Self Guided Education

“As iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)

 “The kisses of an enemy may be profuse, but faithful are the wounds of a friend.” (Proverbs 27:6)

Given those verses, some claim the key to a successful evaluation is to have an evaluator who sharpens like iron and doesn’t pull punches. But the key word is “friend”, defined as one who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). Friendship is elusive largely because the inability and unwillingness to “lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

Attempts to clarify job expectations, through detailed job descriptions and performance rubrics, are attempts to avoid the inevitable pain of correcting one who deviates from the prescribed path. There is a belief that clear and honest communication of expectations produces evaluations that come as no surprise. Why then do employees fear evaluations? It is because only perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:15-18) and the evaluation process largely disregards that God is love.

When any employer and the employee share the same vision, the same mission, and agree that teamwork needs all members to exercise their unique insights and talents, including failures, then that organization can flourish, for a while, like a plant in shallow soil. Eventually, tribulation reveals weak roots, not grounded in love, and the needed discipline writhers the organization.

Conversely, an organization whose mission is to honor God, in every word and deed, encourages every member of the body to work together in love as equal bondservants of Christ. Each member functions within the body, without lording over any other member. In this manner the whole building is constructed as God equips and chips away at each stone to fit all together (1 Peter 2:5). In this community, discipline is celebrated, like the pruning of a vine makes it more fruitful.

In the Christian community, we all have different gifts. We all are part of the body of Christ, each with a unique function. (1 Cor. 12) In this sense the leader is no more valued than the follower, for the organization can’t have one without the other. Humility is the key to serve others in love.

Teachers, mindful they will incur a stricter judgement (James 3:1), have the freedom to teach in accordance with their gifts. “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13-14)

In building relationships, the sense of trust that proceeds vulnerability, is misguided if the trust is placed in a colleague. Although each person should strive to be trustworthy, each should place their trust solely in Christ, following his example.  “But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men” (John 2:24).

Reciprocal sharing of vulnerabilities usually breeds greater trust. Self reflection to identify areas of weakness and need is healthy especially when those needs are strengthened by the gifting of a coworker, be it employee or employer. For we all work for the same judge, who is Lord over all. And he equips us to serve others. Whether a supervisor or one being supervised, pride makes it difficult to accept help gracefully to supplement an area of weakness. However, with the realization that it is Christ working through each, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to minister in works that were preordained, then it becomes easier to rely on our Creator who is serving us via our family of believers. 

There are popular professors of educational theory and practice, who recognize how older power structures of supervision have caused fearful or apathetic responses by teachers to the infamous formal observation. To replace that model, Glickman (2013) and others suggest that a supervisor can improve a teacher’s attitude and behaviors by forming trusting relationships, that are collaborative and mutually vulnerable, and thus empower teachers to exercise their unique characteristics toward improving the attitude and behaviors of students. This goal is based on the assumption of shared beliefs in the ultimate purpose of education.

Unfortunately, the supervisors transparent claim to have a profound respect for the uniqueness all human beings, as a consistent driver for social and emotional instruction, is often fraudulent. Rather than motivated by love, the practice is motivated by such temporal trivialities such as to increase test scores or decrease drop out rates.

There is a counterfeit movement among atheists to form a community fellowship church. They want the form of godliness, while still declaring the power of God to be no more potent than the fictitious spaghetti monster.  They want to feel love, without acknowledging that God is love, who redeemed us from the penalty of sin by the sacrifice of Christ. They want to feel worthy, while supporting abortion of babies, euthanasia of elderly, and a random mechanistic macro evolution that eliminates free will. They want to be part of a body with purpose, yet claim the Holy Spirit is merely a socio-psycho phenomenon that can empower a feeling of fellowship.  They want to create a culture of open acceptance and mutual vulnerability, without acknowledging the sin that separates them from the Creator.

Although some such social clubs, and churches, may succeed for decades, through the enjoyable practices of sharing food, conversation, and group singing of pop songs along with entertaining bands in preparation to hear for the motivational speaker, the feeling soon fades into the empty void of the human condition.

Conversely, joy unspeakable, a peace that exceeds understanding, and the celebration of discipline, results from the true fellowship of the Spirit. Love for each other, as fellow heirs of Christ, provides the only true basis for the culture of educational practice so desperately sought by secular humanists.

