My school has asked me to articulate the basic tenets of education at our institution. Is this is frustratingly fun exercise for me. Frustrating because I am trying to boil so much down into few words, and fun because it is asking me to articulate the most exciting project I know: that of educating the souls of God’s children.
The following is not what I have put together for my school – it is its own community and cannot be expected to follow my thinking fully (I don’t think any school should fully follow any one person’s definition of education, while many try and thus fail).
The Teacher’s Creed
I believe that all education is a leading souls out from darkness into the Light of the eternal Logos, Who is Christ.
The direct effect of embodying the Logos is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue in the life of the learner.
Integrated learning within the Logos casts aside all fragmentation of knowledge, seeing the unity of all Truth within the Godhead. All learning is moral and leads toward a greater understanding of God’s world, His redemptive plan for that world now fallen, and immortality in Christ.
Good learning in the Logos teaches…
- that God honors those who honor Him, which is the foundation for a proper view of oneself. Respect for others and self is best found in a sincere love for the Truth.
- all real learning occurs in the mind that is taught nothing that it can teach itself.
- that with increased learning should come increased service and responsibility. Real learning changes how one lives, not just what one knows.
- that loving God with our minds requires we learn to think clearly, critically, and independently while maintaining a proper respect for authority and tradition.
- that the basis for all learning is the embodiment of ideas, so that education leads the learner from knowledge, to understanding, and then on into wisdom, which is simply artful living.
- that most learning begins and continues in the context of great, open, compelling questions.
- that no learner is an island unto himself, but a part of the community of truth. This means the learner must gain the ability to respect and interact with others, especially those who disagree with them.
- that the mind, body, and soul of every learner is an integrated and real entity, requiring that all three aspects be addressed by anything wishing to be called education.
HowdoUteach 