ADBC: 13 – Education, The Law and Family Matters

This is another entry in the ongoing blog conversation with my parents’ better son, David. Here’s the premise.

Previously in the conversation: It was a chance for David to get his writing into some lists as I asked him to give five things on this, that and the other. ‘This’ was a list of friendships factors. ‘That’ was a list of community factors. ‘The other’ was a list of the factors for a happy and flourishing life. He’s listed out by now and asked me to stop with the fives – I don’t know why, because his lists made for great reading. You know it’s easy for me to say that, but read it for yourself and then agree with me that he should do more lists. You’ve got to know it took everything in me not to take him at his word and go for sevens in the next set of questions!

David is not the sort to be petty and do tit-for-tat. He didn’t need to ask me for lists, he just gave me three very tough questions for me to address. Thus here are my responses to his questions:

Q – In your worldview which, I believe, rejects the basis of the codification of the seven laws of Noah, what relation does the law that God gave to the literal nation of Israel through Moses have with Gentile Christians? Do Gentile Christians have a body of specific and codified laws that applies to them?

Relation to the Mosaic laws. When I answer these questions, there’s thinking that takes place. I know that’s hard to believe with some of the answers I’ve given in the past, but it’s a true story. So, when it comes to the Gentile Christian’s relationship to the Mosaic Law the thought is I could give a response like this was an essay to pass a course. That answer would endeavour to take into consideration the variety of opinions and perspectives that Gentile Christians have on the subject. That’s a route I could go down.

Instead, I’ll put forward my perspective at this time which is always subject to change in the light of other information that sufficiently challenges this perspective. According to the episode in the book of Acts, when the matter of circumcision was brought up to the church in Jerusalem for adjudication the view dispersed to Gentile Christians was that they were not required to uphold the requirements of the Mosaic Law. The instruction was to abstain from food offered to idols and sexual immorality. The relationship that Gentile believers have with God is based on faith in Jesus Christ and the responsibility of the believer is to follow in the way He outlines. As you can tell, this is not a comprehensive insight on the issue taking into account how scripture is understood and lived out in the Apostolic age. It’s my understanding at this stage.

Codified laws for Christians? This is a very interesting question. My thinking considers what a codified set of laws would look like, but I think I get the gist of what’s being asked for. What also makes it a good question as well, is because some get the impression from certain phrases that law doesn’t apply to Christians anymore. The use of the word grace gives the impression that there’s a freedom to do what you like with little in the way of consequence because of this ‘grace’. However, there’s enough in the writings of the early church seen in the New Testament that indicates that sin is still an issue for believers and if there’s sin there’s a standard. That standard is also reflected in the maintenance of a royal law referred to in the writing of James. Where I go when asked about any set of ‘codified laws’ for the believers is first what Jesus outlines in His teaching in Matthew 5-7. When Jesus is about to leave His disciples in the last part of the gospel according to Matthew, His instruction to His disciples is to teach those who are baptised in the name to obey all that He has commanded – which indicates there are still commands for us to follow. That’s what makes the gospel accounts worth exploring carefully to see what Jesus does and says and understand how that should shape our lives as we endeavour to have our minds renewed to discover and live out the will of God for our lives.

Q – How do you rate yourself as a husband and father? Explain your answer.

To answer this question, I look to rate myself according to the standard of being a husband and a father that I observe in scripture. Not really rating myself in comparison to others.

Husband – I am a diligent, considerate and patient husband. I endeavour to love my wife with understanding more often than not. I genuinely look for the best interests of my wife and serve to the best of my ability in the aim to see her relationship with God develop and to see her life flourish. I am a good soundboard for my wife and she knows she can count on me to listen to her carefully as she expresses herself in good times and bad. My wife knows I love her and hold her as the most important human being in my life. Rating myself further, I am certainly not as perceptive as she would like me to be. I am not as aggressively ambitious as she would like me to be. There are matters that she is disappointed that I have not acted on in what she sees as important for us as a couple. I am not a particularly hands-on kinda guy that would be able to get things done that she would want all the time, but she adapts to that. As Authrine knows I look to spend my life serving God and loving Him wholeheartedly she is a beneficiary of that devotion. She is more than aware that my success as a husband is intrinsically down to that love for God because the first one I love after Him has to be her. So for all my character flaws and foibles, she feels safe as long as she sees me looking to live out of that love for God.

