New Church Education is a philosophy of education developed and practiced by the General Church of the New Jerusalem, one of the New Church or Swedenborgian sects. This philosophy is based on some of works of Emanuel Swedenborg, whose theological writings are considered by members of this church to be the revealed Word of God, equal in authority to the Old Testament and the New Testament. Early in its history, the General Church of the New Jerusalem adopted distinctiveness as one of its central principles. Its members worked to clearly identify those things found in Swedenborg's theological writings that differentiated the New Church, as described there, from other churches and then to incorporate those distinctions into their institutions and actions. Developing a distinctive theory and practice of education became important as compulsory education spread across the United States. Looking into their revelation, members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem pieced together a new idea of how a child's mind develops from birth into adulthood. This developmental process formed the basis of a distinctive educational philosophy designed to give children in formal educational settings the experiences and knowledge believed to provide a solid foundation for the lifelong process of spiritual regeneration and growth. Overview The main purpose of New Church education is to help students learn, love, and live the teachings of the Lord God Jesus Christ as revealed in the Old and New Testaments and the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem. Base on the ideas revealed through Emanuel Swedenborg about the growth and development of a child's mind, New Church Education provides for the spiritual development of each student, focusing on the essential areas described in the Ten Religious Goals of New Church Education. Key Ideas The State of the Human Mind at Birth According to the New Church, everyone is born with inherited tendencies to do evil. Unlike the doctrine of original sin, however, a child inherits only the tendencies to committing the same sins committed by their parents and grandparents, etc. and not the sins themselves. This means that while the newborn's will (or motivation| motivational faculty) is totally corrupt and their interests are completely self-centered, they are not condemned by that corruption because they remain innocent of any sin. The implication is that without proper education in childhood, children will naturally tend towards destructive decisions and attitudes, behaviors that will become sins once the