I recently read an article in the Washington Post Magazine about a couple who decide to use their wedding as a protest against the ridiculous materialistic complex that modern weddings have become. Since reading it I have had thoughts about other good things that we have corrupted by pursuing the selfish materialism of it, and I stumbled into thoughts about education.
I remember a talk given during my first days of seminary where the main point of the discussion was to prepare us new students for a different focus than what we may have been used to in our undergraduate experiences. We were not to be so concerned with grades so much as with engaging as deeply as we could with the material and subject matter. As long as we were committed to trying to grasp and contend with the mountains of knowledge available to us as future clergy, we would be fine. In essence, the message was, “Try hard and we’ll take care of you”. On the one hand it was an acknoweldgement of how over burdened modern theological education had become with the wide variety of subject matter that now was considered central to a good seminary education, but on the other hand it was a wake up call to us who had been through (and for me as a teacher continued to particiapte in) the culture of educational acheivement that now passes for our society’s goal of raising our children to be functional and positive citizens.
My thoughts drifted to potential speeches I might make to my kids as they confront the “grades quest” that education now is for our youth. I’ll try to impress upon them that the best students are not the ones who get A+s on everything and who develop the best resume that gets them into the tony private school. I want them to know, from me the teacher, that my favorite students were the ones that came to class thristy to learn, willing to argue and protest something that didn’t sound right, who asked about a comment I made so that they could go and learn more about it. One of my favorite students was a potential high school dropout, who two years after narrowly escaping and earning his diploma met me in a grociery store and wanted to tell me all about the music he was listening to now (note for readers: I was a music teacher and taught a music appreciation class that this student got his only A in during his senior year). He seemed so desireful of learning more, and so disinterested in passing tests and doing homework, that he was a delight to teach, if not to assess. Luckily my class was graded much more on participation than on the three projects on music history and analysis that went along with our class experiences in listening to and learning to appreciate just about any type of music we could find.
The current educational culture is one of achievement that is measured through tests and transcripts. The focus has become totally selfish: what grade can I earn so that I can get what I want next, that next step that leads to the ultimate goal of material security in the form of a well paying and hopefully socially esteemable employment. What happened to learning how to learn? What about honing one’s mind and knowledge so that one can do the most good for the greater society? And to put it in terms of my line of work: what about maximizing the gift that God has given us in our ability to think and imagine?
I am sure after my lackluster high school experience that I was lucky to get into a public four year college to earn my undergraduate, and that today the pressure for even that chance is greater. But as I look back over my experiences, I do not remember one test I took. Well, maybe the calculus test where I earned a 115 score, but only because of the irony of somehow doing better that 100% on a mathematics test. But what I do remember are the classes where I went home and wanted to learn more, like my educational psychology professor who made learning the basic educational theories of today so much fun and so applicable to everything we do. I remember the ethics professor in seminary, who while being an incredibly hard exam creator, made delving into ethical dilemnas both challenging and yet safe as we encountered deep truths in ourselves that were not exactly pretty. And on top of that, I am now within $1000 of paying off my undergraduate loans less than a decade after finishing. I know I am a blessed one in that category, too.
My resume may not make it off the table for some high powered positions out there, but I know that when I enter the room for an interview, I feel confident that I can engage in conversation and show true concern and discernment for the position I am applying for. Will our children, who had pursued the achievements over the education, ever feel confident in that trying time? Will they even understand the dynamics of that time, or will they be asking for an assessment of how they did, so they can know their grade in the interview? How sad if that is so. Life isn’t about grades, and yet every year we seem to make it more so.
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Tags: education, grades, materialism, undergraduate
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Education and Materialism
I recently read an article in the Washington Post Magazine about a couple who decide to use their wedding as a protest against the ridiculous materialistic complex that modern weddings have become. Since reading it I have had thoughts about other good things that we have corrupted by pursuing the selfish materialism of it, and I stumbled into thoughts about education.
I remember a talk given during my first days of seminary where the main point of the discussion was to prepare us new students for a different focus than what we may have been used to in our undergraduate experiences. We were not to be so concerned with grades so much as with engaging as deeply as we could with the material and subject matter. As long as we were committed to trying to grasp and contend with the mountains of knowledge available to us as future clergy, we would be fine. In essence, the message was, “Try hard and we’ll take care of you”. On the one hand it was an acknoweldgement of how over burdened modern theological education had become with the wide variety of subject matter that now was considered central to a good seminary education, but on the other hand it was a wake up call to us who had been through (and for me as a teacher continued to particiapte in) the culture of educational acheivement that now passes for our society’s goal of raising our children to be functional and positive citizens.
My thoughts drifted to potential speeches I might make to my kids as they confront the “grades quest” that education now is for our youth. I’ll try to impress upon them that the best students are not the ones who get A+s on everything and who develop the best resume that gets them into the tony private school. I want them to know, from me the teacher, that my favorite students were the ones that came to class thristy to learn, willing to argue and protest something that didn’t sound right, who asked about a comment I made so that they could go and learn more about it. One of my favorite students was a potential high school dropout, who two years after narrowly escaping and earning his diploma met me in a grociery store and wanted to tell me all about the music he was listening to now (note for readers: I was a music teacher and taught a music appreciation class that this student got his only A in during his senior year). He seemed so desireful of learning more, and so disinterested in passing tests and doing homework, that he was a delight to teach, if not to assess. Luckily my class was graded much more on participation than on the three projects on music history and analysis that went along with our class experiences in listening to and learning to appreciate just about any type of music we could find.
The current educational culture is one of achievement that is measured through tests and transcripts. The focus has become totally selfish: what grade can I earn so that I can get what I want next, that next step that leads to the ultimate goal of material security in the form of a well paying and hopefully socially esteemable employment. What happened to learning how to learn? What about honing one’s mind and knowledge so that one can do the most good for the greater society? And to put it in terms of my line of work: what about maximizing the gift that God has given us in our ability to think and imagine?
I am sure after my lackluster high school experience that I was lucky to get into a public four year college to earn my undergraduate, and that today the pressure for even that chance is greater. But as I look back over my experiences, I do not remember one test I took. Well, maybe the calculus test where I earned a 115 score, but only because of the irony of somehow doing better that 100% on a mathematics test. But what I do remember are the classes where I went home and wanted to learn more, like my educational psychology professor who made learning the basic educational theories of today so much fun and so applicable to everything we do. I remember the ethics professor in seminary, who while being an incredibly hard exam creator, made delving into ethical dilemnas both challenging and yet safe as we encountered deep truths in ourselves that were not exactly pretty. And on top of that, I am now within $1000 of paying off my undergraduate loans less than a decade after finishing. I know I am a blessed one in that category, too.
My resume may not make it off the table for some high powered positions out there, but I know that when I enter the room for an interview, I feel confident that I can engage in conversation and show true concern and discernment for the position I am applying for. Will our children, who had pursued the achievements over the education, ever feel confident in that trying time? Will they even understand the dynamics of that time, or will they be asking for an assessment of how they did, so they can know their grade in the interview? How sad if that is so. Life isn’t about grades, and yet every year we seem to make it more so.
Like this:
This entry was posted on September 8, 2008 at 8:45 pm and is filed under General comments. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: education, grades, materialism, undergraduate
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.