7 What Are Christian Education Goals?
Kimberly had been an ace student in school, fiercely competitive and, she knew, overly proud of her grades and state standardized test scores. She figured that her peculiar academic pride and discipline was the result of having professors for parents. Yet as important as academic success had been to Kimberly, she and her husband had realized together that they wanted more for their children. They wanted their children to be happy, stable, contributing members of society and with the deep Christian faith that Kimberly and her husband shared. They wanted their children to join them eternally in heaven. They had thus chosen a small local Christian school for their children, although only after Kimberly confirmed that the school’s students were exceeding averages on state standardized test scores.
Goals
Programs of instruction generally have goals. Goals are necessary to guide the curriculum’s development and implementation, and assessment of the program’s outcomes. If the program isn’t achieving its goals, then something is wrong in the program’s design or implementation. If the program is achieving its goals but constituents are dissatisfied, then the program needs to identify and pursue new goals. With some federal-funding influence, state education agencies generally define public K-12 schools goals. Their detail is in state academic benchmarks and mandated student conduct codes. Local school boards govern implementation. Private Christian K-12 schools may rely on state academic benchmarks to ensure that their students are getting the broad education public representatives discern to be appropriate. They may, for instance, have their students take annual state standardized assessments. But Christian education instead relies for its overarching educational goals on a biblical, not a state, framework, as follows.
Whole
Christian education takes a holistic approach in setting goals for its instruction of students. The scriptures to which Christian education commits its program of instruction likewise concern themselves with the whole development of individual souls, within the full context of their social relations. It is not enough for Christian education to produce smart students, if those students exhibit poor behavior and have poor character for truthtelling, reliability, and respect for others. It is likewise not enough for Christian education to produce kind and gentle students, if those students lack the fortitude and perseverance to learn new skills, adapt to changing demands and conditions, and provide for themselves and their families. Helping parents raise whole, well-rounded, spiritually wise and committed children, with all the character attributes, knowledge, and skill that they will need in adult life, is an incredibly complex and subtle challenge. Yet that challenge is one that Christian schools fully accept and to which they commit their every resource, prayer, and effort.
Transformational
As much as Christian education takes a holistic approach, Christian education makes nurturing student commitments to accept, embrace, and follow Jesus Christ its pinnacle goal. Indeed, Christian education sees every other instructional gain and success as flowing from each student’s salvation in and through Jesus Christ. Christian education doesn’t merely seek to shape outward student behavior. It instead pursues student transformation from the inside out, through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit deep within each student. Scripture teaches that enduring changes in behavior require a change of heart, not just changes in conditions. Students in other programs answer to parent expectations, teacher directions, school rules, and program expectations. Christian education seeks to have students answer as well to the Spirit of Christ deep within them, informed by their prayer, worship, and study of scripture. Christian education is in that sense transformational more than merely instructional. The Christian school that preserves, fosters, and deeply informs each student’s faith sets students up for success on every other possible measure.
Spiritual
Christian education thus includes a primary spiritual goal, to elevate student hearts and minds to transcend their material state and conditions. Human consciousness, possibility, and experience go well beyond the physical and material. While studying the physical is necessary, appropriate, wise, and informative, Christian education also expressly addresses the profound and fundamental metaphysical questions that those material studies raise. Christian education urges students to explore and answer questions about reality, origins, design, meaning, purpose, and the nature, fact, and destiny of their own being. Christian education believes that helping students consider, explore, and answer these and other deep spiritual questions will give them the depth, confidence, and worldview to do more in life than just survive. Spiritual understanding helps students thrive in life, even though facing common and difficult human challenges. Christian education encourages students to ask and answer metaphysical questions, rather than concealing those questions and discouraging student inquiry, so that students embrace their spiritual dimension in a sound framework of Christian faith.
Biblical
Christian education adopts a related primary goal that students will acquire a sound understanding of and deep appreciation for the Bible, as holy scripture. Christian faith isn’t whatever one makes of it. Christian faith instead grounds itself in the scriptures, the holy word of God. Christians revere Christ as the Word become flesh, referring to the principle of divine reason and creative order flowing from and through the incarnate God. Scripture gives students the full picture of Jesus Christ, as the reliable record of his divine order, rationality, principle, and reason. Christian education thus commits students to study, comprehend, remember, and apply biblical accounts and wisdom. Christian education shows students that biblical principles and understanding form the Western mind, nest its science, guide its governance, and undergird its art and literature. Christian education thus gives students the full picture of their own culture, history, and heritage, including the biblical foundation that public schools as a matter of Supreme Court law deliberately silence and omit, no matter the preferences and faith of their instructors.
Characteristic
Christian education also sets a goal to develop Christ-like character in students. Christian schools seek to form virtuous Christian character in each student, as the scriptures describe and illustrate that character. In the gospel accounts, Jesus gives dozens of instructions on what to do in different situations. Jesus also demonstrates in those gospel accounts dozens of virtuous actions in different situations. The gospel accounts, the epistles that follow them, and the rest of scripture give thorough descriptions, illustrations, and demonstrations of what it means to be like Jesus in character. Christian schools teach that character explicitly from the pages of the Bible. Christian schools also form that character through related studies of other subjects and through individual, paired, group, class, and school activities, all influenced by school values and culture. Christian education places character development squarely within the curriculum and co-curriculum as an important and explicit goal.
