Generational Education
Recognizing the power of secular thinking on Christian parents
To think Christianly about education is to think generationally. The fact that generational thinking is foreign to so many Christian parents speaks to the cunning power of secular influence on modern Christian parenting and education.
Too many parents think they are hitting the mark because they support their children through college, and perhaps even to the marriage altar and a career. But that is only completing step one. Unless parents are thinking about properly educating their children’s children and preparing the way for the education of their children’s children yet unborn, they are not thinking Christianly and their work will ultimately fall short of the mark. To make my case, let’s turn to the Scriptures since they are the source of our standard for what it means to think Christianly. Consider the Maskil of Asaph in Psalm 78:
“Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.” -Psalm 78:1–8
The author of the Psalm is inviting the reader to contemplate the nature of education (i.e., what the fathers have passed down), the process of education (i.e., generational—with the third and fourth generation in mind), and the content of education (i.e., things heard and known, the glorious deeds, might, and wonder of the Lord), and the end of education (i.e., that the learners would set their hope in God and not be like their stubborn and rebellious ancestors who were not faithful and paid the consequences for their infidelity). The rest of the Psalm reveals the nature of their negligence and the consequences of not educating the subsequent generations.
“The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle. They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law. They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them.” -Psalm 78:9–11
The point of highlighting this passage about the Ephraimites is not to expound on the way Judah superseded them due to their disobedience (vss. 65-72 cf. 1 Samuel 4:1-11). That’s certainly true. But the point is to demonstrate the Ephraimites’ loss of blessing, their loss of affluence and flourishing, their loss of their inheritance and heritage because they forgot God’s works and wonders and turned back when it mattered the most.
Recall education is the process of passing on to the next generation the parent’s understanding of the nature of their world—a world made by God in whom their children should set their hope, a God whom their children should recall with wonder for his marvelous works, and a God whose commandments they willingly and cheerfully keep.
In short, if Christians are not thinking generationally, they are not thinking Christianly; and this grave error is going to be revealed first and foremost in the ultimate manifestation of their philosophy of education—where their grown children set their hope, whom their grown children obey, and whether their grown children have a philosophy of generational education.