Education or Illusion
By William Spoelhof, President Emeritus, Calvin College

["Education or Illusion," an address given by Dr. William Spoelhof at the August 12-14, 1952, National Union of Christian Schools Convention (now Christian Schools International), was published in the Christian School Annual—1952. The site of the convention was the Conrad-Hilton Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, site also of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions of 1952 referred to in his talk. Presented by Dr. Spoelhof shortly after he had become president of Calvin College, this speech was a major address at a convention that was attended not by teachers but by school board representatives, principals, and superintendents from the member schools of the NUCS.

I was alerted to the existence of this speech when it was referenced and used recently in a presentation that advocated the formation of a new Reformed Christian High School. In his address fifty years ago, Dr. Spoelhof cited the contemporary acceptance of evolutionism, materialism, scientism, dialectical materialism, and modernistic humanism as reasons for the Reformed community to maintain a distinctively Reformed Christian educational system. It is striking that this description and critique of a “generation bereft of any spiritual sensitivity” has remained so relevant that a contemporary speaker would borrow from the speech of Dr. Spoelhof and cite these as the same challenges for Reformed Christian Education in the 21st century.

I have been told that, when he was reminded recently of this speech, Dr. Spoelhof stated that he remembered the illustration he employed to begin his talk. The illustration spoke of a fond parent whose son had been assigned to duty in the Armed Forces in the Aleutian Islands and who never tired of talking about “my son Jim who is in the Illusions.” Dr. Spoelhof is also quoted as having said, “I think I could make that speech again.”

Dr. Spoelhof’s speech intends to dispel several illusions, one of which is the misconception that education is organically, as it is mechanically, compartmentalized into subjects, grades, departments, and schools. He writes: “Education is all one piece—from kindergarten through university—whether that be in a public or private school . . . . Education must affect the whole man, the child and adult, in all his relationships—to God, to fellowman, and to the world—total man in relationship to the totality of things. That goal binds all of us, engaged in the great work of teaching, into a classless fraternity, for ours is truly a profess—ion. Having made these claims, I wish within the framework to elucidate my theme, ‘Education or Illusion,’ by noting its presence, first on the American public school front, and then on the American Christian school front.”

The speech is included with this collection of stories because the speech illustrates the basic philosophy of Dr. Spoelhof, who was so instrumental in the development of the educational program of Calvin College: Every square inch of this creation comes under the lordship of Christ. Pro Rege!

—Agatha Lubbers, Class of 1959]

Colleagues and Friends of Christian Education

The title of my talk to you tonight reminds me of a certain fond parent whose son, his pride and joy, was in military service, assigned to the Aleutian Islands Command. He never tired of talking about "my son Jim, who is in the Illusions." Now, Jim is not the only one serving in the Illusions. He is joined by multitudes more, and that especially in the field of education.

Before I venture into a discussion of my thesis tonight, I wish to dispel several illusions at the outset that have no immediate reference to the title I chose. The theme of this convention, as well as the theme of my talk, could well provoke in your minds the illusory thought that, outside the Christian education system as we experience it—not in the ideal, but in the concrete—all is chaotic, all is an illusion. If such is your thought, then you have imbibed the spirit with which the two preceding political conventions infected the atmosphere of this very hotel in which we are meeting. I wish to talk about education or illusion on both sides of the school fence.

Another misconception I must dispel before I can comfortably launch into my subject is the false notion that education is organically, as it is mechanically, compartmentalized into subjects, grades, departments, and schools. This is thoroughly wrong. And it is wrong from the Reformed conception of education. Education is all of one piece—from kindergarten through university—whether that be in a public or private school. I took seriously my salutation to you—colleagues. Education must affect the whole man, the child and adult, in all his relationships—to God, to fellow man, and to the world—total man in relationship to the totality of things. That goal binds all of us, engaged in the great work of teaching, into a classless fraternity, for ours is truly a profess-ion. Having made these claims, I wish within that framework to elucidate my theme, "Education or Illusion," by noting its presence, first, on the American public school front, and then on the American Christian school front.

I. EDUCATION OR ILLUSION IN AMERICAN PUBLIC EDUCATION

One of the most significant and striking enactments ever made by the Congress of the United States is the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. It was the only law passed under the old Articles of Confederation, which, as far as I know, was readopted verbatim by the government under the new and present Constitution of the United States. The preamble is familiar to you. It reads, "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government, the means of education shall forever be encouraged." That significant sentence, paraphrased, says that religion and morality are the basis of education, a proposition to which all of us here present give hearty assent. That was the basis upon which the great school system of America was founded and which served as the matrix of the public school system of a great part of the United States.

Throughout our colonial period and up to the middle of the nineteenth century—say, 1850—of our national period, education was predominantly religious and moral in tone and character. Higher education, which trained the men and women who staffed the elementary and secondary schools, was almost completely in clerical hands. Only one college surviving the colonial period, Franklin's College (now the University of Pennsylvania), was controlled by laymen. And this was true despite the fact that already by 1850 ministerial students had been long in the minority.

After 1850 the character and tone of American education began to change rapidly. At that time we left our anchorage and headed toward the open seas without chart or compass. We headed into an age that I choose to call the "Age of Illusion" in education—an age in which education became well-nigh completely secularized. Two factors account for as well as explain this development:

1. the rise of the secular spirit
2. the political doctrine of the separation of church and state

1. The Rise of the Secular Spirit

There are several manifestations that could, perhaps, be called reasons that account for this pulling away from our moorings as defined in the Old Northwest Ordinance. I shall suggest them seriatim.

1. Darwinian evolution is one of the factors that shook the faith upon which our Founding Fathers had based their system of education. The publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859 brought forth a vehement attack on Protestant orthodoxy. Many began to doubt the old-time faith based upon the Word of God, while others turned away from the faith altogether. This was not merely an attack on the Genesis account of creation—it affected the whole of religious life. Education soon fell under its spell. Educational and clerical leaders who refused to compromise with Darwinism were looked upon as "fuddy-duddies" and shelved. A completely naturalistic view of life coloring educational goals and objectives became popular.

2. At about the same time the nation was gripped by another new interest. Following the Civil War, every other aspect of American life and civilization became subordinate to the concern about our nation's rapidly developing industrial machine. The American Industrial Revolution, which brought us such innumerable benefits and eventually placed us in the position of a first-ranking power, was also accompanied by innumerable evils. We were caught in the trammel of materialism, which adjusted its morality rather easily to Darwinian evolution, for a naturalistic and materialistic concept of life fit hand in glove.

The goals and objectives of education were adjusted to this overpowering interest. Absolute moral value judgments being considered of little or no consequence, only the goal of earning a living mattered. Thus the established education tradition of training in moral absolutes and value judgments was shelved, and sheer technical training became our dominant pattern. Learning to earn a living rather than learning to live a life became the goal and purpose of education.

3. The cult of so-called objectivity or scientism, which is another word for pragmatism, was another factor that provoked the secularity whose fruits we are gleaning these days. It denied the validity of all things save those that were demonstrable. It even attempted to reduce religious faith to the limits of the natural and observable. It provoked a moral neutrality and an irresponsible ethical relativism.

4. The education front, thus weakened in its fiber, became rather easy prey for the Marxist doctrine of dialectical materialism. The age of debunking set in. Our most sacred institutions, the faith of our Founding Fathers, and the idealism of our leaders fell prey to a verbal tar and feathering.

5. The one force which, possibly, could have saved our educational system from the morass of illusion was the church, but it, too, fell victim to the secularism of the day. Falling in with the easy-going, illusory optimism of the day, in which man was viewed as the measure of all things, a myopic and ludicrous sort of humanism was substituted for the old faith, which alone gave meaning to life. An anemic, eviscerated Christianity, as you may call it at best—really, anti-Christian in essence—it could never cope with the trend.

The chain of illusion was now completely forged. Evolution, materialism, scientism, dialectical materialism, and modernistic humanism were its links. In the schools, from kindergarten through university, it produced a generation bereft of any real spiritual sensitivity. Morality and ethics took a holiday, and our generation entered upon spiritual bleakness.

2. The Political Doctrine of the Separation of Church and State

Accompanying this rise of secularism was another factor that banished religion from the American educational scene. That was the political interpretation of the First Amendment of our Constitution—the separation of church and state. Now, the First Amendment is one that you and I cherish most highly. The fact is that the guarantee of freedom of religion was just as much part of the Northwest Ordinance as was the preamble that affirmed that religion and morality were the basis of education. However, under recurrent court decisions this freedom from an established church grew into a political doctrine that sucked all religious teaching from our schools. Instead of freedom of religion, it became a freedom from religion. Should this trend continue, it will end in a guarantee for no group other than the purely atheistic.

The political and ideological prescriptions of secularism drove American education directly into the quagmire of disillusionment. It took the second World War and the violent peace that followed to knock the props from beneath our illusions. The awful dread of impending catastrophes voiced by our top scientists, observations by our military leaders like MacArthur, who pointed out that our real problems were theological, and Eisenhower, who spoke of producing a nation of corpses in armor, made our educational leaders aware of the chaos that was the fruit of a soulless education.

A reassessment of education is now being made. Voices are heard from all corners, proclaiming religious values as the binding core of any educational system. The number of articles, books, and monographs that proclaim a return to spiritual values is sufficiently sizeable to view this as a trend in education.

Before we become too heartened by this trend, we must realize that the capitulation is not complete and unconditional. Secularism is too deeply ingrained for that, and the political doctrine of separation of church and state is still an obstruction. American education has not yet really learned, because it still views religion as a tool, an aid, rather than as a wellspring. Christianity is looked upon as a crutch to democracy and not as of its essence. Thus the trend is to teach about religion, about Christianity, about moral and ethical values rather than to teach that all learning and living must be based upon the presuppositions of the Christian faith.

I warn you that this new trend is not going to enhance the popularity of our own cause of Christian education. We are not going to be looked upon as allies, but, as the issues become more sharply defined, we shall be viewed more and more as uncompromising sectarians in the evil sense of that word, for we, I hope, shall stand courageously for education and not illusion.

II. EDUCATION OR ILLUSION IN AMERICAN CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

This raises another thought. Shall we stand boldly for education and not illusion? We do not possess an inherent immunity from illusion. Even within the framework of our Christian school system any preoccupation with forms rather than substance will produce not Christian education but illusion. Unless our entire education system from bottom to top remains distinctively Reformed, we shall have not Christian education as we want it, but an illusion. Such a statement is a beautiful cliché charged with emotional appeal only, if it is not further defined. What are our prospects for real education, and what are the pitfalls of illusion?

1. I shall put it in the form of a Scripture text: "…the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us who are saved it is the power of God." The cross of Christ has its significance in the personal life of the believer, but it also has a broader significance than that. When Paul speaks of the word of the cross, he is referencing the cosmic significance of the cross of Christ. The word of the cross of Christ refers to the total redemptive process and involves the whole of God's creation. After all, this still is "my Father's world." In Christian education this distinction is all-important. True, we as teachers have assumed the sacred trust that we are all responsible to God for the souls he places under our tutelage, and that is not a minor responsibility. However, we may not, in good conscience, limit our Christian educative emphasis to personal salvation or so-called personal piety or personal devotion. To do so would be to create a schizophrenic Christianity, which God's revelation of the cross does not permit. To do so would be to construct an illusion, for we can never think in terms of Christian and education, but only of Christian education. All of learning—its object as well as it subject, its content, its technique, its goal and purpose—must be under the Lordship of Christ. Education must be directed upon the whole of man in all his relationships—to God, to fellow man, and to the world. Then all of learning thus conceived becomes a matter of the dedicated heart, redeemed by Christ; and in true piety and devotion we take the whole of creation—not merely our emotional, narrowly religious self—and place it at the feet of Christ.

If we can achieve this, we shall have real education and not illusion. All other manifestations of what Christian education is take their departure from this first principle that I have elucidated.

2. That is all it takes to have Christian education. Now to carry it out. Therein lies a real task and the true difficulty of our profession. There are many among our constituency and many faint-hearted right within our own profession who are subject to the second of the illusions I wish to mention.

Many believe that accomplishing this enormous task of Christian education is merely a matter of picking up a series of formulae, a number of illustrations of God's providence, a number of causes and effects, or a number of methods courses in the Christian teaching of this or that, and the job is done. That is the illusion of believing that Christian education is concerned solely with forms and with techniques rather than with substance. The enormity of the teacher's task is such that not during his or her lifetime will he or she ever attain the ultimate in effectiveness. It is a matter of constant growth and development. And whereas God gives special capacities to some, in the long run the applications of Christian education are a mutual job. Never at Calvin College have we claimed the attainment of the ultimate. We need alliances, and national unions, and Calvin College, and whatever group would join us in increasing the effectiveness of Christian education.

3. We are subject to other illusions about Christian education. A conspicuous one is this: that education on all levels has fully justified itself if it supplies us with men and women trained for the Christian ministry and Christian school teaching. We like to call this direct Kingdom work. Where does that leave you businessmen, you doctors, dentists, lawyers, you laborers, you farmers? Is Christian education not for you? To deny in principle or practice that Christian education is as much for you as for ministers, missionaries, and teachers is to forsake the Reformed distinctiveness that we profess. We do not open our schools to "the others" because we think it merely right and proper to furnish these sons and daughters with an introduction to the arts, humanities, and culture of our Western civilization. That kind of education becomes a vague substitute for religion composed of art, music, poetry, and good intentions. We support "the others" because the word of the cross in its totality is the central and pivotal concern of all of us and involves the totality of things within all civilization.

4. A fourth possible illusion to which I would like to draw your attention is two-pronged—that is, Christian education on all levels is viewed either as an ancillary adjunct to the church or as something that operates in a completely autonomous domain. You will find advocates of both views in our circles. In reality, in order to arrive at a truly balanced system, the church needs the school and the school needs the church, just as the home needs both and both need the home. That means that Christian education is everybody's enterprise because in the Christian community all are part of, affected by, and involved in this great venture.

Our Christian educational system does not lack ambition. It comes before our people with plans for new school buildings, with an extensive Christian textbook program, with a $2 million drive for Calvin College, with schemes for future junior colleges. Without these, Christian education might well be seriously impaired; yet with them we could still be forging a long chain of illusion unless we insist that our education be distinctively Reformed. That, among many other things, calls for a true sense of devotion that sees in education the cosmic significance of the word of the cross, that deals in substance as well as form, that does not excuse certain areas of activity from submission to our comprehensive ideal, and that makes Christian education everybody's job.

You will recall that Abraham Lincoln, as an Illinois lawyer, was not very methodical about his business concerns. His filing system consisted of memoranda stuck in a drawer, in a vest pocket, or inside his hat. However, for really important matters he had one envelope marked, "When you can't find it anywhere else, look in this." Our whole educational system will constantly have to go back to that very old, thumb-worn envelope marked, "Distinctively Reformed Education."