Why Biblical Foundations for Education Still Matter, Part 1
Presented to the Association of Christian Teachers and Christian School Regional Educators Convention, Grandview Christian School, Grandview, Missouri — November 2, 2018
Introduction
Mark Twain once famously said, “I never let schooling interfere with my education.” He also added that, “In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice, then he made the school board.” Twain’s humorous disdain for formal education might invite a chuckle or two, but it also affords an opportunity for educators to assess ourselves, to look in the mirror and consider whether we are being the benefit that we hope we might be or whether we are failing as miserably as those educators of which Twain spoke. Perhaps we are part of the problem. When he said that “nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits,” perhaps those other people to which he was facetiously referring was actually us. It is not enough to be driven to make a difference, we have to use the right tools, and we have to build on the right foundations.
Virginia Union University educator and dean, Matthew Lynch recently presented identified 18 reasons that he believed education in the U.S was failing. His reasons are thoughtworthy: