Post by Lee on Mar 21, 2014 2:22:51 GMT
That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth: that our daughters may be corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace (Psa. 144: 12).
WHAT delightful figures of speech are employed by the Psalmist in portraying, in the quotation given above, the methods and aim of education! It is obvious, however, that if our sons are to develop into “goodly plants”, and our daughters to become useful and beautiful “corner stones”, much care must be exercised to ensure that adequate nourishment and training is provided, and appropriate discipline and freedom afforded. The main responsibility for achieving this satisfactory result must fall, even in these days, on the home and family: in fact, it is just because parental responsibility is threatened in these days by what has been aptly described as “the insidious and often unconscious and unintended attacks on family life by the State”, that it is imperative that we should be alive to the danger, and resolute in our determination to combat it. “It is precisely when education is organized by public authority that there is more need than ever of a place where the individuality of the child may with the discerning eyes of anxious affection be studied, cared for, tended, restrained, developed.” If that is true generally, how much more is it important in relation to our children!
It is for this reason that we emphasize, as the fundamental basis of all true education, the importance of the Christadelphian home and family. There is no substitute for these: if we fail to give our children the training, counsel, and wise direction demanded of us by the Truth, we shall have failed in our duty as parents and incurred a grave responsibility.
1946 Christadelphian p86
WHAT delightful figures of speech are employed by the Psalmist in portraying, in the quotation given above, the methods and aim of education! It is obvious, however, that if our sons are to develop into “goodly plants”, and our daughters to become useful and beautiful “corner stones”, much care must be exercised to ensure that adequate nourishment and training is provided, and appropriate discipline and freedom afforded. The main responsibility for achieving this satisfactory result must fall, even in these days, on the home and family: in fact, it is just because parental responsibility is threatened in these days by what has been aptly described as “the insidious and often unconscious and unintended attacks on family life by the State”, that it is imperative that we should be alive to the danger, and resolute in our determination to combat it. “It is precisely when education is organized by public authority that there is more need than ever of a place where the individuality of the child may with the discerning eyes of anxious affection be studied, cared for, tended, restrained, developed.” If that is true generally, how much more is it important in relation to our children!
It is for this reason that we emphasize, as the fundamental basis of all true education, the importance of the Christadelphian home and family. There is no substitute for these: if we fail to give our children the training, counsel, and wise direction demanded of us by the Truth, we shall have failed in our duty as parents and incurred a grave responsibility.
1946 Christadelphian p86