Total Freedom, If You Bow to Caesar

Deceit, Damned Self-Deceit, and Secularism

Self-aware Christians know that, “there ain’t no neutral ground”.  Christians are epistemologically self-aware.  They know that all truth is pre-interpreted truth.  It is pre-interpreted by God the creator and sustainer of all things.  Anyone who argues there can be such a thing as a neutral zone–a secular public square, for example–where all views are held with equal respect is either self-deceived, childishly credulous or a snake. 

The same reality holds in schools.  Secular schools that are even-handed, and tolerant towards all beliefs and religions, gods, and speculations are a nonsense.  At base, the secularists who make such claims, know it is spurious.  But it feels good.  It is a just-so story they tell themselves to maintain a veneer of self-respect and to fool their opponents.

Christians are liberated from such self-deceits.  If all truth is pre-interpreted truth, as the Christian faith insists is the case, then everyone is pre-committed and biased to a particular world-view from the outset–either Christian or otherwise.  When it comes to schooling, Christians want schools that are independent of the secularist world-view and able fully to reflect the authority of the Word of God to pre-interpret all truth, reality, and knowledge.  In New Zealand, the only way to achieve this is to have truly private schools, self-funded.  If the secularist government pays, eventually the secularist government will control the music its hired piper plays. 

When the Conservative government in the UK set about to reform British schools, it adopted a quasi-market model which was designed to introduce competition into the education market place.
  This in turn led to an opening up of the competitive marketplace.  A thousand flowers would be allowed to bloom.  Some would succeed, some would fail.  The good schools would end up putting competitive pressure on the establishment schools, resulting in raising standards for all. 

There was one slight problem.  Free schools could do anything they liked, teach anything they liked–provided it conformed to the prevailing secularist anti-Christian ideology.  Consequently, the government inspection agency is now actively closing down Christian schools.  Here are a couple of examples:

Christian School Forced to Close 

As Inspectors Brand Children ‘Bigots’ for Not Knowing What a Muslim Is

by Donna Rachel Edmunds
BreitbartNews
21 January, 2015 

Inspectors have labelled pupils at a Christian school bigots and forced it to close after a young boy gave the wrong answer when asked what a Muslim was. Teachers at the school say he referenced terrorism in his answer, but argued that one child’s throwaway answer was no ground for closing the whole school.

Durham Free School, which currently educates 94 pupils aged between 11 and 13, was praised by former education secretary Michael Gove when it opened in September 2013, the Daily Mail has reported.

But inspectors visiting the school last November, after the new guidelines encouraging inspectors to rate schools on how they promote ‘British values’, deemed the school to have failed on a wide range of factors. “Standards are low and progress is inadequate. Students’ achievement is weak”, inspectors wrote.

The school will now close at Easter as the current education secretary, Nicky Morgan has withdrawn funding. But teachers say that they were unfairly penalized for placing a Christian ethos at the heart of the school by inspectors who wanted to demonstrate that they were promoting the Government’s diversity agenda.  In their report, the schools inspectors concluded: “Leaders are failing to prepare students for life in modern Britain. Some students hold discriminatory views of other people who have different faiths, values or beliefs from themselves.”

The government’s “diversity agenda” is pop-speak for multi-culturalism, which, in its turn, is pop-speak for secularism in its post-modern phase of the spin cycle.  All truths are relative and a legitimate perspective of the holder. Consequently, a tolerant society is one which holds no prejudicial views on any other competing perspective.  Except, that the secularist definition of tolerance most certainly cannot be challenged; it is absolutely correct and to ignore it is Verboten. Behold the self-deceit and hypocrisy of  secularism.

The secularist establishment is declaring it will tolerate all views, except the Christian faith.  The only kind of “Christianity” the secular establishment will tolerate is one which submits itself, and conforms to, the overarching ethical imperialism of the secular world.  This is the same dynamic which led successive Roman emperors to say, “Of course you can worship Jesus, if only you first bow in adoration to Caesar and offer  incense to him.” 

Here is another example of a militant secularist religion producing persecution of a UK Christian school:

Meanwhile, nearby Grindon Hall, another Christian school, has been placed in special measures despite achieving the best school leaving exam results in the area. The school’s head, Chris Gray, made an official complaint to inspection group Ofsted following their most recent inspection, in which pupils were asked whether they knew what lesbians did, and whether their friends felt trapped in the wrong body.  The line of questioning angered parents, with one mother reporting that her daughter was “disturbed” and “upset” by the “wholly inappropriate” manner of questions asked.

Mr Gray also drew attention to a paragraph present in the draft report, which was subsequently omitted from the final report issued, which read: “The Christian ethos of the school permeates much of the school’s provision. This has restricted the development of a broad and balanced approach to the curriculum.”  He said the statement revealed “unwarrented skepticism on the part of the inspection team” regarding the Christian ethos of the school. . . .

Colin Hart, Director of The Christian Institute, responded to Mr Gray’s statement saying: “For Ofsted to give the best performing state school in the area its worst possible rating defies common sense. Removing a statement slamming the school’s Christian ethos from their final report tells us all we need to know about what is really behind the downgrading of the school.”  His colleague Simon Calvert added: “The Government’s British values regime is twisting Ofsted’s priorities out of all proportion. Inspectors are asking all kinds of invasive questions and then issuing reports that the parents whose children attend the school don’t recognise.”

The “British values” regime is actually a front for militant secular atheism.  We Christians will not be surprised.  It’s expected.  Militant secular atheism has naturally pre-interpreted all reality after its own image–as all creatures do.  The only “Christianity” that will be tolerated and accepted is a hollowed out religion which has likewise pre-interpreted reality in terms of the secularist worldview.   And that is just not going to happen.  Christians fear God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell, before they fear the State, which can merely kill the body. 

When the pagans control just about everything it’s time to hear the advice of the great Abraham Kuyper: “our isolation is our strength”.  Christians in the UK need to forget government-controlled Free Schools.  They will only ever be a front for secular humanism. 

The only Free School is an independent, self-funded school.  We, the believing Christian community, will have to bear its costs. 

The Giants

Foundational Literature of Western Civilization

June 24, 2014

Justin Taylor

 

 

In his book The Case for Classic Christian Education (Crossway, 2003), Doug Wilson offers a list of “foundational” books for Western Civilization (some of which, but not all, would make their way onto his desert-island reading list.)
I’ve reproduced his list below, along with my own parenthetical recommendations on some translations, editions for kids, etc.

The Scriptures
Of course, the Scriptures are not included in the list of twenty-five books. The Bible is necessarily in a class by itself and forms the center of every class a student takes. But at the same time, the Bible is an important part of our broader literary heritage, particularly in the Authorized Version, popularly known as the King James. . . .

The Iliad
Written by Homer (c. 750 B.C.), this great work is about the fall of Hector in one sense, as well as the tragic fall of Achilles during the siege of Troy. The Trojan War is the setting, but this is not what The Iliad is about. Homer’s poetic gifts were great, but we should remember C. S. Lewis’s comment that it was his giftedness that made his granite despair shine as though it were marble.

[See Robert Fagles’s translation. For kids, see Rosemary Sutcliff’s retelling, The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Story of the Odyssey—or wait until July 2014 for a new edition of this retelling with illustrations by Alan Lee. For a Christian literary guide to the book, see Leland Ryken’s work.]

The Odyssey
Mark Twain once quipped that we now know that Homer was not the author of these works, but they were rather to be attributed to another blind Greek poet with the same name. The Odyssey, more accessible to many modern readers than The Iliad, is about the return of Odysseus from a life of freebooting to his home country and his adventures on the way.

[See Robert Fagles’s translation. For children, see Rosemary Sutcliff’s Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of ‘The Iliad.’ Or wait till August 2014 to get her version with Alan Lee’s illustrations.]

The Oresteia
Aeschylus was the father of Greek tragedy (525-456 b.C.). The Oresteia is a trilogy of three plays (458 b.C.)—Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers (Choephoroe), and The Kindly Ones (Eumenides). The apostle Paul’s language indicates his familiarity with these plays. The plays are about the return of Agamemnon from the Trojan War, his murder by his wife, and the unraveling of his dynastic order followed by the rise of another, more balanced order.

[The link is to the Fagles translation.]

History of the Persian Wars
Herodotus (484-c. 424 B.C.) was a great storyteller. He was first called the father of history by Cicero, but the appellation has stuck. Modernist historians want to qualify this somewhat, thinking that he has insufficient quantified boredom in his footnotes to be called a true historian. Nonetheless, he is a lot of fun to read.

Oedipus Rex
Sophocles (c. 497-406 B.C.) wrote this play about a man fated to kill his own father and marry his mother. Aristotle used the play as his model for tragedy, and it has had a great influence on the definition of tragedy. Oedipus Rex also serves as a good springboard for discussions about fate and free will.

[The link is to the Fagles translation.]

The Republic
Plato (c. 428-c. 347 B.C.) was great because he raised great issues. Of course, he also answered them from within his pagan worldview. This book should be read because it is important in the history of ideas, not because the ideas therein represent anything that Christians would want to adopt. Karl Marx was an intellectual who suffered misfortune because people tried to put his ideas into practice. Had Plato suffered the same misfortune, the world would still be talking about that totalitarian hellhole.

[For serious study, see Alan Bloom‘s essentially literal translation and notes.]

Nicomachean Ethics
As Plato’s greatest student, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) served as a tutor for Alexander the Great. His Nicomachean Ethics has had a major influence in Western moral philosophy, much of it problematic for the Christian. The pernicious influence comes more from the basis of the standard (reason versus revelation) than it does from what Aristotle praises or blames. When Paul asks, “Where is the wise man?” he is almost certainly talking about Aristotle. Man through all his knowing does not know God.

The Aeneid
Virgil (70-19 B.C.) was the court poet for Augustus, the Caesar when Jesus was born. He retold the story of the founding of Rome, connecting it to the fall of Troy. Trojan refugees fled after the fall of their city, and after many adventures, they settled in Italy. Aeneas, their leader, is a man in the first part of the Aeneid, but as the poem progresses, he becomes a personification of Rome itself.

On the Incarnation
Athanasius (A.D. 295-373), the bishop of Alexandria, was the orthodox champion against the heresies of Arius, who denied the deity of Christ. The testimony of C. S. Lewis on this point should be sufficient: “When I first opened his De Incarnatione, I soon discovered by a very simple test that I was reading a masterpiece.”

[You can read an online version, including Lewis’s introduction, here.]

The Confessions of St. Augustine
Augustine (A.D. 354-430) was one of the greatest thinkers the church has ever produced, and it would be hard to overstate his influence. His Confessions are autobiographical, devotional, philosophical, and everywhere rich. The Protestant Reformation should really be understood as Augustinian Christianity coming into its own, and Protestants would do well to get reacquainted with their spiritual father.

[See Tony Reinke’s translation comparison. Peter Kreeft says that F.J. Shedd’s translation opened up the book for him like no other. I usually use Maria Boulding’s translation. For more commendations of this book and why you should read it, go here.]

Beowulf
The author was an unknown Christian poet from the eighth century (c. A.D. 700-750). The story is of a great hero who slays the monsters Grendel and Grendel’s mother, and who at the end of the epic lays down his life for his people in a fight with a dragon. This is a wonderful poem.

[There are several recent publications of this classic. The best-known is probably the NYT bestseller by Seamus Heaney. Last year Douglas Wilson published a new alliterative verse rendering. And this year has seen J.R.R. Tolkien‘s translation and commentary. For younger readers, see Ian Serrailier‘s rendering in modern verse narrative (sixth grade and up).

The Divine Comedy
In this work many believe that Dante (A.D. 1265-1321) produced the supreme Christian literary work. Throughout the course of this “sacred poem,” Dante as pilgrim is escorted through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, and comes finally to the Beatific Vision.

[See Anthony Esolen’s translation of Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise.]

The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer (A.D. 1343-1400) belongs to the high medieval period. His greatness as a poet is generally recognized. Pilgrims on the way to Canterbury tell one another stories to pass the time, and the stories reveal many of the tensions and contradictions of medieval life—from sacred to profane, from holy to bawdy. With regard to the bawdy aspect, Chaucer himself believed that he sometimes got carried away, and much to the consternation of modern liberated scholars, he said he was sorry. Chaucer was almost certainly influenced by his contemporary, Wycliffe, and was probably numbered among the Lollards, followers of Wycliffe.

[For a retelling for children, see Geraldine McCaughrean’s version.]

