The "Why" of Education

Part 1 of my Classical Education series

Welcome back to The Burnett Breakdown. I am starting a series of newsletters on the topic of classical education. I believe very strongly in classical education and now work in the classical education world so I have lots to say on the subject. If you do not know what that is, then I would encourage you to stick around for the next few weeks by subscribing. Feel free to share the newsletter with anyone you think may find it interesting as well.

The “Why” of Education

Who has ever heard a student or child say, “Why are we doing this?” or “What’s the point of...?” or “When am I ever going to use...?” or some version of this sentiment? Who can remember asking these sorts of questions themselves? For the past 4 years, I have taught middle schoolers, and you better believe that I have heard this said a time or two.  

Now, typically the students are talking about a specific lesson or topic that seems pointless to them. Sometimes students mean it more broadly and refer to a whole subject (math teachers I don’t envy you for how many times you have probably heard this). And then there are other times (maybe rarer but they happen nonetheless) when students will question the value of school in general. 

It’s tempting for a teacher to view the students who ask these probing questions or make these snide remarks as nuisances that need to be handled or put down; but what if they have a point? What if they are asking a valid question worthy of a well-thought-out answer? How would/do you, as a parent or teacher, answer this question? 

According to the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the average American child will spend 105,120 hours in school by age 18. That is over 13% of their waking hours from age 5 to 18. This number assumes a 6-hour school day and does not include any extracurricular time, so the real number is likely higher. Needless to say, children spend a significant amount of time in school which means we better have a good answer to the questions of “why” or “what’s the point”. 

I would argue that we should educate students to instill in them wisdom and virtue.

Before I elaborate more on what this means, I want to first take note of what I do NOT think the purpose of education is. The purpose of education is NOT to prepare students for college. The purpose of education is NOT to prepare them with job skills that they will “use” in the workforce one day. The purpose of education is NOT for the students to discover “who they are.” The purpose of education is “to instill wisdom and virtue.” 

Getting the purpose of education correct matters because whatever we believe the purpose of education is will be communicated to students. If every time a student questions why they are learning something, a teacher or parent justifies the subject material by explaining when they may “use it” one day, then we can’t be surprised when students assume the purpose of education is economic usefulness.  

If teachers and parents tell them that they are learning something “because they will need it in college,” then it’s no wonder that college becomes the sole focus of students and parents alike.  

A brief anecdote on this: I once heard a head of school tell the students at his school that the reason they sometimes have to do things in school that seem pointless is “because sometimes you will have to do pointless things in your job one day.” So, in other words, he was telling his students that they, as a school, waste their time in order to teach them how to waste their time later in life.  

Now, he would never have explicitly said it that way but that is what he was communicating to the students because he couldn’t come up with a better justification. It is imperative that we know the why behind what we do.  

In Philippians 4:8-9 Paul writes:  

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and seen in me---practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”  

In these verses, Paul is exhorting the Christians in Phillipi to think, consider, or weigh, those things which are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.  

There is a lot to unpack here.

First, these verses assume that there is a difference between truth and nontruth, honorable things and dishonorable things, just and unjust, pure and defiled things, lovely and ugly things, things that are commendable and not commendable, excellent and abominable things. These aren’t mere words that humans assign to their subjective preferences, but they are reflections of an objective reality. In other words, there is an objective principle of division or standard, we can use to determine the truth, beauty, justice, etc. of things in this world.  

One of the key distinctions of a Christian worldview from our postmodern world is this belief that truth, beauty, and justice are realities that exist outside of ourselves. We aren’t the ultimate arbiters of what is good but God, who is ultimately good, is. We don’t get to judge what is just but God does.

By declaring that Christians should ponder those things that are good, just, and beautiful, Paul makes clear that there are things that are NOT good, just, and beautiful and that Christians should not ponder those things.

Now, there is a second aspect of these verses that is often overlooked but is of utmost importance regarding education. Paul assumes that these things (truth, purity, justice, etc) can be known and ought to be known by us. Questions, such as “What is truth?” “What is purity?” “What is justice?”, do not belong to philosophers alone but should be the concern of all believers.

However, to “think” about commendable or true or pure things as Paul says, we must know what is true, commendable, and pure. We cannot think about things that we know nothing about. To know these things though, we must be trained and equipped to know them because they are not inherent to us. If we call this training and equipping process education, an apt label, and our growth in discerning that which is good, true, and beautiful (to use the classical phraseology) wisdom, another apt label, then we have one of the purposes of education: to instill wisdom.  

There is a second half to our purpose of education though: to instill wisdom and virtue. Also, notice that there is a second half to the verses in Philippians 4. After Paul tells the Philippians to think about “anything worthy of praise,” he says, “What you have learned and received and seen in me---practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” 

Paul makes clear in verse 9 that thinking about and pondering the things that he has taught them (things which would certainly fit into the categories of just, pure, etc. that he just mentioned) isn’t meant to be the end. We are meant to act in a particular way. Right thinking is meant to manifest in right action.  

Now, unfortunately, it is not the case that right thinking automatically and necessarily leads to right action, but there is something of a connection between the two.  

Throughout the Book of Romans, Paul reiterates that we are saved by grace. Then, in Romans 12: 2, he says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” So, because we have been saved by grace and made a new creation, we now need to walk in that newness of life that comes through renewing our minds.  

We could put it like this, as we ponder what is good, true, and beautiful, our minds are renewed, and we are better able to practice virtue.  

I will discuss how classical education practically does this in a later newsletter, but right now we can say that the purpose of education ought to be the instillation of wisdom and virtue in students. This is a purpose that classical education aligns with and advocates for. I do not believe public or other secular forms of education, on the other hand, do.

God Bless,

Hunter Burnett