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Education in
the World Tomorrow
E
ducation will be a respected,
thriving industry in God's world.
But it will be considerably different
than it is today.
The main difference will , of
course. be content. The "core"
currículum of education in God 's
world will be God's Law, empha–
sizing God's way of "give," and
not the devil 's hostile, competitive,
" gel " attitude. God considers the
education of young people in that
Law so importan! that He has
made its teaching a duty for par–
ents generally:
·'And these words, which 1com–
mand thee this day, shall be in
thine heart: and thou shalt teach
them diligently unto thy children,
and shall talk of them when thou
sittest in thine house, and when
thou liest down, and when thou
rises t up" (Deut. 6 :6-7).
Certain subjects will simply be
obsolete in God's World . There
will be no need to study foreign
languages to communicate with
other people , for example, be–
cause all the world will speak one
language. "For then will 1 turn to
the people a pure language, that
they may all call upon the name of
the Lord, to serve him with one
consent" (Zephaniah 3 :9) .
But this will not mean other lan–
guages will cease . The Bible itself
is written in different languages .
Music and literature will be
taught from a far different per–
spective.
lt is hard to imagine a society
geared to the worship o f God
and re-creation of His character
in itself, tolerating certain kinds of
music which seem more appro–
priate for an orgy than worship .
On the other hand , the teaching
of the particular skills of reading
music and playing a musical
instrument may not change all
that much.
Literature will see more drastic
changes. Much , if not most of
man's literatura represents man's
groping for answers to the big
questions in lite. Often the answers
are wrong, and the author's vision
contains precious little truth. More–
over, some of man's literature pro–
motes values opposed to God's
way. including lust and hopeless–
ness . In today's world, parents in
some areas have even had to
resort to picketing and demonstra–
tions to remove from the class–
room certain texts, which, they
correctly felt , ridiculed bíblica! val–
ues.
Sex education will change dra–
matically. Today, educators rigidly ·
avoid letting any moral or reli–
gious "values" intrude on educa–
tion. But that very avoidance con–
veys to students a sense that sex
and morality are independent of
each other-an idea that God 's
Word opposes. In Tomorrow's
World, God's laws will form the
basis for sex educa tion, and
God's laws will be upheld, not
subtly pul down. as they are in
today's schools.
History will be lar different also.
Events will be shown in the context
of the bíblica! record: the Bible
reveals God's master plan for all
of human history, particular events
as movements will be shown
where they fit in that plan . The
origins of nations. their role in
God's scheme of prophecy, sub–
jects that aren'! even part of his–
tory as it is studied today, will be a
majar part of the history currí cu–
lum.
Physical education may be
changed also . Certain sports
breed a hostile competitive atti–
tude. Injuries are common in some
sports. Further , in God's world ,
one just can't imagine one of the
most common occurrences in the
physical education classes of this
world: the choosing up of sides for
a team- a public display of who is
favored and who isn't. There will
probably be team sports in God's
world, but the emphasis will be on
doing your best, not putting the
other side down.
Of course. certain subjects will
not change much. Basic mathe–
matics seems fairly impervious to
man's folly. And who knows what
equations spirit beings will be able
todo, when they have, as they will ,
the mental power of God?
New Methods
While the content of some sub–
jects may change, the
way
people
are taught should see changes
also. God 's world will bring univer–
sal literacy: most parents should
be qualified to teach most subjects
at home . As one Church
of
God
minister once said about Tomor–
row 's World, "No longer will the
ability to educate be viewed as a
mystery system of rituals that can
only be performed by the profes–
sionals."
Possibly there will be great use
of " prog rammed instruc tion"–
why couldn't, for example, a stu–
dent take a cor respondence
course using a computer terminal
plugged into a lesson program dis–
seminated from the world capital in
Jerusalem?
Vocational education may also
be direct from parent to child. Par–
ents should have more time to be
available to teach their children
their own skills. lt is hard to imag–
ine that in the Millennium parents
will have to work 8 to 5 factory–
type jobs where they would be
unavailable to their children most
of the day. (Perhaps factory and
manufacturing work will be auto–
mated .) Both the office and shop,
as well as the farm, should be
open to children.
As for classroom instruction,
there wi ll still be the need of text–
books and reading assignments,
problems to solve in arithmetic,
and essays to write in whatever
the new language will be. lt seems
certain activities are necessary to
learn certain skills . There is simply
no way, for example, to avoid
memorizing the multiplication table .
And most assuredly, television will
not take the place of words-the
written word will still be the most
importan! way of conveying ideas
because it, unlike television, torces
the mind to thínk in language.
The world of the future will be a
world o f global literacy, where all
citizens will be taught the right val–
ues and God's truth, as well as
how to make a living . The frontiers
of truth will be infinitely expanded .
A truly enlightened world!- JC