Hamlet, Macbeth, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night’s Dream
William Shakespeare presents us with some difficulties. The first is the question of dates, which depend on who Shakespeare was. Since I follow Joseph Sobran’s arguments for the Oxfordian authorship of the plays, I simply refer you to him. The other difficulty is that of selecting which plays should represent his genius, whoever he was. The five above will have to do. Since they are plays, they were meant to be seen, not read. Good videos of some of these are available.

[For a critical complete set of Shakespeare’s works, see the Pelican edition. Leland Ryken has a guide on Macbeth and on Hamlet. For children, see Ten Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb.]

Institutes of the Christian Religion
John Calvin (1509-1564) was a strong personality who still evokes strong and sometimes passionate responses, both for and against. Nevertheless, the stubborn historical fact remains that he was the single greatest systematizer and organizer of the Protestant theology and faith. He was a truly great man, and this great work was published in its first form when Calvin was still a young man.

[The definitive two-volume edition is edited by John McNeill; unfortunately it seems to be currently in print only in paperback. For help, see A Reader’s Guide to Calvin’s Institutes, by Anthony N. S. Lane.]

Vindicae Contra Tyrannos
Junius Brutus is a pseudonym for an unknown Huguenot writer of the sixteenth century. This book represents a Protestant marriage of medieval and modern thinking about political civil order. The book was enormously influential in the American colonies prior to our War for Independence.

The Temple
George Herbert ( 1593-1633) was a devotional Anglican poet whose great theme was the authority of grace. Like his contemporary John Donne, he was a poetic craftsman of the first order. The catholicity of his writing has given him a broad appeal among Christians.

[See Leland Ryken’s guide to the devotional poetry of Herbert, along with Milton and Donne.]

Paradise Lost
John Milton (1608-1674) was a genius of the first rank. One astute observer said that the English language collapsed under the weight of that genius. Paradise Lost is an artistic monument, but it is not an easy one to apprehend at a first reading. Taking a class on it or reading some companion volumes would be very helpful.

[Here is a version for children. See also Leland Ryken’s Christian guide.]

Pilgrim’s Progress
John Bunyan (1628-1688) was an unlettered tinker turned preacher who wrote a book that continues to astonish the world. The allegory is straightforward, but the book nevertheless has depths that account for its incredible staying power. C. S. Lewis said of this work: “The greater part of it is enthralling narrative or genuinely dramatic dialogue. Bunyan stands with Malory and Trollope as a master of perfect naturalness in the mimesis of ordinary conversation. . . . In dialogue Bunyan catches not only the cadence of the speech but the tiny twists of thought.”

[If you like things in the original, I don’t know of anything better than Banner of Truth’s deluxe edition. See Leland Ryken’s literary guide. See also Derek Thomas’s Ligonier class, “The Pilgrim’s Progress: A Guided Tour.” For children, the two most famous versions are Dangerous Journey (an illustration-rich abridgment, using a lot of original wording) and Helen Taylor’s Little Pilgrim’s Progress, a full retelling with the characters as children.]

Pensees
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a Jansenist, part of a movement within the post-Reformation Roman Catholic Church trying to turn Rome back to an Augustinian foundation. The Jansenists are best understood as “Protestants” who never left the Church of Rome. Pascal was a great mathematical genius as well as a devotional mystic. “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing: we know this in countless ways.”

[I have used Peter Kreeft’s Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensees, which intersperses Pascal’s Pensees with Kreeft’s helpful commentary and application.]

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen (1775-1817) wrote one of the finest examples of a comedy of manners. Her writing displays an understanding of great psychological depths without becoming pathological about it, as more recent writers have done.

Faust
Johann Goethe (1749-1832) created in this drama a work that is archetypical of the great Romantic themes of his era. Many German legends told fantastic stories of the fifteenth-century magician Georg Faust, who sold his soul to the devil. Christopher Marlowe wrote a play about Faust in the late sixteenth century, at the end of which the soul of Faustus is lost. Goethe ends the story differently, and in that difference we can see the desolations of our modern era. Instead of salvation by grace, we have salvation for free.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain published this book in 1885. The fact that just about every- one reads it in high school and that it is a really good story enjoyed on the surface tends to obscure for us just what a great book it is. Hemingway said that all modern literature descends from Huckleberry Finn. H. L. Mencken praised Twain to the heights.

The Brothers Karamazov
This novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) is in the minds of many one of the contenders for the title of the greatest novel ever written. This is a strange way to talk about a novel, too reminiscent of People magazine’s tendency to declare someone or other the sexiest man alive. Nevertheless, this kind of praise does give some idea of the novel’s reputation, and it is fair to say that it represents “a consummate work of Christian imagination.”

[According to Joseph Frank of Princeton University, the 2002 translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is “Heartily recommended to any reader who wishes to come as close to Dostoevsky’s Russian as it is possible.”]

The Lord of the Rings
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) wrote what is already being called the novel of the twentieth century. While it is far too early to make this judgment, it is certainly not too early to hope that the judgment proves correct. The story of the one ring, of Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, and every other creature in Middle Earth will no doubt be read for centuries to come.

[If you like big one-volume editions, you can get it in paperback or hardcover.]

 

Douglas Wilson’s Letter From Moscow

The Paideia Principle

Douglas Wilson

Blog and Mablog

Thursday, June 19, 2014 

The Christian faith is a religion of world conquest, and no, not that kind of world conquest. If we do not believe this, then every form of cultural engagement will be simply a form of slow surrender. It is the way of compromise. You can always tell this kind of person because they are always wrestling with the contours of something or other. And if you don’t believe in the triumph of the gospel, and you don’t want to surrender, then the only safe thing to do is to go the way of the neo-Amish. But there is another approach.

“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).

I want to take a moment to review what we mean by the paideia of God. No doubt many of you have heard me on this topic before, and so I will just take a few moments with some review. But I want to do this so that we can go just a little bit further up, and a little bit further in.

So Paul tells Christian fathers to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. One of the words he uses here is paideia, which for the ancients was a loaded term.
Shoe, and table, and glass are common nouns. Paideia is freighted with meaning, an abstract noun that was a big Hellenistic deal. If you haunt bookstores, occasionally you will run across a quirky history of something like salt, or the table fork, and the fun is the novelty of it. But back home I own a three-volume treatment of the word paideia, and the author was in deadly earnest. This work is not a symptom of scholarly mental problems, but rather a sober and helpful study of a word that held for the ancients the same kind of meaning that democracy would for us.

My understanding of paideia in this sense (the sense I believe Paul is using) would be summed up with the word enculturation. But enculturation presupposes a culture. The idea refers to the insinuation of Christian kids into a Christian culture, the incorporation of our children into a mere Christendom.

In Paul’s day, that presupposed culture did not yet exist, and so the parents of Ephesus were being instructed to create one. But how do you do that? In our day, that culture existed once, and is now a magnificent ruin, with stones of varying size scattered about. How do we—referring now to the name of our conference—rebuild the ruins?

Why do we flatter ourselves, as though we had the right to shrug and give up? Why do we abandon hope regarding the building of a mere Christendom, when our only argument is that it been done before? What kind of sense does that make?

Since this is our assumed task, then this is the question. How are we supposed to accomplish something like that? Initially it might sound a little bit crazy to our modern secular age, but when I am done I trust they will think that I am barking mad.

How do we call things that are not as though they are (Rom. 4:17; Is. 46:9-10)? Only God can create ex nihilo, but we are commanded to “create” after Him, imitatively. The biblical way this is done is through the word. In and through the Word all things were created. And that is the way things are to be recreated also. That is the way everything is rebuilt. The Word must come first.

Words do not simply come after the fact, describing things as they exist, raw and in their own right. Words do far more than simply attach labels. It is not simply a descriptive slave of “the way things are.” No, the word is also prescriptive—the authoritative word goes out, and a new world comes to be. The world of the future is taking shape around us, and it is the Word that makes it come to be. The Word brings new life. “For God who commanded light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Cor. 4:6-7). And as the Word does what it does, our imitative words follow after, doing the little follow up things that they are capable of doing, like creating new civilizations.

There are many areas where this has an application, and obviously I believe the central one has to do with preaching. That is another subject for another time, but it is related to the topic before us. Teaching and education are right up there. We are teachers, we work with words, which means that we are builders of worlds.

In your context, in your classical Christian school, what does this mean? Let’s bring this down to a practical level. It means two key ingredients—books and imagination. Let’s consider each of them in turn. Earlier I mentioned stones of varying size, scattered stones in the ruins. Most of them are shaped like books. They are how we can make out the formation of the ruins. We can tell where the city needs to be rebuilt again. Let us stop by the river. The leaves of the trees are for healing, and so let us build by the river.

In this respect, we have a great advantage over the Christian parents of Ephesus. They had never seen or heard of the Christianization of a sophisticated and urbane pagan civilization. That kind of an overthrow had never happened before. From our vantage, it has happened before. The thing has been done. You can read about it in books. They had the assignment, and no examples. We have the same assignment, and one grand example. Remember—never argue for the impossibility of a task from the fact that others with fewer resources have done it before.

So, books. Distance learning is not a new thing. We have always had distance learning. That is what books are. Augustine was sitting in his study in North Africa, feeling a certain way about the pears he had stolen as a youth. He put those feelings down on paper, and many centuries later I extracted those same feelings from different paper, with intervening translations, wars, empires, reformations, all doing their part.

This is one of the most exciting things in the world. I mean, how is this even possible? But this exciting thing is not beyond the contaminating grasp of dullards. Remember—oh, ye classical and Christian educators!—that Jesus taught with authority and not like the scribes. Scribes are those who shuffle around learnedly, and to borrow a phrase from Yeats, coughing in ink. Scribes are those who tear out pages from the classics, wad them up into elephant pills, in order to choke the children. Scribes are the musty smell of death you get in a used bookstore with a mildew problem. Scribes are the wrecking ball of a marred culture, which is nothing at all like the fancy dress ball of a merry culture. Scribes take the milk of education, which is to be the life of the children, and boil them in it.

Please don’t mistake me. I am not at war with learning, or with great learning, or with vast learning. I am not backing away from a recovery of discipline. I do not advocate a floating moonbeam approach to classical Christian education. What I am saying is simply this. There are the nazi schoolmarms and the gradgrinders on the one hand, and those who, on the other hand, would change all our classical disciplines into a national free verse tournament, attended exclusively by thousands of junior high girls. The former want the kids to choke down a bowl of driveway gravel, while the latter urge them to try to get down a bowl of cotton balls, soaked in maple syrup.

Why not the paideia of God? Why not intelligent and focused discipline that knows where it is going and why? This leads to the second point. We must have hard work. We must have discipline. We must have pedagogical order. But it must be anointed with imagination.

Going back to Rom. 4:17, God is the one who calls things that are not as though they are. But when God calls it that way, what does Abraham do? He believes, and in the Bible, when we believe, we speak (Ps. 116:10; 2 Cor. 4:13). Speaking with faith means speaking with true imagination. And Napoleon was right, at least on this point, when he said that imagination rules the world.

What is it that overcomes the world? Is it not our faith (1 Jn. 5:4)? But faith does not just overthrow worlds, it replaces those worlds with another world. We do not want to cast out a devil, and then wait for seven worse devils to return. And so true imagination speaks with real authority.

What are your materials? Books, books, and more books. Purchase them with imagination and faith. You need grist for your mill. The books are the grain, your mind is the mill, and your imagination bakes the bread. Your students should eat the bread, so make sure it is fresh, and make sure there is plenty of honey butter.

Build a civilization in front of your students, and do it while waving your hands in the air. Let your cheeks get hot. Use the glorious examples we have, not to mention the tragedies and disasters. Talk about Roland, and Alfred. Tell them what happened at Lepanto and Malta. Tell them how many times God’s people have been beleaguered and surrounded, how many times we have been just a huddled camp of refugee saints—just like we are now—and tell them how God delivered us. Tell them that He has done it hundreds of times, and yet we still have trouble believing He will do it the next time. Our hearts grow thick, a fly buzzes in the window, and we stare malevolently at yet another book that has covers too far apart. But the problem is not there, in the material, but here, in the heart of unbelief. Shake yourself free of apathy and sloth. But lift up your heads; our redemption is drawing nigh.

The fact that we need to go over this so many times is the first argument for it. If we had had a Christian education, it wouldn’t take so many times for us to grasp the concept.

