Why Classical Christian Education Forms True Thinkers | Pastor Doug Wilson — Transcript

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1. 0:00It is an honor to be here with the Doug
2. 0:02Wilson. [laughter]
3. 0:04We're so incredibly thankful for you and
4. 0:07the work that you've done and
5. 0:08specifically the book that you had
6. 0:10written. It kind of just relaunched the
7. 0:11classical education movement. Can you
8. 0:13talk a little bit about why that book
9. 0:15was so important to you?
10. 0:16>> We started Logos School in 1981
11. 0:20and after about 10 years, we were so
12. 0:23astonished at the results it was
13. 0:25getting. We we adopted Dorothy Ser's
14. 0:28model uh as because we didn't know what
15. 0:30else to do. We didn't know what we were
16. 0:32doing and well we can try this and we
17. 0:35did and it was the results were amazing.
18. 0:38And about 10 years in I I had the
19. 0:41privilege of writing the the turning
20. 0:44point series book on education and uh
21. 0:47recovering the lost tools of learning.
22. 0:49And there was a whole series of books
23. 0:51like one on going to the movies and
24. 0:54literature and banking and stuff. And
25. 0:57when people read the book on literature,
26. 0:59they'd say, "Honey, that was great.
27. 1:01Let's read a good book together." Or,
28. 1:03but when they read my book, it turns out
29. 1:04they said, "Honey, we have to start a
30. 1:06school."
31. 1:08>> [laughter]
32. 1:09>> And so they started calling and writing
33. 1:11and we started getting a it really
34. 1:14caught and we were caught flat-footed
35. 1:17because we had our own school and I
36. 1:19started I handed over the education
37. 1:22correspondence to Nancy to say could you
38. 1:25please handle this and so the
39. 1:27association of classical Christian
40. 1:29schools ACCS began on our kitchen table
41. 1:32with Nancy answering letters. Uh, and
42. 1:36then I thought, well, let's just hold a
43. 1:37conference and then we can record the
44. 1:39talks and then we can just give out
45. 1:41tapes and then save us a bunch of work.
46. 1:43And so we did that, but then a bunch of
47. 1:45people showed up and and we thought, oh,
48. 1:48this is so we formed an association.
49. 1:50That's so basically it was the right
50. 1:52book at the right time where a lot of
51. 1:55people were really hungry for something
52. 1:57more substantive.
53. 1:58>> Yeah. Well, we're so thankful for that
54. 2:00and the partnership that we now have
55. 2:01developed with ACCS to start more
56. 2:04Christian classical schools because
57. 2:05they're so important. Can you explain
58. 2:07why classical education is so impactful?
59. 2:11>> Yes. Because you're not teaching uh
60. 2:14students to regurgitate. You're teaching
61. 2:16them to Well, this was a this was a
62. 2:19cliche in government schools a few
63. 2:21decades ago. uh critical thinking, you
64. 2:24know, and what that meant for them was
65. 2:26don't teach them anything true, just
66. 2:28teach them how to question everything,
67. 2:30you know, just be cynical. So there's a
68. 2:32kind of critical thinking that's just
69. 2:33cynical or skeptical. And then there's a
70. 2:36kind of critical thinking that teaches
71. 2:38logic, analysis, reason. So classical
72. 2:42Christian education inculcates the true,
73. 2:45the good, the beautiful and teaches the
74. 2:48students how to identify and appreciate
75. 2:50those things. And it's it's genuine
76. 2:54critical thinking. And so that is
77. 2:56transformative because what what happens
78. 2:59is you don't have students graduating
79. 3:02who just take in whatever the propaganda
80. 3:04says. They know how to analyze an
81. 3:07argument. They know how to um dissect a
82. 3:10sentence and see what the person's
83. 3:12actually saying. And they're not going
84. 3:14to be so easily snowed.
85. 3:16>> How is the teaching different in a
86. 3:19classical school compared to a different
87. 3:21school? I mean the
88. 3:22>> teaching methodology.
89. 3:23>> Yes. So we often talk about pidea but
90. 3:25that seems like a far-fetched word that
91. 3:26a lot of people don't understand. Can
92. 3:27you explain what pa is?
93. 3:29>> In Ephesians chapter 6 where Paul tells
94. 3:32fathers he says bring their your
95. 3:34children up in the nurture and
96. 3:36admonition of the lord. Underneath
97. 3:38nurture and admonition one of the words
98. 3:40there is pidea. And pidea is a Greek
99. 3:43word that's a you it's a big concept. So
100. 3:47in English for example bootlace or chair
101. 3:51would be an ordinary common noun not a
102. 3:53big word. U a big word would be
103. 3:56something like democracy. For the
104. 3:57ancient Greeks pidea was the entire
105. 4:00system of inculturation.
