Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Randy J. Siebold
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000426
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00:02 You know, someone once said that our ideas of education take too
00:05 narrow a view and too low a range. There is need of a 00:10 broader scope, a higher aim. Please join us today as we talk 00:15 about the principles of Christian education 00:18 on Issues and Answers. 00:31 Music being played. 00:43 Hi, I'm Shelley Quinn and we are so glad that you could join us 00:47 and if you have children, grandchildren or are thinking 00:50 about having children, you want to watch this program. We are 00:54 going to be talking today about the principles of Christian 00:58 education. Returning to visit with us is Dr. Randy Siebold 01:02 who is the vice-president of education at the Weimar Center 01:06 for Health and Education. I almost got that out. 01:10 Randy we're so glad that you could come back. 01:14 Glad to be here, thank you very much. 01:15 You know, I'd like to just take a moment and just talk about you 01:20 personally because we have mentioned that you got your 01:23 doctoral degree and you did those doctoral studies in the 01:27 public school system. How many children do you and your wife 01:31 have? Just five. Just five! I was thinking you had four. 01:35 So you actually know a lot about education just from your 01:40 personal experiences with five children. 01:42 Yes, we've been blessed five times. 01:44 Praise the Lord. Now you moved out to California and part of 01:48 the family is there with you, you've got part in college and 01:52 high school. You've got them everywhere, haven't you? 01:55 What's your youngest? The youngest is seven, if you 01:58 asked him, seven-and-a-half and that's Freddie. 02:01 What interested you or why did you make the switch from public 02:07 education to Christian Education? 02:11 Well probably not so much a switch but what I had to do was 02:17 switch in my brain when they talked about it. When I pursued 02:20 my doctoral at Indiana University what I had a real 02:25 passion to do was understand education. I mean my children 02:30 were growing up, I had this deep need for understanding what 02:34 education was all about and the Lord led me into this program; 02:40 I'm real confident of that. This program greatly blessed me, but 02:45 I'll tell you what, going through this process of learning 02:51 about public education, the one thing I didn't want to do 02:57 was get off center with what was really good education. So I 03:03 ended up getting a hold of a book called Education, that just 03:08 the simple title of the book, Education, written by Ellen 03:12 White. When I got a hold of that book and read it through, this 03:15 was before I ever got into my doctoral work. In fact, it was 03:18 one of the things that made me really very interested in 03:22 education and about how we could do it better. I was absolutely 03:26 fascinated by it. So what I ended up doing was in my 03:29 doctoral work while I would research study, I would go back 03:33 and reread this book, sections of this book, to help keep me 03:37 centered on what good education was. Absolutely this book, 03:42 Education, is by far the best book that I've ever read on 03:46 Christian education and arguably education in general. Just 03:51 phenomenal. I had noticed you carry your 03:54 book with you wherever you go and that it is something that is 03:58 well marked, underlined, highlighted, you name it. 04:01 It's abused and loved. 04:03 It's abused and loved. You once told me that if you were going 04:06 to write a book on education this is the way you would begin 04:11 it and it is a quote from E.G. White in this book. 04:15 Well, think about this. Here Ellen White, she's going to 04:18 write this book on education and the book was published in 04:21 1903; so imaging writing a book on education. How do you start 04:27 it out? What is it that you really want the reader to 04:32 understand, to set the stage for reading the rest of the book? 04:37 So we're going to cut to a slide here and take a look at this 04:41 first sentence. Here's how she starts it. 04:44 Our ideas of education take too narrow a view and too low a 04:48 range. We're too narrow, too low. 04:53 That's our educational view. She continues here. This is 04:57 amazing. This first paragraph is just packed with educational 05:00 principles. There is need of a broader 05:02 scope, a higher aim. True education means more than a 05:06 perusal of a certain course of study. It means more than a 05:09 preparation for the life that now is. 05:11 So what she's done here is she's given this context. It's 05:17 not just this little box that we think it is. Go back to that 05:21 first sentence. Our ideas of education take too narrow and 05:25 too low range. Okay? 05:27 So what are the principles that she advocates. How does she see 05:33 the goal of a Christian education? 