The secular state, and its various projects, will collapse when Christians stop supporting it. Their cathedral of secularism only stands because we are willing to be the flying buttresses. But that is not our assigned role.
One last thing, a personal note. After this talk, Nancy and I will be sitting at the Canon table in case you want to come by and say hey. I want to do this to encourage you to get in amongst the vendors and make every one of them sad—sad that they did bring more of whatever it was that you went and bought them out of.

If the apostle Paul were here at this conference, do you know where he would be? He wouldn’t be in here listening to me. He would be in the room next door—without his name tag—hovering over the book tables. “The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments” (2 Tim. 4:13). Whatever you do, Timothy, don’t forget the parchments. Forget the food, forget the winter cloak, but don’t forget the parchments.

And any book that he bought from our worthy vendors and took home to read would be read with faith, hope and love, with a baptized and sanctified imagination. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:1–2).

I wish I had the imagination to describe it for you, but I don’t, and I am done. But no matter. When you are done building it, you will know what it looks like.

 

"Sex Education" in Government Schools

Parents Are Smarter Than Government Bears

In New Zealand government schools–which are part of a government mandated and enforced monopoly–sex education is compulsory.  Now the official reason the government insists on educating your children about sex is the high rate of teenage pregnancy in this country.  But when the government runs a programme with the aim of reducing teenage pregnancy, there is only one possible outcome–more teenage pregnancies–which is what has been happening.

. . . a cross-party [parliamentary] inquiry [has] found New Zealand’s high teenage-pregnancy rate was partly the result of inconsistent and sometimes non-existent sexual and reproductive lessons in schools.  [NZ Herald]

According to the propaganda employed to justify compulsory government sex lessons, non-existent sex education in schools causes teenage pregnancies.  Now, however, since government sex education has been compulsory and has been going for some time now and yet more teenage pregnancies have occurred, what’s the excuse?  Well, it’s because monopoly government sex propaganda has been inconsistent, and sometimes non-existent.  This is what we call the “great double down”.  Sex education in the monopolistic government schools is not working because there is not enough of it.  So, we will have more.

But also, a qualitative improvement is being proposed.
 

Sex education is mandatory, but the 18-month inquiry found programmes were “fragmented and uneven”, parents were able to keep children out of them and classes often focused on physical aspects of sex.

The select committee recommended that the Government give all schools two years to create programmes that meet Ministry of Health standards.  The Education Review Office would monitor whether schools were meeting the needs of students of all cultures, ethnicities and sexual orientations.  Cabinet ministers said yesterday that they would “partially accept” the recommendations.

Government sex education has to cater to the sex-education of  homosexuals, trans-sexuals, bi-sexuals, and whatever other sexual “orientation” presents itself.  In government circles, none of these “sexualities” is immoral; rather they are all considered amoral.  They are regarded as a freedom right.  Morality and ethics have nothing to do with them.  They are thus to be presented as entirely legitimate and lawful–and, thus, are part of the government sex curriculum  So, it is no wonder that compulsory government sexual education focuses almost exclusively on sexual mechanics.  Moreover, it is no wonder that the specialist teachers often brought in to teach these subjects are immoral libertines, whose end-game goal is to break down every taboo and moral restriction upon human sexual activity, to the end that human sexual activity may become animalistic. 

A former board of trustees member who resigned over “unacceptable” sex education classes at her school opposes recommendations that sex education programmes be mandatory for all schoolchildren.  Jo-Anne Sim resigned last month as a trustee of the Blaketown Primary School on the West Coast after a teacher taught what Ms Sim said were explicit lessons that were not appropriate for Year 7 and 8 pupils.  The classes included discussion about oral and anal sex, flavoured condoms, and pleasure points – despite parents having been told in writing beforehand that pupils would be taught only the basics.

We are familiar with a non-government school which teaches all subjects through the lens of Scripture.  It operates in a Decile One (low socio-economic) area.  It is a Cambridge school, which means that its education qualifications are world-class and internationally recognised. Its external exams are marked in London. No chance of gilding the lily with inflated internal assessments.  The roll is slowly but steadily growing.  Many of the families are not Christians.  Why, do non-Christian parents choose to send their children to this Christian school?

There are a variety of reasons.  The education is of an excellent standard, with pupil learning well beyond peers in the government monopoly schools.  The curriculum is focused on core subjects: reading, writing, maths, and science.  The teachers, all committed Christians, are dedicated professionals and practise their faith in their interactions with pupils–they are gentle, kind, but firm.  Pupils are taught to be respectful, to be thankful, to be polite, and to work diligently.  Parents love all these aspects.

But they also appreciate that the school curriculum does not move into areas that belong to the family–such as “sex education” in a misplaced attempt to combat social evils and practise social engineering.  Meanwhile the school does teach the divine morality surrounding marriage and families in its Bible curriculum (after all, three of the Ten Commandments address this directly.)  Parents who are not Christians appreciate these things a great deal.

They think that it is far better than some moral libertine discussing condom-use, together with practising how to apply them, as part of a mandatory government sex-education class in the monopoly government schools.  No wonder parents in those schools are finding their children are coming home from these lessons “grossed out” and disturbed.

But that’s paganism for you: when everything is relative and perspectival, anything can happen.  And it does.  No wonder conscientious parents want to send their children to a Christian school even when they themselves are not professing Christians, and at not insignificant cost, we may add. 

Douglas Wilson’s Letter From Moscow

School Growing Pains

School Rules Are Not the Answer

Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2013  
By Douglas Wilson
Blog and Mablog

One of the great challenges faced by classical and Christian schools is the challenge of growth swamping that which is the cause of the growth. If there is one three-man lifeboat in the water, and a hundred people also in the water, the thing that makes the lifeboat an object of desire is the same reason it won’t be floating for very long.

Classical Christian schools have a great pedagogical method — it works. Moreover, the people who were crazy enough to see that it was going to work are those parents who were visionary enough to establish the school in the first place. They were dedicated parents, usually with godly homes, and when the school got established in its first few years, the culture of the student body was determined as much by the spiritual and cultural condition of the founding families as anything else. That, as much as the pedagogical method, is the reason the school became a really attractive place to be.

But back in the pure days, it was hard to pay the teachers. It was hard to keep the lights on. It was hard to find someone who would do the janitorial work. So when the school started to grow, the first sensation (felt by the board) was a sense of relief. Ahhhh.

However, something else, other than money to pay the bills, came to the school along with the increased enrollment. That something was knowledge among the students of who Beyoncé and Miley are, emblems of our crappy culture. And by knowledge here, I do not mean simple cognitive knowledge. I am referring to a knowledge of such worldliness which the students find dazzling and attractive. When such things have a gravitational pull, then the school and the community behind the school are under assault. This is done by means of pop culture — music, web sites, gaming, movies, books, and so on.

I am not, incidentally, objecting to Christians who know how to effectively engage with the world in all these areas. Throw a bunch of Christians into the ocean of pop schlock, and I have no objections to the Christians who know how to swim. My protest concerns the ones who are drowning, and have drowned. Think of an engaged hipster on the ocean floor, blowing little Kuperian bubbles.

A good school is engaged in the task of building a school culture that is honoring to God. Those materials are assembled day after day, year after year. But many classical Christian schools have discovered that when they get to a certain size, the culture they are assembling during the day is being routinely disassembled evening after evening, and a great deal of demolition being accomplished over the weekend.

Now you can’t do everything, and perfectionism is a temptation to be resisted by Christian educators. But here are just a few thoughts that might be helpful for schools in this position.

1. Rules won’t fix anything. You need the rules for the sake of basic moral order, but rules are not gospel. Rules change no hearts. This is why a school in these circumstances should seek out support from churches where grace and gospel are effectively preached, and should bring in speakers from such churches for chapel or assembly. The hallmark of such talks should be the grace of full forgiveness, and the consequences of receiving such grace. It would be easy to slip off the point, and bring in speakers who will place the divine seal on the school rules. But law drives us to gospel, not the other way around. Apart from the sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ, there is no solution to this problem. Without Jesus, a school with standards will become a place of reeking hypocrisies, starting with the students and working its way up through the teachers, administration and board.

2. That being the case, then anything else done should be thought of as having a supportive role, not a leading role. For example, a good school with solid academic standards will not leave a lot of time for massive encroachments from pop culture. There will be assignments due, tests to prepare for, paper mache volcanoes to make. One of the best things a school can do for young people today is to keep them busy. And since all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, this is where a school can fill in the remaining time with extracurricular activities like sports or drama. If you have a full program, there won’t be as much time left over for Stupid Movie VII, or twerking practice over in Suzy’s garage.

3. While rules cannot make the heart pleasant, they can make the school pleasant. The rules should be simple and obvious, and not an opportunity for teachers and administrators to be petty or petulant. If there is consistency and fairness in how the rules are applied, and if they are for the obvious good of everyone — tenth graders don’t get to run down third graders in the stairwell — then the result is that you have created a good environment for learning. One of the things that must be learned, however, taking us back to the first point, is the grace of the gospel.

A good disciplinarian can rid a school of the demon of disorder. But unless the Spirit of God fills in the vacancy, the demons of self-righteousness, seven times worse than the first one, will come back to haunt the place.

Douglas Wilson’s Letter From America

Not All Cake 

Education – Education
Written by Douglas Wilson
Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Levi Heiple has graciously interacted with my post on technology and education here. As he notes, we have a good bit of common ground — and so what follows here is simply what I believe to be a necessary voice of caution. There are principles involved in education, and there are methods, and whenever you come across a dazzling new method, the temptation is to forget or slight the principle. I am not against the right use of a new method; I am jealous for the principle.

For me, the issue is not whether these new technologies are  going to affect education — of course they are. The issue is where and how we categorize it all — which was my point about the enhanced library. This is the basic distinction I was making there. You either learn from someone you know personally, or from someone you do not know personally. If it is the latter, then it is enhanced library learning — with the difference that I might be fooled into thinking otherwise with the new technologies.
Reading Augustine is not likely to make the student think that he knows him, but if we had a recorded video series of that great man’s lectures, and we got to watch his gestures and that little facial tick, we might come to think (erroneously) that we did know him. This is a mistake I see happening everywhere, and which I am trying to head off. I don’t think the full force of what Jesus taught in Luke 6:40 is possible without face-to-face relationship at the beating heart of education.

Now I say this as someone who has used available technologies for spreading the word my entire adult life. So I currently stand condemned in all these ways — I blog, I write books, I tweet all over tarnation, my sermons are recorded in both audio and video, they are made available for smart phones, I helped edit the Omnibus textbook series for homeschoolers, and I will be teaching an online seminar for Logos Press in the fall. Mea maxima culpa.

My position might be compared, at some disadvantage to myself, to that of Jehu in his chariot, whipping his horses into a froth, while simultaneously yelling whoa.

In line with this, I recently got a note from a friend pointing to what he thought was an inconsistency between these Logos Press online offerings, and all the cautionary kibbitzing I have done in the past (and am doing right this minute). But again, as before, it is not what we are doing that concerns me — it is what we think we are doing.

So with that said, let me begin with Mortimer Adler’s breakdown of education into the categories of didactic, coaching, and seminar. I believe there is room for disagreement on the percentages he assigns to them, but for the sake of discussion, let’s start there.

I take Levi’s distinction between distance learning and blended learning in account, and also assume the coaching and seminar leading is face-to-face. This does address the concerns about “disembodiment” that I have expressed, but there are still a couple of other practical problems.

First, a bus company has to run on a schedule — they can’t have the bus go whenever ten or more passengers have collected at the bus stop. That would play old Harry with all the other potential passengers at all the other bus stops all over the city. So even if the students are self-paced in the didactic phase, they would still have to be ready “by the time the bus leaves.” And enough of them would have to be ready by the time the bus left. Otherwise, you won’t be able to keep your coaches employed. In other words, we find a host of logistical detail here that needs to be taken into full account.

And second, the coach or mentor (or seminar leader) will either be on top of the material, or he will not be. He will either be a true teacher himself, or he will be a facilitator/coordinator/study hall monitor. If he is the latter, it will be hard for the bright students to see the value added. But if he is the former, it will not be long before his students will want to hear his voice added to the didactic portion of the education — and we are back in regular old school where we started.

There is obviously much more that can be said about all this, and so I appreciate the thoughtfulness that Levi has put into this question. And speaking of questions, let me conclude by addressing the questions that Levi presented to me.

How do age-segregated classrooms prepare students for adult life?

