will learn with their hope set firmly in heaven, recognizing that they live as pilgrims and strangers on the earth.

Development Is Needed

Even if the textbooks and materials used are the same, the teaching and learning will be different in their motivation, purpose, presentation, and evaluation. This is especially where godly teachers are needed: to develop the implications of this principle throughout their material. Theologians and ministers may set down the basic principles, but they are not teaching twelve units of trigonometry to the students, and so they cannot get into the depth of application that the teacher must bring.

Teachers, before you start unit planning, think about the purpose and motivation that you bring to your students. Will you encourage them with an earthly reward in exchange for applying themselves in your class? Or will you find the purpose for learning the subject in seeing the glory of God in that subject?

I will try an example from literature class.

Why is literature an important part of education? The world will give multiple reasons: to improve reading skills, to give better context to periods of history, to develop critical thinking skills, and other ideas that lure students with the mirage of their “full potential.”

But why (and how) does the Christian school teach literature?

We teach our children to know God by showing them his truth in or (more commonly) over against the literature they study. Regardless of the subject matter, every piece of literature will be a reflection of what the author thinks about the truth. As children of God, we are called to judge all things, discerning between the truth and the lie. “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?” (1 Cor. 6:2). So when we read, for example, a fantasy novel presenting a battle between good and evil, our children must learn to discern what ideas the author may be bringing to their minds. Many fantasies show dualism between the forces of evil and good. Who will win? Does the author present this as something that depends on the resourcefulness or inner strength of those on the side of good? Our students must learn to evaluate what that author is teaching along with its parallel in reality, where both the author and the student live. Our students then learn to judge this teaching according to the one standard of truth, that is, according to the revelation of God in Christ. That is one great purpose of the Christian school in teaching literature: that our students learn as saints to discern and judge the ideas of the world.

This is only a sketch, and this idea could be developed further. However, it serves as an example to show how our children know the Lord through an excellent literature education. This must be fleshed out in every subject. In every subject our children learn, they must learn it as it relates to God. This way the focus of learning will not be on themselves but on increasing in the knowledge of God.

Teachers, this can be positively overwhelming for experienced and inexperienced teachers alike. As schools we have much work ahead. I ask you to consider one first step on this path before the school doors open: answer the question, why? Why is it important for your students to learn the subject material in your class? Not why they learn generically but why learn art? Why trigonometry? Why grammar? Answering this question by faith will be the starting point for your syllabus and the guiding light in each unit and lesson you plan.

Parents, teach your children to live and learn by faith, not for the purpose of their lives here below.

Students, in this way may you develop a richer and deeper understanding of the unchanging God of your salvation, to whom is all praise in all his works both in this life and into eternity.

So let there be on us bestowed

The beauty of the Lord our God;

The work accomplished by our hand

Establish Thou, and make it stand;

Yea, let our hopeful labor be

Established evermore by Thee.¹³