Back-to-School Supplies

The beginning of the new school year in the middle of the summer still catches me off guard. However, a recent trip to Wal-Mart made it quite evident that something is happening. Mothers were pushing their shopping carts, attended by their school-age children, buying all the necessary (?) back-to-school supplies. This is a much bigger issue than it was in 1947-48 when I was in the first grade. Backpacks, computers, MP3s and such, were no where in sight. A new shirt, some pencils, and a Roy Rogers lunch box were just about all that was needed. But there have been other far more significant changes since 1947 than supplies and technology.

Let’s start with those attending public school. Teachers, administrators, students, and parents have changed over the past fifty years. This is not meant to be a launch against public schools, but some warnings are necessary. It seems that more teachers and administrators are either antagonistic or merely passive toward the Christian worldview. How does this show up? Anything that might smack of the promotion of religion, especially Christianity, is nixed (“Get that pilgrim out of the play”). Self-esteem development drives much of educational philosophy. Positive reinforcement and an absence of criticism and punishment decorate the classroom. And then there is Charles Darwin. The preferred creation myth is evolution. It is deemed a fact and any voices to the contrary will be patronized at best. Fathers and mothers must not look the other way while all this indoctrination is taking place. Children must be steeped in the Christian worldview, participate in worshiping the God of creation, and taught how to think biblically. That is a tall order, especially in the younger grades. But Christian parents must be proactive and thoroughly engaged in the education of their children.

School children are bringing loads to school, which far outweigh their backpacks. The baggage of divorced parents, drugs, alcohol, sexual abuse, and a movie-and-television-saturated thought life, can make the classroom a very tense experience. Are you praying for our Christian teachers and administrators? They are in a mission field which desperately needs Christ’s presence. Students from Christian homes need encouragement, wisdom, love, and strength as they navigate through the public school.

Those who are committed to home schooling have opportunities and challenges as well. The advantage of a parent-controlled learning environment can yield many developmental dividends. A Christian worldview can permeate every academic subject. Time can be used to the maximum. The student is able to take on extra projects under parental supervision. The demands of curriculum selection, knowledge of the subjects being taught, and a lack of interaction with other students are not insurmountable. But as all home school parents know, it takes dedication, husband and wife teamwork, and self-discipline to learn in a home environment. But God can supply the graces of the Spirit necessary.

How does God supply what is needed in the education of our children and teenagers? Know God. The work of self-education requires vast amounts of energy. For the Christian, energy for God is needed if a bold witness for Him is to be sustained. Reading, mathematics, science projects, and social studies require alertness to the encroachments of a naturalistic worldview. Harry Blamires in his book, The Christian Mind, discusses six characteristics of a Christian mind at work in contrast to the secular mind. They are: supernatural orientation, awareness of evil, conception of truth, acceptance of authority, concern for the person and sacramental cast. The most important back-to-school supplies are minds occupied with what God thinks about history, health, race, sex, politics, law, or any other subject. It is a mind that measures all of reality by the purposes of God in creation, the drama of redemption, and the coming kingdom. It is a mind that resists preoccupation with the self (how one feels and how one feels about how one feels) and cares for all peoples everywhere. Every Christian involved in the preparation of the next generation for the future would do well to read David W. Gill’s The Opening of the Christian Mind. The hurriedness of life must not be allowed to leave the most important things undone, part of which is the knowledge of how to take every thought captive to Christ. No student is adequately supplied for school who does not know how Christians are to think.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church