The School of Infancy

That Children, Being Most Precious Gifts of God, and an Inestimable Treasure, Should Claim Our Most Vigilant Attention

1. That children are an immeasurable treasure is something the Spirit of God, speaking through David, makes clear: "Lo, children are the heritage of the Lord; the fruit of the womb His reward; as arrows in the hand, so are children. Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them; he shall not be confounded" (Ps 127). Notice how David declares those who receive children from God to be truly happy.

2. The same truth is evident in the fact that God, when He wants to express His love toward us, calls us His children, as though no more excellent name existed by which to draw us close.

3. Moreover, He is deeply angered by those who hand their children over to Moloch (Lev 20:2; Jer 32:35). It is also worth our most serious reflection that God, even with respect to the children of idolatrous parents, calls them children born to Him, making clear that they are born not for ourselves but for God. As God's own offspring, they deserve our deepest reverence (Ezek 23:37).

4. This is why Malachi calls children "the seed of God," from which comes the offspring of God (Mal 2:15; Acts 17:29).

5. For this reason, when the eternal Son of God took on human flesh, He not only chose to share in the nature of children, but genuinely delighted in them. He took them in His arms as little brothers and sisters, carried them, kissed them, and blessed them (Mark 10:16).

6. Beyond this, He issued a severe warning against anyone who would harm them, even in the smallest way. He commanded that children be treated with the same respect due to Himself, and He pronounced harsh penalties on anyone who caused even the least of them to stumble (Matt 18:5-6).

7. If you want to understand why He took such delight in little children, and why He commanded us so firmly to treat them with care and respect, there are many reasons to consider. First, if children seem unimportant to you right now, don't look at what they are in this moment; look at what they may and should become, according to God's intention for them. You will see them not only as the future inhabitants of the world, the stewards of the earth, and God's representatives among His creatures after we have gone, but also as equal sharers with us in the inheritance of Christ: a royal priesthood, a chosen people, companions of angels, judges of devils, the joy of heaven, the terror of hell, and heirs of the most glorious dignities across all the ages of eternity. What could possibly be more excellent than that?

8. Philip Melanchthon, that man of blessed memory, once walked into an ordinary school, looked out over the students gathered there, and opened with these words: "Hail, reverend pastors, doctors, licentiates, superintendents! Hail, most noble, most prudent, most learned lords, consuls, praetors, judges, prefects, chancellors, secretaries, magistrates, professors, and more!" When some of the bystanders smiled at this, he replied: "I am not joking. I mean every word. I look at these little boys not as they are now, but with an eye toward the purpose God has in mind for them, the very reason they have been placed in our care for instruction. For surely some among this number will rise to fill exactly those roles, even if there is chaff mixed in among the wheat." That was the spirited address of a remarkably wise man. But why shouldn't we declare with equal confidence those same glorious things about all children of Christian parents? After all, Christ himself, who made known the eternal purposes of God, has said that "of such is the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:14).

9. If we consider even the present condition of children, it becomes immediately clear why they are of immeasurable value in God's sight, and why they should be no less precious to their parents. They are valuable to God, first of all, because they are innocent in every respect except for original sin. They have not yet defaced the image of God in themselves through actual wrongdoing, and they are still unable to "discern between good and evil, between the right hand and the left." That God takes this into account is made abundantly clear both by His words to Jonah (Jonah 4:11) and by numerous other passages of Scripture.

10. Second, children are the purest and most dearly purchased possession of Christ. Christ came to seek the lost, and He is called the Savior of all, except those who shut themselves out from sharing in His merits through unbelief and impenitence. Children still have a rightful claim to that purchased salvation, since they have not yet rejected Christ, and "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." They are those redeemed from among humanity to be first-fruits to God and the Lamb, not yet having defiled themselves with the allurements of sin; they follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Rev 14:4). And so that they may continue following Him, they need to be guided, as if by the hand, through a faithful upbringing.

11. Finally, God embraces children with such overflowing love that they become a unique instrument of divine glory, as Scripture testifies: "From the lips of infants and nursing children you have ordained praise because of your enemies, that you might silence the foe and the avenger" (Ps 8:2). How God's glory could be increased through children is not immediately obvious to our understanding, but God, who perceives all things, knows it to be so and declares it plainly.

12. That children should be dearer and more precious to parents than gold, silver, pearls, or gems becomes clear when you compare these two kinds of gifts from God. Gold, silver, and similar things are lifeless, being only somewhat harder and purer than the clay we walk on, while infants are living images of the living God.

13. Second, gold and silver are elementary objects brought into being by God's command, while children are creatures whose very formation prompted the all-holy Trinity to take special counsel, shaping them with His own fingers.

14. Third, gold and silver are fleeting and temporary; children are an eternal inheritance. Though children yield to death, they don't return to nothing or simply cease to exist. They pass out of a mortal body into immortal regions. This is why, when God restored Job's wealth and possessions to double what He had taken away, He gave Job no more children than he had before: seven sons and three daughters. Yet this was precisely the double, because the first set of children had not perished; they had simply gone ahead to God.

