A Higher Learning
previously published in March 2006
“How has this man become learned, having never been educated?” (John 7:15)
I learned my times tables and prepositions in public schools. I studied history and education in secular universities. And what did I learn in these places?
My times tables. My prepositions. Historical analysis. Educational theories.
But what was the purpose of my education? How was my learning relevant to that purpose? How did I get from times tables and prepositions to history to education? How did I get to where I am now, teaching middle school mathematics in Brooklyn, NY? And what will dictate the direction I will take in the future?
It’s been a journey that I’m sure began before I was in my mother’s womb. But my consciousness in the travel came to when I committed my life to Christ.
Once I met God, I realized that I had always been “learning” but I was “never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). Once I met God, all my acquiring of knowledge became learning, my study became discovery, and my education became my redemption.
Because “To restore in man the image of his Maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized--this was to be the work of redemption. This is the object of education, the great object of life.” (Education, 15)
Once I realized this purpose, the entire direction of my life changed. The verse “take hold of instruction; do not let go; Guard her, for she is your life” Proverbs 4:13 came true in mine. The unclear and ungodly reasons behind my learning abandoned me. So I decided to study history. I wanted to know what happened in the past because to me history no longer stood stagnantly as a bland series of events, but it was a narrative and testimony of God’s love for His people. I was inspired by the great men and women of faith who died for their love of God. I never learned history in this way. I wanted to open up the excitement of the story. My learning was saving my soul, and I wanted to share the joy of that discovery with others.
I decided to become a teacher.
However, history was not the only subject that fascinated me. Every subject pertaining to God’s creation became my object of investigation. I couldn’t get enough of learning.
I decided to teach Mathematics in urban schools because from what I understood, success in Mathematics and English Language Arts was the “key” for underserved youth to gain access to opportunity. From what I understood, the privilege of a “liberal” education was useless to youth who often did not have the luxury of pondering the thought “inventions” of dead white men.
Secular thought was still crowding my understanding of true education and true opportunity. Now that I’m teaching in an urban public middle school, I realize the true inequity in education. And it is not so much the disparity one might see between urban and suburban schools and the resources that they might or might not have, but it is the disparity between spiritual and secular learning, the difference between training “youth to be thinkers” and training them to be “mere reflectors of other men's thought” (Education, 17).
“Higher” education might belong to the highly reputed schools and universities of this world, but without knowledge of the Redeemer, they essentially disguise the reflection of recycled thought in a fanciful form. True education belongs to the Highest One. And only when we are enrolled in His school will we receive the highest education from the Creator of all things to be studied!
The world of education laments lack of funding, resources, and opportunities as the reasons education is failing. And the world is catching on to the fact that education begins before birth, with the education of the parents, with the education and involvement of the community, and with an education that is whole. What is not understood, however, is that an education cannot be whole without Christ, the Desire of ages, that the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). Children who know Jesus will not need computer technology and hi-tech facilities in order to excel and achieve. Their motivation will be their Maker. All subjects created by God will become of supreme interest, and they will be able to learn from the Creator Himself.
So with this standard for education and educators, who is fit to be a teacher?
When I compare myself to my Example, I shudder in the shame of my shortcomings. But I know that I have access to the great Teacher, and as I draw nearer to Him in my own education, I can lead those whom I teach closer to Him as well.
If education is the restoration of God’s image in man, the salvation of the soul, then all who know Christ bear the responsibility of becoming “teachers,” of working together for the salvation of the lost. So as parents, we teach. As doctors, we teach. As lawyers, we teach. As businessmen, we teach. And most of all, as Christians, we teach. Education in the true, biblical definition of the word must be the interest of all Christians. And this interest should expand beyond the interest of an individual’s own academic success. Because when we have even one person under our influence, it is our privilege to show them not only how to gain access to success in this world but to do so by showing them how to gain access to “Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” Ephesians 3:20. And everyone might marvel at the learnedness of God’s people despite lack of “education” in the research and higher learning of this world or even in spite of it, but our answer will be “my teaching is not mine, but His who sent me” (John 7:16) the Creator, the Savior, and the God of the Universe.