Philosophy of Christian Education in Christian Schools

Foreign Languages/Sexual Differences

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Education

Lesson: Foreign Languages Sexual Differences

Genre: Speech

Track: J17

Dictation Name: RR148J17

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s – 1970’s

Rather short order, we shall consider a number of subjects. First of all foreign languages. In one particular state, the state schools give, as a standard for language instruction, the following statement, “Learning a foreign language at the elementary school level contributes significantly to the development of the pupil’s potential talents and interests, through broadening concepts of language and increasing the ability to communicate. It helps to create a better appreciation of life and other cultural and linguistic environments. Enabling the learner to participate more effectively in a modern democratic society, which maintains extensive political, economic, and cultural relationships with people of many languages and cultures.”

Now this statement is a good expression of the humanistic approach. The focus point is, of course, man and society, and foreign languages are presented as an asset to the individual. In spite of this statement, which characterizes quite well the philosophy of foreign languages among statist educators, there has been, in the past forty and fifty years, a very marked decline in foreign language study at all levels; elementary, secondary, and higher. The reason for this has been the change in humanism. Earlier, we had classical humanism. Classical humanism was essentially past-oriented. As against Christianity, it held aloft the ideal of Greek humanism. It therefore, looked to the past. It regarded the humanistic accomplishments of the past as ideal. When, in art, humanism triumphed, you had a neo-classical impulse. However, beginning with the Romantic movement, you progressively had the birth of another kind of humanism. The newer humanism that began with Romanticism still had the classical orientation to a considerable degree. All you have to do is look at Keats and Shelley, and see how they got all choked up over a Grecian urn, or something like that. It represented, you see, something comparable to what scripture does to us. It was a holy relic of man’s humanist past untainted by Christianity.

However, the Romantic Movement led progressively to the present Existential humanism, which is present-oriented. The conflict in statist education, between the older and more conservative educators and the newer and more radical ones is a family quarrel among humanists. On the one hand, those whose humanism is classical and on the other hand, those whose humanism is existential. We belong to neither category.

In terms of course, of the newer existential humanism, an increasing number of students have said in the modern era, “I don’t need a foreign language.” Strictly speaking they’re right. There is very little that we really need. How do we, as Christians, justify foreign languages? Do we justify Latin, for example, because it is important to English? Well, Anglo-Saxon is important to English, too. Humanistic rationales usually take several approaches. First, they say certain languages are basic to the life of culture. This is the classical approach. Second, others say they have a utility to our present life and culture. This is the existential approach. As a result, humanism normally has stressed languages that are important to the mode or form of humanism current. Thus, the languages that have usually been taught are those important either to classical or existential humanism. Thus, classical Greek, Latin, French, German, and now, of course, the interest in Russian and also in Chinese.

However, it is important for us as we approach the subject of languages to think religiously as Christians. First of all, we must remember that with the Reformation, language study gained a great impetus, but very properly it was an impetus towards the study of biblical languages; Koine Greek and Hebrew. It also meant the study of Latin because there is a tremendous body of literature from the early centuries through the Middle Ages that is in Latin.

Now, while it is not essential for a Christian to know the biblical languages, it is highly desirable, and there will be a growth in the comprehension of preaching and of Christian writing, as well as a steady development in the level thereof, if the Christian school begins to teach biblical languages. I’m very happy to report that, in a number of places across country, Christian schools which have been in existence for some time, are beginning to consider seriously introducing biblical languages into their curriculum. A few schools are working toward that end, so that within five or ten years, they do hope to get into such instruction.

This will, of course, have a major impact on the life of the church. It will enable those who are in the pew to enhance their comprehension of biblical preaching and teaching, because there is no question that while it is not necessary, it is most helpful. To cite one example, even though our language, as a result of several centuries before any translation into English was made of a reshaping of our language by Christian faith and life, we still are poor at certain points and miss the nuances of scripture because our language is limited. I say this with full recognition of the fact of the extent to which our language and western European languages have been reshaped by the Bible. In fact, every language, as I made clear the other day, that the Wycliffe translators work with is reshaped, thinking is redirected, so that the future development of those native languages will be determined to a great extent, by scripture, but we have in English, one word for “love.” Koine Greek has three. Eros for erotic or sensual love, philos for human, normal, brotherly love, and agape for what is really divine, sovereign grace, and the love of God, which is entirely grace.

