Christian education

Spotlight on Education: To Whom Do Our Children Belong? by Dave GlesneSeptember 7, 2025 The Question That Shapes a Nation As another school year begins, it’s worth pausing to ask a foundational question: Who is responsible for the education of our children? The answer is not new. It echoes through Scripture, history, and the very structure of creation. The Biblical and Historical Foundation In the Jewish tradition, parents were responsible for shaping the faith of their children: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might… and you shall teach these words diligently to your children, and talk about them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” (Deuteronomy 6:7, 24) The New Testament reaffirms this sacred trust: “Bring [your children] up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4) Martin Luther echoed this conviction: “Most certainly father and mother are apostles, bishops, and priests to their children, for it is they who make them acquainted with the gospel. In short, there is no greater or nobler authority on earth than that of parents over their children.” (The Estate of Marriage) Luther saw the pastor’s task as supporting parents in this calling, not replacing them. Parents may delegate certain tasks of education, but they can never delegate the responsibility. Scripture teaches that the space God created for educating the next generation is the family and the local faith community. Children do not belong to the state; they belong to God and are entrusted by Him to their parents. A Crisis of Stewardship In modern America, this biblical vision has been steadily eroded. Many public education systems have drifted from forming wisdom and virtue to promoting political ideology. Increasingly, government agencies claim the authority to shape children’s values—a role that Scripture gives to parents and the local church. The message is subtle but clear: the child belongs to the collective, not to the family. The slogan “It takes a village to raise a child” has been recast to mean “It takes the state to define a child.” Parents, often unwittingly, have surrendered their God-given role to a bureaucratic system that neither knows nor honors the Creator’s design. The Battle for the Mind of a Child The result is a form of education that too often aims to reshape identity, redefine truth, and sever the parent-child bond. Curricula in many places push worldviews that conflict with biblical faith, while transparency between schools and parents diminishes. Yet even within public education, many faithful Christian teachers quietly resist the tide. They bring light into their classrooms and honor Christ in their vocation. To them we say: thank you for your faithfulness. At the same time, it is not surprising that a growing number of parents are seeking alternative education options—homeschooling, church-based academies, and Christian schools grounded in truth and virtue. Lessons from History The 20th century offers sobering reminders. As Father Parsons once warned: “Sooner or later, every revolution gets around to the schools. The very first thing that the Communists did in Russia was to capture the schools… They realized they could not convert the older people, but they could fashion the minds of youth so that they would never know anything different. The same thing was done by Mussolini in Italy and by Hitler in Germany. It is a necessary part of every revolution, if it is to be permanent.” Every movement that seeks to remake society begins by reshaping how the young are taught. What children learn—or are not allowed to learn—determines the future of nations. Reclaiming What Was Entrusted to Us The good news is that a quiet reformation in education is already underway. Across the nation, families, churches, and Christian educators are rebuilding schools that honor truth, virtue, and the lordship of Christ. The question before us is not merely who teaches our children, but whose story they are being taught to live within. Let us recover the biblical vision of education—one that sees learning as discipleship, wisdom as worship, and children as the Lord’s sacred trust.