Father – I am a diligent, considerate and patient father. (Heh! Well, if it works for the wife situation, it can’t be different with the offspring.) Being a Dad to three daughters is a tremendous blessing, responsibility and opportunity. I look to enjoy the blessing by affirming these daughters for the great things I see them display and practice. I’d say that in their Dad they do find someone who is fairly good and point out their endearing attributes and encourage them in it. I look to exercise the responsibility seriously by interacting and engaging with them for who they are on an individual level. They will each know that I care for them according to their specific personality. Likewise, I will challenge and correct them when needed at least to be thinking about the way they think and behave. I look to make the most of the opportunity to present them with a picture of how life can be with how I go about my own life and show them what real love looks like primarily by what they see of how my wife and I interact. I want to make the most of the opportunity to present them with what life following God looks like and so they can at least see that as the way to live as they grow to the stage of making their own decisions where those things are concerned. The one thing they should be able to take away from their relationship with me is just how important God is to everything especially how I endeavour to love them and enable and equip them in being brilliant human beings. As with the husband rating, I don’t claim to be the perfect Dad, there are clearly shortcomings and failings on my part as a father, but those three daughters who grow up under my care and supervision know that their Dad loves them a great deal and wants them to thrive as they bless those around them.

That’s how I rate myself. As to how good I am actually, God knows. As in He really does. So you can some insights and thoughts from my wife and children on that and they would give you a different picture, maybe. But even then, God is the best one to rate me. In as much as I’d love for my wife and children to say positive things and I endeavour to serve them to the best of my ability, the best I give is a service to God.

Q – Should public education, as it currently exists in the UK, continue to exist? Explain your answer.

Ah. Now then. This question. A couple of assumptions underpin this question. One is that I know how the public education system is constructed. Two is that I have sufficient scope to critique it and offer a view worth giving. For the sake of the question, however, I’ll base it on my experience on what the education system is like for my children as they go through it as well as what it was for me growing up.

So the public education system suggests that children should be subjected to compulsory education in year-groups up until the age of 18. The essential subjects in this system are deemed to be English, Maths and Sciences. Progress through this system is largely academic predominantly using examination methods. More often than not children in the year groups are then separated later on into sets based on ability to ensure the ones more likely to do well in a subject are grouped together to aspire to those higher grades leaving the others to do the best they can in a lower set. Also, more often than not, there’s a feeling that during those years of education, the children should attend classrooms in similar outfits. They’re usually in classroom sizes of up to 30 and only in the latter stages of the compulsory experience, they might be in smaller class sizes. The system is just as much about getting children engaged in a social setting as it is about getting the child to attain a basic standard of education deemed important for engaging in the wider world. As well as that the content of the education system endeavours to lend itself to leave those who go through it in no way actually prepared for a lot of what life will consist of beyond the education system.

Now it’s worth setting it out like that so we know what I’m addressing. I’m open to correction on areas to better reflect what the public education system in the UK (really England because what’s taught in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland won’t necessarily be exactly the same as what is taught in England). For the life of me, I don’t know why the public education system should continue. So many assumptions about it that are frankly baffling. Assumptions like, the best way to educate children is to stick hundreds of them in the same building to be plumped into classrooms with tens of others for hours at a time. Why? How does that really help shape children to be good human beings developed and ready to interact and engage with the world they’re scheduled to contribute to afterwards? That compulsory element as well as though if the child does not go through the system as set by the authorities they will forever be behind the rest of the population. And if it wasn’t for uniformed education our populace would be severely disadvantaged. It really is baffling.

Then there’s the matter of the content of the education. Approaches to subjects that want to give the impression of objectivity and impartiality, but are clearly slanted to a particular perspective on the way the world should be. Why should children of the same age be in the same class to learn together? I found subsequently that learning was great when it was a mixture of age groups rather than those arbitrarily selected by if they were born before or after September of a given year.

I look at the education I went through. I look at the education my daughters are going through and I wish I had the courage and determination to homeschool them. The alternative approaches to education and the desire to connect what is learnt to life for those who are being taught is a very compelling one. I am not ungrateful for the education I received, there are plenty of positive experiences I had in mainstream public education schooling. Yet, when I think about the system and the alternatives in place and the whole fundamental thinking through the purpose of education, the system in place is just baffling. It’s regimented, it’s organised, it’s established without anyone thinking that what’s required isn’t so much education reform to tinker at the edges and make adjustments here and there, but what’s required is an overhaul. Of course, it’s not just education that needs an overhaul. And what would be needed to bring about what’s needed in society really is something so significant that it’s enough for small communities to endeavour to practice it themselves with key values in place to bring in that change.

The answer to your question should hopefully be very clear from what I’ve outlined and I haven’t even gone into exploring what sort of things we should consider when looking at the purpose of education from a young age and how it fits in what we look for in terms of the design of society.

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Well, that was a whole thing right there, answering those questions. Here are some for you to tuck into:

Q – The Criminal Justice system is fundamentally flawed and should be rebuilt totally. Do you agree or disagree with this statement – give reasons for your answer and if you had the power to shape the justice system, how would you set it up? 

Q – The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most dangerous because of its desire to self-perpetuate at the exclusion of other approaches to health and well-being. Do you agree or disagree? Please give your reasons.

Q – What, in your worldview, is the purpose of humanity? Is it living up to its purpose? If not, what can be done to help it fulfil that purpose?

It’s a pleasure doing blogging business with you my brother and look forward to it continuing and prospering. Thanks for your time.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden