Christian Philosophy of Education - Essay Example

255829 From the beginning of Christianity, somehow the education, interwoven with religion has remained part of Christian philosophy. Perhaps no other religion has given more importance to mass education than Christianity. It is true that all religions, especially Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism etc have attached great significance to education, learning scripts, advancing mythological knowledge and schools to teach them. But they did not advocate mass education; instead, the education was to a chosen few, or to the elite. Christian philosophy of education is a mass search of knowledge and belief where faith and reason go farther than the area of doubt. Faith and reason contradict one another to some extent; at the same time, cannot exist without the help of one another because faith without reason is blind and reason without some kind of faith, at least in humanity if not in religion, could be dangerous. Christian philosophy is a combination of search for knowledge, hope, faith, reason and reason, being an ability to think rationally. In most countries, public schools are considered inferior to the private schools. Public schools have to be bound by the State preferences, while private schools can have their own set of rules, as long as it does not blatantly clash with the State rules and the Christian philosophy is not against the State. It is connected with the theological and biblical base. In such schools, Bible and prayers become an important part of education and the religious preaching has an overpowering strength. School gets influenced by the application of Christian philosophy and acts as an interpreter of religious philosophy. “Therefore, the concern of an interpretation educator is to help persons understand their daily experience and hopes in light of the story and vision which is available in Christian faith,” (Astley, 1996, p.89). Existence of Christian schools is not controversial any more, despite a fear that religious schools could create unhealthy insularity. Still, these school cultures have not stopped invoking a negative public feeling that they can affect the students in several harmful ways. “First, these schools infringe children’s basic liberties by imposing excessive restrictions on students’ intellectual and physical freedom and fostering excessive repression of desires and inclinations. Second, they fail to promote, and in fact actively discourage, children’s development of the generalized capacity for independent and informed critical thinking, (Dwyer, 1998, pp. 14-15). This could be an extreme view which rules out all the positive attitudes inherent in religious school culture. This is also not to say that the religious school culture does not work for the good of students and their intellectual development. “True education must include training in the virtues. A moral sensitivity requires cultivation. This is not simply the capacity to ‘debate’ moral questions and issues, one also has a strong awareness of why the Christian tradition finds certain dispositions problematic,” (Astley, 2004, p.8). Undoubtedly the Christian school culture gets affected by the domineering Christian philosophy. The regular working hours and days are influenced by religious outlook that is hardly seen in public schools. Christian schools relentlessly try to inculcate morality among children through prayers, graces, lessons, anecdotes, biblical theories, ditties, singing, choir, preaching etc. Usually, not a single aspect of the school can be found untouched by the Christian agenda. Problems can arise with terminologies like Christian education/nurture, religious education etc. There are differences in words like teaching religion and teaching about religion. Philosophy of religion can clash with philosophy of education. Philosophy of Christian religious education “..would be the application of this philosophical method of philosophically interesting and philosophically tractable issues and problems in the practice of Christian religious education..”, (Astley, 1994, p.29). Naturally, the learning, teaching, process of education imparting, all change under this system. Depending upon the strength of Christian philosophy applied on the school, possibilities of indoctrination, practice, method, and education category etc. change drastically. This also results in consequences like different values, beliefs, attitudes, way of thinking, and will result in non-critical way of accepting in the impressionable minds. Teaching metaphysics, science, astronomy, origins of the world, evolution theory etc. could get a beating. Teaching about other religions of the world, naturally have to be limited, because such teaching has to show the superiority of Christian faith or might find it difficult to explain earlier religions when Christianity insists that the world was created much later and Darwin has no place here. Rationality of beliefs might crumble and search for certainty and evidence could be discouraged. Formative education can become more informative and less critical. Spending time in prayer than in playground might be encouraged. Arguing that religious education inspires seven intelligences (linguistic, special, musical, logical-mathematical, Body Kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal), Larsen (2000, p. 168) says that such schools can “…encourage students to put their stories in the context of larger narratives: their family, their cultural context – and within the great myths and rituals of their people that give their story meaning.” These schools show a greater tendency of exploring different ideas and beliefs through biblical stories. They try to transport these stories to the children’s world and try to float religious ideas making them relevant to the current world. They attempt to show how challenges could be faced by traditional commitment and insist on ethical promise keeping and morality. They teach forgiveness by bringing examples in day-to-day student life and perpetually keep showing how belief can be victorious. “Papl High wants students to live the faith as well as learn its doctrines. Its handbook spells out in some detail the service requirement and the types of activities, from feeding the hungry to visiting the sick or burying the dead, that will serve to meet this requirement,” (Feinberg, 2006, p.51). Religious artefacts like icons are used in the classrooms, although they might not retain the same value as in a Church. “The educational task is to understand their significance for that community. Pupils should not, however, be expected to have the same attitude to these mental artifcats as believers would,” (Cooling, 1994, p.26). School culture undergoes a tremendous change under religious guidance. This can alter even the smallest ways of school life and need not necessarily be negative. The positive aspects of such school cultures and their influence on the students could be immensely positive too. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Astley, Jeff (1996), Theological Perspectives on Christian Formation, W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids. 2. Astley, Jeff et al (1996), The Idea of a Christian University, Paternoster Press, Milton Keynes. 3. Astley, Jeff (1994), The Philosophy of Christian Religious Education, Religious Education Press, Birmingham. 4. Cooling, Trevor (1994), Exploring Christian Beliefs in School, Stapleford Project Books, Nottingham. 5. Dwyer, James G. (1998), Religions Schools v. Children’s Rights, Ithaca, Cornell University Press. 6. Feinberg, Walter (2006), For Goodness Sake, Routledge, London. 7. Larsen, Jerry (2000), Religious Education and the Brain, Paulist Press, New York. Read More