Now we don’t catch those nuances in our English reading. In fact, we miss entirely the point of our Lord’s questioning of Peter in the last chapter of John when he says, “Simon, Son of John, lovest thou me.” The first time he says, using agape, “Lovest thou me more than these?” because Simon had boasted that if all others betrayed Christ, he would not. Then he says, “Lovest thou me, not more than these?” but with agape. Simon instead answers saying , “Lord, thou knowest that I love thee [philios],” with an ordinary human, frail, failing, faulty love. The third time he says, “Lovest thou me?” and he uses philio. “Do you love me even with a frail, human love?” and that time Peter was hurt.

Well, we miss the subtlety there because we don’t know the language, and I do believe that our children will be blessed and enriched as we begin to teach biblical languages. I do believe this will be one of the results of Christian schooling. We will see the importance of teaching language of scripture. I do not believe this is going to come about overnight. The Christian school movement is still a child, but I do believe that in the next fifty years, we’re going to see remarkable things.

Then second, the scripture tells us very clearly in Genesis 1:26-28 that God created man to exercise dominion and to subdue the earth, and again in Matthew 28:18-20, the disciples of our Lord are told to go into all the world, to make disciples of all nations, teaching them all things that I’ve commanded you, so that the people of God have a tremendous responsibility to all the world, and basically to God, to the triune God, to bring every area of life and thought into captivity to Jesus Christ. As a result, it is important for Christians to be number one, to excel all others, to be able to have mastery in various languages so that they can better manifest their kingship in Christ, their priesthood in Christ, their roles of prophets in Christ. I believe that we are going to see in the not too distant future, a great deal more in the way of foreign trade and travel back and forth commercially. I believe that it is going to be more and more necessary for people, as they do business, to be able to do it with a command of more languages than one. At present, we, in the United States, are weakest in the world with this respect. In California, we do see regularly quite a variety of people from all parts of the world.

Now, if I may, for a moment, I can see, with the approval of the Californians present, do a little boasting of California, in terms of size, and agricultural, industrial, and natural resources, California, if it were an independent country, would be the seventh most powerful country in the world. One-fourth of all the food consumed by the United States is grown in California. In fact, the rice farmers of the Orient are now finding themselves in the midst of perhaps permanent depression, because they cannot compete with the rice growers in California. North of Sacrament, in California, the rice is sown by airplane in huge rice paddies, and there’s simply no competing with that anywhere in the Orient.

Well, if you live in any of the major urban centers, or you are at any of the major airports in California, you hear just about every language under the sun. In fact, I was in one motel recently and I’d made a reservation sometime before. It was a large motel, and I was one of about three or four people in the motel who didn’t speak Japanese, because the entire place had been taken over by a large contingent of Japanese engineers, and the thing that impressed me was that they all spoke such excellent English.

The number of California businessmen who go to Japan and who go to Europe is legion, but the number of them who can speak any of the languages is very limited, so there is a real handicap there, and one of the things that I have learned from some of these people is that, very quickly, even with their English, they feel like slobs. Why? Because their English is poor, very often, as compared with the English, however accented, of Orientals and Europeans. One of the things that you learn as you learn a foreign language is a great deal about grammatical structure that you take for granted with your English and, as a result, you relearn your own language as you learn a foreign language, and many of these American businessmen as they go abroad, find themselves embarrassed, because their language is poor by comparison, insofar as it concerns construction and grammar.

Now, since we as Christians are called to be kings, priests, and prophets in Christ, and called to be a people exercising dominion over the earth in the Lord’s name, bringing every area of life and thought into captivity to Christ, it behooves us especially to be able to command that most basic and elementary of tools: language.

Then third, as when we were dealing with grammar and composition, I pointed out that language should be more important to us than to all other peoples, because as Christians, language is the means whereby God reveals his purpose, His word to us. This is why I feel that bad language, whether it is profanity or the improper use of English is especially ugly coming from a Christian. We, who are the people of God, should excel all others in our respect for language. It is this which separates us from animals in part. It is this which gives us the ability to pray to God and to hear God speak to us. Language, therefore, is something we should respect. Therefore, for us to use language lightly is in particular, a very serious offense.

Now as I said, I’m going to go through several subjects rather quickly in these morning hours, so I’ll stop now for any questions on language before we proceed. Yes?

