God's View of Education

I was going to call this "God's View of Education: Part 1," but the truth is, this post actually starts with two previous posts. If you haven't read My Collection or What I Did With My Collection start there. For a tiny bit more background that wasn't mentioned in those posts: I was a math education major in college and taught high school math for several years before getting married. I also taught junior high math for a year when I was pregnant with LOTL, and then tutored math for a few years during the afternoons. I was entrenched in the educational system. It was my life for well over 20 years (kindergarten through career). That would help explain why my first attempt at homeschooling "differently" (you need to read My Collection for explanation) was a failure.

I have to admit to you that the description of What I Did With My Collection didn't last terribly long. I got bogged down, so I dropped that plan and decided to organize my collection of education scriptures more efficiently. I simply wrote a list of the books of the Bible in a notebook (leaving several lines between each) and wrote the references under the appropriate book. This also made it handy to write down new references when I found then when reading my ten chapters per day (and lest you think I am amazing, I am currently on day 66 of this plan...I was on day 40 on Feb. 25, but you'll find out some of what I have been doing meanwhile). I ended up with around 400, FOUR HUNDRED, different passages in the Bible about education! WOW! I was shocked! I haven't even gone through the whole Bible yet (especially the Old Testament...I think I made it through the entire New Testament).

I didn't take the next step in organizing these scriptures until after I ran into a former student who was interested in homeschooling. I told her that my views on education had radically changed from the time I was a teacher and that I was finding out that God had lots of information on education in the Bible. She was interested and wondered if I'd share what I'd found out with her and some friends. Although it took us months to schedule (because of my crazy life), we were able to meet last week. In preparing for that, I decided to re-look through all of the scriptures in my collection (now nicely organized, which really helped) to see if I could put them under some broad headings. I ended up with five of what I called "foundational truths" and seven principles on how to follow through.

My focus verse is Ephesians5:15-17. Below it is in the Contemporary English Version.

Act like people with good sense and not like fools. These are evil times, so make every minute count. Don't be stupid. Instead, find out what the Lord wants you to do.

I need to find out what He wants me to do so I can make every minute count, especially with my kids. We all have heard how fleeting our time is with them, and I am starting to find it out firsthand as they grow up before my eyes.

Update July 27, 2013:  I posted the list of scriptures (it is not all of them, but it includes the ones that really "spoke" to me) under their various headings on the "God's Plan for Education" tab at the top right of this blog.  I hope to one day soon blog at least briefly about each topic, but meanwhile you can do your own study (which is actually better.)

Here is a direct link: http://transformationbytheword.blogspot.com/p/gods-plan-for-education.html