Training Up Children, or Churning Out Widgets?

“Human beings used to be …” he hesitated; the blood rushed to his cheeks. “Well, they used to be viviparous.”

Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World describes a future society where children are “decanted,” not born, and the concept of “father” and “mother” are unpleasant historical facts best forgotten. It may be easy to write this off as imaginative conjecture, but any cursory look through the headlines these days will give one an uneasy sense that, perhaps, Huxley’s picture is more prophecy than novel.

It seems that our society more and more treats children as commodities than humans bearing dignity. This, of course, is the logical implication of a certain worldview, a certain set of assumptions about reality. If what exists is random happenings of eternal matter, then there really is no room for ideas like dignity, or meaning, or purpose, or love. And in the end, there really is no room for children as children. Now, as we are able to develop our efficiency, children become widgets in the machine.

That is all too often the way our society, typically unconsciously, treats our children. We take them to centers, give them to experts and ask them to do their thing to them. But this is not how our Lord intends it to be. Scripture seems to pretty clearly articulate that the responsibility to raise, train, disciple, nurture and educate our children is the parents’ responsibility.

Of course, this does not mean that homeschooling is the only way to go. No, Cary Christian School exists and functions on the philosophy that we are partners with parents in the education of their children. As a school, we operate in loco parentis (in the place of the parent). Again, “in the place of” does not mean to “take the place of,” but rather “in partnership with.” We represent the parents in the lives of the children.

This is such a very important distinction to make and such an important principle to which we must adhere, because when God walks in the garden in the cool of the day and looks to the souls of Katie, Lauren, and Andrew, He will ask for Dell, not their teachers.

This is also why it is very important that, as parents…and more specifically, fathers, that we maintain a high level of involvement in the education of the souls that God has given us. Knowing your child(ren)’s teacher(s), asking them what they’re learning at school, talking with them about it around the dinner table, making connections to those lessons when out and about, even asking them to teach you…these are ways that we can be faithful to our Lord’s command to raise our children in the paidea (the inculturation) of God.

Another way that you can maintain that involvement is through the CCS Parent Teacher Fellowship (PTF). The PTF exists to encourage and enable the partnership of school and family by providing support and encouragement to CCS staff and fostering strong relationships among the families at CCS to the glory of God. PTF does this in enumerable ways, including fellowships like Muffins for Moms, Fathers Fellowship and New Family Picnic; providing room moms for elementary school classes; coordinating Field Day at the end of every school year; and much more.

I’d like to invite you to consider joining with PTF in the invaluable ministry it provides our school in its ongoing mission to provide our little (and not so little) ones an excellent classical education founded upon a biblical worldview. If you’d like to get involved or find more information you can contact PTF at [email protected].

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