[Audience] If you {?} which one would you choose {?}

[Rushdoony] Which language would you teach first and at what level? I think Greek would be the one to begin with perhaps, but I would not venture to say at what grade level for this reason. I believe, ultimately, we will be able to start teaching it in the lower elementary grades, that that will come with time as we step up instruction. I believe that ten years from now we will be teaching more in the first grade than we are now. I believe that every ten to fifteen years, our textbooks are going to be stepped up in the levels of instruction they require. Right now, in many cases, parents and sometimes teachers are sometimes objecting that the textbooks require too much, but what they’re going to find is the children can meet those requirements and even more.

In connection with that, I know of an amusing example where, in one Christian school, where now the pastor no longer will hire anyone whose had any state teacher’s training courses, because he says they are so full of ideas about what can’t be done at a certain age level that it’s hard to get them to teach. In one case, he hired a young man out of the business world and gave them second grade boys, and just experimentally shoved a lot of material on him from much higher levels, and told him this is what he was to teach. The young man didn’t know it couldn’t be done and he did it. Any other questions? Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] I think you can use a combination of both, because you do want them to have the grammatical construction. The value of that is it helps them to understand English alone. It’s tremendous, but this doesn’t’ mean that you concentrate on that to the exclusion of their ability to speak. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] No, I don’t see any unless, that depends on you. Now some don’t believe in taking anything from a state school. Others see objections to it. Others learn better working on their own but some of us are not that disciplined. I would say the sooner you get with it, the better because the older we get, the more difficult it becomes. Yes?

[Audience] When you say Greek now, you are talking and referring to Koine Greek?

[Rushdoony] Koine, yes. I specified that earlier.

[Audience] You’re not referring to {?}, are you?

[Rushdoony] No, no. That is purely a written language, as far as any contemporary use is concerned. Yes?

[Audience] You {?} I don’t know if you have a lot of {?}, more than you had in the past {?}

[Rushdoony] The question is are Greek studies on the graduate level unfolding more things about our knowledge of the word of God? Yes, they are, because for one thing, are some of the scholars in Greek and Hebrew deal with cognate tongues as they deal with archeological evidence. They find, from inscriptions and all, parallel usages of the particular word which throws a new light on the meaning, and opens up a new facet of the meaning of a word. So, little by little, here and there, a fresh light is being thrown on a particular word and its meaning. I mentioned to some of you the other day, yesterday, B.J. Wiseman, a few years ago, reported on various tablets that had been discovered, that used, in Assyrian and other languages, essentially the same word as we have translated from the Hebrew into English in Genesis as “generations.” “These are the generations of,” and he found that it meant “these are the family records of,” which means that what we have, “These are the family records of Adam,” “These are the family records of Seth,” so that you have, in Genesis the family records of the patriarchs, as they themselves wrote them. Now, that’s the kind of thing that turns up as a result of research. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Well, the question, if I understand you correctly, is where do you stick it into the curriculum. Yes. Well, it’s being done in a number of cases, I know some schools that have started teaching German in kindergarten, and they start Latin in the fifth grade, and then they go into other languages in high school, and they have been able to work it in.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, it can be done.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] One of the things that happens when a school, Christian school, introduces language study at an early level is that it’s a tremendous advertising point. You find that a great many parents are impressed by that than a number of other things. I neglected to make an announcement yesterday. I mentioned two days ago E.F. Hill’s book, The King James Version Defended. I can give you the address for that now. Edward F. Hill’s The King James Version Defended. Order it from the Christian Research Press, P.O. Box 2013, Des Moines, Iowa 50310, and the price per copy is $3.50. I think you’ll find it most rewarding reading. Are there any other questions now?

Now, I want to take a few moments to go briefly into a subject which I think is important for us to be aware of because it deals with a problem that we’re all vaguely aware of but have not given much attention to, and that is the question of sexual differences among our children. After all, they do come male and female, and there are differences. These differences affect their learning ability. It is important for us to be aware of the fact of differences because they are God-given. We live, unfortunately, in an age which stresses equality. Now, I do not, let me make it clear, believe in equality or inequality. I believe both terms are totally inappropriate for people. Why? The modern words, “equality” and “inequality” are mathematical terms. They come out of seventeenth century mathematics. They deal with abstractions. As a result, when they are applied to the human scene, they inevitable and invariably distort.

