We’re all probably pretty familiar with The Decalogue, the 10 commandments given by God to the Israelites after delivering them from the tyranny of Egypt’s pharaoh. (As an interesting personal exercise, try naming as many as you can from memory.) The Commandments were part of a new covenant of self-government that if followed would prevent Israel from falling back into oppression. But anyone who has read the Old Testament will quickly notice Israel frequently turned from these laws and fell into the hands of despotic oppressors. The point is just laws are meant to keep people free from tyranny—whatever other theological purposes they serve.
I’ve been an educator for thirty years now and, currently, I lead an online marketplace for independent educators in the classical Christian pedagogical tradition. In my experience, independent teachers, if they are going to succeed as quality educators and remain free to teach according to their conscience and not according to institutional policy, they must be able to self-govern. In other words, they need laws they impose on themselves. I often encourage teachers to consider adopting the following 10 commandments as a way of bringing to their self-governing consciences some of the wisdom I’ve learned over the years.
Read the 10 Commandments for Independent Teachers at The Classical Consortium
Responses