Classical Education

The youngest four of the Abell Six are home schooled. We have attempted to teach them using what is commonly called “Classical Education.” Starting in 7th grade, they begin a curricula titled Omnibus.

The modern resurgence of classical and Christian education began with an essay by Dorothy Sayers entitled “The Lost Tools of Learning.” The operative word in that title is tools. Sayers was concerned that our approach to education had become one of stuffing facts into heads, and doing so in a way that left students poorly equipped to do anything creative on their own later on. Her point was that we ought to treat students less like carbon-based filing cabinets, and more like human beings with eternal souls. As future men and women, she argued, students needed to learn how to learn. They were not to be taught so that they would then be “taught.” They were to be taught how to teach themselves. They were to be taught in such a way that they could encounter a new situation, get oriented quickly, and do what a truly educated person ought to do.

Douglas Wilson wrote the above paragraph in the October 2011 online newsletter for Veritas Press, a classical Christian educational publishing group. Veritas Press publishes Omnibus, which integrates History, Theology, and Literature. Omnibus is integrated because all the topics it covers are woven together, not separate distinct courses. Doug concludes his article thusly,

So if an Omnibus student, for example, says that he doesn’t need to go to a liberal arts college because he “already read” Homer, then regardless of whatever good grades he got doing Omnibus, he nevertheless missed the whole point of it. (This doesn’t mean that he has to go to a liberal arts college. It means that he must not avoid it for the wrong reasons.) The world certainly needs more engineers, but it needs engineers who know how to think in an integrated way. Liberal arts training, whether in high school or college, is not vocational training for English teachers. Liberal arts instruction, as is contained in the Omnibus, is an education for living as a free man or woman in Christ, wherever God calls them. And when they are called to a particular place, they should be able to see how Jesus Christ is the integration point for all things (Col. 1:17-18). If they don’t know how to do that, wherever they are, then they did not receive a classical Christian education, whatever was offered to them. 

But let’s say we consider another student, one who didn’t get the best grades of all time while in high school. Not only was he integrating theology, history and literature, but also three-a-day football practices, a part time job at the mini-mart, and hunting trips with his dad, and he actually learned how to live an integrated life, with Christ at the center of it all. What should we think? We should think of him as a real success story. 

This is because the point of education is found in what the student does with it. Faith without works is dead.

Lord, may the Abell children lives such lives of faith, may their education not make them ready for one vocation, but enable them to think and live and work in whatever vocation and in whatever situation they find themselves. May they live Christlike lives, ever glorifying Him, and ever learning more.

Slay the Dragon

“G.K. Chesterton said somewhere that if a book does not have a wicked character in it, then it is a wicked book. One of the most pernicious errors that has gotten abroad in the Christian community is the error of sentimentalism—the view that evil is to be evaded, rather than the more robust Christian view that evil is to be conquered. The Christian believes that evil is there to be fought, the dragon is there to be slain. The sentimentalist believes that evil is to be resented.”

—Douglas Wilson, “Forward”, Omnibus IV, page IX.

Engineering or Humanities?

I have a lot of thoughts about this post and, if I were a good blogger, would write them down. But, I am not a good blogger, so I will only quote a paragraph or two and say that, with regard to engineering and humanities, Wilson is spot on.

Here is the problem in a nutshell. When it comes to higher education, what do we do with our best and brightest? Overwhelmingly, Christian parents of high-achieving kids seek out some kind of technocratic program of study. They seek out the sciences and engineering. This is in part because Americans in general are pragmatic space shuttle builders, but there is an additional attraction here for Christians. What might it be?

We have to begin by comparing contemporary engineering to the contemporary humanities. Christians love the truth, and when you undertake a course of study in engineering, most of what you learn is true. The bridges have to stand, and the airplanes have to fly. The software needs to run. In most liberal arts programs, most of what you learn is false, with some of it being false and stupid. So there’s that.

In the old days, when the study of the liberal arts was Christian, there was a fixed standard that enabled you to navigate them. There is no problem with reading and studying error so long as you have a means of identifying it. You are an intelligent Christian participant in what Adler called the great conversation. The fact that the conversation extended over centuries does not mean that it turns out we are all saying the same thing. You need to know what Plato said in order to take issue. But when you are immersed in this world and all the standards of measurement look like a slide rule in a Salvador Dali painting, the only possible result is a nihilistic relativism.

 Read the whole thing.

I want my kids to be educated, not trained.

