A quote that is sometimes mistakenly credited to C.S. Lewis
declares, “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems
rather to make man a more clever devil.” A clue that this was not uttered by
Lewis is that it doesn’t quite capture the truth. As Lewis would well know, an
education without values would be quite unlikely to be “useful.” What’s more,
virtually all education incorporates some sort of values. A more accurate
statement on values and education would be: “Education without the proper
values, as useful as it may appear, seems rather to make man a more clever
devil.”
In The Abolition
of Man (or Reflections on Education
with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools),
Lewis’s seminal work on education and values, the case is powerfully made that
a proper education must be grounded in sound moral values and that this proper
education not only rightly informs the intellect of pupils, but trains their
emotions and attitudes as well.
With this in mind, Lewis fondly reflects on our
right-thinking instructional predecessors when he notes,
St Augustine defines virtue as ordo amoris, the
ordinate condition of the affections in which every object is accorded that
kind of degree of love which is appropriate to it. Aristotle says that the aim
of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought. When the age
for reflective thought comes, the pupil who has been thus trained in “ordinate
affections or “just sentiments” will easily find the first principles in
Ethics; but to the corrupt man they will never be visible at all and he can make
no progress in that science. Plato before him had said the same. The little
human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to
feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are
pleasant, likeable, disgusting and hateful. In the Republic, the well-nurtured
youth is one “who would see most clearly whatever was amiss in ill-made works
of man or ill-grown works of nature, and with a just distaste would blame and
hate the ugly even from his earliest years and would give delighted praise to
beauty, receiving it into his soul and being nourished by it, so that he
becomes a man of gentle heart. All this before he is of an age to reason; so
that when Reason at length comes to him, then, bred as he has been, he will
hold out his hands in welcome and recognize her because of the affinity he
bears to her.”
In other words, contrary to what many in education say today, we
are not only to teach children how to think but also what to think. It is not
enough to have the right knowledge on things, we must also possess the virtue
that will allow this knowledge to be put to good use. As Lewis puts it,
Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is
powerless against the animal organism…In battle it is not syllogisms that will
keep the reluctant nerves and muscles to their post in the third hour of the
bombardment…The head rules the belly through the chest — the seat, as Alanus
tells us, of Magnanimity…
Modern American education—dominated by the godless government
schools—has produced a mountain of “Men without Chests”—i.e. heartless, selfish
men who become our “clever devils.” Yet our world “clamors for those very
qualities” that our corrupt government education system has rendered
impossible. As Lewis rightly concludes, “We make men without
chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are
shocked to find traitors in our midst.”
Likewise, we promote promiscuity and are shocked to
find our nation racked with sexual diseases. We reject marriage and are shocked
when our children turn to gangs and drugs. We scoff at law and order and the
police, and we are shocked to find criminals in our midst. We kill the unborn,
and we are shocked to find callous disregard for human life throughout our
culture.
If we want “Men with Chests,” if we want honorable human
beings whose hearts and minds are filled with the right things, then we must have
schools that are founded upon the Moral Law of the Law Giver. This is why I
penned my recent column, A
Challenge to the Modern Church: Invest in Christian Education.
Americans—especially Christian Americans—must cease surrendering our children
to be educated in the godless government (and private) schools, and followers
of Jesus Christ must lead the way in providing our children the kind of
education that will allow them to become who they were created to be. In other words, America needs a network of
excellent, affordable, and accessible k-12 Christian schools.
Of course, above all, as many Christian schools
across the U.S. are currently demonstrating, these schools should endeavor to
teach children and young adults the truth about Jesus Christ and what it means
to be a follower of Him. Among other things, this means diligently and daily
studying the Word of God. Of course, this also means accepting the Bible for
what it claims to be: the infallible, immutable Word of God, which not only
reveals His redemptive plan for humanity, but also His Moral Law and is the
final authority on ALL moral issues.
Additionally, Christian schools should prepare
their students, and continuously develop their faculty and staff, to be
powerful lights in our dark world. Given where the moral battles are in America
today, this means special attention should be given to several specific
topics.
