Educating Boys - Creation Moments

Proverbs 22:6
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

This Creation Moment is about education, and I guess I ought to start with a number of caveats. I am going to make generalizations about boys and girls. If someone comments, “My son is not like that”, then they are probably right because generalizations do not refer to individual specifics.

So here are my two controversial statements: Boys learn differently from girls … and most school environments generally correspond to the ways that girls learn best. When my children were young, a friend told me that having boys is like having puppies – “You have to take them to the park, and let them run around for a bit.” I am sure he was right. But what do schools do (even schools with a Christian curriculum)? We expect boys to sit down quietly for hours at a time. We assess their abilities by making them sit down and write.

When I was a child, it was not like this. The school day was broken up, and we had significant playtimes, morning and afternoon, and over lunch. We played soccer, we ran and shouted, and we tracked each other around the school grounds, pretending to shoot each other (that last one is particularly politically incorrect). These activities enabled us to sit down quietly in between, and concentrate on studies.

The Bible says: “Train up a child in the way he should go.” Biblical education is a son imitating the behavior of his father, and following his godly instruction.

Prayer: Father God, help us as fathers to be good educators of our sons, bringing them up in the ways of the Lord. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Image: Adobe Stock Images, licensed to author.