15. Fourth, gold and silver come out of the earth, but children come from our own substance. Being a part of ourselves, they deserve to be loved by us at least as much as we love ourselves. This is why God has planted in the nature of all living things such a powerful affection toward their young that parents will sometimes choose their children's safety over their own. If anyone transfers that kind of devotion to gold and silver instead, God judges them guilty of idolatry.

16. Fifth, gold and silver pass from one person to another as though they belong to no one in particular, but are common to all. Children, by contrast, are a unique possession, divinely assigned to their parents. No one in the world can strip parents of that right or take that inheritance from them, because it descends from heaven and cannot be transferred to another.

17. Sixth, although gold and silver are gifts from God, they are not the kind of gifts over which He has promised angelic protection from heaven. In fact, Satan most often entangles himself with gold and silver, using them as nets and snares to trap the unwary, drawing people toward greed, arrogance, and recklessness. The care of little children, by contrast, is always entrusted to angelic guardianship, as the Lord Himself declares: "See that you do not despise one of these little ones" (Matt 18:10). This means that whoever has infants in his home can be certain that angels are present there as well. Whoever takes a small child in his arms can be assured that he is, in a sense, holding an angel. And whoever lies down beside an infant in the dead of night can rest in the firm consolation that both of them are so protected that the spirit of darkness cannot draw near. These are no small matters.

18. Seventh, gold, silver, and other material possessions cannot win us God's love, nor can they shield us from His anger the way infants can. God loves children so deeply that He will sometimes, for their sake, extend mercy to their parents. Nineveh offers a striking example: because the city was full of young children, God spared their parents from the judgment He had threatened (Jonah 4:11).

19. Eighth, human life does not consist in the abundance of one's possessions, as our Lord plainly states (Luke 12:15). Without God's blessing, food does not nourish, medicine does not heal, and clothing does not warm (Wis 16:12, 26). But His blessing is always present with children and on their behalf, so that they may be sustained. If God generously feeds the young ravens when they cry out to Him, how much more will He not care for infants, who bear His own image?

This is why Luther wisely observed: "We do not nourish our infants; rather, they nourish us. For it is on account of those innocents that God provides what we need, and we, aged sinners that we are, share in what He gives for their sake."

20. Finally, silver, gold, and precious gems teach us nothing beyond what other created things do: they reveal the wisdom, power, and generosity of God. But infants are given to us as a mirror in which we can see modesty, gentleness, kindness, harmony, and other Christian virtues reflected back at us. The Lord himself made this clear: "Unless ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 18:3). Since God has willed that children should serve as our teachers, we believe we owe them our most careful and devoted attention.

The Purposes for Which God Gives Children, and How Their Education Ought to Be Directed

1. If anyone wonders why it pleased God to bring these heavenly gifts into the world gradually over time rather than all at once in the full number He intended for eternity (as He did with the angels), that person will find only one answer: in doing it this way, God honors humanity by making us, in a sense, His partners in the work of bringing new creatures into being. Yet the purpose is not simply that we should take pleasure in this, but that we should pour our energy into raising and shaping these children rightly, with eternity in view.

2. A man trains the ox for plowing, the hound for hunting, and the horse for riding and driving, because those are the purposes for which those animals were created and they cannot be put to other uses. But since human beings are nobler than all these creatures, they should be educated toward the highest possible ends, so that they may reflect, as fully as possible, the excellence of God, whose image they bear. The body, having been taken from the earth, is earthly in nature, belongs to the earth, and must one day return to it. The soul, however, was breathed into us by God, comes from God, and should remain in God, always reaching upward toward Him.

3. Parents, therefore, will not fully meet their responsibilities if they only teach their children to eat, drink, walk, talk, and dress well. These things serve only the body, which is not the person himself but merely his dwelling place. The guest within, the rational soul, deserves far greater care than the house it occupies. Plutarch was right to mock parents who pursue beauty, wealth, and status for their children while paying little attention to cultivating the soul with piety and virtue. As he put it, such people "valued the shoe more than the foot." And Crates the Theban, a pagan philosopher, complained bitterly about the madness of such parents, as the poet records:

"Were I permitted to proclaim aloud everywhere; I should denounce all those infatuated and shamefully wicked, Whom destructive money agitates with excessive zeal. Ye gather riches for your children, and neither nourish them with doctrine, Nor cherish within them intellectual capability."

4. The first priority, then, should be the soul, which is the most essential part of a person, so that it may be adorned as richly as possible. The second priority is the body, so that it may become a fitting and worthy home for an immortal soul. A mind is rightly formed when it is genuinely illuminated by the wisdom of God, so that a person, recognizing the presence of the Divine Image within himself, will take care to protect and honor that excellence.