Now the concept in mathematics is a very important and thoroughly valid one. If you are dealing with lumber, or if you are dealing with tons of pounds of a certain produce, the equal sign is necessary. You have to deal in terms of the equation because you are dealing with abstractions and it’s the only way to comprehend what you have. But can you say that two Englishmen are equal to two Nigerians? Well, the two Englishmen can be hoodlums. The two Nigerians can be Christians. Their aptitudes and abilities can vary. Can you say that two trees are equal to two clouds? You see, you’re not dealing with abstractions when you take it out of the level of abstract, cut, weighed, measured things. The term “equality,” as well as the term “inequality” have given rise to all kinds of social conflict in the modern world, and you have people passionately dedicated to defending one or the other idea without realizing they’re talking about nonsense. They are talking about an abstraction, about something that doesn’t exist.

Moreover, you not only have differences of aptitude, but you have the fact of grace in human lives, and how can you measure that? How can you apply the term “equality” and “inequality” to such things as grace, or musical ability? Or courteousness? It’s an impossibility.

This is why there is no solution to our contemporary problems until we drop the whole framework of the problem and begin to think in different terms, in Christian terms. However, because we have so long thought in terms of the idea of equality, we have applied it across the board to one area of life to another. So, you have the demand for equality of the sexes. Well, they’re not the same, and equality of the races. They’re not the same. Different peoples and different races, the two sexes have varying aptitudes, and within a race, different people will have different aptitudes, so that they are not equitable.

However, our education proceeds on the basis that boys and girls are the same. As a matter of fact, across the country, it is being pushed to the point of having co-educational physical education classes now. You have that in your area now? Yes. Well, it’s the big thing now; co-educational physical education classes.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Well, in some areas, they’re just plain embarrassed and frustrated, so it’s a mess. Whatever it is, it’s a hopeless mess, and there’s no solution to it.

Now, the word “equal” does appear in the Bible, but it has a totally different meaning. What it means is that God has no respect of persons. I’m going to read to you now a statement by Walter B. Dolan{?} in Sex Makes the Difference, The Case Against Radical Women’s Lib, in which he defines sex. First of all, what is sex? The word sex in English comes from a Latin word, seco, which means to cut or divide, and this usage probably originated from the biblical rendition of the Genesis of mankind, Genesis 2:21 following. In this account, the first woman was made from the side of man. She was taken from him, or divided from him. Science also tells us that there is a division or differences between males and females. The word sex indicates the division of mankind or separation of mankind. There are elements or characteristics that separate females from males. Sex has to do with those differences. Sex is different, not likeness. Although males and females are alike in some ways, both have two arms, they are also unalike in some ways. The things in which they differ is the division between them. Many times, the male and female differences compliment each other. Although there is a sexual division in mankind, each compliment the other, and both together make up something which should be regarded as a complete functional unit.

Now humanism, of course, both denies the difference and the complimentary aspect, and this is why the humanists are in trouble. They’re not going to solve the problems. They have created problems by their false category of thinking. If you begin with a false presupposition, you are never going to solve a problem. You will only create more problems and greater problems.

Now, I’m going to go into some of the aspects of the differences between male and female. Incidentally, most of the standard testing in the schools today is so designed so that it will not manifest sexual and racial differences. Differing races have higher aptitudes, on the average, than the others. Some will excel in one area, and others will excel in another area. The same is true of boys and girls, but the tests are so designed that they will, by and large, test neutral areas as far as possible.

Now this may come as a shock to the males here. Some of you who are married and have been married long enough may have suspected it, but women, on the whole, are smarter than men. [laughter] They very definitely test out better, in every area except two. Women either are the same as or far ahead of men. The two areas in which men test out better are first, aggression, or in biblical terms we would say dominion. The simple aspect of it would be aggression, and abstract thinking. Women’s thinking is concrete, person, particular. A man’s thinking tends to be abstract. This is why we can get lost in the crowds, and his feet won’t be really on the ground in his thinking. In fact, he’ll try to be objective, and impersonal and abstract in his thinking and sometimes yet nonsensical. This is one reason why, by the way, men make poor bachelors. It tends to warp a man, but a single woman is not warped because her thinking is personal. It is not in the clouds, it’s not abstract. Because boys have this urge to dominion, they are more self-assertive, they are less ready to please the teacher, they’re more stand-offish. They want to be independent and critical. Girls, not having by and large, except as a simple aspect of their being, this same urge to dominion, are much readier to please the teacher. This is why the teacher’s pet is almost always a girl, or several girls. The girls see nothing wrong with pleasing the teacher. They’re very happy to please him. It delights them to be able to please him, or to bring him a peach [laughter], and this is why teachers like girls in their class. They’re so much wonderful to have around. A teacher likes to be pleased.