The fundamental principle here is not age-segregation, but rather ability-segregation, for which age-segregation is simply the first rough draft. Students who surge ahead or who lag behind can always be sorted accordingly, and always have been. Sometimes proud parents want to believe their children are being hampered by “the system” when all they are doing is being a regular kid. We have to be careful here of the Lake Woebegone effect — where all the children are above average.

What are some resources that will correct the “nonsense being spouted about the history of education?” I would recommend some of the footnotes I supply in The Case for Classical Christian Education. In particular, I would recommend histories of education written simply as histories. The point here is not a complicated one — we have had classrooms for a long time. It is not a modernity thing at all.

Do you believe that a lecture-based school is the best method of delivering information? If so, why? Well, no, I don’t, but here is a common confusion — a classroom-based school is not the same thing as a lecture-based school. A well-run classroom is going to have a healthy component of each one of Adler’s categories. There will be didactic instruction, there will be coaching and mentoring, and there will be robust discussion. Those are good categories, essential to a good school, and is part of our common ground. A school that just has all its teachers talking 24-5 is a big dud.

Do you believe that there might be legitimate alternative methods in which a student will be forced to learn the lesson “life is not all about you?” Do you believe that our present school model is the best way to do this?

Yes, I believe there is more than one way to skin that cat. And I also assume that education will look very different one hundred years from now. But I also believe that the present school model is the best departure point for that future. I want a balance of maintaining what we have already attained while at the same time adapting to what God is giving us.

Postscript: technology also has its hazards. This post was delayed in coming because my new computer froze up yesterday, and ate the first draft of this response. So it is not all cake.

Grave Injustice

An Open Letter to The Commentariat About Christian Education

According to a report in Stuff, [21st May, 2013] the Post Primary Teachers’ Association [“PPTA”] “outed” those organizations which had expressed interest in applying to become a charter school.  Your name, Angela (as PPTA President) was cited in that report. 

In particular you were quoted as opposing a situation where charter schools would be accepting state funding and would be teaching “creationism”.  (We note that “creationism” was undefined, either by you or the report, so we are left somewhat uncertain about precisely what approach to science you were opposing.)   You, Angela were quoted as follows:

PPTA president Angela Roberts said taxpayer cash should not go to schools teaching creationism.  “They have the right to teach that in their school, of course, but they have no right to do that with money for the public education system.”

We appreciate your fulsome defence of an independent school’s right to teach “creationism” because, in that case, the money comes from non-state, private sources–that is, parents and pupils.  You are very clear parents have a right to their beliefs and convictions in such matters and a right to ensure that their children are taught consistently with those beliefs. 

We note that your name, Chris (as Labour education spokesman) was also cited in the piece.  Your defence of parents rights is less fulsome than Angela’s, but at least you are willing to concede it has some weight and force. 

“Those are their beliefs – but the state should not be paying for it. Those parents and kids can choose to believe and to receive a religious education. But not to the exclusion of other sciences, and I think in this case that is really inappropriate,” Mr Hipkins said.

We are not sure what “other sciences” you believe are being excluded by the teaching of “creationism”, but in any event you believe that parents and children have a right to receive the religious education of their choice.  Of course, Christians have a biblical cosmology.  Unbelievers (that is, people who are not Christians) do not.  We are thankful that you are willing to defend the rights of Christian parents and kids to be taught a biblical cosmology as part of their schooling curriculum. 

We would like you to go further.  We would like you to be somewhat more consistent in your respective positions.  We would also like to enlist your help in supporting a just cause long overdue in New Zealand. 

Firstly, we recognize that the state in New Zealand is self-styled as a secular entity, without commitment to any religion.  We Christians realise that this actually makes the state a promoter of a very definite religion in its own right–the religion of secularism–which has its own cosmologies, axiologies, teleologies, and versions of metaphysics (as do all religions).  Secularism has its own appeal to ultimate authorities.  It is most closely allied to atheism, which is very clearly a “non-religious” religion in its own right.  All of that is fine, insofar as it goes.  But we would like you to be candid with us all about this.  The fact is state education system in New Zealand militantly imposes the religion of secularism upon its pupils–as your own remarks in the Stuff article bear witness.  You both know that this is the case, but public acknowledgement and transparency in the matter would help us all and would improve the quality of the debate.  It would also go a long way toward helping us find fairer solutions. 

Secondly, we would like you to clear up a confusion your remarks unfortunately generate.  We have a considerable number of  integrated schools in New Zealand, many of which are religious in nature.  Provided their charter warrants it, such schools are permitted to teach all of their subjects in a manner consistent with their religious beliefs.  They are funded by the state in so doing.  Should we understand that both of you principally oppose this situation and would support a “de-integration” of such schools?

Thirdly, we want to applaud your support of parental and pupil rights to be instructed in schools in a  manner consistent with their religious beliefs.  Angela, you go further and point out that this parental right exists only insofar as parents are paying for the instruction.  We are inclined to agree.  But here’s the nub of the matter.  Christian parents and pupils have money exacted from them through the taxation system to fund an education system that promotes beliefs to which they object–namely, secularism.  You, however, oppose having any of that money channelled back to schools that do not teach all subjects from a secularist perspective.

So Christian parents and their children are in an invidious position.  They are forced to pay for state secularist schools and you both agree that the state secularist education system should not support any other curriculum than those promoting the state’s secularist beliefs in every subject. Hence the militancy we refer to above.  So for Christians (and other religious groups) the state takes, but does not give back.  There is a grave injustice being perpetrated here.  We want to enlist your support in righting this serious wrong. 

There are two very simple, yet effective ways this might be done.   The first would be to introduce a voucher system for parents and pupils who conscientiously object to the enforced imposition of state secularism via state schools.  This voucher would be to the value of the annual per-pupil cost of educating a child in the secularist state system.  It could be redeemed at any registered private school or home school, which would then receive Ministry of Education payments to the value of the voucher.  This would restitute those parents and pupils which have had money unfairly exacted from them to fund a secularist state education system to which they conscientiously object. 

A second way in which this current inequity might be remedied would be to provide a special tax refund to all parents who send their children to registered independent schools or registered home schools to the level of the annual per-pupil cost of educating a child in the state system. 

Since you both express support for parental rights in the matter of teaching according to one’s religious beliefs, and you both object to the state secularist education system funding such teaching (at least in independent or partnership schools), either of the above solutions would remedy the very grave injustice that exists under the current system.  Both alternatives remove the injustice of conscientious religious objectors having compulsorily to fund an education system antithetical to their beliefs even while imposing upon them a double burden of having to fund an alternative education out of their own post-tax means. 

We thank you in anticipation of your response and support in righting this grave injustice in the current system.

Yours, etc.

John Tertullian

(Ed note:  we have sent this letter both to Chris Hipkins and Angela Roberts.  We will publish their replies in due course, if we receive any.)

Douglas Wilson’s Letter From America

Chasing the Laser Pointer Dot 

Education – Education
Written by Douglas Wilson
Friday, 17 May 2013

If I may, I would like to urge all Christians interested in the future of education reform to continue their hot pursuit of said reform, but not to do so like a kitten pursuing a laser pointer dot on the rug.

We live in exciting pedagogical times, and the arrival of many more options in distance learning via the Internet really is exciting — and promising. At the same time, people are still the same as they always were, and one of the things that people have always done with new technologies is draw false inferences. Sometimes the next big thing isn’t, as those with vintage 8-track collections might be able to tell you.

First adapters can be visionaries or idiots, and it is sometimes hard to tell. I say all this as a preface to some cautionary notes about our newest boom town in education. And please keep in mind that I am saying all this, not as a critic, but as a participant. Okay, if you want, you could make that a participating critic, or a critical participant.

In any case, in the middle of this start-up educational reformation, there is a lot of nonsense being spouted about the history of education, and we are unlikely to get the future right if we insist on getting the past all wrong.
One of the ways to tell the visionaries from the chumps is to look carefully at how carefully connected to the past it all is.

Southwest Airlines burst onto the scene the way it did because it was not really competing with the established airlines. Their business model was to compete with the Greyhound bus — to go after a clientele that had never flown before. The explosion of e-readers is turning out not to be the competitor of the book, but rather of the paperback. And . . . wait for it . . . distance learning of our modern, souped-up variety competes, not with genuine schools, but rather with libraries.

Lose you? Think of it this way. We have always had distance learning — that’s what a letter is, or a book. The original book of Ephesians was an example of divinely-inspired distance learning. For the Ephesians themselves, it was geographical distance, and for us in this generation it is geographical, chronological, linguistic, and cultural distance. There is a lot of distance between my thoughts and Paul’s as we contemplate together what is meant by all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places — and an enormous amount of blessing has crossed that distance nonetheless. So, in this sense, three cheers for distance learning. God loves it. But as He loves it, He knows what it is.

Not only have we always had such letters, books, and libraries, we have always had bookworm nerds who needed to get out of those libraries, and blink in the sunshine for a bit. They needed to go out to the sandlot with the other boys (other boys? what’s that?) and get clocked on the forehead with a sweet line drive. Do that boy a world of good. This is because community — the blessing of other people — is not something that can ever be dragged and dropped.

So let us think like adults, not children. Community means people nearby, and that means people needing to be organized. And organization in community is a mark of good discipline, not a mark of capitulation to Enlightenment categories. I have seen a goodly amount of recent chatter that equates any kind of age-segregated classroom learning with the Prussian model of education, where we make all the little children sit in straight-line rows, so that they can be made to sit still while our robotic educative arm pours knowledge into their wee heads. And seriously, the Prussians were pretty bad, while the early American education johnnies who wanted to be like them were really bad too. But God’s covenant people have had classrooms since the Jews established their first schools after the Babylonian exile, and Jesus graduated from Nazareth High. Every synagogue had as one of its officers a schoolmaster –a chazzan (Luke 4:20)– and for all these many centuries all of these covenant folks had only a passing knowledge of things Prussian.

The Prussians, being both modernists and Germans, a bad combination, tried to turn all classrooms into knowledge factories, and that was bad. But they didn’t invent the classroom from scratch, for pity’s sake. They didn’t invent kids learning how to stand in a line — and if they did, good for them.

If you sign up for one of the online classes that Logos Press is offering this fall (as indeed, I hope you do), everything hinges on what you are comparing it to. Is that class a wonderful, interactive textbook, or is it a two-dimensional classroom? If the former, it is really cool. If the latter, then it is a great temptation.

One of the central reasons it presents such a temptation is that it is really convenient — and one of the great blessings of community is that it is so inconvenient. Seriously. Your child has to be at the school by eight in the morning, even though he is not a morning person, didn’t have time for a balanced breakfast, and has to deal with other kids who are not as sweet to him as his mother is. That is why it is so good for him. There is a macro-lesson underneath all the other lessons when it comes to working inside the framework of an established school. That macro-lesson is that life is not all about you.
 
Is your car a really fast chariot, or a really slow airplane? When we make adult evaluations of education delivery platforms, we always must ask the basic question, “compared to what?” When I have to travel without my wife, today I can stay far more connected to her than I could do when traveling thirty years ago, for which I render thanks for the technology . . . but traveling without her is still for the birds. Compared to what?

Those who are using technology wisely are those who are using it to help them eventually connect with other people, in real time, on the ground. The goal is life together, and that means breathing the same air in the same room. It may take a while to get there, but that should always be the goal. In the meantime, I would much rather have my grandchildren studying in a good online course of study than in a bad brick and mortar school. This is for the same reason that I would rather have them go to a good library than to a bad school. Of course again. Remember, compared to what?

But anybody who might reverse this, walking away from a good school in order to chase knowledge “in the cloud” has already got his head in that cloud. He would rather read a book in the great cyber-library of the sky, especially if the book vigorously denounces Gnosticism, than to go out and deal with actual people on a daily basis — which necessarily elicits from us this thing called love.

Modern Education and Sinking Ships

The Great Antithesis Engaging with Secular Humanism

We blogged previously on the inevitable outcome when secular humanism–the dominant religion of our age–tries to construct and maintain an education system.  You get more spluttering bubbles than a Rotorua mudpool.

Here is an example of the torment and ceaseless quarrelling about education that results when a nation has no settled epistemic foundations.  It ends up arguing about everything.  Every view is equally meritorious, which is to say that none are.  There truly is no rest for the wicked.  It is a terrible place to be–something we must never forget.

Michael Gove hits out at Downton Abbey-style education

Poor teenagers are being failed by a Downton Abbey-style education system in which academic subjects are reserved for privileged pupils, Michael Gove warned today. 