If supervisors seek teachers who are reflective and committed to instructional improvement, then first seek the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added. Love of God and mankind flows from accepting that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

If a goal of supervision is to provide authentic feedback for each teacher, and if frequent informal drop in visits are better than planed formal quarterly observations, then how much more so an audio-visual feed that covers all areas of the classroom, all the time. As teachers serve students they do so under the eye of the parent, and/or administrator, who have login access at any time to view the classroom interactions via the security cameras, without the teacher knowing they are being observed. Online video conferencing introduced many teachers to the reality that their instruction may be going out to any person at that home, more than just the intended student. No teacher is immune to the possibility of being recorded by a student’s covert device.

In a small way, this reminds staff and students of the reality that the Spirit is always present. We are admonished to avoid grieving the Holy Spirit. We are admonished to do all things, in word and deed, for the glory of God. Do we serve God because we love Him, or because we are afraid of being caught doing something dishonorable?

“For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.” (Job 34:21)

“Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich,
for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.” (Ecclesiastes 10:20)

“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” (Hebrews 13:17)

“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.” (Romans 2:1-2)

[8] Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. [9] Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. [10] As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: [11] whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:8-11)

Glickman, C. D., Gordon, S. P., & Ross-Gordon, J. M. (2013). The Basic Guide to Supervision: and instructional leadership (2nd ed.). Pearson Education.

Self Guided Education is a narrow goal-driven path, without regard for the praise or criticism from those wandering the board path.

Vision begins with desired outcome. Given the benefits of Biblical Christianity, our vision for each student is to hear from the Lord, “Well done my good and faithful servant . . .” (Mat. 25:23).

To arrive at that point, we each begin by acknowledging personal sin.  “Sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12) There is no innate goodness (Psalm 51:5). “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child” (Proverbs 22:15).  Since “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) then our vision includes “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9).

By receiving the gift of Christ to pay the penalty of our sin by his death on the cross, then by his resurrection we are also raised in newness of life. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 2:8-10).

Having this foundation, students are now prepared to walk in the fruit of the Spirit. “. . . love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…” (Galatians 5:22-23).

The SGEd pursuit of academic excellence is transformed for the sake of Christ, not for its own merit. Paul, one of the most highly educated men of his generation, wrote, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, (Phil 3:8)

Our vision is the same for all persons, regardless of race, sex, or age. 

Starting with free college for all but Caucasians and Asians, graduates apply to school districts where every job description overtly claims “bilingual preferred”, as PC speak for ‘melanin preferred’. By tossing out a “basket of deplorables” the supervisor can pass to the hiring committee only those candidates who will most likely promote the propaganda of the agency.

When a supervisor packs a hiring committee with like minded people to seek a candidate of a particular skin color, sexual orientation, and political bias, the dogmas of that supervisor can be readily indoctrinated to the students via teachers echoing critical race theory and other distorted practices of equity.

For example, The Educator Equity Advisory Group demands “School districts must change the way they hire staff and then retain staff of color.” Their recommendations have been adopted by Portland Teacher Program (PTP), “PTP is committed to diversity, equity, . . . “ All levels of PTP are required to attend seminars, colloquia and other meetings; including, “how white privilege impacts education in America”.

Their goal, as broadly adopted by districts is “Structural Diversity: The roles for personnel by gender, race, ethnicity, first language, salary, age, physical ability, and sexual orientation. Goal: Increase the number of educational leaders in higher position by each of the categories.”

The Educator Equity Advisory Group trusts that young, dark skin lesbians with disabilities will hire more young, dark skin lesbians with disabilities, whose native language is not English, to teach youth.

Recognizing the power of cronyism, the Educator Equity Advisory Group strategizes, “It is critical that hiring and placement procedures and practices are analyzed and those responsible for hiring receive training in cultural responsiveness and implicit bias. Diversifying the staff responsible for district recruitment and hiring can also improve practice.” Political speak for “Fill the HR department with people of color and implicitly bias them against hiring white people”. 

For example, Oregon HB 2001 requires school districts implementing a reduction in force to retain those with less seniority if they have cultural or linguistic expertise, e.g., a mother tongue other than English.

Oregon racism is modeled after more progressively liberal states. Martin’s Dream that people “be judged on the quality of their character, rather than the color of their skin” is actively being killed by liberal democrats and their naive supporters.

Since personal bias is inescapable, it should be admitted up front. Rather than hide behind catch words such as equity and justice, simply state, “We practice systemic racism and sexual discrimination in our hiring practice of avoiding white male heterosexuals.” Furthermore, “current employees, who are non-compliant with the recent cultural shifts toward gender fluidity and critical race theory, are placed on a Plan of Assistance towards union sanctioned dismissal.”

In the face of such state sanctioned systemic racism, how can a public K-12 school student escape into self guided education?