Now this makes a difference in a class. The boys tend to hang back and feel that being a good student is sissy stuff. That’s for the girls, and this is a problem that you have to overcome with boys. This is why I believe someday, there are one or two cases where this is already being done, but in most schools it’s going to take some years before financially it can be done, there are separate classes for boys and girls. When you so have that, the boys compete with each other much more readily. They don’t compete with girls more readily, because they’re going to be shown up by the girls, you see, and they know that unconsciously, and they hate the idea. There’s nothing more horrible for a man, or a boy, than to be beaten by a girl, or to be corrected by his wife, not that they don’t need it.

As a result, it is important, as a teacher, to be aware of this fact, because we do need the boys. They do have a God-ordained place in society, to exercise dominion, to provide leadership, and the sad fact is that today when more and more jobs require skills and leadership ability, and there’s less place for unskilled labor, men are, by and large, more poorly trained, and less capable of exercising leadership. The Christian school, therefore, must be aware of this problem, and that’s why I have cited it. I do believe it is important for us to give consideration to, even though we may not have, in the foreseeable future, any way of coming up with an ideal solution, but awareness of a problem is sometimes almost half the solution.

If I may digress for a moment, I’d like to read something further Dolan{?} says, he’s a man, about the biological weakness of men as compared to women. He says, “Males have greater quantities of biological defects than females. A) More males are color-blind, B) more males are born stillborn, C) male infants have higher rates of mortality and morbidity, D) males are more susceptible to many diseases, E) males grow and mature physically slower than females, F) among males there are more learning and behavior disorders, G) a higher percentage of males are mentally defective, and H) males develop their verbal abilities later than females. These biological defects are thought by many to have something to do with males’ “XY” chromosomes and other genetic and hormonal factors.”

You girls didn’t realize what a sorry mess we males were. Now maybe you’ll be kinder to us. Of course, as we deal with these facts of difference, we must realize that they are God-ordained, and therefore, we are to use these difference in terms of God’s purpose for them. After all, St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:7, “For who maketh thee to differ from another, and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?” The Christian school, you see, has a function other than merely to transmit information. Its purpose is to train up young men and women into the service of Christ, their Lord and savior. This requires dealing with the realities of what male and female are, of recognizing that God wants us to recognize the differences, their complimentary factors, and their functions in terms of His calling. Now, are there any questions about this? Yes?

[Audience] {?} based on biblical {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes. The word equal in the Declaration of Independence does reflect the seventeenth century kind of thinking rather than biblical thinking. However, as they used it, they meant equal with respect to opportunity. They didn’t apply it as radically as at present, but it had the germ of the present interpretation in it. The usage there was not biblical basically. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Audience] Could you say that again?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Good question, and perhaps some of you can come up with some ideas, so be thinking while I give one preliminary answer. The question, if you did not hear it, is because there are differences, what teaching methods should we use to enable us to compensate for that difference than to enable us to draw out, for example, the boys in a situation. Well, first of all, you will very commonly find in a classroom when you ask a question and the hands go up, the first hands up usually are the hands of girls. Isn’t that usually the case? They’re quicker mentally, for one thing usually, and they’re more anxious to please. The boy may know the answer and he’ll put his hand up like that if he does. So, one thing you can do is to not ask for hands or say, “Let’s have one of the boys answer that question,” before you ask it. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes. The question is with regard to competitiveness, but let’s hold that for a moment and see if anyone else has any suggestions. Yes?

[Audience] I just realized I’ve had my girls and they’re competing against each other, and rather than doing that, you have the boys competing against the boys and the girls against the girls, I think it would be a good idea.

[Rushdoony] Very good suggestion. Someone else have an idea, please, because this would be helpful? Anyone else have a suggestion? If you’re afraid to come up here, then stand up and say it from there and I’ll repeat it. Although teachers who make kids come up to the front of the class shouldn’t be scared to get up. [laughter] Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Very good. I think that’s excellent. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, very good. They do need to see more men exercising leadership. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

{Rushdoony} Yes, very good. Any other suggestions? Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, men must see their role in leadership. Yes?

