Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Great Ideas that Shape Education (part 3)

I've shared two great ideas from Scripture that shape our take on education (God is sovereign and Man is created in God's image) and some ways those ideas make a difference in our schools and classrooms. I'm not finished with considering more implications these ideas have for education. It seems like the more I ponder these biblical ideas, the more implications I see for school. In this post, I want to introduce a third great idea that shapes our beliefs and practices in education. Here's the idea:

God delegates authority over children to parents (Ephesians 6:1-4). Check out this quote from an excellent book about parenting from Ted Tripp, Shepherding a Child’s Heart: “As a parent, you have authority because God calls you to be an authority in your child’s life. You have the authority to act on behalf of God. As a father or mother, you do not exercise rule over your jurisdiction, but over God’s. You act at his command. You discharge a duty that he has given. You may not try to shape the lives of your children as pleases you, but as pleases him” (28-29). That means parents are responsible to God for their children.

So what, though? What difference does this make for education?

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