Thoughts on Redemptive Education

Thoughts on “Redemptive Education”

(Steven Larson, July, 2026)

“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your profit, who leads you in the way you should go.” (Isaiah 48:17).

I love the idea of redemption, and I’m a lifelong educator, so I thought I’d offer some thoughts on how I see “redemptive” specifically from the Scripture and how it could perhaps be applied to the educational setting:

1. Taking something that is bad and changing it into something good (eg, examining what is harmful in modern education and transforming it into something beneficial; build a model that is better than what currently exist; breathe new life into what has become lifeless; take the best in educational models and forge your own version);
2. Restoring what has been broken in contemporary education (eg, welcoming once again the student’s imagination into the learning process… inspiring the creative impulse they all have through the visual arts, drama, music, dance, poetry, creative fiction and fairy tales, designing and building things, encouraging artistic self-expression);
3. Rescuing education from its current captivity to technology (eg, deliberately becoming low-tech… teaching students how to do their own thinking instead of allowing machines to do their thinking for them… no screens; no calculators; no computers; no AI; no virtual education; no teaching that is mediated by machines; no distance learning; instead of plugging into multiple machines, plug into the student’s multiple intelligences);
4. Recovering what has been lost in modern education (eg, taking classes outside into the Great Outdoors; nature studies; outdoor experiments and projects; exploring and discovering; becoming friends with nature; learning how best to be stewards of God’s creation; consistently give the students fresh air);
5. Renewing what has educationally been left in the dust and ignored (eg, bringing back a healthy physicality to the learning process… multi-sensory; hands-on experience; daily recess and exercise; physically participating in what is being learned; give students opportunities to stretch their legs and stand instead of merely sitting);
6. Regathering what has been disconnected in studies and curriculum (eg, weave back together all that has been separated in content areas, into an integrated, coherent whole that hangs together and makes sense; study the context; show cause and effect; help students make connections to aid in understanding);
7. Saving what is best and disregarding the rest (eg, be up to date in latest brain studies and neurological research, environmental studies, research findings of universe and deep sea and other final frontiers; new discoveries in the human body and how it functions best);
8. Replacing what has been removed from education (eg, in a word… Jesus; intentionally craft a Christ-centered educational model; Christ is the organizing principle, He is what holds the learning community together, He is the reference point and a household name; corporate worship and prayer; gospel values in terms of how everyone treats each other and decide life priorities; Bible throughout the curriculum; a pedagogy of love in which students both love to learn and are learning how to love);
9. Ransoming what has been held in confinement (eg, bring character development back into education through healthy and reasonable behavior standards; no corporal punishment; guide students through a system of logical consequences by teachers who are kind but firm; help the students form a godly conscience by clearly teaching right and wrong and modeling moral discernment);
10. Reviving what seems to have disappeared (eg, exercising a student’s intellect and reasoning; teach logic and common sense; sharpen thinking skills; strengthen their tools of learning; lengthen the student’s attention span; lead weekly socratic discussions in which students have to support their statements);
11. Strengthen what has been weakened in our society (eg, revive education as a community exercise, that learning is communal and a web of relationships; encourage relationships between students through mixed age classes and Buddy times, between students and parents, between teachers and parents; advocate family togetherness and parental responsibility as the first teachers; expect parent involvement in which parents feel free to use their gifts for the good of the school; encourage community by welcoming a wide profile of students and families and admitting a range of learning differences, socioeconomic classes, racial/ethnic groups, personalities, and student giftedness);
12. Replace the current goal of education with the highest goal (eg, become a Wisdom School, make wisdom the school’s reason for being; wisdom is the practical art of living skillfully; moral and intellectual understanding; practicing the truth in daily life; astute discernment; shrewd insight; using knowledge to make good decisions and healthy choices; to develop a unified lifestyle of both hearing and doing what is true, good and beautiful; a discerning appreciation of life’s distinctions between wise and foolish, beautiful and ugly, just and unjust, good and evil, right and wrong, choices and consequences; practical, common-sense spirituality; the wise person loves and demonstrates a love for the truth, for God, for each other. T.S. Eliot asks two great questions consecutively in his poem ‘The Rock’… “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” Education is not the cerebral collection of data or information. Wisdom is the answer to St. Paul’s comment to Timothy about some folks in his church… “These are people who are always learning but never arriving at a knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7).