5. True heavenly wisdom, into which every person should be led and instructed, has two dimensions. The first is a clear and accurate knowledge of God and all His wonderful works. The second is the practical wisdom to govern oneself well, ordering both inner and outer life with care and discernment, in view of both this life and the life to come.

6. First and foremost, consider the life to come, because that is, properly speaking, the only true life: one from which death and mortality are entirely banished. The present life is less a destination than a road leading toward one, and so anyone who uses their time here to prepare themselves through faith and devotion for what lies ahead has, in the fullest sense, done what was required of them.

7. That said, since God grants many people long lives and, in doing so, assigns them particular responsibilities and places various circumstances along their path to give them opportunities for wise action, parents must take care not only to train their children in faith and devotion, but also to cultivate their moral character through the liberal arts and other essential disciplines. The goal is that when children grow up, they become genuinely capable people: able to manage their own affairs wisely and to take their place in the various roles of life, whether in the church, in government, in civic society, or in their communities, that God intends them to fill. Having lived the present life with both integrity and wisdom, they will then pass into eternity with all the greater joy.

8. In short, there are three purposes for which young people should be educated. 1. Faith and devotion. 2. Moral uprightness. 3. Knowledge of languages and the arts. These must be pursued in exactly the order given here, not in reverse. Young people should first be formed in faith, then in moral character and virtue, and finally in more advanced learning. The more progress they make in that last area as well, the better.

9. Whoever has children in their home engaged in these three areas possesses a garden where heavenly seedlings are sown, watered, and brought to full bloom; a workshop, so to speak, of the Holy Spirit, in which He shapes and refines those vessels of mercy, those instruments of glory, so that in them, as living images of God, the radiance of His eternal and infinite power, wisdom, and goodness may shine ever more brightly. What an immeasurable blessing it is for parents to dwell in such a paradise!

That Youth Urgently Require Education and Proper Instruction

1. We should not assume that young people can develop in the way described on their own, without sustained and diligent effort. Consider: a young sapling destined to become a tree must be planted, watered, fenced for protection, and given a stake to lean on. A piece of timber shaped for a specific purpose must be worked with an axe, split, planed, carved, polished, and stained with various colors. A horse, an ox, a donkey, or a mule must be trained before it can serve its master. Even human beings need instruction in the most basic physical actions, learning day by day how to eat, drink, run, speak, reach, and work. How, then, can those higher duties that lie so far beyond the reach of the senses, such as faith, virtue, wisdom, and knowledge, come to anyone on their own? It is simply impossible.

2. God has therefore laid this responsibility on parents: to wisely and diligently plant in the tender minds of their children everything that belongs to the knowledge and fear of Him, and to "talk with them about these things, whether they are sitting at home, walking along the road, lying down, or getting up" (Deut 6:7).

3. Solomon and Jesus son of Sirach both agree throughout their writings that young people should be trained in wisdom and not too quickly spared the rod. David, who recognized this same necessity, was not too proud to take on the role of teacher and guide to the young, even as a king, saying: "Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Ps 34:11). The apostle Paul urges parents "to bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" (Eph 6:4).

4. Since parents are often unqualified to teach their children, or too occupied with their duties and household affairs to do so, while others simply regard such instruction as unimportant, it has been established through wise and beneficial practice since ancient times that in every society, young people should be entrusted to the care and discipline of righteous, wise, and godly teachers.

5. Such teachers were called pedagogues (leaders of children, not drivers of them), masters, preceptors, and doctors. The places set apart for this work were called colleges, gymnasia, and schools (meaning retreats of ease or places of intellectual enjoyment). This name was chosen deliberately to signal that the act of teaching and learning is, by its very nature, pleasant and agreeable: something closer to play and mental delight than to labor.

6. This joy, however, had entirely vanished by later times, so that schools were no longer what their name once suggested: places of pleasure and delight. Instead, they had become grinding houses and chambers of torment for young people, particularly in places where children were taught by incompetent men who were wholly ignorant of piety and the wisdom of God. These were men made dull by laziness, contemptible in character, and setting the worst possible example, even while calling themselves masters and teachers. Rather than shaping young people in faith, piety, and sound morals, they filled them with superstition, impiety, and corrupting habits. Ignorant of any genuine method of instruction, and convinced that everything could be beaten into a child by force, they put the young through miserable torment. We are reminded of this by those well-known, if weary, sayings: "He appears to have gotten a very rich harvest of blows across his shoulder blades," and "He was brought to the lash again and again." No method of instruction was known beyond the severity of rods and the brutality of beatings.

7. Although our predecessors, alongside the work of ecclesiastical reform, did something to improve this situation, God has reserved for our own age certain further improvements: a method of instruction that is easier, more efficient, and more solid, to His glory and our benefit.

8. I now move forward, trusting in God's blessing, to the form and outline of the proposed educational method, to be applied especially in the home school during the first six years of a child's life.