The EduCore Project (3)

"For each succeeding generation, the problem of Education is new."
- Alfred North Whitehead

I completed the School & Society textbook in early May, far ahead of schedule. (I tend to get through things quicker than planned not because I'm an especially high acheiver, but simply because I have trouble multitasking.) I closed out the Educore blog for now with Rich Mullins' Higher Education And The Book Of Love - (hat tip to Max for the inspiration.)

I've also finished (with the exception of the "Appendices",) Gordon Clark's A Christian Philosophy Of Education, which as you remember is the subject of the essay. It's quite a strict book: he's not joking about the "philosophy" bit.

Aside from his erratic flares of idiosyncratic dogmatism and his ever-present Calvinism, Clark seems to be a man of sense and conviction. However, you get the sense that as an author he was more prolific than poignant, and unfortunately these types of books tend to fill more shelves than they do minds.

Now, I've started into The Future Of Christian Higher Education, a collection of essays and addresses on the subject from around the turn of the millennium. The book has its full share of the kind of vague, circular stuff that characterizes scholarly writing, but there are also some strong meaty sections that may earn this title a dedicated post.

I haven't been keeping score as far as the page count is concerned, but I'm feeling generally optimistic. There may be one title that gets cut from the initial list, due to lack of time or lack of patience or both, but overall the study is progressing nicely.

Of course, integrating all the information is a challenge, and I have yet to see some clear themes emerge that I can begin to work with and address. I expect they won't crystallize fully until these keys start clattering out the essay.

"We must leave behind the notion that Christian scholarship is the same as any scholarship, except that it adds a little something of Christian history or values on top. No, Christian scholarship - authentic, honest, truth-seeking scholarship - is fundamentally different and cannot be faked." - Robert C. Andringa, The Future Of Christian Higher Education, Foreword, pg. xvii

"Even in the teaching of arithmetic a pessimistic education will be distinguishable from a theistic and optimistic education, at least on rainy days." - Gordon H. Clark, A Christian Philosophy Of Education, Chapter 3: The Alternative To Christian Theism, pg. 45