Children and Parents: The Two Groups of Education

The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians,

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’ And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

This teaching of Paul describes the two groups involved in childhood education. The first is children. They receive the education and, in order to receive it well, they must obey their parents. The second group is parents. Parents must justly discipline their children, and teach them the word of God. These two groups, parents and children, are the only ones that Paul mentions. No other institution is listed as responsible for the education of children. No state school. No charter school. No Zion Lutheran School. Paul does not continue his letter by saying, “Schools, teach math, science, history, and english, because parents are not qualified to teach these subjects.” No! If anyone is not “qualified” to teach, it is schools, not parents.

This is why choosing a good school is extremely important. There are many schools that do not recognize that parents are the primar

y educators of their children. They teach their students to disobey their parents. They diminish family time by assigning too much homework. And they forget that they are accountable to God for what they teach.

We reject these forms of “education.” We encourage your children to obey you. We encourage your children to discuss what they learned that day at the dinner table. And we teach the Bible, the word of God that endures longer than any man made institution.

I point this out to show who we are as educators. We are not a third party institution that provides something you cannot. We are your support. And if we are to truly educate, then we must help you. We must act on your behalf when preparing curriculum, instructing your children, and disciplining them. This year we will support you parents over anything else, because that is what we are called by God to do. Thank you for being here. I look forward to meeting each of you parents in person. See you soon!

Sincerely,

Headmaster Joshua Swigart