Philosophy of Education
Philosophy of Education
The courses for Christian education are clearly stated in
II Peter 1:5-10: “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.”
The Bible teaches us that children are a gift from God and bring with them a most serious responsibility. Christian education recognizes that children are a unity of spiritual, mental, physical, and social beings. This is most important to recognize if we are to train the whole child. An education that includes the spiritual nature must be given, or else the child will grow up never knowing the true purpose for living, indeed, without ever fully living!
In the world at large, things secular and sacred are divided. Christian education recognizes no such division. Every thing is to be done for the glory of God, and every truth learned is from God, whether it be scientific, historical, or spiritual. Christian education seeks to teach its full curriculum in this light, and only teachers with completely God-centered outlooks on life can communicate the concepts that God is the God of our everyday lives and that He must be the ruler of our lives.
“Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Colossians 2:8
North Hardin Classical Christian School holds to the historic Christian view of life as presented in the Bible. Since God created and sustains everything through His Son, Jesus Christ, the world and all life is God-created and should glorify Him. Man is by nature a sinner incapable of knowing God. He can do this only by being recreated in God’s image and by committing his life to Christ as Lord and Savior.
Therefore, the total process of education must seek to guide to this restoration in Christ by developing the whole person, spiritually, mentally, socially, and physically. Truth must be presented as God’s truth and integrated with God’s Word. North Hardin Christian School’s philosophy of education results in subject matter being interpreted from a Biblical perspective. The students are instructed to view life from God’s perspective rather than just man’s. The Biblical philosophy of education is not an education that is based on religion; it is itself based on truth and righteousness.
The sixth chapter of Deuteronomy plainly teaches that Christian education is the responsibility of the parents under God. Verses 4 through 9 tell us,
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”
The scope of Christian education includes all of life; it can and should go on night and day. The Christian school is only one forum in which Christian education should take place.
North Hardin Christian School is a private Christian school. There is nothing wrong about the word private, but it should never be used when describing our school without the word Christian. This is because a school can be private without being Christian. NHCS is a private Christian school as opposed to a public secular school.
