Two articles caught my attention this last week. The first was from a socially conservative group (the Public Discourse) writing about how human beings are perceived and commenting on the disagreement so evident in our society today. I quote:

“So, is there anything that might provide a unified framework for understanding the current angry fragmentation and instability that our society appears to be experiencing? I would argue that it is partly this: a psychologized notion of selfhood, that places inner needs, desires, feelings, and convictions at the core of its notion of human purpose, inevitably tends towards social fragmentation. Where the self is psychologically conceived, there are potentially as many ends as there are people; traditional external institutions (schools) cease to have any decisive power over who we think we are or what we share in common with others. Old frameworks for meaning—the nation, the family, religion—cease to be plausible as soon as they fail to fulfill the hopes and dreams of any given individual or group.”

 https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/11/72190/

The second article was by my friend, Dr David Smith of Calvin University, reflecting on the anniversary of the death of John Amos Comenius (1670), a Moravian Bishop who wrote extensively on education and is considered the father of modern education. I quote:

“’It is desired that not just one particular person be fully formed into full humanity, or a few or even many, but every single person, young and old; rich and poor, of high and low birth, men and women, in a word, every person who is born: so that in the end, in time, proper formation might be restored to the whole human race, throughout every age, class, sex and nationality."

Comenius lived and worked during a time of war and plague and spent the bulk of his life as a refugee from his Moravian homelands. Yet to a significant degree he avoided having his vision turn narrow and inward under the pressure of circumstances and the fear of natural calamity or societal evil. He continued to insist on an expansive vision of collaboration with God’s desires for humanity through educational reform. His language was expansive not only in terms of which learners should be reached (“From human cultivation no creature is excluded except those who are not human”), but in terms of how they should grow. Education, he continued, should not have a narrow focus or utilitarian aim, but should rather aim at developing a love of the good and the true, eloquence and self-control, and the capacity to interact wisely with the natural world, other humans and God. Education should teach “omnes, omnia, omnio” – all manner of things, to everyone, with attention to all facets of their development. The goal should not be “ostentation and disguise” (education is not for padding your resume) but to co-operate in restoring the marred image of God in which humans were made.

Education, Comenius believed, "could play a role under God’s providence in restoring us to what we were meant to be. Education did not replace salvation, but if salvation was the restoration of the whole person, education was not irrelevant. If a human, as he wrote elsewhere, is not an inert block of wood that can be carved into any shape the educator might wish, but is rather a living image that constantly shapes, misshapes, and reshapes itself in interaction with the opportunities provided by its surroundings, then the kind of education offered contributes to the image that emerges. If humans are made in God’s image, if they are educable and vulnerable to malformation, and if God seeks human co-operation in the renewal of all things, then education matters for humans, regardless of their status in the eyes of society.”

https://christianscholars.com/educating-humans-a-comenian-anniversary/

How we consider our humanness makes a difference as to how we treat each other and especially the children for whom we are responsible. In other words, as we have moved away from thinking of human beings as created by God, we have lost an external reference point for what it means to be fully human and a good reason for us to connect together positively. Increased individualism it seems, does not lead to increased harmony or wholesome development.

Phillip Nash

Principal