Random thought... Education

I picked up a book from our library's discard pile (the price was right) by one of my favourite authors. It's a collection of his memoirs, outlining the journeys and adventures which inspired the journeys and adventures he wrote about.

Prior to embarking on the lusty tales of reciting poetry in lumber camps or sailing on an Arab dhow up to the Red Sea, L'Amour gives his own view on education... what it is and what it isn't.

"If I were asked what education should give, I would say it should offer breadth of view, ease of understanding, tolerance for others, and a background from which the mind can explore in any direction.

"Education should provide the tools for a widening and deepening of life, for increased appreciation of all one sees or experiences. It should equip a person to live life well, to understand what is happening about him, for to live life well one must live with awareness.

"No one can 'get' an education, for of necessity education is a continuing process. If it does nothing else, it should provide students with the tools for learning, acquaint them with the methods of study and research, methods of pursuing an idea."

I'm drawn to L'Amour's ideas about education because I hold the same thoughts. Today, I have been inspired to drag my teaching from the muck and mire that was January, and truly teach with a renewed enthusiasm.

A large part of what I'm excited about is that which Louis L'Amour glosses over in his memoirs.

"It is constantly reiterated that education begins in the home, as indeed it does, but what is often forgotten is that morality begins in the home also."

I have the opportunity to teach kids about Jesus. Part of my frustrations from yesterday's blog stem from the fact that too many kids see God as someone or something to be learned. I get the impression that there is a checklist that gets "ticked off" when they hear and understand the stories from the Bible. Rather than becoming passionate to explore and understand the Author of their faith, they've engaged in "Sunday School" where they enter a place of learning and then exit it a couple hours later to re-enter "life".

As a Christian teacher and Sunday School teacher, I have the opportunity to open eyes and reveal the tools they can use to pursue God. That thought - the pursuit of God - is exciting to me. If I can inspire a student of mine to truly seek after God, I can be satisfied that I have done something of worth as a Christian educator.