05:38 Okay. If you can't read the book Education at least read the 05:45 first four chapters. That chapter set is called First 05:52 Principles. Okay, so you read the first four chapters. 05:55 Wonderful overview of education. If you don't have time for that, 06:01 at least read the first chapter, okay. Because the whole chapter 06:06 is good. If you don't have time for that, at least read the 06:12 first paragraph. So, let's finish the last paragraph here 06:16 and in just a few sentences, she's going to give you some of 06:21 the main things that I picked up in my doctoral program. It was 06:24 absolutely amazing. We'll cover these points here. Take a look 06:28 at this. There are three major points that come out of this. 06:31 It has to do... and this is true education... with the whole 06:38 being and with the whole period of existence possible to man. 06:42 So now we have whole being; that's holistic education and 06:45 she's now talking about life long learning; the whole period 06:48 of existence, not just for school... It's the harmonious 06:51 development of the physical, the mental and the spiritual 06:55 powers... Now again she's going back to whole being but she's 06:58 saying it's the harmonious development of these things, 07:01 not putting things into components and separating them. 07:06 All right comes the last sentence here... 07:08 It prepares the student 07:10 for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of 07:14 wider service in the world to come. p. 13. 07:18 So then she's saying that education should be holistic 07:22 coving all aspects of the personality and the mind, that 07:27 it should be lifelong and then service-oriented rather than 07:33 self-oriented. And I just think it's an 07:37 absolutely stunning paragraph, because what it does is it 07:42 takes the common misbeliefs, points them out and then hits 07:47 three of the most critical principles of what it means 07:52 to have a biblical education, of what God has told us 07:56 what education needs to be about. It's holistic, not just 08:01 mind and not just memory, but the whole mind and the body 08:06 and the spirit, the whole person. So, in fact, if you just 08:12 do spiritual training, you're not doing true education, right? 08:17 So it has to be all three of these: the mind, the body and 08:21 the spirit. Now are there biblical examples 08:24 of this? There are very good biblical 08:26 examples if we take a look. In this same book if you want 08:34 a biblical understanding of education, get the book 08:41 Education. I don't want to keep saying this over and over, but 08:45 I'll probably say it more. I don't want to be a broken record 08:49 You're enamored with this book I understand, but let me 08:51 interrupt you for just a moment so that I can tell our viewers 08:55 that if this is already causing an epiphany in your mind and 08:59 the light bulbs are going on, the way you can get a copy of 09:02 the book simply entitled Education by E.G. White 09:08 is you can go to the adventistbookcenter.com and 09:13 order a copy through that. I know 3ABN doesn't carry the book 09:17 and Randy, you're not selling the book; you're just selling 09:21 the principles and holding them up saying these are truly 09:26 biblical principles that were extrapolated and then written 09:31 down into this book in a concise, nice way. 09:34 Well, when you find something that works, you don't reinvent 09:40 it. If you want to use this as a detailed Bible study, as a Bible 09:44 study guide for what good education is, I think that would 09:49 be a great way to go, just very, very good. 09:53 So then, let's go back to some of the biblical examples. I can 09:57 think of the school of the prophets. 09:58 Well what God started out with was the model example, the model 10:12 throughout all after time. This was the model school, 10:16 this was what school was supposed to be like and what 10:19 it is supposed to be like. We'll take a look at a quote here in 10:23 Chapter 2: This is in the first paragraph of chapter two. 10:27 Sometimes in circles we'll hear the blueprint, this ideal 10:31 education. Well this is what she says on Education, p. 20. 10:36 The garden of Eden was the schoolroom, nature was the 10:40 lesson book, the Creator himself was the instructor and the 10:46 parents of the human family were the students. 10:50 Any child that's watching right now is going, Yes, nature gets 10:55 to be my lesson book outside! But that certainly, the Lord... 11:00 This is an example, this a model school that was given by God. 11:05 Think about this. Adam and Eve were created in this perfection 11:10 and set in the perfect environment to be more and more 11:14 like Jesus, more and more like Christ their creator. 