Most children have already, or are about to, start heading to school. Education is one of those “givens” where I live, no one really questions whether or not it we should educate our children.
Americans (and I imagine others) feel so strongly about this that you can be legally prosecuted if you do not send your children to school or provide alternate education via homeschooling, etc.
Western culture has often made education into something of a panacea. “If we just ‘educate ’em,’ then all people will be able to live in peaceful harmony” it has often been said. I think most of us are no longer convinced by this, but we continue to place a high degree of our time and energy discussing education.
Which is all well and good, but I’m wondering why we the focus is always on children, and not on the continued learning and well-being of flourishing adults. I read somewhere that something like 30% of American adults won’t read a single book in a given year. I just met a man in Wales who said he hadn’t read a book since he was about 20 (he’s quite a bit older now).
I say all of this not with the intention to apply guilt but to acknowledge that education is important, but it shouldn’t be something we cease pursuing once we graduate from school. As ministry leaders and pastors, perhaps it is worth encouraging our flocks to give more time to learning (in whatever form that takes) as opposed to the constant dim glow of the television.
For, how can we be a “people of the book” (The Bible) and yet rarely, if ever, read?
God bless,
Stu
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