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Mike Winther gives a lecture about education at a homeschool convention. Homeschool families take a personal interest in their children’s education. He talks about biblical ideas of education. He also talks about some Puritan ideas of education which are consistent with biblical models.
This episode is about children of God versus children of Caesar, and it’s really about who owns our children. God owns our children, but parents are the caretakers and are held accountable for what they do with their children. This episode is for anyone trying to make sense of how to best educate their children.
You’ll Learn:
- [02:23] Plato was a Greek philosopher. Like many philosophers, he wrestled with the nature of man. Is the nature of man good or evil?
- [03:04] The judeo-Christian view is that man is born with a sin nature. Plato said that man was essentially good but sometimes does evil.
- [03:49] Plato’s answer to where sin comes from is a learned nature from your parents. We have an evil problem in society, because young people learn evil.
- [04:57] In Plato’s Republic, you find the most honest noble person and make them the Philosopher King with absolute power. The next level of wise people are made the schoolmasters.
- [06:07] The children are taken away from the parents as soon as they are weaned.
- [07:43] Fundamental to Plato’s Utopia is fixing the educational system.
- [08:16] Deuteronomy Chapter 6.
- [10:05] We should always be instructing our children.
- [11:40] Is it possible to make education an idol? Education is a means to an end, it’s not the end itself.
- [14:06] How much of our future should we mortgage for an education?
- [16:27] Mike talks about things that the Bible tells us that we shouldn’t do.
- [19:08] Mike talks about the two economic systems in our world and why socialism is biblically wrong.
- [22:04] What should we teach? The Puritans worked hard to apply scripture to every area of life.
- [22:30] Cotton Mather had a lot to say about education.
- [25:13] Reading and writing is secondary to teaching about the savior.
- [29:14] Serving God first and meeting the needs of others. Our careers and occupations are simply serving others.
- [30:40] How our worldviews shouldn’t be compartmentalized.
- [36:10] Methodology and the debate about how we teach. The Trivium and the three stages of learning. The grammar stage. The logic stage. The rhetoric stage.
- [40:55] We should move towards the goal of educating in a Christian environment.
- [45:38] Mike talks about how the public schools have way more access to your children’s mind than you have.
- [50:08] History shows that people in the past who only had an eighth grade education can speak, read and write better than current students.
- [50:49] Mike shares quotes by James Carter and Samuel Smith and Horace Mann.
- [55:16] Your children learn the doctrine of whatever school you put them in.
- [56:49] Problems in America are educational problems.
- [57:13] Karl Marx’s 10 steps for bringing about communism or socialism. One fundamental aspect is free public education for children in schools.
- [01:01:15] Don’t assume that a Christian college is safe. Give your kids all of the best foundations possible.
- [01:03:38] Challenge your kids with information.