Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Papal Wisdom: Pius XI Divini Illius Magistri
Part IIb: The Role of the Family in Education
In the first place the Church's mission of education is in wonderful agreement with that of the family, for both proceed from God, and in a remarkably similar manner. God directly communicates to the family, in the natural order, fecundity, which is the principle of life, and hence also the principle of education to life, together with authority, the principle of order.
Here Pius XI rightly chooses to begin with the role of the family instead of the role of the State in education because it is primarily the families right. As we shall see when we cover more of the economics and political theory of Pius XI, he consistently advocates a very limited role of government in dealing with many social problems. Government should only be involved in a secondary manner, or when all other means of help fail. (This is where I feel most Catholics in the "social justice" movement fail gravely, putting the State, rather than the family and the Church, as the primary solver of all of societies ills.)
Pius XI compares the Church and the family, and we do see many similarities. The head of each "family" has certain roles of authority and discpline, and providing for the offspring.
The child is naturally something of the father . . . so by natural right the child, before reaching the use of reason, is under the father's care. Hence it would be contrary to natural justice if the child, before the use of reason, were removed from the care of its parents, or if any disposition were made concerning him against the will of the parents. And as this duty on the part of the parents continues up to the time when the child is in a position to provide for itself, this same inviolable parental right of education also endures. "Nature intends not merely the generation of the offspring, but also its development and advance to the perfection of man considered as man, that is, to the state of virtue"
says the same St. Thomas.
What creator would not also ensure that his creation is well taken care of? God created us, and God also provides for our well being, in both the spiritual and the temporal realm. Likewise, the parents create the child (in a certain sense at the miracle of birth) and hence the well being is their obligation before anyone else. Since they are to be with the child most, they are to impart right values into him. Since the child is of the parents seed, they must make sure that child is correctly formed. Though in today's world where the Leviathian state is worshipped above everything else, such a thought is truly anathema. Pius XI, like Leo XIII before him, saw these tendencies starting to spring up, and began to offer arguments to counter them. It is worth noting that such arguments that they found insane are now accepted as commonplace amongst many today, even within Christian circles.
On this point the common sense of mankind is in such complete accord, that they would be in open contradiction with it who dared maintain that the children belong to the State before they belong to the family, and that the State has an absolute right over their education. Untenable is the reason they adduce, namely that man is born a citizen and hence belongs primarily to the State, not bearing in mind that before being a citizen man must exist; and existence does not come from the State, but from the parents, as Leo XIII wisely declared: "The children are something of the father, and as it were an extension of the person of the father; and, to be perfectly accurate, they enter into and become part of civil society, not directly by themselves, but through the family in which they were born.
There are many today who believe in the educational establishment who believe precisely what Pius XI is condemning. Look at their reaction towards those parents who assert their rights as parents and choose to school their children at home. They essentially reason that the parents do not have the right to make sure that they provide for their children first and foremost. There are many who think homeschooling should be criminal, in that it refuses to let the State educate it's children. Education is all about imposing a certain worldview. That worldview can be Christian, secular, a worldview that embraces critical thinking, a worldview that accepts certain issues without ever questioning them, all these worldviews can be imparted in education. The state will impose the worldview they advocate, and the parent theirs. Yet if we Christians allow the State to dictate to us what our children are to believe, have we not just surrendered our rights as parents?
It does not however follow from this that the parents' right to educate their children is absolute and despotic; for it is necessarily subordinated to the last end and to natural and divine law, as Leo Xlll declares in another memorable encyclical, where He thus sums up the rights and duties of parents: "By nature parents have a right to the training of their children, but with this added duty that the education and instruction of the child be in accord with the end for which by God's blessing it was begotten. Therefore it is the duty of parents to make every effort to prevent any invasion of their rights in this matter, and to make absolutely sure that the education of their children remain under their own control in keeping with their Christian duty, and above all to refuse to send them to those schools in which there is danger of imbibing the deadly poison of impiety."
Just as the state is not at liberty to do whatever it pleases, nor is the family at liberty to do so when it comes to educating children. Any steps they take towards educating children should be in line with the blessing given to them in that child. When a parent rightly takes education seriously, he glorifies God in doing so. How? Think about how us Catholics have a love and tender devotion for certain saints, most importantly Our Blessed Mother. In giving them honor, we deduce that this ultimately glorifies God, for the blessings He has given to the saint are manifest. We also attempt to imtiate them. Likewise, in educating children in the right and proper ways, God is glorified, in that we recognize the awesome blessing, and task, that God has given us. Not only are we thankful for such a blessing, but we show we are using that blessing to the best of our ability.
Part of using that blessing is making sure it is kept as pure as possible. Even if the parent sends a child off to a school, the parent is still responsible for what the child learns. In today's public education landscape for example, it is secular humanism that the child learns, either overtly or implicitly through the worldview the majority of teachers impart. While everyone should avoid being in such an enviroment as much as possible, this goes all the more for children. A child has not yet had the formation and experience that those more advanced in years have had. Therefore, especially if the person speaking this is an authority figure, they are far more likely to believe what they are hearing. At times, what they are hearing is very dangerous and lethal to the soul. As it is the parents right to make sure that the child's spiritual as well as temporal life is rightly ordered until he can provide for himself, one could say they sin gravely when they neglect this situation.
