Decentralizing Education with Purpose
English poet John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost, wrote that the purpose of education is to “repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him … by possessing our souls of true virtue.”
Today, that vision of education is largely absent. Yet, all education—whether clearly articulated or not—assumes some vision of life, with deep cultural and political implications. This reality helps explain why a recent announcement from the federal Department of Education drew such sharp reactions from across the political spectrum.
According to the announcement, the Department of Education will transfer several programs to other federal agencies through a series of interagency agreements. A senior department official quoted by ABC News said these moves represent a “major step forward” in downsizing the department and returning educational authority to the states.
The plan does not eliminate current programs but outsources a number of them. For example, sections of the Office of Postsecondary Education will now be jointly managed with the Department of Labor. Other offices, such as those overseeing civil rights complaints and federal student loans, will remain within the Department of Education. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon noted to CBS News that this “testing” process may help Congress determine how it might eventually codify these transitions in law, advancing the Trump Administration’s long-term goal of devolving education authority back to the states, or even closing the Department of Education.
Reducing government bureaucracy is a good thing. However, any attempt to minimize or eliminate the federal role in education without reclaiming the telos of education will fail. Returning authority to the states or improving testing outcomes is inadequate without this clarity about what education is truly for.
In fact, education without purpose can be dangerous. D.L. Moody warned, “If you take someone who steals railroad ties and give him an education, you’ve just taught him to steal the entire railroad next time.” Technical skill is insufficient. Education must be guided by moral and philosophical foundations.
Here, the Christian worldview offers both clarity and direction.
Theoretically, Christians can offer a clear and compelling vision of education as the transmission of wisdom, knowledge, and cultural inheritance to future generations. The purpose of education is to shape image bearers into who they were created to be. While Americans rightly maintain that liberty and learning go together, and that the success of republican government requires an educated citizenry, Christians understand that education has an even deeper purpose than career preparation or civic literacy.
At its core, education should help human beings learn about God and the purpose for which they were created. This provides both the foundation for knowing truth and stewarding that which is good and beautiful, as well as the limits that education desperately needs. As I wrote in Restoring All Things: God’s Audacious Plan to Change the World Through Everyday People, a truly Christian education will acknowledge both a created order and a moral order:
Throughout history, Christians not only have seen education as a common good but also could explain why it was a common good. To know about God’s world is to know about God Himself, and so learning is intrinsically good because it has a transcendent purpose. Further, from a Christian worldview, it can be clearly said that there is a moral order to the world. And so, for knowledge to be good, it must be properly ordered, with the technical understood in light of the moral. Indeed, the very first humans were corrupted by acquiring knowledge of something they were not made to know.
Practically, a Christian philosophy of education should motivate action. Periods of reform create opportunities for entrepreneurs and institutions to develop educational alternatives. The explosion of classical Christian schools, private Christian schools, homeschool cohorts, Christian institutes, church-based educational initiatives, and other innovations are powerful means by which to form students who understand their world, their purpose, and the God who made them. Put simply, such actions can place as the telos of education the first words of the Westminster Catechism: “to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”
The Colson Educators program equips Christian educators to live with faithfulness and courage in this moment of incredible opportunity. These digital courses and the annual Rooted Educator’s Conference connect worldview formation with professional growth, for the purpose of the intellectual and moral development of students. Learn more about Colson Educators at courses.colsoneducation.org.
A move to curtail the power of the Department of Education is warranted. However, if there is to be a true recovery of education, there must be a recovery of the purpose for education. Christians have the opportunity and responsibility to articulate that purpose and to act upon it. Only then will we truly begin, in the words of John Milton, to “repair the ruins.”
This Breakpoint was co-authored by Andrew Carico.
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Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/TW Farlow
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