11:19 So I take away from that because idealistically we're not in the 11:24 garden of Eden and we're not all sitting at the feet of the Lord 11:29 or don't even know how to sit at the feet of the Lord to be 11:33 trained so taking away from that though is the idea that we can 11:38 now have godly instructors who are following biblical examples 11:42 to give you the holistic... I mean that's where you see 11:46 those three things. They were holistic. That teaching in the 11:49 garden of Eden, obviously he was training them for lifelong 11:53 service and intended them to be service oriented rather than 11:58 self oriented. Give me some more biblical examples because the 12:02 garden of Eden didn't last that long. 12:04 Yes that's right. Well coming out of there, there was not so 12:11 much a school, but if we think about the children of Israel 12:15 coming out of Egypt. Take a look at that group. Now here's a 12:18 ...The wilderness was a great school of education. 12:22 What a classroom. So then he raises up a sanctuary, this 12:27 tabernacle where he will dwell and then he sets this whole 12:33 learning object right in the middle of camp to show the 12:38 salvation process. I mean, there's a whole study in and 12:44 of itself, right? The sanctuary process and about all of those 12:49 things and his plan then was to put this in front so they would 12:54 questions. Why is that that way? Why is that? And when they 12:58 inquired, and you'll find this in scripture, when they inquired 13:02 that's when they were told. So it improves the inquisitive 13:10 nature, it facilitates it. If there's nothing there, you're 13:14 not asking questions. All of a sudden there's a pillar and well 13:18 why did we build that pillar there? Well this was to show 13:22 where God had led us and... 13:24 Okay, so I see what you're saying is that God's method is 13:28 that he put that inquisitiveness in us. We see it for little 13:33 children and that's the way they learn. But now the current 13:38 school model in most public schools smothers that 13:41 inquisitive intuitive way of learning. 13:45 Well and quite frankly every day struggle with that. Most 13:51 of the teachers I've met are deeply concerned about their 13:56 young people in their classrooms and they want them to learn. 14:02 Now that's not the deepest struggle, but the way we've 14:07 designed this system makes it very difficult to do that and so 14:12 they struggle between this content and developing the child 14:16 and the spiritual nature and covering the content and so they 14:21 struggle with these things. In God's methods is he put out this 14:26 tabernacle in that case. We have more cases. School of the 14:31 prophets, we can look there to find lessons for how our schools 14:35 should be run even today. We have the model of Jesus and his 14:41 school. Or Paul. Yes, Paul and his school, right. He admonishes 14:47 Timothy. We can take a peek at that, too. 2 Timothy chapter 3 14:54 and there are two verses here. We can start by taking a look 14:58 at 2 Timothy 3:15 and I'll read it here. 15:04 And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures which 15:11 are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is 15:15 in Christ Jesus. So here it is: The scriptures, 15:18 taught when he was a child. 15:20 Of course, in chapter 1, I think that is verse 5, it's talking 15:27 about it was his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice who 15:32 taught him. You know when he says that the scriptures build 15:37 wisdom; I went to church with a man who had like a third grade 15:42 education, could barely read, and when he'd just been 15:45 converted, I watched him over the next few years as he really 15:50 began to read the Bible and other Christian literature and I 15:54 saw this man develop, not only in his reading skills, but in 15:59 wisdom. He really developed godly wisdom and he ended up 16:02 being an elder of the church. It was amazing. So we see then 16:05 that the Bible is an essential component for learning. 16:11 Absolutely, absolutely and you know if we look at what God 16:17 is trying to tell us about what good education is I think it 16:20 would be helpful if we could spend a few minutes at what 16:25 are these essential components of a biblical education process. 16:32 Does that sound good? That sounds good. 16:33 All right so if we start by taking a look at this slide 16:38 here that shows this quote. Now this, again, comes from 16:42 this book education and check this out, check this out and 16:46 we're going to hit this one. The mind occupied with common 16:50 place matters only, becomes dwarfed and enfeebled... 16:55 As a safeguard against this degeneracy and a stimulus to 17:00 development nothing else can equal the study of God's word. 17:04 ...And listen how she ends this quote... 17:06 As a means of intellectual training the Bible is more 17:11 effective than any other book, or all other books combined. 