With all the debate surrounding values, the relative quality of private and public schools, and the burgeoning Anglican school movement, it is timely to ask what makes a school Christian anyway. Is it that they are driven by values? Proponents of public schooling rightly claim that public schools are also driven by values! Indeed many of these values would find their basis in a Christian cultural memory.
On the other hand, ‘traditional’ values espoused in private schools, after closer scrutiny, may turn out to be less Christian than we might at first think. We could ask whether these schools promote a good Christian life or whether they promote the Christian “good life” where success eclipses service and where image triumphs over substance.
What makes a school Christian, is that it is committed to the gospel of Jesus in every aspect of its being. The entire task of schooling needs to be impacted by the Lordship of Jesus over the whole creation. This is a big call because the gospel of Jesus is radical and demanding – something that the educational consumer would not normally want to buy. It’s more typical to ask, “What education would give my child an advantage?” rather than to seek the Christ-like education that would equip him or her to serve.
Most Christian consumers want an education that enables their children to fit into the culture not one that sets them at odds with their culture’s values and priorities. But challenging the culture is precisely what the gospel does!
Commitment to authentic Christian education means that teaching practice; curriculum; governance; motivation; discipline; indeed the whole purpose and structure of schooling need to be considered in the light of the gospel.
In such a consideration, helpful educational insights from the world will be affirmed but only after they have been subjected to the scrutiny of God’s word. In Paul’s words to the Corinthians, “We take every thought captive.” (2 Cor 10:5).
This commitment is very difficult even for keen Christian teachers because most if not all have been taught to see the world from a secular perspective. We have been taught to think of “non-spiritual” things such as education as neutral. The teaching in strong Bible believing churches has not always challenged the false distinction between “sacred” and “secular”. It almost seems natural to distinguish between the Christian “stuff” and the educational “stuff”.
Being a Christian is no guarantee that one will teach Christianly or think Christianly for that matter. Having a Christian principal and Christian teachers are no guarantees that the school will be Christian. Superficial ‘Christianising’ of the prevailing educational paradigm or a plethora of proof texts will not do it!
Gospel based schooling is so different to what we are used to, that rigorous and ongoing retraining is imperative. Anglican and other Christian schools can be a great tool for the Kingdom but only where there is a genuine commitment to critiquing schooling itself from a gospel perspective and where resources are committed to training teachers to think and teach Christianly.
Ken Dickens is a Senior Lecturer at the National Institute for Christian Education. He attends Springwood-Winmalee Anglican Church with his family.