[Audience] {?} {laughter}

[Rushdoony] Any other, yes?

[Audience]

[Rushdoony] Is there any merit in having an all-boys school and an all-girls school? I don’t think so. I think the ideal situation would be for both to be in one school building and have separate classes.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes. First grade boy’s class and first grade girl’s class. As I say, I have seen that and it works beautifully. The boys then become, well, one of the first things that happened with that kind of a situation in one case that I know of where more boys began to make the honor roll. When they were competing against boys, they were much readier to compete. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Most of the way through grade and high school girls tend to excel. It’s only when the boy begins to think of his life work and doesn’t look around at who else is in the class, and in a college atmosphere there isn’t the same focus on the students, you see? It’s on the professor and his lecture. Then, the boy will come into his own usually, on a college level. But too often, by the time he reaches the college or the university, his unwillingness to compete does take a toll on his learning ability.

[Audience] That’s why {?}

[Rushdoony] No, because, I think it helps the situation actually. When you have competitive sports, the boy tends to figure, “Well, this is my realm. Sports. Studying is for girls. Books are for girls.” So it tends to accentuate an already serious problem. The boy wants to see studying as basic to the life of a man. Yes?

[Audience] I wanted to know {?} [laughter]

[Rushdoony] On the college level, the boy is thinking about his life’s work and a job, and he’s got to have the grades, maybe graduate school’s also a prospect. The girl, very often, is thinking about whom can she marry, so her focus is not all strongly on the books at that point. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Did you all hear that? Come up and repeat it because some didn’t, and I think that’s extremely important, because I think a good demonstration of just what we’ve been dealing with.

[Audience] Two years ago in our school, in the eighth grade, we were offering home economics and some other courses for the girls, and then some courses for the boys. We had {?} schedule. We separated the boys and the girls for the whole year. They didn’t even go to any classes together, and not only did they achieve higher grades, but the first thing we noticed was that the discipline problems that we normally have, some of them just completely disappeared, and we had better discipline in the eighth grade that year.

[Rushdoony] Let me add one thing. One of the problems, you see, with boys, where you have co-educational classes, is they’re showing off for the girls, and a lot of your discipline problems stem from that tendency, because males are show-offs. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] I really don’t believe that girl athletics are that important or that wise. Some of the types of sports, if the doctor were here, he could perhaps say more about it, do tend to have an unhappy affect on the position of the uterus in the girl, and they do create problems later on. So that while she may develop muscles and all, she may pay a price for it. So that I think there is an overemphasis on competitive sports among girls. I simply don’t see the need for it. I think what we need to do, and I have a very fine man working on it, a book on physical education from a Christian perspective, and this person who has trained Olympic athletes does not believe in competitive sports for either boys or girls. He feels they harm a physical education program, and his basic premise is that you develop a program of exercises, calisthenics, that will develop for life a body of boys and girls in terms of that which is best for them, and then you teach them certain standards of health and bodily care, and the type of exercise they need that is best for them. Now he’s been very thorough at getting this done, but I hope eventually to get him to finish the book. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Could you repeat that? Come up here.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Do I feel that the sex of the administrator is going to determine the extent of problems? No, I don’t. It depends on the person. They can be just as good disciplinarians, because in the home they are.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Well, I think there can be situations like that but, by and large, in the home, you see, the father and mother both have to deal with the problem. Sometimes a particular father or a particular mother will be less strict or less at ease disciplining, but I don’t believe that’s a sexual difference. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes. The question is should we have counselors, women counselors for the girls and men counselors for the boys. I think it could possibly have an advantage. I don’t think it’s a necessity, but I can see how there could be advantages in that. Any more about dealing with this before we go onto other types of questions. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Should it be carried right on down to the kindergarten level. I would say, yes, if you’re going to have any kind of teaching program in kindergarten, because especially in kindergarten, the differences are more pronounced. The boys are much slower in developing, and at that early age, the difference between boys and girls is very pronounced. A five year old girl can talk and think circles around a five year old boy. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] No, the determinative factor is the home, not the teacher in such things. So, the model for the boy and the girl is the father and the mother in home. It’s not the teacher. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Well first of all, there’s a difference between dominion and domineering, so the first thought of your statement, I would differ with because men are not called upon by God to be domineering of women, but to exercise dominion, and remember, and I’m glad I have this opportunity, what scripture says about dominion and lordship, and our Lord manifested it to be a servant, that you use your authority for the welfare of the family, or the church, and our Lord showed what He meant by lordship, and he said the Lords among the Gentiles love to domineer, to make people bow down to them, but he said, “It shall not be so among you.” This is why the idea of having the boys at a very early age learn to hold doors open and that sort of thing is so good, to know that, yes, we do have dominion under God, but the purpose of our dominion is a thoroughly Christian one, to manifest grace and courtesy, to manifest that we do it to serve others, so that {?} is, we are told that Christ, as the bridegroom of the church gave His life for the church. So, by analogy, the husband is to work and to serve the family’s welfare and if need be, give his life for it, you see. That’s the analogy. So, we must never confuse the biblical doctrine of dominion with the pagan and sinful versions of it. Fallen man turns it into a very different thing.