17:15 To my point about this gentleman who had so little understanding 17:21 of life in itself and had very little reading skills and I 17:25 watched this man be transformed by the words of God, and so I'm 17:30 absolutely... He got the heavenly wisdom from above as 17:34 he developed his relationship with the Lord. 17:35 I believe it, I believe it and I've experienced it. I've 17:38 experienced it. I think anyone who knew me in high school or in 17:42 even my undergraduate degree would not have called me an 17:45 academician and the idea of getting a doctorate would have 17:50 been just sort of out or their mind. But as I had children and 17:55 grew and I was in construction for a while, I just opened up 18:00 and started reading and studying and the power of the 18:05 Bible is beyond comprehension to human understanding. Let's just 18:12 put it as it is. It's all God-breathed isn't it? 18:15 Think about this, think about this. You take God's design and 18:20 of course God has this ability to be separated from time, so 18:26 he sees where we're at right now he sees where he wants us to be 18:30 and then he goes back... I don't know how exactly he does it, but 18:34 just follow me for little bit... So he goes back in time and he 18:38 back and he talks with the prophets and says, Okay here's 18:41 what they need at this time. So they write that down, it 18:45 comes to us when we're right here wrestling with where we 18:48 need to be. He knows where he needs to point us, he knows 18:52 exactly what we need and he gives us that gift in scripture. 18:57 And it's something that... the way I say it is, This word is 19:01 inexhaustible. You can study the same chapter, the same chapter, 19:06 not just book, but you can study the same chapter over and over 19:10 again for a year and you're going to learn something new 19:12 every day from that because it's like you begin to develop the 19:16 spiritual discernment and if you have the Holy Spirit in you the 19:20 Holy Spirit is leading. The Lord doesn't ask us to learn it all 19:24 at once. It's so amazing to me how he leads us in baby steps 19:28 and, you know, we get the milk of the word first and then we 19:31 begin to get the solid food. I'm one of these underliners and 19:35 sometimes I underline and I can remember when I was first... 19:39 in one year I read through the New Testament 200 times. 19:43 I'd underline what was important and then I'd just start all over 19:46 and read it again. Then I'd come by the second time and think 19:49 Oh no, and I'd take a different colored pencil. This is what's 19:52 really the most important. The third time through - Oh no, this 19:55 is the most important message. How could I have missed it. 19:59 It is so amazing to me that no matter how often I'd studied 20:02 something God just keeps unfolding more and more. 20:06 So what happens... Think about this... So how does the Bible 20:13 become a center of education? I mean, we're thinking math and 20:18 science when we think education right? But remember at the 20:23 of the book Education our ideas are too low and too narrow. 20:30 I think the point that has come to me in my learning is that 20:37 God really has a deeper, much bigger picture for our 20:41 development that scripture is designed for. And actually 20:46 to look up this quote in it's context in the book Education, 20:51 you look up the quote and the amazing part about it is this 20:56 is talking about intellectual development. It's not talking 21:00 about spiritual development. The paragraph that follows that 21:03 quote talks about spiritual development and how the Bible 21:07 is good for spiritual development. 21:10 Really the Bible is an intellectual tool, it's an 21:13 intellectual development tool. Because it takes intellect more 21:18 and more to grow and to put pieces together. It's amazing. 21:23 It is amazing. So what are some of the other principles? 21:28 Okay, good point. Nature. Nature is the second textbook that's 21:33 been given to us by God. So you take a look at this first book, 21:38 scripture, the second book of God to his people is nature. 21:43 I just have to say something here because one of the most 21:47 amazing things about nature to me... We've always heard that no 21:50 two snowflakes are alike. I was studying on leaves. Did you know 21:53 there are no two leaves alike. When you think of all the 21:55 billions and billions and billions of leaves in the world 21:59 no two leaves are exactly alike. It amazes me how God is such 22:03 an artistic creator. And you see all the different birds and all 22:07 the different colors of flowers and nature is an incredible 22:12 study. It's an incredible textbook and 22:14 it's actually an incredible classroom and study, a great 22:19 textbook. And teachers know this too. Getting outside; there's 22:24 something about nature and what we've also found just through 22:29 our experience and some authors have agreed with this that going 22:34 out of doors helps to remove the focus that we have on fashion. 