[image] Lady Justice wears a blindfold in order to avoid the aspects of race, age, and sex. Justice is blind to innate conditions unless a perpetrator aggressed against a victim because of these innate conditions. For example, it would be unjust to hire a less qualified candidate solely because the person is a young black woman, or an old white male. Thus, we reject policies promoting systemic racism such as affirmative action. 

It is unjust to incentivize women to go deeper into poverty, and produce more children, with a social welfare system which promotes sloth and a subsidized abortion industry which promotes promiscuity. 

It is unjust for a US Supreme Court to pretend a woman has a constitutional right to kill her developing baby. 

It is unjust to penalize job creators and producers by imposing a progressive tax system. Forced redistribution of wealth is unjust. E.g., universal health care, “free” college for all, and laws that penalize landlords for collecting rent due, while paying state payments to tenants who continue violating landlord-tenant agreements. Stealing is unjust.

It is unjust for Oregon to distribute grants to public charter schools based on the skin color of students, such is done by HB 2166 (July 19, 2021). In a flagrant violation of the Constitution and Civil Rights acts, Oregon institutionalizes racism rather than fair and equitable practices, thanks to Governor Brown’s Racial Justice Council. 

It is unjust for Oregon’s public charter schools to be coerced (through HB j2954, law as of June 23, 2021) to “select students through an equitable lottery selection process” defined as giving preference for certain races, sexual orientations, gender identity, ethnicity, and/or socioeconomic status. Conversely, we believe all students should have equal opportunity, and not be penalized for their genetics.

It is unjust to wrongly interpret the US constitution as providing the public freedom from religion rather than freedom of religion. E.g., removal of a display of the Ten Commandments would have been an atrocity in the minds of the founding fathers.

It is unjust for the Beaverton school district to mandate that all second grade students be taught, “Gender is something adults came up with to sort people into groups. Many people think there are only two genders, boys and girls, but this is not true. There are many ways to be a boy, a girl, both or neither.“

When these injustices are corrected, a better culture will result.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Oregon’s public schools lost about 50,000 k-12 children. They simply just stopped attending, and were dropped after 10-days. The state doesn’t know what happened to them. They did not register with ESDs as required of home school students. They did not transfer to other public schools. However, the waiting lists to enter private schools surged. Before the pandemic, there were nearly 50,000 children in Oregon’s private schools, half of which are faith based.

What drove these families away from public education? More than a biological virus, it was a liberal political virus that reimagined public schools. In Oregon, the virulent spread of this dogma started in Salem, Portland, and Eugene. Populations dense with an entitled voter base catered to the agendas of Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory.

SGEd recognizes that democrats dominate our public school system. From teacher colleges to teacher unions, atheistic fables such as man evolved from nothing, or there is no biological basis for referring to children as boys and girls, or that certain races are born racist while others are not, continue to replace truth with indoctrination. Hiring committees heap piles of applicants whose doctrines comply with the status quo, forming an echo chamber that delightfully tickles their ears.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

In our study of world history and sociology, we summize that some ideas and practices are better than others. 

For example, when the human sacrifice done to appease the Aztec gods was replaced by Cortez in 1521, a better culture followed, one that claimed the sacrifice of Christ was done to appease the Christian God. 

When the Spanish emphasis of power hierarchies, based on blood lines and papal authority, was diminished by the Protestant work ethic, based on the equality exercised by a priesthood of believers, a better culture came to thrive. An entrepreneurial spirit of self governance, unshackled from the dictates of kings and bishops, gave birth to the USA.

When, in 1779, former slave trader, and then clergyman John Newton published his hymn “Amazing Grace”, and influenced the 1785 conversion of Parliament’s William Wilberforce to Christianity, a better culture resulted. Wilberforce was instrumental to ending the slave trade in the British empire in 1833. He forced the East India Company to allow Christian missionaries, such as William Carry, into India. This ended the 1000 year old practice of sati, whereby widows were burned to death on the funeral pier of the deceased husband. A better culture resulted. Carry translated Hindi works into English, sharing botany and other scientific knowledge of the Indian subcontinent with Europe. 

Quakers, and other Christian abolitionists, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, influenced the Union to force an end to slavery in 1863. A better culture resulted. 

When pastor Martin Luther King, shared his dream that one day people will be “judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”, he was sharing a vision for a better culture.  His basis was in the theology that in Christ there “is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female.”

We could proceed to relate how better cultures resulted, such as from the collapse of the atheistic USSR in 1991, which had destroyed churches and killed hundreds of millions of its citizens.

The critical point is that the advance of biblical Christianity leads the betterment of culture. Thus, the sidelining of Christianity results in the worsening of culture.

