Classical Education: What and Why

God story of playing out and we know how the story ends and we know that the 2000 years ago. Jesus rose bodily from the grave and there is no call control issue is no bad leader is going to put Jesus back in the great is family policy matters with NC family Pres. John Weston thanks for joining us this week for family policy matters. Today we continue with part two of our discussion with Britt Kunkel about his new book, a practical guide to culture helping the next generation navigate today's world, which she cowrote with John Stonestreet of the Colson Center. This book explores our current culture and how parents teachers in anyone who works with youth can help them successfully navigate today's cultural while staying focused on those things that are truly important and have in eternal significance. Britt Kunkel, welcome back to family policy matters is great to have you on the show again and I love talking about the thing so it is a privilege to be on family policy matters will thanks Britt is a privilege for us to have you on the show while on the one area of the can often be a challenge for not only young people but also adults is that of technology. Now you dedicate an entire chapter of the book.

A practical guide to culture on technology and one thing that really struck me was the fact that many young people today have never known a quiet world.

In other words, they are often unfamiliar and uncomfortable with just simply being silent wanted to point out why do you think about a significant way we dress in particular at the event beginning the bouquet I will use an analogy, I live in Southern California on on the server and when I go out to my local search break.

I got a navigate the waves right but I also have to be aware what's going on underneath the surface there are powerful recurrent that can drag you out. You only into dangerous places, and so I have to wait out the undercurrent that are not easily detectable and that sometimes you're not even aware of them until it's too late and you find yourself in trouble and so I think technology is the kind of thing that we we really have to be careful of one of these undercurrent that is not quite as visible give you an example. I was recently with my 4 x 4 kids were still at home. We I took amount of frozen yogurt at a local place and we're sitting there enjoying our yogurt together and it was a mom and daughter walked in after they got there yogurt when they went that down right next to us as soon as I sat down I noticed the mob, which soon as she set she had been wanting a ship frozen yogurt. Then in her other hand she immediately pulled out her smartphone and her daughter was probably 556 years old, and the entire time.

Mom was looking at the smartphone and the daughter was kind of looking at mom looking around eating her frozen yogurt but they were absolutely silent.

There was not a single word exchange between them and it ELA that there's a book by Sherry Terkel called alone together addresses this issue, technology, and I thought that seeing in that little yogurt store captured by a mom and a daughter who were alone together. What are some of those other undercurrents. In addition to technology that we need to be aware of and County bowel. Yet information is one of them. We live in an information age secular. We talk about it. Identity we are what needs to be human, particularly in occult a post-Christian culture, technology, and we also talked about the ethical adolescents how you know that the goal is not to grow up to take lithic information.

For instance, you know, if you think about the world. The kids grow a girl growing up in today, but they will encounter more information. Often daily, then someone living just a few centuries ago would've encountered during their entire course of their life.

They have all this information, access to this information at at at their fingertips and so will we would undergo understand is that information is constantly communicating its communicating ideas about how to think about how we are to live in ideas of course are not merely confined to some theoretical realm, but ultimately the ideas have consequences for all of life and bad ideas have victims.

So in in this age were we have all the access information. What we find with young people is that access information has replaced the pursuit of wisdom. Just knowing how to live wisely how to discern so it is a you know our kids and and haven't developed a sense of discernment. I haven't developed wisdom then all this information at their fingertips and at our fingertips. It is not it. It could be very harmful because we don't know how to live well life well with wisdom. We got all his information with a lot of sort it out without we don't know what you know what information is wise what information is all you know we will have a difficult time distinguishing between what really an authoritative source and what isn't, because this is so much information. Right you have all of the different sources is thinking okay good I trust because they're just inundated with information and so often that the inability to discern truth from error amongst all the sources delete a lot of him to become skeptical and cynical about truth itself so we can help kids develop discernment listening to policy matters of resource to listen to our radio show online, and someone resources that will be a voice of persuasion in your community website NC family.org inbred. How can parents practically position themselves as a trusted source of knowledge and information for their children watching the stars often feel really young. Earlier we start with our kids.

The debtor right you know what. The only way to learn junior high and high school to start teaching the Christian worldview to start the sooner they can speak to layout a model for parents that it is a model that I've used in my own my own kids is the model I use when I when I used to be a youth pastor I had something to Christian educators can use, but as I thought carefully about education. I came across really was from classical education, which extends back to the classical Greeks and Romans is formalized by the church in the medieval ages but what classical educators and the key part of the classical education is called trivium. And of course everyone in class could agree on all the details but the Tribune is a major part in it takes the human mind, and young people and for what there's kindest three stage process of training the mind.