Alright now, with regard to the role of women teachers. One of the things that is important for all of us to learn before we can exercise dominion, we must learn how to be under authority, and so I think it’s altogether good for a boy to be under authority {?} men and women. To learn how to be under authority is the best way to exercise authority, so if he has women in home school, what’s wrong with that? Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Very good question. How do you correlate Paul’s statement with regard to women being keepers at home and what Proverbs has to say concerning the virtuous woman who runs a household while her husband sits in the gate. Now sitting in the gate doesn’t mean he was a lazy lout. That meant he sat on the town council or was a judge. That was a technical term. It meant he held some kind of public office because the biblical doctrine with regard to any kind of legal proceeding was that it had to be in the open, and in those days, they felt that since the weather was usually good, they held it at the city gate at a special place provided in the open where all trials, council meetings, and the like could be attended by all who came and went. So, here was a case of a woman whose husband was either a councilman or a judge, and she ran the business. It meant a very sizable one. Her husband apparently was an important man, and well-to-do. She handled buying and selling, so her husband obviously had status as an outstanding merchant. She also handled farm and ranch properties, a considerable household, and she’s held up as an example of a virtuous woman. We meet one such woman in Paul’s epistles, so obviously Paul didn’t object to them. Do you know who the woman was?

[Audience {?}

[Rushdoony] What no. Yes. That’s a second example. But in this case a married one. We don’t know Lydia’s husband, but Priscilla and Aquila. Alright. Now they, we meet in several places so apparently, they had business in more than one city, and her name is mentioned first, meaning that she was the important one in the partnership. Paul didn’t see anything wrong with it. Now, what does he mean that the women should be keepers at home? What he’s talking against there is being gadabouts and busybodies, and neglecting their work to go up and down the neighborhood as gadabouts. As a matter of fact, in no other culture have women exercised more authority because they are not regarded as helpless things, but as help-meets, as you might say prime ministers working with the king. It was only with the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment that women were suppressed, and the reason for it was the eighteenth century said that men represent reason, and reason therefore must dominate in a society, and women represent emotion, and emotions must be suppressed. So, women were stripped of all legal rights by the end of the eighteenth century. It happened in this country only in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Puritan women exercised tremendous amount of power. It reached the point where a woman was considered legally the same as a minor child. She had no legal rights. In one or two states, I think in Texas this still may be true, a married woman really has no title to her property, her husband controls it totally. This was not the biblical pattern. I won’t go into biblical laws with regard to property. So, you see, we must recognize that was Paul was dealing with there was correcting a problem, and asking them to stick to their duties at home. Not to be gadabouts. [1:16:.14.3]

I think your question has priority now before we . . .

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Up to a point, competitiveness is very good. I’m not convinced that competitive sports are all that necessary or all that good. I don’t think they provide the best answer to a physical education program. Definitely not. But within the classroom, I think we do need competitiveness, but I think we should encourage competitiveness between boy s with boys and girls with girls, and I think this then will produce a healthy effect. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, well, in term so the non-biblical evidence we have of Hebraic life, you are a man whether you were fourteen or thirty, when you supported yourself, not before. Now I’ve tried that in my home. I told my children as long as they were under my roof, no matter how much money they made, I was going to control them and the money they made, and they were going to be men and women only when they were on their own. That, I believe, is scriptural. So, they’re not men, even though they may be eighteen or twenty-one, or twenty-two, until they are out supporting themselves. We define men, not in terms of chronological age, but in terms of governing and supporting oneself.

Well, we’ll continue in ten minutes.

End of tape