Freedom.  Americans have fought for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to bear arms, . . . freedom from being subject to government tyranny. Self Guided Education (SGEd) learns that the price of those freedoms is not free.

Freedom comes with responsibility. Responsible citizens protect the freedoms of others. America has been instrumental toward decreasing the evils of Nazism, Communism, Antisemitism, and Islamic fascism. Why? Because Colonial America was formed by fleeing the imposition of dictators who tried to impose a belief system. 

The American Revolutionary War was a religious war. Although radical sons of liberty claimed it was about taxation without representation, and other secular grievances, the common man knew it was about religious freedom. These Protestants did not want to pay to support the Anglican Church of England (a Roman Catholic version that had been devised by King Henry VIII in order to claim himself pope with the power to divorce his wife).

The 1636 founding mission statement of Harvard College reads, “Everyone shall consider as the main end of his life and studies, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life.” For the next 200 years, most colleges in America were founded by Christians. Evangelist Jonathan Edwards (famous for Sinners in the Hands an Angry God, 1741), help found and later served as president (1748-1758) of Princeton (motto: “under God she flourishes”). 

Duke University was founded in 1924 with the mission statement, “The aims of Duke University are to assert a faith in the eternal union of knowledge and religion set forth in the teachings and character of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” 

Many more examples could be given, such as philanthropist John Hopkins, who knew the positive impact of Christianity on culture. 

American freedom was fought for in order to promote biblical Christian faith. In the sermon “That he is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an avowed enemy to God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country. “ (Witherspoon, 1776)

Our US constitutional freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness derives from God. According to philosopher John Locke, God ordained governments (Rom 13:1) to protect those God given rights, not to supply or take away those rights. 

Thus, SGEd abhors government restrictions on what can and cannot be studied. Conversely, SGEd promotes the freedom to study that humans evolved from rocks, as is the doctrine of public education, but also the freedom to consider that God created them male and female. The freedom of SGEd allows a child to pretend they are a poodle one day, a male monkey another day, or an androgynous flamingo, in a continuum of gender fluidity. However, such freedom should not impose on others by force of rule, to reinforce such delusions through validating pronouns, or other draconian measures to control speech and thought.

The historic heart of this passion for Freedom comes from Jesus Christ.  “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The freedom of Self Guided Education (SGEd) is not part of the unschooling movement, which is driven by reactive opposition to formal schooling. True freedom is not controlled by reactions of disgust, fear, or hate. Paradoxically, true freedom grows from love of being a slave to righteousness (Romans 6:19)

The freedom of SGEd is not part of the “child centered education” movement, which preaches a false doctrine of the innate goodness of children and the utmost importance of self-esteem. This results in schools that believe students are the best guides of for their future, e.g., https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/no-textbooks-no-grade-levels-optional-homework-students-thrive-self-guided-education/530-99198ee8-33ef-4497-8546-c809bae2c643 . Paradoxically, true freedom comes from acknowledging that the individual “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). 

Pursuing knowledge for the sake of knowledge, does not lead to freedom. In fact, it can lead to confusion (Genesis 11), foolishness (Romans 1:22), and destruction (as the German Nazis were among the most educated peoples in Europe). While freedom for SGEd is widely promoted (https://blog.taxact.com/the-importance-of-self-education/) in the quest of being a life long learner, learning alone is futility. “Ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 3:7).

It is true that, “knowledge is power”. And if, “absolute power corrupts absolutely”, then increasing knowledge could increase corruption. Certainly, knowledge can be acquired unethically, and put to corrupt use, such as the USSR KGB political purges that killed up to 60 million, China’s cultural revolution that killed up to 20 million, and experiments done by Nazi medical doctors. SGEd cannot be driven by an unfettered quest for knowledge.

SGEd is free from the dictates of public education dogmas. The religion of secular humanism holds up Darwin and Dewey as priests to impressionable children, and claims to be child centered, yet supports killing of over 50 million babies aborted since Roe vs Wade. The counselors claim they allow the pregnant teen be “Self Guided” in making a decision without informing parents. Growing up under such dogmas and political agendas is not SGEd.

“the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26)

Self Guided Education believes in the freedom to pursue Truth. Although ultimate Truth can merely be glimpsed, as if through a dirty window (1 Cor. 13) this absolute Truth stands in opposition to post modern relativism and situational ethics. SGEd seeks to know absolute Truth, and has the freedom to try and test all claims of truth.

One such claim, was made by Jesus who proclaimed, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6). This truth claim, was restated by his disciple Peter, “. . . there is salvation in no one else. There is no name given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom” (Proverbs )