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

The Telegraph

Children from disadvantaged backgrounds risk being left behind after missing out on the chance to study rigorous disciplines and proceed on to the best universities, according to the Education Secretary. In a speech, he accused Labour and the left-wing establishment of constructing a two-tier education system that effectively blocked access to core subjects such as foreign languages, history and geography for many pupils.

Mr Gove also warned that a relentless rise in GCSE results under the last Government had been an illusion and masked a significant gulf between rich and poor. The comments come just days before the publication of a new National Curriculum which is expected to emphasise the importance of promoting core academic knowledge at each key stage of children’s education. It also follows controversy over the Coalition’s controversial English Baccalaureate school performance measure.

The “EBacc” was added to official league tables two years ago to reward pupils who gain at least a C grade in five core academic subjects – English, maths, science, foreign languages and either history or geography. These subjects are often cited by employers and academics as vital to enable pupils to proceed into the workplace and further study.

The move has been heavily criticised by Labour and major teaching unions who claim that it marginalises subjects such art, drama and sport. But in a speech to the Social Market Foundation think-tank, Mr Gove said the EBacc had exposed “how poorly served so many state students were” under the last Government.
Headline GCSE results soared between 1997 and 2010 but good grades were often achieved with a focus on easier subjects at the expense of core disciplines, figures suggest.

Fewer than one-in-10 students in 33 local council areas gained at least five C grade passes in EBacc subjects in 2011, it emerged.  Mr Gove likened the education system to Downton Abbey – the ITV drama depicting the lives of servants and their masters in post-Edwardian Britain.

He claimed many key figures on the Labour frontbench opposed a focus on traditional academic subjects while studying them during their own childhood to get into Oxford.  “The current leadership of the Labour Party react to the idea that working class students might study the subjects they studied with the same horror that the Earl of Grantham showed when a chauffeur wanted to marry his daughter,” he said.

“Labour, under their current leadership, want to be the Downton Abbey party when it comes to educational opportunity. They think working class children should stick to the station in life they were born into – they should be happy to be recognised for being good with their hands and not presume to get above themselves.”  He added: “The comforting story we had been told about rapid and relentless educational improvement – based on GCSE results – was shown up as a far more complex narrative of inequality and untapped potential.

“But instead of using this information to demand that poorer children at last enjoy the education expected by the privileged, far too many on the left attacked the very idea that poor children might aspire to such an entitlement.” Stephen Twigg, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said Mr Gove was “clearly rattled by the widespread opposition to his EBacc exams”.

“Instead of lecturing others, he should listen to business leaders, entrepreneurs, head teachers and parents who think his plans are backward looking and narrow,” he said. “We need to get young people ready for a challenging and competitive world of work, not just dwell on the past.”

Note how the debate over education, curricula, standards, content has devolved down to quasi-Marxist arguments over social class–which are ultimately ad hominem.   There is no way of discussing and debating the question on a common ground of truth and worldview.  The secular humanist worldview itself destroys such a possibility. 

Once some sections of Christendom used to say, “Don’t polish brass on a sinking ship”.  They withdrew from engagement with the culture into Christian ghettoes.  We do not advocate such a position.  But, in our involvement in education, in schools, and in teaching we must not destroy ourselves by tacitly accepting the assumptions and epistemology of secular humanism.  It is a death culture, ultimately destructive of all it touches. 

We need to be skilled in doing two things: we must remind people of the great antithesis between Belief and Unbelief, Christ and secular humanism, on the one hand, whilst arguing for Biblical common sense.  One of the most disarming things is to preface remarks with something like, “I know most of you folk will not agree with this, because I am speaking as a Christian, from a Christian perspective.  But I believe reading, writing, and mathematics are the key to all other knowledge and they are the essential subjects which all children must become competent in–above all other subjects.” 

That is how we should polish brass on a sinking ship.

 

Neanderthal Neo-Marxists . . .

Hidebound Government Educrats

Most Commentariat members have been consciously or unconsciously influenced by Marxist ideas.  One is the hidebound idea that capitalists (business owners) exploit their employees.  They allegedly keep them in a state of perpetual dependence and servitude whilst they enjoy a passive income off the fruit of their labours.  The Marxist argument is that were profits eliminated, more money could be paid out to workers which would obliterate forever the exploitation of labour–or so the ideology and propaganda run.

When the government proposed to introduce privately run prisons in New Zealand, variants on this Marxist argument erupted from the bowels of the Commentariat.  Profits would drive down quality was the argument, because private providers would have to be paid a dividend, which would mean less money actually spent on prisons and prisoners.  The Marxist sub-text was that private prison guards would be exploited and should be paid more.

By and large Marxists have no idea about humanity and how human beings actually work.
  The Commentariat is similarly agnostic when it comes to human action and how markets function.  It never appeared to occur to critics of private prisons that prison guards operate in a relatively free labour market.  If privately run prisons were to offer lower wages than state employees it would be unlikely that they would attract staff.  Moreover, if they wanted superior, better qualified and trained staff they would likely have to pay more than what the state was offering.  When last we checked the one private prison operating in New Zealand was doing a pretty good job: even the prison reform guys were impressed. 

Similar Marxian protests and objections to Partnership (Charter) Schools have been levelled.  It is the same old tired Neanderthal reasoning.  Here is the latest broadside:

That does not come as a surprise to Auckland University associate professor and charter school critic Peter O’Connor, who says the business model is clear: Spend less than you get in state funding and pay the difference as dividends to owners. Essentially, New Zealand charter schools – comfortingly branded as “partnership schools” – will be funded on similar lines to state schools, so a for-profit owner would need to create profit by spending less per child following a pattern developed overseas.

“Every child brings a pot of money with them,” he said. “Because of the deregulated environment, a profit can be made by driving down teacher costs by employing unregistered teachers. You drive down that cost by de-unionising the workforce, and employing on individual, not collective contracts.”  Money can be saved on facilities too, O’Connor said.

So, the quality of education in Partnership Schools will be less: money will be sucked out of the state’s per capita funding to pay profits.  That will mean less pay for teachers.  As in all Marxist thought the rigours and disciplines of competition are being ignored or deliberately overlooked.  If O’Connor is right we would expect that a state owned and operated supermarket would always have higher quality products, the lowest prices, and more highly paid workers than a privately owned supermarket, right?  The O’Connor argument must apply in every field where goods and services are produced.  Name one country where that is the case.  Just one.

It has never been seen in our lifetime.  Since this is the case, O’Connor is involved in special pleading.  “Education is not an economic service; normal rules do not apply; it is a special case, etc.”  But O’Connor’s problem is that he deploys pseudo-economic argument to buttress his case.  So special pleading is not permitted.  The sad reality is O’Connor makes no economic sense. His arguments are so far removed from actual human experience, they betray their ideologically hidebound nature. 

Firstly, let’s consider the issue of driving down teacher costs by employing unregistered teachers.  Partnership schools will be under the discipline of a competitive market.  They will have to offer a higher quality, better educational outcome than the local state schools.  No-one will be compelled to send their children to a Partnership School (unlike the local state schools, where attendance is compulsory).  Partnership school represent an “opt-out” from government schools.  If parents choose to send their children to a partnership school it will be for two reasons: they must be dissatisfied with their local state schools educational service and they must expect a better quality of education from the partnership school. 

Since partnership schools will have to compete for pupils the only way they can attract and retain pupils and get ahead is to provide a higher quality educational service.  Higher quality will undoubtedly mean higher quality teachers.  We expect that in most cases employing unregistered teachers will mean higher wages because they school has gone in search of higher qualified teachers in areas of special professional knowledge and experience. 

Secondly, we believe that many registered teachers will give their right arms to teach in partnership schools.  The most common complaint we hear from state school teachers is that their time is increasingly taken up with compliance and reports required by the ossified, bureaucratised, hidebound government education system.  All they want, they say, is more time with their pupils–more classroom time actually to teach.  As time passes they find every year that they are doing less and less teaching and more and more time is taken up with compliance and form filling and report writing for “head office”.  Therefore, we confidently expect that ambitious and committed teachers will flock to the career opportunities that will open up in partnership schools. 

This puts paid to the O’Connor argument that money equals quality.  More government money will mean higher educational quality, he implies.  No.  Arguments from economic determinism are of little use here.  Quality education comes from high quality teachers supported by engaged and committed parents.  In most government schools vast swathes of money are wasted on non-essential fripperies and distractive nice-to-haves (monumental, multi-million buildings dedicated to “performing arts”, for example) and on jobs-for-life for under-performing teachers, and on administrative staff busy complying with government demands for box ticking and writing endless reports for the Ministry of Education.

Partnership schools will be freed from all that–or most of it–and be able to focus upon what really matters–education. 

What crypto-Marxist Professor O’Connor appears afraid of is the competitive efficiency that will result from partnership schools.  In order to exist they will have to do better than government schools.  They will have to be leaner on margins, meaner on themselves, and more engaged with parents and pupils.  They will have to exceed government schools in what they offer in order to survive. 

If O’Connor were more economically literate and enlightened, he would welcome the partnership school initiative because in the long run it will lead to better educational outcomes in the government school system.  Maybe that’s what he fears the most. Crypto-Marxists and neo-Marxists will be less welcome.

Evolutionist Humbug

Creationist Response 

This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children

The Blaze

Scientist Bill Nye captured headlines last week after he lambasted creationists and proclaimed that teaching evolution is damaging to both children and society. Now, just days after Nye’s controversial Big Think video making these proclamations reached millions, Answers in Genesis (AiG), the Christian ministry behind the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, has responded with a clip of its own.

In an article entitled, ”Time is Nye for a Rebuttal,” Ken Ham, CEO of AiG, tackled Nye’s claims and announced the publication of the counter-video. Of particular note, the Christian ministry leader took offense at the scientist’s purported claim that those who teach creationism are, in a sense, “abusing” children.
“A recent tactic by evolutionists in their battle against creationists, one that is especially used by Richard Dawkins, is to employ an ad hominem argument—that creationists are committing a form of ‘child abuse’ when they teach creation to children,” Ham contended.

Here is the Answers in Genesis video rebuttal to Nye’s absurd allegations of creationist child-abuse:

CMI Creation Station in Canada also put out a vid rebutting Nye’s ridiculous anti-free speech position:

Eruptions and Vented Spleen over Charter Schools

Turning Up the Heat

The brouhaha over charter schools (called Partnership Schools in New Zealand) is merrily spewing forth ash clouds reminiscent of the recent eruption at Mount Tongariro.  We have had one Robin Duff, head of a teachers union protesting the very idea that tax payers’ money would be used to fund a school which taught the biblical doctrine of creation.

The Post Primary Teachers Association has concerns about public money funding religious activities in schools, and president Robin Duff said the types of people who appeared to be interested in charter schools, would not have made it through teacher education. “In the case of the trust, we’d be concerned if an organisation with a ‘statement of faith’ that denies evolution and claims creation according to the Bible is a historical event, were to receive state-funding.”

“Given the criticism of public schools over the quality of science teaching, you’d think they’d have concerns about taxpayer dollars being used to fund religious indoctrination rather than education, but apparently not.”

This sounds horrendous.  Robby’s problem is that creation is “unscientific”.  He lambasts those who would teach children fairy stories and myths in place of good old hard science.  And to add insult to injury, the gummint is going to fund it.

Let’s unpack the spleen, bit by bit.

Burdens Borne by Some

Private Schools Labour Under Grave Injustice

The teacher unions hate private schools.    Teachers that work in the government school system don’t appreciate the existence of schools they do not effectively control.  Private schools represent competition, and government functionaries do not like competition.

One of the arguments repeatedly put forward is that private schools (of which there are precious few in New Zealand) suck money out of the state’s education budget.  The state pays a small annual per-pupil grant to private schools that represents a small fraction of the actual cost of educating a pupil.  This, says the state education monopolists, represents funds which should properly go to government schools. 

The counter argument, run by the Treasury, is that if all private schools closed and their pupils transferred to the government education system, the costs to the taxpayer would be substantially higher: thus, private schools actually save taxpayers money. 

Both arguments miss the real injustice and inequity inflicted upon private school parents by the current system.
  A family which sends its children to be educated in a private school suffers is taxed involuntarily to fund the state education system.  Then, dissatisfied with the government education system, they pay again to provide their children the education they deem right and appropriate.   