Christian schools should teach the truth about
marriage—namely that marriage is the union of one man and one woman for life.
Students should be taught that this view of marriage is a foundational and fundamental
truth because the family, led by God-fearing mothers and fathers, is the
foundation of every sound civil society in the history of humanity.
As
I have said numerous times
before, marriage is the oldest institution in the
history of humanity—older than God's covenant with the nation of Israel, older
than The Law, older than the church. Marriage is one of the earliest truths
revealed by God. If ANYTHING is true, marriage as the union of one man and one
woman is true. On this, there can NEVER be compromise. Children should be
taught this from a young age.
Noting how it has become one of the most “compelling
issues in the City of Man,” Christian schools should teach the truth
about sexual activity. This means teaching that the only rightful place for
sexual activity is within marriage (again, the union of one man and one woman
for life). Christian schools should go beyond merely teaching students to “wait
until marriage” and take every opportunity to introduce them to couples who
embody what it means to be godly husbands and wives.
On sexual activity, Christian schools should
teach what ignoring the truth on sex has led to in our sex-obsessed culture.
This means teaching about the lure, dangers, and deadly consequences of
promiscuity, pornography, homosexuality,
abortion, and the like. Additionally, Christian schools should go to great
lengths to teach students of the many evils of the wicked LGBT agenda and how
to combat their numerous lies.
Christian schools should teach the truth about
biological sex. This means reminding their students of the long-known truths on
the differences between males and females, and how it is impossible to
“transition” from one sex to another. Christian schools should teach their
students of the many dangers of “hormone therapies” and mutilating surgeries
that often result when one buys into the lies of the transgender agenda.
Christian schools should teach the truth about
life in the womb, the evils of abortion, and the many lies of the pro-abortion
industry. Christian schools should not hesitate to reveal the ugly, gruesome
side of abortion and what it means to take a human life in the womb.
Christian schools should teach their students
that there is no conflict between Christianity and science. Christian schools
should teach the history of modern science and the widespread and important
role that devoted Christians such as Francis Bacon, Blaise Pascal, Isaac
Newton, Louis Pasteur, and the like, played in its development. Since Darwinian
Evolution directly undermines Christianity, Christian schools should give
special attention to the Creation vs. Evolution debate and point out the many
flaws of “evolutionism.”
On the issue of modern science, Christian schools should also teach their
students of the many flaws and lies of the modern climate change agenda.
Christian schools should teach the truth about
America and her founding. Namely, Christian schools should pointedly teach the
role that Christians and Christianity played in the miraculous
founding of America. Christian schools should teach the ugly history
of slavery in America and the huge role that American Christians played in
ending this evil in America. Christian schools should strongly oppose the
racism of “Critical Race Theory” and reject the evil notion that America is a
“systemically racist” nation filled with “systemically racist” organizations
and institutions. Also, Christian schools should teach the important role that Christianity
has played in making America the greatest nation in the history of
humanity.
Christian schools should teach the biblical
principles of handling money. Namely, Christian schools should teach
that each of us is a mere steward of God’s property and who we are as
Christians is greatly measured by how we handle our earthly possessions.
Christian schools should focus not only on
training pastors, teachers, and missionaries. Christian schools should prepare
students to be writers, musicians, athletes, entertainers, politicians,
lawyers, bankers, doctors, scientists, engineers, plumbers, mechanics,
landscapers, chefs, husbands, wives, parents, good stewards, wise voters, and
so on.
America is rife with cultural rot and
“clever devils,” and one of the biggest reasons is that Christians have largely
abdicated the education of our children to those who have mostly abandoned the
notion of “just sentiments” and are failing miserably in training students to “feel
pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are
pleasant, likeable, disgusting and hateful.” For
this to change, sound, rightly missioned Christian education must become more
prevalent in the U.S.
Copyright 2021, Trevor
Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith and
Reason.
www.TrevorGrantThomas.com
Trevor is the author of The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@TrevorGrantThomas.com
