Education at a crossroads

The education of children ought to be among the most paramount of concerns for Christians. This has always been true, but perhaps it is particularly so at this point in history. Many Christians are aware that at least two-thirds of churched children tend to leave the church in or after university. There are likely multiple factors involved in this lamentable state of affairs, but one thing that seems clear in the studies, and to me personally, is that these children have not been properly equipped to face the assault upon their minds by the subtle pagan philosophies which abound in higher learning. They haven’t been taught a robust Christian way of thinking which starts unapologetically with creation, contends with the significance of original and personal sin, and then considers how the work of Jesus Christ is not only the ground for their personal redemption from sin, but for the redemption and glory of the entire world as Christ’s kingdom is advanced. 

These ideas are captured by our mission at COMPASS Community Learning Centres, which is to “Educate the whole child in the whole truth: reclaiming our culture for Christ’s kingdom.” 

Due to the assaults upon the mind in our culture, the need for a robust Christian education has perhaps never been greater, but the good news is that there are patterns and practices in history which can provide us a template. We can “stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths” (Jer 6:16). In the time of the Reformation, Martin Luther faced similar concerns. He wrote and advocated publicly for the reformation of the universities, for the study of the Scriptures above other philosophical systems, and for both boys and girls to be taught to read. In one letter to the leaders of Germany, he wrote:

“It is not necessary to repeat here that the temporal government is a divinely ordained estate . . .  The question is rather: How are we to get good and capable men into it? Here we are excelled and put to shame by the pagans of old, especially the Romans and Greeks. Although they had no idea of whether this estate was pleasing to God or not, they were so earnest and diligent in educating and training their young boys and girls to fit them for the task, that when I call it to mind I am forced to blush for us Christians, and especially for us Germans. Yet we know, or at least we ought to know, how essential and beneficial it is – and pleasing to God – that a prince, lord, councilman, or other person in a position of authority be educated and qualified to perform the functions of his office as a Christian should. Now if (as we have assumed) there were no souls, and there were no need at all of schools and languages for the sake of the Scriptures and of God, this one consideration alone would be sufficient to justify the establishment everywhere of the very best schools for both boys and girls, namely, that in order to maintain its temporal estate outwardly the world must have good and capable men and women.”¹

As Luther states, we need to re-capture best practices, in some cases going back to the times of the Greeks and Romans, to teach children the history and Christian foundations of theology, science, mathematics, philosophy, logic, and more. This is the classical method – to interact with great thinkers and to fill not only their minds with great thoughts, but their hearts with wonder and beauty, and to instill in them virtues by careful cultivation, scriptural application, prayer, and bible memorization. We must show them that the Triune God is the foundation of every field, that Christ is the object of every endeavour, and that the Scriptures are sufficient not only unto salvation but as law unto the flourishing of all humanity.

COMPASS is a group of schools unapologetically committed to Christian education in this classical tradition. We eschew government funding to uphold our convictions and work with like-minded and generous churches in order to offer inexpensive education and raise up a generation of the faithful within a flood of compromise. We invite you to join us in this world-changing endeavour. 

¹“To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany that they Establish and Maintain Christian Schools”