There is a simple solution available for a government committed to equity and fairness (sadly, none in New Zealand to date have been).  Stop all grants to private, independent schools.  Secondly, provide parents with a tax credit for each child in a private school up to the value of the annual cost of educating a child in the government education system.  This would remove the inequity immediately.  Parents who elect to have their children educated in a private independent school would not end up paying twice for their children’s education. 

Of course the monopolist teacher unions and their fellow travellers would splutter in indignant outrage at such an equitable and just policy. 

A sub-theme running through union opposition to private schools is the idea that private schools are for rich bastards.  They are elitist.  In fact, many private schools–if they are so inclined–can educate children at a much lower cost than the government education system.  The reason is simple: government schools are forced to carry an onerous and constantly growing administration overhead.  The government education system is a vast bureaucracy, with ever increasing rules, regulations, demands, reports, and compliance duties. 

In a private school with which we are very familiar, the annual cost of educating a primary school pupil is around twenty percent less than education in the government schools system.  Our teachers are paid at close to state school salary levels.  The cost savings are made in two ways: not having to comply with Ministry of Education imposed overhead costs; and not running a whole lot of ancillary programmes that may be nice-to-haves, but not necessary for a high-quality education. 

Naturally our school adds a good deal more: its curriculum and modes of instruction are infused with Gospel light.  Interestingly, along with Christian families, many non-Christian parents send their kids.  Whilst they may not themselves believe in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, they do appreciate the ethics of respect, the structure, the order, and the discipline–along with the atmosphere of joy, excitement and exuberance that pervades our halls, along with academic achievement well ahead of the government school norm.  (The school is Cambridge affiliated). 

The school thrives, despite the state imposed injustice under which our parents labour. 

Reading List for Even Older Kids

Mining Hidden Treasures

Justin Taylor has been reproducing a reading list collated by Calvary Classical School.  He has kindly imbedded links to Amazon for all the recommended titles.   The list overall naturally contains a bias towards US history; however, for other countries this can be appropriately substituted by books dealing with one’s own national history.  In New Zealand, for example, William Williams Christianity Among the New Zealanders would be appropriate for Year Eight.)

There is an additional benefit from studying a list such as this.  It provides a comparative measure for reading levels and standards in our own Christian schools.
  Note, for example, that Calvary Classical School sets down the salient plays of Shakespeare as standard reading for Year Eight.  Would our own reading programme, together with instruction in English language, have prepared our pupils for Shakespeare, Dickens, Hemingway, and Jane Austen as is the case at Calvary Classical?  (The complete list in PDF format is appended at the end of this post).

A Classical Christian School’s Reading List: Years 6-8

It’s taken me a lot longer than I could have imagined, but I’ve now published a reading list for years 1-3, a reading list for years 4-5, and now here below is a reading list for grades 6-8. I’ve also produced a printable PDF of all the books in one document. (See below) These are from the lists provided by Calvary Classical School—a classical Christian school in Hampton, VA.
A couple of notes on the nomenclature below: “+” indicates that any title in that series would be acceptable.
Some titles also contain a label: L – Language, V – Violence, C – Coarse actions, M – Mature theme
Again, I hope this proves fruitful for many Christian families, schools, and homeschooling co-ops.

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Year Six Reading List
Read in class or assigned for outside reading:
Adams, Richard. Watership Down
Bishop, Claire. Twenty and Ten
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage
Doyle, Arthur Conan. Sherlock Holmes (excerpts)
Lewis, C. S. The Magician’s Nephew
Lewis, C. S. The Last Battle
Orwell, George. Animal Farm
ten Boom, Corrie. The Hiding Place
Level 1
Alexander, Lloyd. The Prydain Chronicles +
Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles
Kjelgaard, James. Big Red +
Lester, Julius. The Tales of Uncle Remus
Rawlings, Marjorie. The Yearling
Sorensen, Virginia. Miracles on Maple Hill
Speare, Elizabeth. The Bronze Bow
Van Leeuwen, Jean. Bound for Oregon
Level 2
Baum, Frank L. The Wizard of Oz
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol
Eareckson, Joni. Joni
Fisher, Dorothy. Understood Betsy
Irving, Washington. Rip Van Winkle
Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Jacques, Brian. Marlfox +
London, Jack. White Fang
Marshall, Catherine. Christy
O’Hara, Mary. My Friend Flicka
Sterling, Dorothy. Freedom Train
Taylor, Theodore. The Cay
Trapp, Maria Augusta. The Story of Trapp Family Singers
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Level 3
Field, Rachel. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years
Henty, G. H. By Right of Conquest
Henty, G. H. In the Reign of Terror
Kipling, Rudyard. The Jungle Book
London, Jack. The Call of the Wild
Orczy, Emmuska. The Scarlet Pimpernel
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Kidnapped
Taylor, Mildred. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Tunnell, Michael. Candy Bomber
Twain, Mark. The Prince and the Pauper
Verne, Jules. Around the World in Eighty Days
Wells, H. G. War of the Worlds
Yates, Elizabeth. Amos Fortune, Free Man

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Seventh Grade Reading List
Following is the list of adopted titles used for the seventh grade reading program. Although certain titles are assigned to specific grades, when necessary, teachers may use a list of titles above or below their grade. It is desired that at least 5 adopted books are read each year. Some books will be assigned and read in class, and others will be assigned for outside reading. Every effort has been made to pick the best available literature. As with everything, each book must be read with scripture as our final standard. All Landmark books are acceptable on the literature list.
Aldrich, Thomas. The Story of a Bad Boy
Brother Andrew. God’s Smuggler
Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim’s Progress (original)
DeJong, Meindert. The House of Sixty Fathers
DeKruif, Paul. Microbe Hunters
Dickens, Charles. Nicholas Nickleby
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist
Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo
Dumas, Alexandre. The Three Musketeers
Eaton, Jeanette. David Livingstone, Foe of Darkness
Field, Rachel. Calico Bush
Forester, C. S. Horatio Hornblower
Freedman, Ben. Mrs. Mike
Grant, George. The Last Crusader
Henry, O. The Best Short Stories of O. Henry
Henty, G. A. By Pike and Dyke +
Henty, G. A. In Freedom’s Cause +
Hugo, Victor. Les Miserables
Kipling, Rudyard. Captains Courageous
Latham, Jean Lee. This Dear-Bought Land
Lewis, C. S. Out of the Silent Planet
Lewis, C. S. Perelandra
Lewis, C. S. That Hideous Strength
Little, Paul. Know What You Believe
Little, Paul. Know Why You Believe
MacDonald, George. The Baronet’s Song
O’Dell, Scott. Streams to the River, River to the Sea
O’Dell, Scott. The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt By Day
Orczy, Baroness. The Scarlet Pimpernel
Seredy, Kate. The Good Master
Speare, Elizabeth George. The Bronze Bow
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Black Arrow
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Thomson, Andy. Morning Star of the Reformation

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Seventh Grade History List

This year in history the students will be studying Explorers to 1815. Students will be reading numerous books from this time period in class. Outside reading is also encouraged, especially historical fiction which engages the imagination and makes the time period come alive. We encourage you to read aloud with your children from books that may be above their reading level. Suggestions for reading are offered below. We are endeavoring to purchase as many of these titles as possible for the classroom.
Four books must be read from the following list:
Bliven, Bruce. The American Revolution (Landmark) – H
Blos, Joan. A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal – H, NN, YC
Bond, Douglas. Guns of Thunder
Bond, Douglas. Rebel’s Keep
Calabro, Marian. The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party – H, NN
Carter, Alice. The American Revolution
Collins, David. Noah Webster: Master of Words
Cooper, James Fenimore. The Last of the Mohicans – H, NN, YC
Cousins, Margaret. Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia (Landmark) – H
Cox, Clinton. Mark Twain – H, NN, YC
Cox, Clinton. Undying Glory: True Story of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment – H, NN
Dafoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe – H, NN, YC
Daugherty, James. Of Courage Undaunted – H, NN
Daugherty, James. The Landing of the Pilgrims – CCS, H
de Trevino, Elizabeth. I, Juan de Pareja – H, NN, YC
DK Eyewitness. North American Indian – NN
Forbes, Esther. Johnny Tremain – CCS, H, NN, YC
Forbes, Esther. Paul Revere and the World He Lived In – H, NN
Foster, Genevieve. George Washington’s World – H
Freedman, Russell. Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille – H, NN, YC
Fritz, Jean. The Double Life of Pocahontas – H, NN, YC
Fritz, Jean. Why Not, Lafayette? – H, NN, YC
Hamilton, Alexander, et al. The Federalist Papers – H, NN, YC
Haugaard, Erik. Cromwell’s Boy – H
Jackson, Shirley. The Witchcraft of Salem Village – H, YC
Lasky, Kathryn. Jahanara: Princess of Princesses – H, NN, YC
Lawton, Wendy. The Captive Princess
Lawton, Wendy. The Tinker’s Daughter – CCS
Mansfield, Stephen. Forgotten Founding Father: George Whitefield – CRPC
McPherson, Joyce. The Ocean of Truth: The Story of Isaac Newton
Murphy, Jim. A Young Patriot – H, NN, YC
Newman, Shirlee. The African Slave Trade – H, NN, YC
O’Dell, Scott. Streams to the River, River to the Sea – H, NN
Roosevelt, T. and Lodge, H. Hero Tales from American History
Savery, Constance. The Reb and the Redcoats
Schanzer, Rosalyn. How We Crossed the West – NN, YC
Severance, John. Thomas Jefferson: Architect of Democracy – H, NN
Speare, Elizabeth. George. The Witch of Blackbird Pond – CCS, H, NN, YC
Speare, Elizabeth George. Calico Captive – H, NN, YC
Speare, Elizabeth George. The Sign of the Beaver – CCS, H, NN, YC
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Kidnapped– H, NN, YC
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island – H, NN, YC
Vaughn, David. Give Me Liberty – CRPC, YC
Yates, Elizabeth. Amos Fortune, Free Man – H, NN, YC

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Eighth Grade Reading List
Following is the list of adopted titles used for the eighth grade reading program. Although certain titles are assigned to specific grades, when necessary, teachers may use a list of titles above or below their grade. It is desired that at least 5 adopted books are read each year. Some books will be assigned and read in class, and others will be assigned for outside reading. Every effort has been made to pick the best available literature. As with everything, each book must be read with Scripture as our final standard. All Landmark books are acceptable on the literature list.
Austen, Jane. Emma +
Austen, Jane. Northhanger Abbey +
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice +
Braithwaite, Edward. To Sir, with Love
Chesterton, G. K. The Complete Father Brown
Chesterton, G. K. The Best of Father Brown
Colson, Charles. Born Again
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe
DeKruif, Paul. Microbe Hunters
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities +
Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield +
Douglas, Lloyd C. The Robe
Forester, C. S. Horatio Hornblower +
Gilbreth & Carey. Cheaper By the Dozen – L
Gilbreth & Carey. Bells on Their Toes – L
Henry, O. Best Short Stories of O. Henry
Herriot, James. All Creatures Great and Small – L
Herriot, James. All Things Bright and Beautiful – L
Herriot, James. All Things Wise and Wonderful – L
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird – M
Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters
Scott, Sir Walter. Ivanhoe
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet
Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth
Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing
Shakespeare, William. Othello
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night
Sheldon, Charles. In His Steps – C
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels
ten Boom, Corrie. The Hiding Place – V
Twain, Mark. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – L
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – L
Wallace, Lew. Ben Hur
White, T. H. The Sword in the Stone