106. 4:03How how a young child is inculturated
107. 4:07into the culture and ways and religion
108. 4:10and faith of his people. That's that's
109. 4:12pidea. That's what it was. And so Paul
110. 4:16tells Ephesian fathers to bring your
111. 4:18children up in the pidea of the Lord.
112. 4:21Well, they could respond, "We don't have
113. 4:24a Christian culture to bring them up
114. 4:27into." Exactly. But that's how you build
115. 4:29one. The end result of Christians doing
116. 4:32that and establishing Christian schools,
117. 4:35tutoring, all of that resulted in over
118. 4:39time a genuine Christian culture
119. 4:42resulting in what we now call
120. 4:44Christendom which ran for a thousand
121. 4:46years. All right. And uh that was all
122. 4:49the result of Pidea. I
123. 4:51>> feel like in our country we've kind of
124. 4:53been losing that sense of pidea. We're
125. 4:54losing we're not really as much a
126. 4:56culturally Christian,
127. 4:58>> right? Education is as much about
128. 5:01formation as it is about information,
129. 5:04right? Information is just a data
130. 5:06download. And um and in modern schools,
131. 5:11it's just thought of as a conceptual
132. 5:13data download and then as time goes by,
133. 5:16there's less and less data that gets
134. 5:17downloaded uh and it finally trails off
135. 5:20into nothing. But in a in a full orbed
136. 5:24Christian education, everything's
137. 5:26involved. It's it's the whole person.
138. 5:29So, um and this is one of our taglines
139. 5:31in Moscow is all of Christ for all of
140. 5:34life. And uh an all-encompassing
141. 5:37worldview education in the school is
142. 5:40bringing children up to think that way
143. 5:43where Christ is Lord of everything.
144. 5:45Christ is Lord not just of your Sunday
145. 5:48school, not just of your devotional
146. 5:50life. Christ is Lord of auto mechanics
147. 5:52and yogurt stores and tire centers and
148. 5:56and politics and educate everything.
149. 5:59Christ is Lord of all.
150. 6:01>> Well, a lot of schools are saying,
151. 6:03"Well, we don't we don't really want to
152. 6:05be political, so we can't we can't say
153. 6:07anything." How does that work within
154. 6:09classical education? Isn't classical
155. 6:11education kind of inherently political?
156. 6:13And if so, how?
157. 6:14>> Yeah. The reason classical education is
158. 6:17inherently political is because it is
159. 6:19thoroughly Christian and Christianity is
160. 6:22inherently political. The Sunday morning
161. 6:24worship service is to worship God, not
162. 6:26to campaign or have stump speeches for a
163. 6:29particular candidate, but it's still
164. 6:32inherently political because Caesar is
165. 6:35being told by the simple fact of the
166. 6:37worship service, Caesar is being told
167. 6:40that there is a God above Caesar. And
168. 6:43I'm fond of saying that if there is no
169. 6:45God, if this is the state and this is
170. 6:47God, if there is no God above the state,
171. 6:50the state is God. I don't want the state
172. 6:52to be God. I don't either. And so
173. 6:54consequently, any institution like the
174. 6:57church or a robust, healthy Christian
175. 7:00school that teaches and preaches that
176. 7:04God outranks Caesar is making a
177. 7:08profoundly political statement. We are
178. 7:11so thankful for your heart for the
179. 7:13gospel, your heart for classical
180. 7:15education. Do you have one piece of
181. 7:17advice for educators as they're going,
182. 7:20they want to do the right thing, they're
183. 7:21thinking about starting school, like I
184. 7:23said, or even parents that are wanting
185. 7:25to have their children know this. What
186. 7:27piece of encouragement do you have to
187. 7:28them?
188. 7:28>> I would say my encouragement uh to them
189. 7:30would be this. Don't despise the day of
190. 7:33small beginnings. If you're starting a
191. 7:35Christian school, you're going to look
192. 7:37around on the the first after the first
193. 7:40week and think, man, this is pitiful.
194. 7:44I worked so hard. It was a tiny, you
195. 7:46know, uh, don't despise the day of small
196. 7:48beginnings. And I tell teachers, uh,
197. 7:50this is one of the things I say
198. 7:52regularly at ACCS conferences. I say, I
199. 7:56want you to feel simultaneously
200. 7:58encouraged and overwhelmed.
201. 8:01Okay? Overwhelmed means you're on the
202. 8:03right. you're doing the right thing. Uh
203. 8:05encouraged means you're doing the right
204. 8:07thing.
205. 8:08>> Thank you so much for that final words
206. 8:09of encouragement and we're so thankful
207. 8:11that you started ACCS and our continued
208. 8:13partnership to really revive education
209. 8:16by bringing it back to Christian
210. 8:17classical values.
211. 8:18>> Thank you very much. It's great to be
212. 8:19here.