In order to answer this question, we first need to define our terms. What exactly does education mean?
According to Webster's 1828 dictionary education means: "The bringing up, as of a child, instruction; formation of manners. education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties."
http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/education
For a moment let us digress and local up academic. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, one of the definitions is "having no practical or useful significance."
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/academic
Now let's look at education through a Christian worldview. In order to understand education, we need to look at the master and what kind of education he received. According to the LDS Bible Dictionary education is "The divine law impressed upon parents the duty of teaching their children its precepts and principles, but little is know about the methods of teaching that were employed. Up to six years of age a child was taught at home, chiefly by the mother. (2 Timothy 1:5)" After that the were taught in synagogues. "Until a boy was ten no textbook was used but scripture. The aim was to encourage study by sense of duty rather than by reward or fear." "Reading, writing, and grammar were taught..." "the whole purpose of education was religious. Nothing was regard as worth learning except as it illustrated scripture. At home probably bible stories were taught...but the regular course at school began with the first seven chapters of Leviticus, so that a boy might know what outward acts were required of him; then the rest of the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the remainder of the O. T. At the age of 12 a Jewish boy was taken to Jerusalem at one of the feasts, and tested by the doctors of the law in the temple as to his knowledge of the duties and privileges to which by circumcision he had been admitted."
Thus we see a separation of what our current education system entails, vs what our Hebrew heritage had. As you study deeper the roots of education, you find that we have adopted our Greek inheritance.
What is the difference between Greek and Hebrew education? The following chart is found in A Meeting with the Principle: An Education to Usher in the Millennium:
https://www.millennialstandardpress.com/behind-the-book
So the Greek inheritance tends to be a mind based education, where as the Hebrew education focuses on the whole person, the heart, soul, spirit and mind. It is all about becoming a new creature through Christ vs. filling a vessel.
Plutarch said: "A mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." As we shift our paradigm and change our objectives the education we seek also deepens.
LEMI also discusses the differences between these two types of education. While attending a LEMI Philosophy Training, I learned that the Greek inheritance is just the knowledge part of the puzzle. The Hebrew inheritance teaches us the acronym VMASK which stands for Vision Mission Abilities Skills and Knowledge. As we get an education that honors the whole person, we started to climb these different scholarship ladders. These are the what VMASK is all about.
According to Hero Education (Volume Three of the Thomas Jefferson Education Series) Scholar phase is the Keystone. What does that really look like? Reading and Discussing.
But before we jump into scholar phase we have to first understand the phases of learning. And that the responsibility of education rests on the parents.
How do we light the fire of our children's education?
Developmental psychologist Gordon Nuefeld said: "You cannot parent a child whose heart you do not have." https://thewaymothersare.com/heart-engaging/
He also said: “Unconditional parental love is the indespensible nutrient for the child's healthy emotional growth. The first task is to create space in the child's heart for the certainty that she is precisely the person the parents want and love.
So it all goes back to core phase. When children are lovingly nurtured and a good environment they thrive.
What are the forces that combine together to release light? Marlene Peterson believes that the two forces are Heart and Mind. This is a sacred combination of heart and mind. "Take away either part of the combination and the light is blocked." Just like the heart is created before the mind, we need to nurture the heart before the mind.
The heart warmer Pestalozzi said "it is for a long time it is the business of the heart before it is the business of reason." A Mother's influence pg. 184 (The first book in the Well-Educated Mother's Heart Learning Library)
One of Pestalozzi's followers, Friederich Frobel, also "understood that it was the mothers who were the most important teachers of the heart. The problem was the mothers were overworked and exhausted just trying to keep their families alive. He knew they weren't likely to add one more thing to their lives. But he noticed it was usually the oldest daughter in the family who had charge of the younger ones. So he thought, "What if we open a school and invite these older girls to bring their younger siblings and teach them together so they when they become mothers, they will ne prepared."So he created a Kinder-garten or child garden - a place to grow children. The first kindergarten's were formed to train future mothers. He felt like it may take three generations." (A Mother's Influence p. 184-185)
Pestalozzi also influenced Charlotte Mason, Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner (the creator of Waldorf schools). Because of their amazing impacted the years from around 1880-1920 are known as the Golden Age of Children's Literature - the balance of Heart and Mind, Faith and Reason, Art and Science. Then something wonderful started to happen. The mothers started doing what mothers do - they started gathering and organizing and forming study groups to relearn the art of storytelling and there was a great story telling revival in the early 1900s. Then realizing the importance of educating a woman's heart and the difficulty for her to o away to college, the Delphian Society was formed in 1910 with the intent to bring college home to busy mothers who could only study a few minutes a day. The Delphian Reading Course was the equivalent of a bachelors degree in Classic Studies and included a study of History, Literature, Art, Music and Nature as well as other subjects. Women formed study groups and met once a month to have conversations about what they were learning. Within a few years, over 2000 groups dotted the nation and were found in every major city.
Is it a coincidence that the generation that followed is known as the Greatest Generation?
And then came the 1920s and 30s and once again Man said, Isn't Man Magnificent and an educator named John Dewey changed the course of education for decades to come. His intentions were revealed in a document to which he affixed his name in 1933: The Humanist Manifesto which declares "Reason and intelligence are the most effective instruments that humankind possesses. There is no substitute." And by the way, There is no God.
Charlotte Mason taught: "True education is between the child's soul and God."
In regards to social change and having a positive influence on our community Confucius said:
To put the world right in order
we must first put the nation in order;
To put the nation in order
we must first put the families in order.
To put the family in order
we must first cultivate our personal life,
we must first set out hearts right.
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