On Friday, Rotary was planning to deliver dictionaries to
students at a local school. I realize that it is old-fashioned in the internet
age, but I still support the effort. I love the idea of a treasury of words
being given to young people as they come to grips with the possibilities and
pitfalls of language arts, as schools seem to call it. When I was young, I read
a good deal of nonfiction, mostly science, biography, and history. Mrs. Grote
in 10th and 11th grade introduced me to the world of
fiction. Her careful set of readings blazed a trail for me.
At worship this morning, we have our annual presentation of
scholarships to some outstanding students. Presbyterians have always respected
education, as literacy aids Bible interpretation and we do honor God with the
mind as well as our other faculties. I
so admire that the impulse for the scholarship came from a tragedy in a family.
Soon, our rotary committee will meet to offer our scholarship award to a
senior. It is a pleasant tedium. I will make out my top choices, but I would be
pleased if nearly any student wins the award. They are that intelligent, that
socially minded, that gifted. I say it repeatedly. The students of the month
give me great hope for the future in a time that is too frequently laden with
doubt and gloom over the present.
I differ with many in that I see education as an intrinsic
good. Education opens the heart, mind, and soul. It expands the field of vision
and extends horizons. Education can take some of the edge from the arrogance of
the young and offer some intellectual humility.
At the same time, I value education as a vehicle to move
away from poverty, its deadening weight and its dysfunctional culture.
I am not an educational Pollyanna. I realize that we place
far too many burdens on schools and so graduates are ill-educated according to
the judgments of many, Writing seems to have taken a particular decline. Graduates
are told that the world is wide open to them; they can be anything they set
their sights upon. That is a sugar-coated falsehood. Teachers face the
incalculable difficulty of facing students and families who do not value
education, as does the following quote.
“The teachers of my life saved my life and sent
me out prepared for whatever life I was meant to lead. Like everyone else, I
had some bad ones and mediocre ones, but I never had one that I thought was
holding me back because of idleness or thoughtlessness. They spent their lives
with the likes of me and I felt safe during the time they spent with me. The best
of them made me want to be just like them. I wanted young kids to look at me
the way I looked at the teachers who loved me. Loving them was not difficult
for a boy like me. They lit a path for me, and one that I followed with joy.” ― Pat Conroy,
“A parent gives life…. A murderer takes life,
but his deed stops there. A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where
his influence stops.” ― Henry Adams
For me, education opens the door to the future.
It is the beginning of a journey to be a lifelong learner. In a sense we are always students, if not of
books, of relationships and of life itself. High school graduates are in the
stage of forming their identity, a stable sense of self that will take them
through their lives. Already they weave the disparate experiences into their
enduring character and world view.
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