Some people who know us have questioned why we home school our children. Hey, even I have. My first answer is that I want my kids to be able to think for themselves. In order to do that, I think they should be educated in critical thinking, by reading, asking questions, writing, and interacting with other great thinkers. They should learn how to diagram sentences and analyze propositions, and communicate properly whether in writing or speech. They should be able to problem solve.

On a related note, I have noticed that by God's grace, I don't really care what job my kids get when they grow up. Instead, I want them to be able to think and reason and talk and act in such a way that God is glorified and they are happy—whether they become a doctor, lawyer, or short order cook. I want my kids to be educated, not trained.

Here is a quote from Doug Wilson's recent blog post on higher education that inspired me to comment.

This unholy alliance between higher education and industry was successfully accomplished, and the system has become unquestioned, and almost unquestionable. Moreover, it has become a system that many Christian parents insist on maintaining. Even while opposing Obama's proposals for socialistic health care (because they don't want "socialism"), they insist on perpetuating the central engine of socialism (as well as the central example of it) by having their kids go to the very schools that Marx demanded of us, and got. And on top of that, when someone proposes that their older student attend a liberal arts school that is seeking self-consciously to reestablish the old tradition, the parental (and Marxist) objection is often that they "want their kid to be able to get a job." But before we think about getting a job, we need to train the next generation how to get a life.

Read the whole thing.

Bethlehem College and Seminary

A new website for the "becoming" Bethlehem College and Seminary is up.

The older siblings aren't so sure...

Homeschooling seems to be working...

Schreiner on Galatians

I had the amazing privilege of learning from Dr. Tom Schreiner this past week. I took a modular class on Galatians where we spent 9 months translating, diagramming and arcing our way through the Greek text. Then last week, for four hours a day for five days, Dr. Schreiner walked through the text with us and discussed every detail. It was such a joy.

Dr. Schreiner is currently working on a commentary on Galatians for a new commentary series to be published by Zondervan. The genius of this commentary series is that each commentary will be based on arcing or tracing the argument.

Not only was Dr. Schreiner brilliant, but he exuded Christian character. He was kind and polite, humble and happy. Our whole family picked him up at the airport and he genuinely seemed interested in talking with my kids. He has been a hero of mine since I taught through his Romans commentary at Brush Prairie Baptist Church about seven years ago.

TBI in Three Years

After much prayer and discussion, Wendy and I decided that we would extend our time in TBI to three years. The Bethlehem Institute is set up to be a two year program, with the option of a third year extension. Essentially, the second year of work is split into two halves.

So, next year my classes will include Preaching, Jonathan Edwards, Practical Theology and Galatians. The third year will include Hebrew (eight week summer course), Hebrew Exegesis, Genesis 1-4, and a yet undetermined Greek Bible exegesis course.

This will put off the final completion of an MDiv for another year, but the value of a less hectic schedule and increased time to study and reflect, as well as more time to be with Wendy and kids is too much to pass up.

Playing Chauffeur to Grudem

Nine times in two years our church holds TBI seminars that are open to the whole church and required for the TBI Track 2 guys. These seminars include topics like, Desiring God, TULIP, Future Grace, Why We Believe the Bible, etc.

Last night and this morning was the seminar on Gender Complimentarianism. This is the idea that the genders complement each other. In other words, men and women are equal before God, yet have different roles.

Because Pastor Piper is on sabbatical in Europe, he did not teach the seminar. Instead, his good friend, Dr. Wayne Grudem, taught the seminar. Since coming to BBC, this is the fourth time that I have seen Dr. Grudem live.

Dr. Grudem has had a big impact on my spiritual development as I found his major book, Systematic Theology, back in the late nineties. It has been very influential in my learning.

In getting to the point, Wendy and I had the honor of driving Dr. Grudem to and from his hotel to the seminar today. It was a joy to ride with him and talk to him about his children and family and his career.

Anyway, it was a small joy for us, and another of those neat things that have happened to us since we came to Bethlehem Baptist Church.

Update: Jason

This last Monday through Wednesday was the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors. Over 1,200 pastors from around the world came to Minneapolis for this conference. The TBI guys all went as well. The theme of the conference was "How Must a Pastor Die." The point was that a pastor should be willing to die for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The various speakers fleshed that out with visions of missionary martyrs to local racially harmonized churches. It was a good and challenging time.

Pastor Piper, who was not the keynote speaker, did his usual biographical sketch of a hero from church history. He has done 19 or twenty of these biographies now. They are very powerful, as this one was. It was on William Tyndale. All of them are available in manuscript form at this site at Desiring God.

