Paideia (Foundation Series)
“A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” - Luke 6:40
You don’t have to spend very much time in education to understand the truth that culture is everything. And, to clarify, when I say culture, I am talking about everything that surrounds a student throughout their entire time at school. There is culture amongst school staff, amongst students, within relationships from teacher to students. There is culture embedded in the content that students engage with. There is culture that may vary from one classroom to the next. There is culture in how teachers teach, and in how students are expected to come to school and learn. There is culture in what is prioritized in the school. There is even culture in the simple things, like how we walk in the hallways, how we eat our lunch, and how we welcome visitors to the school.
Bottom line: Culture is everywhere, and this culture shapes young people. Personally, I’ve seen it shape children for the better, and I’ve seen it shape children for the worse.
One major mistake modern educational thought has produced is the separation of education or learning into various subjects. We have “siloed the disciplines.” The result, whether intentional or not, has been that we start to believe that the school day is made up of a series of classes in which the learning takes place. Education is said to be the transfer of information from a teacher to the student through the teaching of an intentionally structured “lesson.” There are very specific parameters for how a “proper” lesson should be designed, and if you don’t get through the information and get the task done, the lesson is considered incomplete or to have failed. The amount of information teachers are expected to pass along to students is also nearly impossible to accomplish, therefore modern education tends to be obtuse and rushed, students are force fed (overfed) and they end up with indigestion. The end result of all this is a generation growing up to hate education, hate learning, and really have no clue how to go on and learn new things for themselves.
The reason for pointing all of this is out is to articulate the departure modern thought has taken from how classical education understands the process. Classical educators understand education as an all encompassing process that doesn’t just deal with passing along information during class time or during a lesson. Education and learning takes place throughout every nook and cranny of the school day. From the classroom, to the hallway, to the bathroom, to the lunch room, to the gym, to the football game, and all the way back home. It is best to understand that learning is not received, learning is absorbed. Many have heard of young people being compared to sponges. They absorb everything! They certainly do absorb information like basic math facts, but they also absorb mannerisms, morality, belief systems, expectations, consequences, dialect, and much more. In other words, they absorb the culture that is around them. G.K. Chesterton put it this way:
“Education is not a subject and does not deal in subjects. It is instead the transfer of a way of life.”
What we are doing in a classical Christian education is transferring a way of life to students. We are not merely teaching them subjects, although this is a part of it. We are discipling them to be like Christ and to go on to be who God is calling them to be. Jesus, in Luke 6:40, does not tell us that we will be like the information we received from our trainer. No, we will be like our trainer themselves. Our children will be like those who teach them because they absorb more than information. They absorb a culture and a way of life.
This leads us to consider what Paul writes in Ephesians 6:4:
“And, you fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
This very passage, if we understand it correctly, shows us that Christian parents are commanded to raise their children in a Christian culture. Why is this?
First, the words “nurture and admonition” are translated from the greek word, “Paideia.” This was a word that had a meaning of enculturation. It was a word that was often used by the Romans as they would conquer territory. They understood that in order to avoid a newly conquered territory devolving into anarchy, that local people would need to develop a love for that which is Roman. Because of this, everything in that territory would be Romanized. The literature, the music, the entertainment, the architecture, the education, the sports, the language, the clothing, the art, and much more would all be Romanized. Through this, the local people would essentially become Roman. The genius in all of it was that it wasn’t through a forceful hand that they would become Roman. Through this process of enculturation, the local people would be trained to truly love what is Roman.
It is this very same concept that we are called to as Christians in relation to raising our children. If we are truly obeying this passage, the culture our kids are growing up in must be Christianized. If anything has truth, beauty, or goodness, it is from God and our children should interact with it. In addition, anything that has truth, beauty, and goodness can and should be pointed back to Jesus Christ. We should teach that 2+2 = 4 because it’s true and give praise to God because he created an ordered, patterned universe that can be understood and comprehended! This is very much so tied to the Deuteronomy 6:7 passage:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
This scripture clearly commands that the raising and teaching of children is an all encompassing process that begins when they wake, and continues on to the moment they lay their head to rest. Everything our kids encounter throughout the day should be done within the context of the truth of God’s Word. This is what we are called to as parents.
Check out the video below to see a great explanation of paideia. While you may be interested in watching the whole video, the snippet about paideia is from 18:33 - 28:39.
