We’ve changed how we think about education
I walked in to the Cross Fit workout area, the daily reluctance present as I knew what awaited me in that day’s workout. Sure enough, the usual physical agony, the press against my cardiovascular ability, and the psychological temptation to quit faced me once again. Why do I put myself through this, I thought. And I’ll do so the next day.
Because it’s good for my body. And for me in other ways.
The truth is that I workout because I know what will happen if I don’t. Atrophy lurks around every corner for a man in his late 40s. The same is true for our minds. They are like a muscle that needs exercised and pushed beyond the limits it had the day prior, to help establish the wisdom necessary for the next day.
I am a professor with an earned PhD from a major research university (Purdue). Yet I teach in a field (youth ministry) that isn’t seen as über-academic nor one that has historically valued scholarly endeavors. This has been changing as the field has matured and youth ministry’s role in communities has broadened, valuing and rewarding wise leadership.
One of the casualties in our poorly-managed US economy (it has been for decades) has been good education. Regardless of which political party has resided in the White House, education has slowly turned from something the fostered imagination and life in students to one that works more toward creating a productive work force who can earn money. The push for standardized testing as the sole determinant of educational success while schools cut back on the fine arts and extracurricular activities show how ‘functional’ we’ve become when we think of what it means to grow through learning.
And this has carried over into how we think about college education.
I sit with parents and prospective students who are contemplating earning a degree in a ministry-related field (missions, pastoral studies, youth ministry). The student has responded to a call from God to pursue some great purpose that cares for the needs of others and advance the Gospel in some way. Yet the main questions that I get asked are “can I get a job when I graduate?” or “will I use this in life?” Valid questions, but perhaps not the primary ones that should be asked. True, the Western globalizing forces are pushing tuition higher and higher, beyond the growth of family income, but it doesn’t mean we need to view education like skills training.
When we see education as only a process that helps us make more and find work, we reduce it to something that fails to produce life within us. We become part of a mechanistic system were making a bit more money and being able to buy what we want are the chief goals for learning. This doesn’t seem life-giving, creative, or even what it means to be human. God is creative (look outside or in the mirror) and this creative dynamic in the world is one I want to participate in.
So, in my field of youth ministry,we desperately need educated leaders who are ready to lead into new territories versus just reproducing what has worked before and staying safe. As the globalization machine pushes our economic realities, it also is reshaping the social and theological landscape. The old programmatic approaches will matter to a smaller and smaller percentage of the population.
Well, this will be my soapbox for a few days here and I’m near 600 words. So I’ll quit for today. Love to have you join in on the conversation and help advance it too.