Tomorrow I am going to Iowa City with Pastor Tom Steller. He is doing a Perspectives on World Missions lecture and asked me to ride shotgun with him. He is my mentor during this school year. I am very blessed to have him spending time in my life right now. It is a five-hour drive each way. However, it will be fun to add another mid-west state to the growing list of states I have visited.

As for school, TBI is overwhelming. I am spending all my time on two books: The Epistle to the Hebrews and the Epistle to the Romans. We are translating our way through the entire book of Hebrews this year, but in Romans we are only focusing on chapters 9-11 this semester. The theology in both is rich, but I worry that my time is so constrained that I am only grazing the surface.

God is good, and I am not complaining. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to study deeply. My hope is that my mind will kick into gear and begin to really understand what I am studying. I pray that my affections will also stay strong.

Tomorrow comes early. Off to bed.

Here We Are

Here is a picture for those of you who want to see a current image of us. We hope that the first week of your year is going well.

All of last semester, I have been the teacher's assistant for Pastor Tom Steller's two classes on Wednesday nights. Wendy has been taking the classes. Because we have been in these classes, Wendy and I have not been able to attend the regular Wednesday night service. Last night we attended the first Wednesday service of the new year, and our first service in over five months. The Wednesday night services are a lot different than Sunday morning, but they are still wonderful. They are more homey, and we worship, and have some teaching time, and usually, get to watch a few baptisms.

Last night there were two baptisms. It was obvious that both of these people truly understood the magnitude of their sin and the magnitude of the covering afforded to them by Christ's death and resurrection. It was an honor and a joy to hear their testimonies and see them take the step of faith in being baptized.

Next week Wendy and I will be back in classes. That is good, but also sad, because we realized how much we missed the worship services on Wednesday night.

Happy New Year -- Three Days Late

Happy New Year! We wish you all a wonderful new year. May God bless you as you strive to find your joy in Him. For, as my pastor says, "God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him." So, find your satisfaction in Christ, and in doing so, you will fulfill your greatest duty to glorify him.

We are a little disappointed in the weather. It is supposed to be cold here in Minnesota, but it hasn't hardly dipped below 32 degrees for the last few weeks. The lakes are starting to thaw. Several trucks have fallen through the ice on one lake. If we have to put up with heat and humidity in the summer, I sure would like to have a worthy winter.

School starts again this coming Monday. However, I have two assignments, plus reading due on that day, so I have started studying again. Please pray for Wendy and I as we try to get back into the swing of TBI and homeschool.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope (Romans 15:13).

Merry Christmas Eve!

On Thursday, I took my last final for the Reading the Greek New Testament class. It took almost three hours. After that I was pretty drained. Fortunately, Wendy and I had a babysitter lined up and we were able to go out to Chipotle our new favorite fast food restaurant. Apparently, there is one in Portland, so y'all might want to try it out. I don't think it beats Peppers, but since Peppers isn't in MN, we have to do our best.

After big burritos, we went to see Narnia. We thought that we should preview it before we take the kids, and it was a good idea, because neither Kayleigh nor Brooke would have lasted past the first few minutes.

I don't have classes again until January 9, so we are going to try and spend some much needed family time together. The kids are waiting for me to finish this post so we can play. I have a lot more to say, but it will have to wait until later.

It is our prayer that you see and savor the wonder of the Christ-child this weekend.

Merry Christmas!

The Paper's Done!

I clicked send on the email last night at 11:57 pm. The paper was not late if emailed by 11:59 pm. Barring any internet glitch, it was turned in on time. I really am thankful to God for the ability and priviledge of writing that paper. It was a joy to dig so deeply into Hebrews 10:26-31. As soon as I can figure out a way to post a link to the paper on this site, I will do it.

Thank you to all who have prayed for me. I have one more final tomorrow afternoon and then break for Christmas. It will be a wonderful time, I am sure.

The Stones Have Rolled

Today was a momentous day this week. I stayed up Sunday night and worked on my paper. At 5:00 am this morning, Wendy looked up from bed, looked at me working at my computer, and said, "Have you not come to bed yet?" I turned around and said, "Five more minutes!" I crawled into bed at 5:15 am with a major draft completed. It is due tomorrow night, so I still have to revise the paper and interact with secondary sources, but at least the draft is done.

This afternoon, the other major problem in my life went away. That is a significant praise. Enough said. At least I don't have to go to the doctor....

We heard Vancouver had a bit of snow. It must be cute out there.