A Wise View of Education

THE Bible advises parents to bring their children up in “the discipline and mental-regulating of Jehovah.” (Ephesians 6:4) Such training is far more valuable than secular education.

A Nigerian father agrees with this. He says: “I regularly discussed spiritual things, including the daily text, with my children. I wanted to help them to love Jehovah and obey his counsel. I also wanted to give them a strong faith.

“I knew of the unchristian influences they faced at school. So I did not enroll them in boarding schools. I wanted them to come home each day so that I could continue to train them according to the Scriptures. I remember that, after school one day, my daughter told me that a wealthy man had invited her to visit him. I went to see him and found that he had immoral intentions toward her. I was glad she was not at boarding school, where she would have been out of reach of my guidance.

“I also set pioneering [full-time preaching] as a goal for the children, and three of them enrolled as pioneers as soon as they left school. When Michael was in school, he expressed a desire to be a pharmacist like me. I told him he had his mind on a good profession, but that, if he attended university, he would risk becoming absorbed into the worldly system. You see, I had observed that many university graduates had developed undesirable traits. Some of them had become proud and lost appreciation for God and his service.

“Evidently Michael thought seriously about these things because, a few years later, he turned down opportunities to attend university and, instead, enrolled as a pioneer. He and his wife, Eunice, who also started pioneering as soon as she left school, are now serving at Bethel [the Watchtower Society’s branch office] in Lagos.”

Young Christian, too, was taught the truth by his parents and was strongly influenced by his mother’s parents who were pioneers. On leaving high school, he himself pioneered for several months and expressed a desire to make this his life’s career.

However, his father thought that it was important for him to acquire a university education to ensure a secure future. So he insisted that Christian enroll in a five-year university course.

What would Christian do? Well, his conscience led him to obey his father, as the Bible commands. (Ephesians 6:1) But he took steps to guard his spirituality while at the university. In fact, finding that his course was not too time-consuming, he enrolled as a pioneer.

His father was opposed to this at first, but eventually relented. Christian summed up his feelings when he said to his father: “I deeply appreciate all you have done for me and I want to obey you. This is why I agreed to attend university, and I intend to fulfill that agreement. However, I am also dedicated to Jehovah, which means I must put his interests first. I believe that pioneering is one of the best ways to do this.”​—Matthew 6:33; Ecclesiastes 12:1.

In both of the above instances, the young people were blessed. But how should Christians in general view education? Read our next article.