The Brain and Education

Education is the knowledge or skill obtained or developed by a learning process. Originally American educational institutions were places of training and admonition in the fear of God. Students were instructed in a context of a worldview that put God in the center of life. God was the foundation of all areas of learning. Our leading universities such as Harvard, William and Mary, Yale and Princeton were all founded or lead by religious leaders. Today these universities are on the top of the education mountain. While they should be a beachhead for kingdom influence globally, they are instead teaching philosophies or belief systems which do not line-up with the knowledge of God. Christian colleges and universities are not teaching from a kingdom perspective. Seminaries are even more toxic because students come with the assumption that they will learn more of God’s ways.

While we are not interested in politicizing the educational system, we would like to make the reader aware of the schools of thoughts prevalent in our institutions of higher learning. These doctrines, philosophies or belief systems are often referred to as “ism’s”. Various teachings include:

Humanism
a belief that human interests and mind are paramount

Rationalism
a belief or theory that opinions and actions should be based on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief

Liberalism
unrestrained freedom of thought and behavior; freedom that supersedes morality

Agnosticism
a belief that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown or unknowable

Atheism
disbelief in God

All these beliefs are operating in the educational system. And we wonder why children who come out of college no longer believe in God.  87% of higher learning schools, elite schools, espouse this way of thinking; 72% of all schools. We are not advocating not sending our youth to college. What we are saying is that there needs to be a transformation in the entire educational system.  It is our belief that God has given the Body of Christ the grace to take the mountain of education.

Two Sides of The Human Brain 

As we address the subject of how we think and process information we must understand that there are two sides of the human brain that process differently. They are referred to as the right brain and left brain. Primary differences in the processing of each side are as follows:

Left Brain
Right Brain

Language
Words
Pictures

Processing
Analytical (critical/logical)
Intuitive (instinctive)

Concept of time
Sequential (chronological)
Simultaneous (concurrent)

Favorite questions
What?
Why? And How?

Mode of learning
Observing
Participating

Perspective
Objective
Subjective

Expression
Logical
Creative

Upon entering school children are predominantly right brain processors and thinkers. After a few years of education 90%h are left brain dominant. 98% of high school graduates are left brain dominant. Statistics show that the further they go in education the more left brain they become. The left brain does not access the things of the Spirit of God. It is conditioned to reject a Creator God and rules out supernatural answers of anything. We will at different times pull from both sides of our brain. The conditioning we receive through education causes the left-brain to be stronger and when the right-brain speaks we tend to ignore it.

It is true that women have a more difficult time ignoring the right brain. They are designed by God to be more right brain dominant while men are created more left brain dominant. Females are gifted with intuition which is generally considered as an inferior brain power.

God uses the brain as a gateway to education, thus it is important to understand and protect it.

​Excerpt "ATK Manual"