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Eighth Grade History List
This year in history the students will be studying 1815 to Present. Students will be reading numerous books from this time period in class. Outside reading is also encouraged, especially historical fiction which engages the imagination and makes the time period come alive. We encourage you to read aloud with your children from books that may be above their reading level. Suggestions for reading are offered below. We are endeavoring to purchase as many of these titles as possible for the classroom
Four books must be read from the following list:
Abernathy, Alta. Bud & Me: The True Adventure of the Abernathy Boys
Ambrose, Stephen. The Good Fight: How WWII Was Won – H, YC
Beatty, Patricia. Turn Homeward, Hannalee – H, YC
Bierman, Carol. Journey to Ellis Island – NN, YC
Bliven, Bruce. Invasion: The Story of D-Day – H
Bradley, James. Flags of Our Fathers – H, NN, YC
Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee – CCS classroom, H, NN, YC
Catton, Bruce. A Stillness At Appomattox – CCS classroom, H, NN, YC
Cornelissen, Cornelia. Soft Rain: A Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears – NN, YC
Crockett, Davy. Davy Crockett: His Own Story
Derry, Joseph T. Story of the Confederate States – H, NN
De Vries, Anne. Journey Through the Night
Doswell, Paul. War Stories: True Stories from the First and Second World Wars
Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition – H, NN, YC
Freedman, Russell. Immigrant Kids – H, NN
Grant, George. Carry a Big Stick: The Uncommon Heroism of T. Roosevelt – CPRC
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea – H, NN, YC
Henty, G. A. With Lee in Virginia
Hersey, John. Hiroshima – H, NN, YC
Hunt, Irene. Across Five Aprils – H, NN, YC
Ingold, Jeanette. Hitch – NN, YC
Irwin, James. Destination: Moon
Kantor, MacKinlay. Gettysburg – H
Lester, Julius. To Be A Slave – H, NN
Levitin, Sonia. Journey to America – H, YC
Linnea, Sharon. Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Stopped Death – NN
Mansfield, Stephen. Never Give In: The Extraordinary Character of Winston Churchill
Marrin, Albert. The Yanks Are Coming – H, YC
Marrin, Albert. Stalin: Russia’s Man of Steel – NN
Marrin, Albert. Hitler – H, NN
Marrin, Albert. America and Vietnam: The Elephant and the Tiger – H, NN
McMurdie, Jean McAnlis. Land of the Morning
McMurdie, William. Hey, Mac!
Murphy, Jim. The Boys’ War: Confederate & Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War – H, NN, YC
Nolan, Peggy. The Spy Who Came in from the Sea
O’Grady, Captain Scott. Basher Five-two – NN, YC
Prins, Piet. The Lonely Sentinel (The Shadow Series) +
Raven, Margot. Theis Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot – H, NN, YC
Reynolds, Quentin. The Wright Brothers – H, NN
Serraillier, Ian. Escape From Warsaw
Sperry, Armstrong. All Sail Set – H
Steele, William. We Were There on the Oregon Trail – NN
Steele, William. We Were There with the Pony Express
Taylor, Theodore. Air Raid—Pearl Harbor! – H, NN
Taylor, Mildred. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry– H, NN, YC
ten Boom, Corrie. The Hiding Place– CRPC, CCS, H, NN, YC
Trapp, Maria Augusta. The Story of Trapp Family Singers – H, NN, YC
Van Leeuwen, Jean. Bound for Oregon – YC
Velde, Vivian. A Coming Evil
Wilkins, J. Steven. Call of Duty: The Sterling Nobility of Robert E. Lee
Winik, Jay. April 1865: The Month That Saved America – H, NN, YC
York, Alvin. Sergeant York and the Great War — CCS

The complete list in PDF format can be accessed and downloaded here.

Reading List for Older Kids

Things That Make a Difference, Part II

We published a reading list recently for children in the first three years of schooling.  It was cribbed from Calvary Classical School, courtesy of Justin Taylor.

Now, a second instalment–this time for Years Four & Five.

There are hundreds of thousands of books written for children. The challenge is discerning what is best for them to read, given so many options.

Last week I published a reading list for grades 1-3 provided by Calvary Classical School—a classical Christian school in Hampton, VA.

Below is the list for grades 4-5.

For outside reading, the books are divided into three levels. Books with a “+” denote that any title in that series would be acceptable. At times I’ve linked to a box set of paperbacks if available—at other times I’ve just linked to the lead-off book in a series.

I’ve done my best to link to the paperback or cheapest version at Amazon. One interesting thing I’ve discovered in trying to provide these links is how hard it is to find well-done critical editions, rather than self-published efforts that take advantage of the text being in the public domain in order to turn a quick buck. A good rule of thumb is to look for the “Puffins Classic” versions, which seem to be well done.
I hope this proves helpful for a lot of parents and teachers!

As time permits, I’ll pull together the final list for the middle school years of grades 6-8.

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Year Four Literature List
Read in class or assigned for outside reading:

Blackwood, Gary. The Shakespeare Stealer
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden
Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Dahl, Roald. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
D’Aulaire, Ingri & Edgar. Leif the Lucky
Daugherty, James. The Magna Charta
de Angeli, Marguerite. The Door in the Wall
Du Bois, William Pene. Twenty-one Balloons
Estes, Eleanor. Ginger Pye
Henry, Marguerite. King of the Wind
Green, Roger Lancelyn. King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table
Konigsburg, E. L. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basel E. Frankweiler
Lewis, C. S. Prince Caspian
Norton, Mary. The Borrowers
Prum, Deborah M. Rats, Bulls, and Flying Machines
Rebsamen, Frederick. Beowulf
Sis, Peter. Starry Messenger: Galileo
Stanley, Diane and Peter Vennema. Bard of Avon
Stanley, Diane. Joan of Arc
Vernon, Louise A. Thunderstorm in the Church
White, E. B. The Trumpet of the Swan

Level 1
Alexander, Lloyd. The Book of Three +
Armstrong, William. Sounder
Babbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting
Burnett, Frances H. A Little Princess
Carlson, Natalie. The Family Under the Bridge
Estes, Eleanor. The Hundred Dresses
Knight, Eric. Lassie Come-Home
L’Engle, Madeliene. A Wrinkle in Time +
Lenski, Lois. Prairie School +
Lenski, Lois. Strawberry Girl
Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars
McSwigan, Marie. Snow Treasure
Seredy, Kate. The Good Master
Speare, Elizabeth. The Sign of the Beaver
Taylor, Sydney. All-of-A-Kind Family
Thurber, James. Many Moons
Verne, Jules. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Wilson, N. D. 100 Cupboards +

Level 2
Farley, Walter. The Black Stallion +
Funke, Cornellia. Inkheart +
George, Jean C. My Side of the Mountain
Grahame, Kenneth. The Reluctant Dragon
Hanes, Mari. Two Mighty Rivers
Jacques, Brian. Redwall +
Lofting, Hugh. The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle +
Morey, Walt. Gentle Ben
Peretti, Frank. The Cooper Kids Adventure +
Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief +
Smith, Dodie. The 101 Dalmations
Street, James. Good-bye My Lady
Travers, P. I. Mary Poppins +
Wilson, N. D. Leepike Ridge

Level 3
Adamson, Joy. Born Free
Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women +
Burnford, Sheila. The Incredible Journey
Field, Rachel. Calico Bush
Lawson, Robert. Ben and Me
Robertson, Keith. Henry Reed, Inc. +
Robinson, Barbara. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Sewell, Anna. Black Beauty
Sidney, Margaret. Five Little Peppers +

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Year Five  Literature List
Read in class or assigned for outside reading:

Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe
Forbes, Esther. Johnny Tremain
Lathan, Jean. Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
Lewis, C. S. The Silver Chair
Lewis, C. S. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Speare, Elizabeth. The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels (excerpts)

Level 1
Beatty, Patricia. Turn Homeward, Hannalee
Brink, Carol. Caddie Woodlawn
Byars, Betsy. The Summer of the Swans
Cleary, Beverly. Dear Mr. Henshaw
De Jong, Meindert. The Wheel on the School
Enright, Elizabeth. Thimble Summer
Gates, Doris. Blue Willow
Gipson, Fred. Old Yeller
Hanes Mari. Two Mighty Rivers
O’Brien, Robert. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Rawls, Wilson. Where the Red Fern Grows
Selden, George. The Cricket in Times Square

Level 2
Cameron, Eleanor. Mushroom Planet +
De Jong, Meindert. The House of Sixty Fathers
George, Jean Craighead. Julie of the Wolves
Montgomery, Lucy. Anne of Green Gables
O’Dell, Scott. Island of the Blue Dolphin
Pearce, Philippa. Tom’s Midnight Garden
Porter, Eleanor. Pollyanna +
Rawks, Wilson. Summer of the Monkeys
Spyri, Johanna. Heidi
Wyss, Johann. Swiss Family Robinson

Level 3
Alcott, Louisa. Little Men
Burnett, Frances. Little Lord Fauntleroy
De Jong, Meindert. Journey from Peppermint Street
Dodge, Mary. Hans Brinker
Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows
MacDonald, George. The Princess and Curdie
MacDonald, George. The Princess and the Goblin
North, Sterling. Rascal
Seredy, Kate. The White Stag
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island
Terhune, Albert. Lad: A Dog
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit
Verne, Jules. Around the World in Eighty Days
Verne, Jules. Journey to the Center of the Earth

Reading Lists for Kids

Things That Make a Difference

Arguably the most potent contribution parents can make to the education of their younger children is to read to them.  For the first eight years of schooling, reading to children every day is far, far more important than homework.  But what to read?

There are myriads of children’s books and literature.  Some classic.  Some excellent.  Some inconsequential.  Reading lists to sort the wheat from the chaff can be very useful.  (Such lists are, of course, never final or definitive.)

Here is one such list, produced by a classical Christian School–courtesy of Justin Taylor:

A Christian Classical School Reading List: Years 1-3

There are hundreds of thousands of books written for children. The challenge is discerning what is best for them to read, given so many options. I’m a sucker for good reading lists, so I’m grateful for the folks at Calvary Classical School—a classical Christian school in Hampton, VA—who has given me permission to reproduce this list below.

So far I’ve been able to provide links for the grades 1-3 lists. Lord willing, and time permitting, I will provide the other lists (up to 8th grade) in future posts.

For outside reading, the books divided into three levels. Books with a “+” denote that any title in that series would be acceptable.

I’ve done my best to link to the paperback or cheapest version at Amazon. I hope this proves helpful for a lot of parents and teachers!

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Year One Reading List
Read aloud by teacher in class:
Leaf, Munro. How to Behave and Why
Leaf, Munro. How to Speak Politely and Why
Lloyd-Jones, Sally. The Jesus Storybook Bible
Taylor, Helen. Little Pilgrim’s Progress
Leithart, Peter. Wise Words: Family Stories that Bring the Proverbs to Life
Brown, Jeff. Flat Stanley
Dalgliesh, Alice. The Courage of Sarah Noble
Silverstein, Shel. A Light in the Attic
Outside Reading
Level 1
Bulla, Clyde. Daniel’s Duck
Changler, Edna. Cowboy Sam +
Frasconi, Antonio. The House that Jack Built
Graham, Margaret. Benjy’s Dog House +
Hoff, Syd. Sammy the Seal
Hoff, Syd. Danny and the Dinosaur+
Krauss, Ruth. The Carrot Seed
Lionni, Leo. Inch by Inch
Littledale, Freya. The Magic Fish
Lobel, Arnold. Frog and Toad Are Friends +
Offen, Hilda. A Treasury of Mother Goose
Seuss, Dr. Beginner Books +
Seuss, Dr. Bright and Early Books +
Tabak, Simms. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
Wood, Audrey. Quick as a Cricket
Level 2
Carle, Eric. The Very Hungry Caterpillar +
Davoll, Barbara. The Potluck Supper +
Daugherty, James. Andy and the Lion
Duvoisin, Roger. Petunia
Flack, Marjorie. Angus and the Ducks
Freeman, Don. Corduroy +
Galdone, Paul. The Little Red Hen
Galdone, Paul. The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Hoban, Russell. Bedtime for Frances +
Hunt, Angela. A Gift for Grandpa
Keats, Ezra. Peter’s Chair
Marshall, James. George and Martha +
McGovern, Ann. Stone Soup
Minarik, Else. Little Bear +
Numeroff, Laura. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie+
Parish, Peggy. Amelia Bedelia +
Rey, Margaret & H.A. Curious George +
Richardson, Arleta. A Day at the Fair
Sharmat, Marjorie. Nate the Great +
Zion, Gene. Harry the Dirty Dog +
Level 3
Buckley, Helen. Grandmother and I
Burton, Virginia. Maybelle the Cable Car
Coerr, Eleanor. The Josefina Story Quilt
De Regniers, Beatrice. May I Bring a Friend?
Ets, Marie. Just Me
Gramatky, Hardie. Little Toot +
Hader, Berta. The Big Snow
Keats, Ezra. Whistle for Willie
Lewis, Kim. Floss +
Lowry, Jannette. The Poky Little Puppy
McCloskey, Robert. Make Way for Ducklings
Piper, Watty. The Little Engine that Could
Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Peter Rabbit +
Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are
Turkle, Brinton. Thy Friend, Obadiah +
Ward, Lynd. The Biggest Bear
Wilder, Laura. My First Little House Books +
Williams, Vera. A Chair for My Mother

