“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him’…And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man…Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:18-24)
Beginning in the 20th century, under the influence of John Dewey, a primary function of the school has been seen to be “socialization.” The children must learn to become “socialized,” to “get along with others,” to function properly in a “democratic” society. Early childhood education (kindergarten and nursery school) has thus become all-important. Children must learn how to play together, how to share, and how to co-operate. It is thought that if children are not sent to school at the earliest conceivable age, they will grow up to be social outcasts.
The same reasoning applies to teaching older children at home, rather than sending them to an ungodly school. These children are seen as somehow being “deprived’’ - deprived of the chance to interact with their peers. To many Christian parents, this concern is so strong that they succumb and send their children to schools they know to be anti-Christian, simply for the “socialization”. (All these children are often “deprived” of is being taught in the ways of Hell.)
Our passage for this lesson shows us something different. God saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone (vs. 18), just like people today say it is not good for children to be alone. But notice that God did not give Adam a “peer group” with which he was to “socialize.” To solve Adam’s problem of aloneness, God made a wife - Eve. Thus began the first human institution-the family.
Broadly speaking this shows the centrality of the family in society. God did not make for Adam a church, complete with elders, deacons, committees, and choirs (the “War Department”). Neither did God make a civil government, including legislators, judges, and bureaucrats (certainly FDA would have required a label, “Caution: Eating this fruit maybe hazardous to your health!”). God instituted the family first of all. The family is central to man in carrying out the cultural mandate-note the context (vs. 15). Before Adam could effectively subdue the earth, he needed a helper suited for him. God gave him a wife to assist him in exercising dominion.
This centrality of the family has definite implications for our schools. In Social Studies (or History), we must not neglect the family. As we study a given society, we must study the family structure which dominates that society. Does the father take the lead? Is the family governed by the mother? Does the family unit frequently include grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. (cf. Gen. 2:24)? Are two homosexuals considered a “family”? Is the family weakened through the use of ungodly laws (e.g., inheritance taxes)? We must examine such questions as these, and note their implications in the rest of society. For example, the imposition of inheritance taxes results in the loss of the family farm, and the increase in corporately-owned farms; a disregard for the importance of the family has definite economic implications. Taking a covenantal view of history, we examine societies in the light of God’s commands, and one of these commands is the cultural mandate. Since the family is central to this task, we would be missing the point entirely in our study of history if we neglect the family.
Getting back to the original topic (the “socialization” of the child), we may take a fresh look at the problem. Concern for such “socialization” has only arisen in recent years. Earlier in the 20th century, no such concern was prevalent. Was it because people then were somehow less enlightened concerning the social needs of the children? No, the problem is that these same years have witnessed a breakdown in the Biblical concept of the family. Divorces are more frequent, government economic policies of monetary inflation force many mothers out of the home to find a job, gay rights, and extramarital sex have all sprung up. The family is disintegrating.
God’s solution for Adam’s “aloneness” was to provide for him a family. This is the same solution we must give for the social development of the children. In the family, children learn how to get along with other people-how to converse, how to show loving concern, how to cooperate, and how to settle disagreements. The family is the main instrument for the “socialization” of the child. (Granted, it was easier in the days when a family consisted of eight or ten children-a family was practically a community in itself!)
The godly family teaches the child how to do these things in a Biblical way. The corrupt family of the present day also teaches the child how to behave - it teaches him to run away from problems (divorce), to seek for instant self-gratification (extra-marital sex), and to assert his own “rights” without regard to anyone else (woman’s, children’s, gay rights). Parents have told me, when I told them I had a problem with their child fighting, “He picks that up from all the kids at his church; they are always picking on him.” However, I have noted that these family members are constantly fighting among themselves - husband and wife, brother and sister, parents and children. The problem is at home, not at church. Fighting families produce fighting children.
Hand in hand with the centrality of the family in “socialization” goes the family’s role in discipline. Discipline in the school is only effective if is reinforced at home. When I served at a Christian school in rural Mississippi (when corporal punishment was still accepted), many parents told their children, “If you get a whooping at school, you’ll get another one when you get home.” If the parents are lax regarding discipline, then no amount of strict discipline at school will (humanly speaking) really change the child’s life.
The importance of the family in fulfilling the cultural mandate must be emphasized in high school, as students consider their life’s calling. In “career counseling,” the student must be made to see that establishing a godly family is the most important thing he must do to prepare for work. Men must see that, except in rare cases (cf. Matt. 29: 10-12), they are to marry, and that a wife will be a vital asset in the exercise of their calling. Likewise, women must understand that their calling is generally to marry and be supportive of their husband in his work. This would all necessitate teaching the biblical view of the family to high school students in some formal way—perhaps in an ethics class.
God has created the family and given it a key role in His world. This must be carried out in our schools, in order that the children might effectively carry out the dominion mandate. Let the world have “liberated” women and children - they will only lose dominion, and we Christians can take over that much quicker!
