ALL ABOUT HCS
The Heritage Covenant Schools
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
In
the Bible, God enjoins parents:
And
these words which I command you today shall be in your heart;
you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when
you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you
rise up.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets
between your eyes.
1.
We believe that the Bible clearly instructs and enjoins parents, not the Church
or State, to "bring children up in the discipline and instruction of the
Lord."
2.
We believe that all education is religious by nature. It is our faith which
gives us cause to pass information and understanding on to the next generation,
that they might be better equipped stewards of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore
educational decisions must come under the jurisdiction of the family. Education
is the responsibility of neither the state nor the church. The state and the
church should only assist in the process of education.
3.
We believe that God's character is revealed not only in His Word, but also in
every facet of the creation. Therefore all knowledge is interrelated and can
instruct us about God himself.
4.
We believe that the presuppositional framework of the educator will be either
Christian or pagan (non-Christian) and will thus tend to produce Christians or
pagans. Education is more than just the transfer of knowledge from one person to
another. The elements of knowledge, facts, are neither bare nor neutral. All
facts take their significance and relevance from the framework of a belief
system. Knowledge will always be transferred in light of the teacher's
prejudices and presuppositions. The Reverend R.L.Dabney who served as a senior
staff officer under General "Stonewall" Jackson and has been described
as "the best teacher of theology in the United States, if not the
world," as well as "one of the leading theologians of America"
wrote in the late 1800's:
The instructor has to teach history, cosmogony, psychology, ethics, and the laws of nations. How can he do it without saying anything favorable or unfavorable about the beliefs of evangelical Christians, Catholics, Socinians, Deists, pantheists, materialists, or fetish worshippers, who all claim equal rights under American institutions?
5. We believe that God wants us to love Him with our minds, as well as with our hearts, souls, and strength (Matthew 22:37). Therefore, we recognize that children need to be individually challenged at all levels.
6. We believe that our every concept and practice must be taken in light of the truth of the Scripture. The Bible is clear in presenting man as a fallen and sinful creature, thus no thought nor activity begins in a neutral moral vacuum. Therefore we seek to encourage an education which is positive in its presentation of divine truth, and remedial, corrective, and disciplinary in its work on fallen human nature. The professed neutrality of public secular education has been consistently challenged by discerning Christians. In 1887, Professor A.A.Hodge of Princeton Theological Seminary wrote:
I
am as sure as I am of Christ's reign that a comprehensive and centralized system
of national education, separated from religion, as is commonly proposed, will
prove to be the most appalling engine for the propagation of anti-Christian and
atheistic unbelief...which this sin rent world has ever seen.
The
tendency is to hold that the system must be altogether secular...that the
education provided by the common government should be entirely emptied of all
religious character...
It
is capable of exact demonstration that if every party in the State has the right
of excluding from the public schools whatever he does not believe to be true,
then he that believes most must give way to him that believes least, and then he
that believes least must give way to him who believes absolutely nothing, no
matter in how small a minority the atheists or the agnostics may be.
It
is self evident that on this scheme, if it is consistently and persistently
carried out in all parts of the country, the United States' system of national
popular education will be the most efficient and wide instrument for the
propagation of atheism which the world has ever seen.
7.
Our conclusion is in the words of the Reverend Paul D. Lindstrom (Superintendent
of Christian Liberty Academy in Prospect Heights, Illinois):
True education must be Christian and must consistently teach and present all subjects in a Biblical framework. True education must interpret all facts in the light of God's purposes in creation, as revealed in the Scriptures, to the end that all things will find their ultimate purpose, significance, and relationship to the whole, in the eternal, infinite, immutable, and transcendent, triune God of the Scriptures.
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