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Year Two Reading List
Read in class or assigned for outside reading:
Andersen, Hans C. The Emperor’s New Clothes
Brown, Marcia. Dick Whittington and His Cat
Burton, Virginia. The Little House
Burton, Virginia. Mike Mulligan and His Steamshovel
Cauley, Lorinda. The Ugly Duckling
Cleary, Beverly. The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Cleary, Beverly. Ribsy
Dalgliesh, Alice. The Bears on Hemlock Mountain
Lewis, C. S. The Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe
McCloskey, Robert. Time of Wonder
Steig, William. Doctor De Soto
Warner, Gertrude. The Box-Car Children (vol. 1)
Williams, Marjorie. The Velveteen Rabbit
Outside Reading
Level 1
Cannon, Janell. Stellaluna
Galdone, Paul. The Gingerbread Boy
Galdone, Paul. The Three Bears
Galdone, Paul. The Three Little Pigs
Kessel, Joyce. Squanto and the First Thanksgiving
Roop, Peter and Connie. Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie
Slobodkina, Esphyr. Caps for Sale
Yolen, Jane. Owl Moon
Level 2
Anderson, C. W. Billy and Blaze +
Bemelmans, Ludwig. Madeline +
Bontemps, Arna & Conroy Jack. The Fast Sooner Hound
Calhoun, Mary. Cross-Country Cat
DeBrunhoff, Jean. Babar +
Flack, Marjorie. The Story about Ping
Gag, Wanda. Millions of Cats
Gauch, Patricia. Thunder at Gettysburg
Haywood, Carolyn. Betsy & Billy +
Hope, Laura Lee. The Bobbsey Twins +
Leaf, Munro. The Story of Ferdinand
Loveless, Maude. Betsy-Tacy +
Milne, A. A. When We Were Young
Milne, A. A. Now We are Six
Politi, Leo. Song of the Swallows
Steig, William. Doctor De Soto Goes to Africa
Taha, Karen. A Gift for Tia Rosa
Warner, Gertrude. The Boxcar Children +
Ziefert, Harriet. A New Coat for Anna
Level 3
Aardemas, Verna. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears
Harness, Cheryl. Three Young Pilgrims
Le Gallienne, Eva. Seven Tales by H. C. Andersen
McCloskey, Robert. Blueberries for Sal
McCloskey, Robert. One Morning in Maine
McCloskey, Robert. Lentil
Mowat, Farley. Owls in the Family
Nesbit, E. The Railway Children +
Sobol, Donald. Secret Agents Four
Sproul, R. C. The King Without a Shadow
West, Jerry. The Happy Hollisters +
Williams, Jay. Danny Dunn +

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Year Three Literature List
Read in class or assigned for outside reading:
Atwater, Richard. Mr. Popper’s Penguins
Barrie, James. Peter Pan
Farley, Walter. The Black Stallion
Fleischman, Sid. The Whipping Boy
Gannett, Ruth. My Father’s Dragon
Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows (Scholastic Jr. Classic)
Kipling, Rudyard. The Jungle Book (Scholastic Jr. Classic)
Lewis, C. S. The Horse and His Boy
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Stories (Scholastic Jr. Classic)
White, E. B. Charlotte’s Web
White, E. B. Stuart Little
Winterfeld, Henry. Detectives in Togas
Outside Reading
Level 1
Bulla, Clyde. A Lion to Guard Us
Bulla, Clyde. Shoeshine Girl
Cleary, Beverly. Henry Huggins +
Dalgliesh, Alice. The Courage of Sarah Noble
Gardiner, John. Stone Fox
Hall, Donald. Ox-Cart Man
Kellogg, Steven. Paul Bunyan
MacGregor, Ellen. Miss Pickerell +
MacLachlan, Patricia. Sarah, Plain and Tall +
McSwigan, Marie. Snow Treasure
Scieszka, Jon. The Time Warp Trio: Sam Samurai
Sobol, Donald. Encyclopedia Brown Series +
Stanley, Diane. The True Adventure of Daniel Hall
Warner, Gertrude. The Box-Car Children (excluding vol. 1) +
Level 2
Collodi C. Pinocchio
Edmonds, Walter. The Matchlock Gun
Henry, Marguerite. Misty of Chincoteague
Herriot, James. James Herriot’s Treasury
Hope, Laura Lee. The Bobbsey Twins +
Hurwitz, Johanna. Aldo Applesauce
Lindgren, Astrid. Pippi Longstocking +
Milne, A. A. Winnie the Pooh
Nesbit, E. The Railway Children +
Richardson, Arleta. In Grandma’s Attic +
Roddy, Lee. Family Adventures +
Rupp, Rebecca. Dragon of Lonely Island
Wilder, Laura. Little House on the Prairie +
Level 3
Bailey, Carolyn. Miss Hickory
Bond, Michael. Paddington +
Butterworth, Oliver. The Enormous Egg
Cleary, Beverly. Ramona +
D’Aulaire, I. E. Benjamin Franklin +
Estes, Eleanor. The Moffats
Fritz, Jean. The Cabin Faced West
Holling, H. C. Paddle-to-the-Sea +
Jackson, Dave & Neta. Trailblazer Series +
Kipling, Rudyard. Just So Stories
Lawson, Robert. Rabbit Hill
McCloskey, Robert. Homer Price
Nesbit, E. The Story of the Treasure Seekers
Peretti, Frank. The Door in the Dragon’s Throat
Reece, Colleen. American Adventure Series +
Streatfeild, Noel. Ballet Shoes

Douglas Wilson’s Letter From America

Baptism and Christian Education

Church Government – What to Expect at a CREC Church
Written by Douglas Wilson
Friday, November 25, 2011

CREC churches share a deep commitment to the pursuit of Christian education. We are convinced that the world must be understood in a distinctively Christian way, and young saints are to be trained up into that way of thinking about it. The reason the world must be understood in a Christian way is because the world was created by the Christian God. Apart from Him, it cannot be understood properly. But because of the presence of sin in the world, there are a great many obstacles to this proper understanding. It does not come easily.

Education is all about learning how to take your rightful place in the world, and this is something too important to leave to our young people to figure out for themselves.
Discipleship does not begin when a child reaches the age of 18. The Christian faith is not like one of those rides at Disneyland, where you have to be a certain height to participate.

Some of our churches as closely associated with solid Christian schools, and some have more parishioners with connections with the homeschooling community. Some of our churches have members that use both forms of education, but we are overwhelmingly committed to the need for genuine Christian education. This is the principle. The particular method for providing that education is up to the parents, but our churches in their teaching authority emphasize the principle. This is what is entailed in bringing children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).

This should be thought of as more of a cultural expectation, and not as a “legalistic requirement.” We know that there difficult circumstances where Christian education is impossible (e.g. where children are assigned to a government school as a result of a court order in a divorce case). Nevertheless, Christian education is something we are striving to provide for all our covenant children and if, for example, someone’s financial circumstances make private education unattainable, we want to have financial assistance available through the church and its deacon fund.

We consider this to be part of our life together. In our congregations, when a child is baptized, the congregation is presented with a question that has the force of an oath. “Do you as a congregation undertake the responsibility of assisting these parents in the Christian nurture of this child? If so, then signify by saying amen.”

Another Giant Leap Foward

Shakespeare Going the Way of the Dodo

According to NZ Herald columnist, Garth George, Shakespeare is on his way out.  No longer will Shakespeare be a compulsory part of the English curriculum for Level 13 students.  Here is George’s cynical comment on this great educational leap forward at our government schools. 

As of next year changes to the Level 3 English component of the ridiculous National Certificate of Educational Achievement, which asks students to respond critically to a Shakespearean drama, will expire and not be replaced.

It is the last Shakespeare-specific unit in the curriculum and its demise will mean that studying the Bard will be entirely up to individual teachers. Not much hope for him, then, since I suspect that one reason for this is that far too many English teachers today are simply incapable of interpreting him to their students.

Whilst we understand George’s frustration, and indeed agree that removing the study of Shakespeare from the government school curriculum is deplorable, we have to confess we are not surprised. 

Firstly–a general observation.
  When civil government attempts to run anything outside the basic tasks for which it has genuine (God ordained) competence (justice, defence, maintaining the peace) the repeated outcome is almost always gross bumbling and woeful waste and incompetence.  Why, then, would be surprised that government schools would be any different.  The reason we have 30% illiteracy and innumeracy in New Zealand is because most of the schools in this country are government run schools.  The underlying reason we have, on any given school day, ten percent of the student population absent from government schools without a justified, certified excuse is because governments are incompetent as educators.

Therefore it comes as no surprise that our government schools constantly lower educational standards to make “achievement” more easy.  After all that is the fundamental objective and intent of our unique NCEA qualification.  It has been deliberately designed to make education and educational qualifications more relevant to NZ pupils–which is to say, the system is designed to facilitate pupils getting qualifications in what they can do and in what interests them.  Since its introduction we have seen a constant watering down of NCEA: the removal of Shakespeare is just one more example.  That is why schools (and students) are pushing for more and more internal assessment on subjects: they can demonstrate their educational excellence by passing out serried rows of  “achieved” students, where, in the end, it is the teacher and the pupils who are defining and identifying and certifying the “pass”. 

We have to make a bit of a distinction at this point.  The hard science subjects have largely escaped the grade inflation and standards deflation.  There is a certain hard reality to the material world.  No matter what our preferences, we cannot suspend natural laws, orders, and structures at will.  Gravity is gravity whether one likes it or not.  But when it comes to the liberal arts, free flights of fancy are able to take over.  There is no “hardness” about these subjects.  They are consequently far more subject to the whim and fancy of teachers and pupils. 

Why, however, should we be critical of Shakespeare being removed from the English curriculum?  Surely there is nothing wrong with replacing the ancient Bard with a modern, fast moving, racy playwright.  Like Roger Hall and some of his oh-so-contemporary comedies of manners, for instance. The answer lies in the word “civilisation”.  Shakespeare and his corpus represent a very significant way point in the development of Western civilisation, not only in capturing and portraying the world-and-life view of Elizabethan England, but in drawing together so many themes and strands that had influenced the development of Western civilisation from the time of the ancient Hebrews and then the classical era onwards.  Not only that: Shakespeare’s plays are so significant and momentous they have influenced the West for four hundred years since. 

In a word, Shakespearian plays are able to make us wise.

To cut ourselves off from Shakespeare is to cut ourselves off from our cultural roots, our heritage–the world-view that we have inherited and that Shakespeare has facilitated passing down to us.  Moreover, that is the only Christian civilisation we have seen to date in the history of the world.  Therefore, the study of it is vital to Christians and to the Church in general.  That is why Chinese Christian academics, for example, are pouring over the great works of theology, literature, and Christian philosophers of the West.  They are attempting to learn what a Christianised China would look like, and how to bring it into being. 

But of these things government schools know nothing.  Their “thought leaders” find it objectionable to suggest that we can learn anything of the past that is relevant.  The idea that there is an authoritative and vital tradition to be imparted and inculcated into students is not just wrong, they regard it as an offensive anathema. 

For Christians, our schools will always be very different.  Focused upon learning the past thoroughly–in every subject–so that we might understand and be effective in serving God in the present.  That is why Christian educators and Christian schooling will never get rid of Shakespeare. 

>Turning Out the Lights

>“Shocking” Power of Memorization

In his provocative book entitled Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child (ISI Books: Wilmington, Delaware, 2010), Anthony Esolen adopts the persona of an adviser giving parents some ideas on how to ruin their children’s imagination.

One way is to discourage memory and memorization. He writes:

>Douglas Wilson’s Letter From America

>The Right Kind of Bright in Your Eyes

Education – Education
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, June 04, 2011

Here are the remarks, in substance anyway, I gave at the commencement ceremony for the graduating class of New Covenant Schools for 2011. They have just finished their 20th year under God’s blessing, and many congratulations.

. . . .  A caged-up thoroughbred might be tempted to lethargy and despair—unless there is a row of those cages lined up across the width of a racetrack. Then the thoroughbreds are all quivering with excitement . . . just like you are right now. You don’t mind this final cage because all you are thinking about is the track in front of you. You might not even notice the cage.

Scripture teaches us that to the pure all things are pure (Tit. 1:15). To the defiled, all things are defiled. The principle can and should be extended. To the dullard all things are dull. One of the central reasons why G.K. Chesterton is such a wonderful thinker and writer is that he had the gift of making us see how extraordinary all ordinary things are. He would cock his head sideways and describe the living room from that vantage, and all of us would learn new things about a place where we had lived for years.

The simpleton thinks that ordinary things are ordinary.