Well, it’s back to school. Once that was a matter of slates and chanting of tables, of desks with ink-wells. Now we know better. But difficult, awkward, underlying questions will not go away. Even in the present exigency they remain important.
Education, said the poet and Commonwealth spokesman. Milton, should fit us for all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war. Hmm. Not the most fashionable way of looking at schools for our children. In down-to-earth terms education may well be regarded as equipping the next generation to earn a gold-plated lifestyle. Slightly more praiseworthy might be the idea of enabling the next generation to have the skills necessary to stave off disaster and keep the machine ticking over. A long way down the list might be the aim of achieving the output of upstanding, sceptical, energetic individuals with a breadth of mind and a concern for others.
In fact Milton’s understanding of the matter includes all that. He made it clear that he was speaking of ‘a complete and generous education’ that made a man (yes, a man) fit ‘to perform justly, skilfully and magnanimously’ those offices he was speaking of. We in our more enlightened days know that such an education is appropriate not only for boys but for girls as well. The economic argument, however, carries great weight with many.
But this is still to regard education as instrumental, as a means of securing a useful workforce. There is a way of looking at education that goes beyond that. It is to consider the nature of the individuals we are shaping. And this is a matter of ultimate, rather than mundane, objectives. The New Testament way of looking at this is to say that we aim at ‘mature manhood, measured by nothing less than the full stature of Christ’ (Ephesians 4.13).
This is a kind of clarity that may or may not be welcome. It is to go beyond turning out efficient economic units who will secure their own and the nation’s prosperity. It is to achieve what it is to be fully human. And at this point Christians may well find themselves out of step with those who do not accept Jesus as the great example and the great mentor for humanity.
Well then, to be out of step is not to be out of court. In such a matter parents and teachers together with administrators have serious choices to make.
If you have a comment on this post please send an email to Revd John King at johnc.king@talktalk.net Edited extracts may be published. To forward this to a friend click on the chain icon below.
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