Beginning in the 20th century, under the influence of John Dewey, a primary function of the school has been seen to be “socialization.” The children must learn to become “socialized,” to “get along with others,” to function properly in a “democratic” society. Early childhood education (kindergarten and nursery school) has thus become all-important. Children must learn how to play together, how to share, and how to co-operate. It is thought that if children are not sent to school at the earliest conceivable age, they will grow up to be social outcasts.
The same reasoning applies to teaching older children at home, rather than sending them to an ungodly school. These children are seen as somehow being “deprived’’ - deprived of the chance to interact with their peers. To many Christian parents, this concern is so strong that they succumb and send their children to schools they know to be anti-Christian, simply for the “socialization”. (All these children are often “deprived” of is being taught in the ways of Hell.)
Our passage for this lesson shows us something different. God saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone (vs. 18), just like people today say it is not good for children to be alone. But notice that God did not give Adam a “peer group” with which he was to “socialize.” To solve Adam’s problem of aloneness, God made a wife - Eve. Thus began the first human institution-the family.
Broadly speaking this shows the centrality of the family in society. God did not make for Adam a church, complete with elders, deacons, committees, and choirs (the “War Department”). Neither did God make a civil government, including legislators, judges, and bureaucrats (certainly FDA would have required a label, “Caution: Eating this fruit maybe hazardous to your health!”). God instituted the family first of all. The family is central to man in carrying out the cultural mandate-note the context (vs. 15). Before Adam could effectively subdue the earth, he needed a helper suited for him. God gave him a wife to assist him in exercising dominion.
This centrality of the family has definite implications for our schools. In Social Studies (or History), we must not neglect the family. As we study a given society, we must study the family structure which dominates that society. Does the father take the lead? Is the family governed by the mother? Does the family unit frequently include grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. (cf. Gen. 2:24)? Are two homosexuals considered a “family”? Is the family weakened through the use of ungodly laws (e.g., inheritance taxes)? We must examine such questions as these, and note their implications in the rest of society. For example, the imposition of inheritance taxes results in the loss of the family farm, and the increase in corporately-owned farms; a disregard for the importance of the family has definite economic implications. Taking a covenantal view of history, we examine societies in the light of God’s commands, and one of these commands is the cultural mandate. Since the family is central to this task, we would be missing the point entirely in our study of history if we neglect the family.
Getting back to the original topic (the “socialization” of the child), we may take a fresh look at the problem. Concern for such “socialization” has only arisen in recent years. Earlier in the 20th century, no such concern was prevalent. Was it because people then were somehow less enlightened concerning the social needs of the children? No, the problem is that these same years have witnessed a breakdown in the Biblical concept of the family. Divorces are more frequent, government economic policies of monetary inflation force many mothers out of the home to find a job, gay rights, and extramarital sex have all sprung up. The family is disintegrating.
God’s solution for Adam’s “aloneness” was to provide for him a family. This is the same solution we must give for the social development of the children. In the family, children learn how to get along with other people-how to converse, how to show loving concern, how to cooperate, and how to settle disagreements. The family is the main instrument for the “socialization” of the child. (Granted, it was easier in the days when a family consisted of eight or ten children-a family was practically a community in itself!)
The godly family teaches the child how to do these things in a Biblical way. The corrupt family of the present day also teaches the child how to behave - it teaches him to run away from problems (divorce), to seek for instant self-gratification (extra-marital sex), and to assert his own “rights” without regard to anyone else (woman’s, children’s, gay rights). Parents have told me, when I told them I had a problem with their child fighting, “He picks that up from all the kids at his church; they are always picking on him.” However, I have noted that these family members are constantly fighting among themselves - husband and wife, brother and sister, parents and children. The problem is at home, not at church. Fighting families produce fighting children.
Hand in hand with the centrality of the family in “socialization” goes the family’s role in discipline. Discipline in the school is only effective if is reinforced at home. When I served at a Christian school in rural Mississippi (when corporal punishment was still accepted), many parents told their children, “If you get a whooping at school, you’ll get another one when you get home.” If the parents are lax regarding discipline, then no amount of strict discipline at school will (humanly speaking) really change the child’s life.
The importance of the family in fulfilling the cultural mandate must be emphasized in high school, as students consider their life’s calling. In “career counseling,” the student must be made to see that establishing a godly family is the most important thing he must do to prepare for work. Men must see that, except in rare cases (cf. Matt. 29: 10-12), they are to marry, and that a wife will be a vital asset in the exercise of their calling. Likewise, women must understand that their calling is generally to marry and be supportive of their husband in his work. This would all necessitate teaching the biblical view of the family to high school students in some formal way—perhaps in an ethics class.
God has created the family and given it a key role in His world. This must be carried out in our schools, in order that the children might effectively carry out the dominion mandate. Let the world have “liberated” women and children - they will only lose dominion, and we Christians can take over that much quicker!