Education and the Kingdom
March 20, 2022
William Coperthwaite wrote A Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity as a text on how society could be better. He takes an aspect of life at a time, exploring where society has taken an unhealthy path, and what could be done to rectify it. It’s not a Christian book, but at times I’ve been struck by how Christian it unwittingly is.
He begins with a defense of why we should redesign society, shifts to a holistic definition of beauty, and then proposes a change in our approach and practice of work. Each of these could warrant a long explanation, but his discussion of education/nurture is more relevant for the moment. In reference to the right atmosphere for education, he writes:
School has become a forced experience, required,
with children drafted into it. It would be reasonable for
them to ask, “If learning is such a fine thing,
why do you have to force it on us?”
Learning and growing are fun—all organisms enjoy the
experience, which is the natural state of being. Learning
becomes painful only when we disrupt its natural
patterns and demand compliance.
Compulsion and education are antithetical.
When the fun and excitement have fled,
we must redesign our learning atmosphere.
We should be able to offer such an exciting world
to students that they will never need threats,
bribes, or stimulants to learn.
What strikes me is how this relates to the kingdom of God. Why is the kingdom voluntary? Because learning the rule of God is most effective when people actually want to learn it. Because the rule of God is self-evidently good, which means when people see it they should naturally want to be a part of it. Because the rule of God should be something that we find fun and exciting, and when something is fun and exciting you don’t need threats, bribes, or stimulants.
As Paul writes in Gal. 5.1—“For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Our being in Christ is supposed to be a liberating thing. Following Jesus isn’t supposed to be drudgery. I think it’s exciting because in following Jesus we are learning how to live. In Jesus we can finally learn and grow.
Jesus does not force us to do so. We can refuse. We don’t have to grow and mature. We don’t have to follow Jesus. But when we do grow and mature, when we learn from the author of life, we enter an exciting world!
—John Coffey