22:40 Sometimes we get too focused on fashion. Young people go, Oh I 22:43 have to look like this or I have to look... It's just sort of 22:47 this great equalizer of everyone and so nature just has so many 22:51 lessons that it can teach us. It's another incredible book 22:56 given to us by God for the, well I was going to say, for 23:00 the education of our children but for everyone; it's for 23:04 educating everyone. So we've good the Good Book, 23:06 we've got nature's book but certainly she was not against 23:10 your regular old textbook learning was she? 23:13 That's right. No, No. Absolutely that is, I think, a significant 23:18 part of the educational process. We may be tempted to swing too 23:22 far the other way where we get rid of the academic knowledge 23:27 and we just focus on the spiritual knowledge. And that 23:31 would be wrong. Exactly, that would be focusing on just one 23:35 and not the whole being again. So academic knowledge is a part 23:39 of that. All right. I know that I've 23:46 heard much about manual labor, that that's a good educational 23:48 process. Yes. Manual labor is something 23:53 that helps, again, the taxing of the mind that happens you know 23:57 when we get into study, and we can study scripture and study 24:02 scripture and be in nature. There's something about working 24:08 out the body in physical, manual useful labor. Now imagine 24:12 yourself running on a treadmill, which is sometimes all we can 24:16 do for exercise cause we need to exercise our bodies, but how 24:21 much better to work in a garden with your hands, planting and 24:25 pulling weeds and being active with the soil. You're learning 24:32 lessons, you're in fresh air. It's God design for manual labor 24:37 You know, I think manual labor helps develop those spacial 24:41 skills and various things. You know, you can talk in theory 24:45 from books or learn in theory, but you get out and actually 24:49 apply principles of engineering or physics or whatever or 24:53 chemistry. This is something that as you get out and actually 24:56 do, that's the application isn't it? 24:59 Yes. There's another quote that we don't have on the slides, but 25:02 she talks about that manual labor is needed also by 25:07 professional men. So an education derived chiefly from 25:13 books leads to what she calls superficial learning. That's the 25:18 same point you're talking about, getting back into the physical 25:23 hands on that has to be a part of it. Scripture doesn't talk 25:29 about sports, you understand what I'm saying? I mean, we 25:34 think that PE class, physical education, covers that one 25:39 component, but God's design is for useful, physical, manual 25:45 labor; a great equalizer. 25:46 So that kind of then ties into her final principle, I believe, 25:49 of health and body. That's something that is also part of 25:56 our learning experience of health, body and mind. 25:58 It's one of these great components, yes; making sure 26:01 that you are learning how to take care of your body, the 26:07 health, and health isn't even just of the body, it's also of 26:12 the mind. When we talk about EQ, you know, emotional intelligence 26:18 we touched on that in one of our earlier shows, the EQ is a way 26:24 of bringing health to the mind. The struggles that people go 26:29 through when someone offends them of not being able to go 26:35 to that person directly and to say, I'm sorry, I've done this, 26:40 I shouldn't have; that is so huge in the life and what it 26:45 means to be successful and be able to do that. 26:48 See, again, when you go back to the scripture I think if you 26:51 really want to develop a good EQ-emotional quotient-you find 26:55 those principles in scripture because this is something that 26:58 you learn how to deal with these things according to God's wisdom 27:03 and it's amazing how you start putting these principles into 27:06 practice and God begins to change you. You know, you've 27:09 heard all these things on personality study and people 27:12 will say, Well, I'm just choleric, I can't help myself, 27:15 or I'm sanguine, I can't help myself. and it always upsets me 27:20 to a point... If that's your thing, I'm not trying to paint 27:25 a bad light, but I do believe that God wants to recreate us 27:28 and even though we may be choleric by nature, that you're 27:32 a new creation in Christ Jesus in that he's not trying to make 27:36 us cookie cutter Christians, but that we will develop more of 27:39 the characteristics of Christ. 27:41 Fruits of the Spirit. When the Spirit dwells in you the fruit 27:44 of the Spirit will show. 27:46 I can't believe that our time has already gone, but I just 27:49 want to thank you so much for being here again today. 27:53 I'm very happy to be here. 27:54 I am going to plug your book one more time and that is 27:58 actually by E.G. White. The book is Education. You can get 28:02 it at adventistbookcenter.com. Thank you so much for joining 28:07 us today. I hope you were blessed |
Revised 2014-12-17