Academic
Christian education also generally adopts academic excellence as a core goal. As already indicated above, Christian schools often voluntarily engage in state standardized testing, to ensure parents that their children are receiving rigorous academic instruction, qualifying them for advanced vocational training and higher education. Christian schools generally strive to employ state-certified teachers with both a deep and demonstrated commitment to Christian faith and strong teaching skills. As indicated in the chapter above on Christian school curricula, Christian schools teach traditional academic subjects, although through a scriptural lens. That scriptural lens does not detract from academic instruction but instead strengthens and amplifies it, giving students a coherent framework within which to learn, retain, and apply it. The generally smaller class size, higher behavioral standards, greater safety and security, and more-favorable socioeconomic profile of many private Christian school families add to Christian education’s academic advantages. Christian schools often have consistently better academic outcomes than other schools in the same locale, confirming that their academic commitment is real and substantial. You likely won’t regret entrusting your student’s academic development to Christian education.
Literate
Christian education also commits to a high degree of literacy as a core goal. Placing the scriptures at the center of Christian education alone ensures a strong commitment to literacy. The Bible, including its integrated writings, histories, prophecies, songs, poetry, and psalms, all saturated with express and symbolic cross-references, is not only the world’s central spiritual text but also the world’s greatest literary production. The thorough biblical studies through which Christian education organizes and integrates other subjects give students their greatest possible lessons in the literary corpus on which Western literature, philosophy, history, governance, science, social relations, and economics rest. Yet Christian schools also have students read the best ancient classical and contemporary literature extant, from the West, East, and other traditions, again through an organizing and evaluative biblical lens. As already mentioned in a prior chapter, many Christian schools expressly pursue a classical education reading the great texts. Christian schools that do not do so expressly generally do so as a natural part of their ancient and deeply traditional studies. Christian education has a core goal of high literacy.
Preparatory
As briefly referenced above, Christian education also embraces the goal of preparing students for further advanced vocational training and higher education. Christian schools often see themselves as college-prep academies, some explicitly so while others by their Christian commitment to excellence in all things. With many parents paying significant tuition for private Christian K-12 schooling, parents may have substantial education and vocational or professional training of their own, which they hope and expect their children to pursue. Christian school alumni and parent communities are likely to include business owners, physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, lawyers, engineers, accountants, and other professionals, contractors and tradesmen, and nonprofit and government leaders. Parents everywhere generally hold high expectations for their children, wanting their children’s school to prepare their children to meet those high expectations. Christian schools do so as a natural extension of the success found across their parent communities.
Serving
Christian education also adopts as a goal that its students and graduates demonstrate a strong commitment to serve others. Christ is the eternal example of sacrificial service in the greatest and most-essential interest of others. Christ gave his life for our rescue from the very death he suffered for us. Christian schools thus continuously present Christ as the model for their students’ lives, actions, commitments, and behavior, including in sacrificial service to others. The outward-looking, other-centered perspective of Christian education protects students from selfishness and over-wrought self-concern, thus fostering sound mental health and social adjustment and relations. This service commitment isn’t simply a nice Christian do-gooder identity. It is instead a firm basis and foundation for life success. Students acquiring from their Christian education the fortitude and attitude to serve others find themselves gaining positions of trust, responsibility, opportunity, leadership, and authority, with good reputation and prospects. Value Christian education for its goal of fostering a serving attitude in its students and graduates.
Stewarding
Christian education also seeks to instill in its students an attitude of stewarding their individual gifts and talents, along with the opportunities and resources entrusted to them, for the greater good in God’s eyes. A steward treats what the steward controls as if those things belong to a greater master. To steward talents and resources means to apply them diligently for the good of the one who created and owns them. Christians recognize that they receive their gifts, resources, and talents from God. Christians thus hold those gifts, resources, and talents in trust to serve God’s desires. Christian education seeks to instill in students the proper biblical attitude that their gifts, resources, and talents belong to God, who expects them to use them according to God’s designs and wishes, and who will reward them for doing so. Christian education expects students to learn diligently with all the strength, diligence, perseverance, and talent that God has given them, so that they can serve God’s interests with their fully developed talents. Christian education demonstrates to students that God rewards them when they regard what they have as being from God, to return to God with interest. Sound and committed student stewardship is a heartening goal for Christian education.
Reflection
What goals do you have for your children in their K-12 instruction? How well do your goals for your children’s education align with the above description in this chapter? How different do you think public K-12 school goals are for students, given the Supreme Court’s prohibition on biblical instruction? Do you value your children’s transformation in the likeness and Spirit of Jesus Christ? Do you want your children to learn thoroughly about the world’s most popular and central text of all time, the Bible, in the context of their other school studies? Do you want your children to have a spiritual life well grounded in the scriptures? Do you want your children to develop Christ-like character? Are you committed to your children’s academic success? Do you want your children to be highly literate, well educated in Western civilization’s central text and other foundational texts? Do you see your children going on to receive advanced vocational training or higher education after their K-12 schooling? Do you want your children learning a service ethic? Do you wish that your children would be sound lifelong stewards of their gifts and talents?
Key Points
Christian education articulates instructional goals for student success.
Christian education adopts the goal of instructing the whole student.
Christian education seeks student transformation through Christ.
Christian education develops the student’s spiritual dimension.
Christian education instructs students in the biblical corpus.
Christian education seeks to develop Christ-like character in students.
Christian education adopts academic excellence as a core goal.
Christian education seeks to graduate highly literate students.
Christian education seeks to prepare students for advanced education.
Christian education seeks to instill a healthy service ethic in students.
Christian education wants students to steward their gifts and talents.
Read Chapter 8.