An Education for a Dog or a Man?

Are men made in the likeness of God? Do they bear His image? Or are they the random by-product of purposeless flux and change? This is a really important question because a being with a divine and eternal soul would live very different and have different moral requirements than a being that was purely biological.

For example, consider the different expectations that we put on children as opposed to pets during mealtime. While animals simply eat, children are expected to have good manners, to engage in polite conversation, and to remain at the table until dismissed.

We rightly have different expectations because a dog and a child are two different types of things. A dog, because it is strictly a biological being, eats food only to maintain its body. People, because they have souls, eat certain foods because they enjoy the taste and they eat with others because they enjoy company and conversation.

Or consider a sunset. If you were to attempt to point out a particular beautiful sunset to a dog it would likely sniff your finger. This is because animals have no capacity to recognize and appreciate beauty. Whereas a man that can’t recognize and appreciate beauty is defective.

Because humans are made in the image of God they are created to know and live according to truth, to do what is good and right, and to appreciate and express beauty. We don’t fault a dog for living exclusively for the cravings of its belly, but we rightly fault a man for living the same way. A man that lives like a dog denies and thereby loses a part of his humanity—the part that is highest and best.

What does this have to do with education? Here’s the answer: this has everything to do with education. You see, if people are strictly biological beings, like dogs, we ought to give them a certain type of education, but if they are made in the image of the God they are fitted for a completely different type of education.

For example, if man is merely a biological being then the purpose of his education should be to help him survive and flourish biologically. He will be taught “real-world skills” and things that are “relevant” and “practical.” He will also be taught utilitarian morals like “tell the truth or others will disbelieve you,” and “be kind if you want others to be kind to you.” He will be taught like this so that he and his fellow creatures don’t destroy each other. In this education there is no room for poetry and philosophy—when are you ever going to use those types of things! History and literature will be placed on the backburner—after all there are plenty of millionaires who know nothing of the Peloponnesian War and couldn’t give a lick for Dostoevsky. In this schema knowledge is only valuable if it is useful. In terms of morals these biological beings would be taught to be safe and not harm others, but there would be no talk of developing inner nobility or being a person of integrity—if something feels good and doesn't hurt anyone else, why should they deny themselves it?

The type of education I am describing is one that many of us had, yet it is an education fitted for a dog and not a man. To put it another way, everyone talks about teaching the “full person” but you cannot teach the full person without knowing what a person is. Because man is made in the image of God we cannot know what a person is without knowing who God is.

Because we are divine image-bearers our education must be fitted to that reality. Yes, we must learn how to meet our biological needs, but we are more than bodies, more than producers and consumers, and an education that only focuses on the maintenance and perpetuation of bodies, whether physically or economically, denies and fails to develop what is highest and best in us. Those of us that work at Christian schools don't just want the bodies and bank accounts of our students to flourish, we want their souls to flourish! Our sons and daughters have a God-given capacity to appreciate beauty—we seek to expose them to works of beauty! Our children have a God-given capacity to know the truth—we seek to instruct them in the truth in the hope that they will come to love and live in light of the truth. Our kids have the capacity to live lives of virtue and goodness—we want to show them the fruit that these lives produce and how they can grow not in self-righteousness, but in real righteousness.

You and I are not the random by-products of unthinking matter; we are thinking, feeling, eternal souls made in the image of God capable of living flourishing lives and spreading joy and goodness wherever we go. A true education is one fitted to this reality.