Education will be a respected, thriving industry in God's world. But it will be considerably different than it is today.
The main difference will, of course, be content. The "core" curriculum of education in God's world will be God's Law, emphasizing God's way of "give," and not the devil's hostile, competitive, "get" attitude. God considers the education of young people in that Law so important that He has made its teaching a duty for parents generally:
"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deut. 6:6-7).
Certain subjects will simply be obsolete in God's World. There will be no need to study foreign languages to communicate with other people, for example, because all the world will speak one language. "For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent" (Zephaniah 3:9).
But this will not mean other languages will cease. The Bible itself is written in different languages.
Music and literature will be taught from a far different perspective.
It is hard to imagine a society geared to the worship of God and re-creation of His character in itself, tolerating certain kinds of music which seem more appropriate for an orgy than worship. On the other hand, the teaching of the particular skills of reading music and playing a musical instrument may not change all that much.
Literature will see more drastic changes. Much, if not most of man's literature represents man's groping for answers to the big questions in life. Often the answers are wrong, and the author's vision contains precious little truth. Moreover, some of man's literature promotes values opposed to God's way, including lust and hopelessness. In today's world, parents in some areas have even had to resort to picketing and demonstrations to remove from the classroom certain texts, which, they correctly felt, ridiculed biblical values.
Sex education will change dramatically. Today, educators rigidly avoid letting any moral or religious "values" intrude on education. But that very avoidance conveys to students a sense that sex and morality are independent of each other — an idea that God's Word opposes. In Tomorrow's World, God's laws will form the basis for sex education, and God's laws will be upheld, not subtly put down, as they are in today's schools.
History will be far different also. Events will be shown in the context of the biblical record: the Bible reveals God's master plan for all of human history, particular events as movements will be shown where they fit in that plan. The origins of nations, their role in God's scheme of prophecy, subjects that aren't even part of history as it is studied today, will be a major part of the history curriculum.
Physical education may be changed also. Certain sports breed a hostile competitive attitude. Injuries are common in some sports. Further, in God's world, one just can't imagine one of the most common occurrences in the physical education classes of this world: the choosing up of sides for a team — a public display of who is favored and who isn't. There will probably be team sports in God's world, but the emphasis will be on doing your best, not putting the other side down.
Of course, certain subjects will not change much. Basic mathematics seems fairly impervious to man's folly. And who knows what equations spirit beings will be able to do, when they have, as they will, the mental power of God?
New Methods
While the content of some subjects may change, the way people are taught should see changes also. God's world will bring universal literacy: most parents should be qualified to teach most subjects at home. As one Church of God minister once said about Tomorrow's World, "No longer will the ability to educate be viewed as a mystery system of rituals that can only be performed by the professionals."
Possibly there will be great use of "programmed instruction" — why couldn't, for example, a student take a correspondence course using a computer terminal plugged into a lesson program disseminated from the world capital in Jerusalem?
Vocational education may also be direct from parent to child. Parents should have more time to be available to teach their children their own skills. It is hard to imagine that in the Millennium parents will have to work 8 to 5 factory-type jobs where they would be unavailable to their children most of the day. (Perhaps factory and manufacturing work will be automated) Both the office and shop, as well as the farm, should be open to children.
As for classroom instruction, there will still be the need of textbooks and reading assignments, problems to solve in arithmetic, and essays to write in whatever the new language will be. It seems certain activities are necessary to learn certain skills. There is simply no way, for example, to avoid memorizing the multiplication table. And most assuredly, television will not take the place of words — the written word will still be the most important way of conveying ideas because it, unlike television, forces the mind to think in language.
The world of the future will be a world of global literacy, where all citizens will be taught the right values and God's truth, as well as how to make a living. The frontiers of truth will be infinitely expanded. A truly enlightened world!