Reflection Weekend Thoughts, part 1

Holy Face by Georges Rouault

"We must have some concept of the kind of person we wish to produce, before we can have any definite opinion as to the education which we consider best."

-Bertrand Russell

"Those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires...The mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace." "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed."
-The Apostle Paul, Romans 8

My posts this week will be a reflections stemming from our two days of teacher retreat last week.

Bertrand Russell, that philosopher who among other works penned Why I am not a Christian, could not be more right.  All education is goal oriented; it is teleologically ordered.  An apprenticeship program aimed at making HVAC repairmen will differ quite a bit from a soccer training program for FC Barcelona, and rightly so.  The aim of the one is to create a worker who knows electrical systems and common failings of machinery, the other aims at soccer tactics, fitness, and teamwork.  The one makes mechanics, the other athletes.  It is worth noting here that a football training school will be quite different from a football training school.  Preparation for American football will add in more weight training, upper body development, and quick reactions off the line, the other football will focus more on running and lower body finesse over the course of a long game. In fact, even different positions in the same sport will look at training differently. How does the goalie's education look different from the striker's? (By the way, what a performance from Tim Howard versus Belgium!)

Then the question we must ask as educators is, "What do we want to produce?" In the Christian tradition, we can ask, "What does God want us to produce?" or "For what end did the Creator create us and our students?"

These were the first ideas we talked about this past weekend, and the faculty came up with great definitions of humanity from Scripture, like:
"We are image bearers who exercise stewardship over the world as men and women." (Gen 1)
"We are glorious and bestowed with honor." (Psalm 8)
"We are the workmanship of God responsible for doing the work of God." (Eph 2:10)
"We are longing, unsatisfied, and hoping for justice. We are imperfect beings longing for perfection and beauty." (Eccl 3:11)
"We are forgetful. We are redeemed and yet often do not live that way." (Romans 12)
"Our children are gifts from the Lord and have infinite value." (Psalm 127)
"We are fragile, dependent on the Lord for life and salvation." (Job 14; Isaiah 44)

If this is who we are, then what is our purpose? Some of the purposes are already present in the "what is man?" answers. For example, if we are created to be present with the Lord but suffer from sin, we need to be perfected. We are longing for the new creation of ourselves. Here then were some of the purposes that flowed from the definitions of humanity:
"We are created to do the works Christ has laid out for us." (Eph 2:10 and Rom 4:11)
"We are created to have relationship with God. We are to know and fear him and delight in him and his creation." (Proverbs 2)
"We are to be still, be in awe, and worship." (Psalm 46)
"We are to be satisfied sitting with Christ." (Ps 65)
"We are to point others to Jesus by all means, with everything we do and are." (Matt 5:14ff)
"We are to love the Lord and those around us. We are to keep his commandments out of our love for him." (Matt 22 and Eccl 12:13)
"We are to cultivate and keep the creation as his image-bearing representatives."(Gen 2:15)

Simply put, what we are talking about is that we are to be images of God. We are to be Christlike, as Jesus the Messiah was the perfect representative and image of God. (Col 1:15)  So then, what does education look like that will cultivate and shape Humans, the sons and daughters of the second Adam? What kind of curriculum (literally, "course to be run") should be pursued if the finish line of the race course is Christlikeness?