Well, and the first stage is what's called the grammar stage and the grammar stage. It's nothing you just teaching your grammar, but it's that the grammar stage are laying a foundation of learning so yeah kids are learning grandmother learning language, but there also learning the facts of life you're dumping into them. Truth you're laying a foundation of truth for them. This is if you think about young kids have this natural love of learning. This wonder of the world are always asking questions and you capitalize on that lay the foundation of true so your teaching them really the what well when a kid gets into fifth sixth seventh eighth grade. The mind develops. They begin to think abstractly. They start asking a lot more of the why this is what classical education is called the logic stage and so ecologic stage you want to just tell the just given what you want to tell them the why you want to help them learn how to think for themselves. Okay, we got all these facts will highlight how I reason through all the data in this information and you you you really teach them the why and then the third stage in classical education is the rhetoric stage in the rhetoric stage is really just teaching them out how to articulate okay you take the fact she put it together with good thinking and found reasoning and while you articulate the truth you speak it. This is where debate in writing papers is so valuable because you're forcing gives it to articulate this and I think that just give us a really basic model for how we can train our kids at those young stages. We are teaching them the wax and for us, the why of the Christian worldview is it simply theology is who God is, it's what he's done it his attributes in character disorder were reading to them a lot, giving a lot of the Scripture using children's illustrated Bible of all these kinds of things were teaching them what and what we can do that after reading we can do that through singing. Singing is a great way to get young kids to learn Scripture to learn theology. We also can do this through memorization and then you get into that the junior high stage, you gotta tell him okay why do we believe this why this stuff through this door apologetics in worldview is so important and by the time their high school.

We get to that rhetoric stage from the how to.

This is where they should. This is where we have to get stuff out from behind the four walls of the church and figure how to get the kids to interact is why mission trips are so good. This is like helping them to engage in evangelism is so good. This is where they should be thinking about how I reached my friends on campus and and share Christ with my friends at school week. This is where they are now ready to articulate hate the stuff is true and I and Jesus is truly all that good stuff which is building only a strong foundation and then adding those component pieces as you talked about is as they are become age-appropriate in and opportunities present themselves. I know that maybe some young parents are listening to the program today may feel a little overwhelmed and think that the challenges are great, especially considering all that's going on in our culture today, but there really is a message of hope that is woven throughout this book Brett talk about that and just encourage your listeners yeah well you as we did the research for this pocket. There are times when your diving into kind of a lot of bad stuff in that part three is is a pounding cultural lazy are we looking at things like pornography, sexual orientation and gender identity, drug abuse buildings really heavy subjects. I have to say at times you look at some of the data out there. You look at the reality and it can be discouraging and that and there's a temptation for us to despair.

As followers of Christ, especially lower work were tasked with raising up you know the next generation.

In this kind of context but of course we gotta remember your number one despair is not a good strategy. I despair will not get us anywhere for the follower of Jesus Christ. We have to look beyond the current cultural moment. We have to look to the larger story right and that is a Christian worldview that the Christian story that's unfolding with just one small moment, and you know what that the church was in a moment. 500 years ago and the church was in a moment 2000 years ago. In fact we really look at things be. The church is been in and much more difficult moments, and so to put that in perspective, God story is playing out and we know how the story ends and we know that the 2000 years ago Jesus rose bodily from the grave and there is no cultural issue.

There is no unjust law. There's no bad you leader who is going to put Jesus back in the great and that is that is where hope is that and so what we did in that that that that third chapters are the chapters in part three. As we wanted, and each one of those chapters with the story. We only had a call this section, hope, casting, and where we wanted to say luck yeah things are RR difficult things are challenging and that we we've got thing that we need to do, but what is a story of hope here. Our young people who actually care and God is using them on college campuses here is testability updates, a former young musician Brian had well who is part of a metal band called corn. You know, in an and he tells her story of being just a foreign attic and then he found Christ and Christ rescued him from the life of destruction and despair and those are the kind of stories that we end with because we want to emphasize that even though we have challenges the power of Christ is the same power that rose Jesus from the dead is available to you and to me wearing dwell by God's Holy Spirit and we need to go back into the culture with hope that that power can overcome all the darkness we see out there that's a great place for us to end our discussion today and we are out of town but not before we leave. I will give you an opportunity to let our listeners know where they can go to get a copy of your excellent new book a practical guide to culture helping the next generation navigate today's world. Yeah, they can go to any major book retailer Amazon, Barnes & Noble Christian book.com and they can get a practical guide culture.

There great one-on-one. Encourage your listeners do that.

I'm sure that we have talked a great interest in many of them, especially young parents and parents of young children out there so please avail yourself of this great resource. A practical guide to culture helping the next generation navigate today's world and with that Brett Kunkel I want to thank you so much for being with us on family policy matters and for sharing your valuable insights with us and I was thank you family policy matters a production of NZ family to listen to our radio show online, and for more valuable resources and information about issues important to families in North Carolina. My website@family.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook