It wasn’t graduate school, but kindergarten that taught Robert Fulgrum everything he needed to know. Share, play fair, don’t hit others.
His essay, published as “All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” sold 15 million copies worldwide. Graduation speakers and wedding officiants have quoted it for the last 35 years. However, one place has largely forgotten these lessons: most modern kindergarten classrooms.
Dr. Leonard Sax, a board-certified physician and psychologist, argues that early childhood education now emphasizes academics over socialization. He believes this shift has harmed children’s achievement and psychological health. Fortunately, Christ the Savior Academy remembers the primary role of education: forming minds, bodies, and souls for God’s kingdom.
In “The Collapse of Parenting” Sax observes, “In my school visits nationwide I have observed a shift away from teaching socialization…” He notes that academic skills have replaced lessons on values and getting along with others. He argues that this is one factor that has led to a dramatic decline in achievement and psychological health.
A Quest to Make Kindergarten Education Rigorous at the Cost of Faith-Based Learning
Somewhere in the quest for academic achievement, kindergartens stopped teaching socialization and values. Instead, they began prioritizing academic rigor at earlier ages, leaving behind an essential part of childhood education.
In 1951, a group of 20 educators from the National Education Association released a 100-page report. The report declared, “No society can survive without a moral order,” making moral and spiritual values education’s top priority. The authors emphasized that values should not be taught separately but should be woven into the fabric of school life.
However, in the late 1990s, education changed direction. Concerned that Japanese students had outperformed Americans, administrators emphasized academic rigor in early childhood. This decision significantly altered the educational landscape, shaping a generation’s learning experience.
“The Tutor” by Wada Sanzo (1959)
Seeking Academic Rigor While Sacrificing Moral Culture
What has this pursuit of early academic rigor achieved? Surely, it produced a generation of smarter, more successful children. However, the reality tells a different story.
American students continue to drop in international academic rankings. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is the primary measure of global student achievement. Since 2000, when PISA began, the United States’ ranking has declined from 13th in the world in 2000, to 20th by 2023. These statistics indicate that the academic push has not yielded the expected results.
Lynn Woodward from the National Center for Educational Statistics remarked, “The shift towards rigorous coursework has not increased scores, as one might expect.” This statement underscores the ineffectiveness of prioritizing academics over character development.
What have we lost? A generation of children who no longer share a common value system. Without shared values, society struggles to maintain cohesion and respect.
Columnist David Brooks noted in the September 2023 The Atlantic, “We now inhabit a society in which people are no longer trained to treat others with kindness and consideration.” This highlights the consequences of neglecting social education in favor of academic rigor.
The Fighting Téméraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to be Broken Up by J.M.W. Turner (1838)
Kindergartners Need Faith Based Learning
I understand the temptation to prioritize rigorous preschool and kindergarten over faith-based education. As a parent, I faced the same dilemma 15 years ago.
Having my child read before kindergarten and solve math problems felt like validation of my parenting. I believed faith could be taught at home while academics took center stage in school. But I soon realized I was missing something crucial.
Then, my four-year-old son taught me a valuable lesson. He came home from church one day and declared Sunday School unimportant.
“Why do you say that?” I asked, surprised by his statement.
“Because we don’t even do any math there,” he said. His response made me realize my son had learned to compartmentalize his life – school was where he learned “important things” like math and science. Church and home was where he learned about God. And who could blame him?
He attended a preschool where he learned about math, language, the continents, the planets… and yet never mentioned the Creator of that world and universe. The “important things” are the subjects that he spent the most time studying, like math.
At such an early age, he learned to separate matters of the mind from matters of the heart or as Orthodox Christians would say, the matters of the soul. Frederica Mathewes-Green once described the core of the soul (“nous” is the Greek term) as a little radio that once switched on allows us to become aware of Christ speaking to us. The soul can be trained to register or perceive the voice of God.
That little radio is turned on when our children are baptized into Christ. From that very day there is a war waged to silence its voice inside our children. It is effectively silenced when we teach our children to compartmentalize their lives.
Compartmentalization is not the Orthodox way.
Christ the Savior Academy also rejects compartmentalization. Every morning our students gather in the little chapel and they confess God is everywhere. They pray the Trisagion prayers, “O heavenly King, O Comforter, the spirit of Truth who art in all places and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life come and dwell in us…”
The Psalms reinforce this truth, “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there! If I make my bed in Shaol, Thou art there!” (Psalms 139:7-8)
Yet, when we send our children to schools where God is not allowed or is confessed differently, we teach them about the Universe without mentioning His name, as if the Universe that He created and fills can be understood without Him.
To what end?
We want our children to receive the best education possible, but how wise can they truly become, when we leave Wisdom at home or in the Church?
We want our children to succeed in life, but how do we define success? If our children become doctors, lawyers, or successful business owners, but walk away from the Faith, what have they gained? Have they not gained the whole world, but lost Life itself?
Conversely, we do not teach the faith at the exclusion of math and science, but this God who “art in all places and fillest all things” can be found in that very math and science that we teach.
We confess God should always be on our minds: We are told, “Pray at all times in the Spirit.” (Ephesions 6:18) “…Be constant in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)
The Angelus by Jean-François Millet (1857-1859)
If Prayer is the Breath of Life, Students at Christ the Savior Academy Breath Freely
At Christ the Savior Academy, our students are allowed to pray without ceasing. Every morning they ask God, “Direct my will and teach me to pray, to believe, to hope, to endure, to forgive, and to love.” At lunch, their voices ring out in unison, “Oh give thanks unto the Lord for He is good. Alleluia. For His mercy endureth forever. Alleluia.” At the close of the day, they give thanks to the Lord for their instructors, “Bless those who are over us, our parents and instructors, who lead us to an awareness of good, and grant us power and strength to continue this study.”
In addition to praying without ceasing, key values are ingrained in their minds. As our students go from class to class, it is common for teachers to call out, “What is courage?”
“Doing what is right, even when it is hard,” the students respond in unison.
“What is integrity?”
“Doing the right thing, even when no one is watching,” the students shout.
Behaviors are corrected in the classroom according to the values Christ the Savior Academy wishes to instill – integrity, self-control, and mercy, to name just a few.
Those values are not taught at the exclusion of a rigorous academic environment. At Christ the Savior Academy, students receive both. By the time they graduate as eighth graders, they have smoothly transitioned into the top of their classes in whatever school they choose.
Living The Life of Christ and Passing On Our Culture to Children
As Orthodox Christians, we confess that the purpose of life is to be filled – saturated – with Christ. Everything flows from that – the art we create, the people we heal, the discoveries we make, the poor we help.
For our children to live life to the fullest, the soul must be nurtured, not silenced. They must attend schools where Truth is taught – the whole truth which can only be found in the person of Jesus Christ, the beginning and end of all knowledge.
There is a war being waged to silence the faith that was given to our children in baptism. We must give our children the tools, the Truth, they need to fight this battle. This can only be done by daily, constant meditation on Christ in every aspect of their lives – home, school, and Church.
Growing Children Into Adults Means Passing on The Culture of Faith
It is through this focus on Christ in all aspects of their lives that we can begin to ingrain in our children our culture of faith, so that when they are adults they will not depart from it.
Dr. Leonard Sax points out that humans are adolescents for more years than most animals live.
Think about it.
Horses are considered fully grown by age 4. They race in the Kentucky Derby by age three. A human child has barely begun to mature by age 4. Why is that?
“The answer is culture,” Sax says. “It takes many years for parents and other grown-ups to teach the culture to the child. There’s no shortcut.”
If we want our children to share in our values and culture, we must painstakingly teach it daily to our children. By the time our children are school age, they will spend twice as much time with their friends and teachers as they do with you at home. Does your child’s school reflect the values and culture that you possess? Does it prepare them for this life alone, or does it aim even higher, preparation for residency in the Kingdom of Heaven?
You may also enjoy…
