Using Your Mind

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Matthew 22:37

 

“I can “high five” ‘em but I’m afraid to hug them.”

“We can’t do that anymore.”

“I had to put away half of what I used to use every year.”

“Do you remember when extra recess used to be incentive for the class to get all their work done? Not anymore!”  

I was at a gathering where there were some seasoned public school teachers. They have seen what works and what doesn’t. They have seen kids encouraged and discouraged. Several of the older ones said they can’t wait to get out because of how things have changed. It seems that every year they feel farther and farther from what they feel called to do – teach!  

The major lament was that the “system” has been so distorted by the drive to have students score well on standardized testing that they can no longer take time to encourage kids to think or to be creative. For many of these teachers it has taken the joy out of their jobs. They get a decent paycheck and they all have education degrees so they stay even though they are frustrated.  

All of this made me think about the limited use of the mind they are encouraging in the students. There isn’t any time to get them to work on projects that require thought or interaction. (For the record, these ladies were elementary teachers). The message they are hearing is “how will this lesson effect the test scores?”  

I get it. I know that every child needs a certain level of education, they have to achieve one year to be ready for the next. But, I was one of those kids that did not test well. No matter how many times you taught me the same thing if you presented it to me in multiple choice form I could think of some reason that all of the answers looked right! I am so grateful for parents who looked at the day-to-day work rather than the standardized testing and encouraged me to keep learning.  

As Christians, if our kids are in this environment, we are going to have to be diligent at home to encourage our chidlren to use their  minds, especially to love the Lord. Creative children could easily get lost in frustration and disillusionment in this system we call public school today. If all they learn are the facts but not how to discern and reason –we are in trouble and so are they as adults.  Worse yet, if the “facts” are massaged or even fabricated to encourage a pre-determined outcome then the “education” may be worse than ignorance. 

The Bible is pretty clear that God gave us minds and wants us to use them – to love Him is the top priority for our minds. In order to do that we must glorify Him in all we do. As I sat listening to these teachers I was thinking about the child who does not have a parent paying close attention, one who is confident that the school system that taught them is going to be fine for their chidlren. God has given parents the responsibility to educate our children. If we delegate that to the school and they are not doing it or doing it a way that does not honor God, we will answer to God for that.  

One of the interesting things I heard from another setting – and probably one of the reasons I was so intent on listening to these teachers – was that many Christians are willing to admit that the American school system is not what it used to be. In fact, it may be harmful to a child who is trying to serve the Lord because of all that it insists on teaching (evolution, birth control at a young age, alternative lifestyles, etc.). But, the overwhelming majority of these same Christians think it is not in their district, it is in other places. Their own schools are still good.  

This is not a local problem. It is not a teacher problem. This is a government problem, a regulations problem (and possibly a church problem but that is whole other post!). On the film “IndoctriNation” they show a clip from a National Education Association meeting (perhaps their national convention) where the speaker is screaming into the microphone “It’s not about the kids!” It seems he speaks for the bureaucracy of the whole system.  

The teachers I was listening to want it to be about the kids again. They have heavy hearts over what is happening in their classrtooms. They remember the good that used to be done that is long gone and they miss it. They liked it when kids thought and they could see them come to understanding of new concepts. Now, they look for an accumulation of information that can be regurgitated for a test.  

The schools threw God out many years ago. Without Him, what are we to expect? I fear that we can continue to expect that the minds of the next generations will not be transformed by a renewal of the mind, discerning the will of God, but they will be conformed to the world (Romans 12:2) — a world that expects very little thought