“The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection.” ― John Milton, Milton on Education, the Tractate of Education: With Supplementary Extracts from Other Writings of Milton
Education is a restoration project. It is an effort to reverse engineer everything back to its Edenic roots using perfection as its blueprints and faith as its building blocks. Education is from the Latin educere which literally means "to lead out." In order to educate, you must have an end in mind. You cannot educate unless you know where you want it all to go. This presupposes two blueprints: one in your mind and one in the process of being completed. God has given us the pattern. He provided Eden as the ultimate exempli gratia. We are called to gardenize the world. We were made to be fruitful and to multiply and to spread God's image throughout all of His creation, teaching the pattern and showing them how to practice it. Sin may have smudged the ink, but faith sees the blueprints. Sin may have marred the tools, but faith sees straight lines drawn with crooked sticks by the steady hand of Him who holds them both.
Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion
Matthew 28:18-20
All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
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