Is Christian Education Sheltering?
If you are on the path to being a distinctive Christian school that is faithful to your shared confession and flourishing in its impact, you will undoubtedly run into doubts, questions, and challenges. This week I offer a brief reflection on a common challenge—the claim that Christian schools shelter kids (in a bad way).
Sometimes people mistake Christian education as an act of sheltering from the real world, leaving people ill-equipped for what is next. I am the first to agree that such an education would be a poor substitute, although all good education includes some measure of sheltering, which is why we don’t let three-year-olds play in the middle of busy streets. Yet, when done well, Christian education is not sheltering (in the negative sense), but offering a holistic view while equipping for faith and life in this world and beyond.
Consider a simple analogy. Imagine receiving a treasure chest that has two distinct compartments. One key will allow you to see into a single compartment. The other key gives you access to both. Which key would you choose? Christian education is the second key.
It invites us to:
see the transcendent and spiritual significance amid the ordinary,
discover tentative and relative truth alongside the wisdom and anchor of absolute truth, and
make sense of the wisdom and knowledge of humanity while growing in the far greater wisdom and knowledge of God.
Much of what we learn in school is transitory, so a distinctly Christian education juxtaposes the ordinary with the transcendent, the temporary with the permanent, the relative with the absolute, and human knowledge with divine revelation. In this way, it is a more complete and holistic education, albeit more rigorous, because it requires students sometimes to learn twice as much and to grapple with the distinctions, clashes, and conflicts with these different sources of knowledge. It offers a better chance at an integrated instead of a compartmentalized approach to the Christan life, study, work, and one's many vocations.
One can attend a non-sectarian school (as if there were such a thing) and strive for this integrated approach. Still, such a path takes an extraordinary amount of time and effort beyond what they teach and require in the formal classes and curriculum. Doing it well would demand assigning oneself additional readings, papers, learning experiences, and assignments beyond what is already needed—and finding wise mentors across the disciplines who can provide guidance and feedback along the way. A campus ministry or youth group can help one stay connected to the church, but it would be the rare pastor ready to help students navigate the truth claims of a dozen disciplines and content areas.
When done well, one benefit of Christian education at all levels is that the curriculum and faculty offer a holistic learning journey intended to cultivate a life that can bask in this more expansive view. While this is aspirational and not a perfect reality in Christian education, to the extent that it is the aim, it offers something not available elsewhere.