The Question is the Topic

This has been an exciting year for our family.  We finally made the decision to homeschool all of our children who range in age from 5 to 12.  There are many reasons for our change and we had countless conversations with the kids and those around them about this move, what it would entail and how we wanted to go about doing it.  My wife Niki is a person with a teaching degree.  I have a graduate degree and time spent working in schools.  The number one reason that we saw for making this decision comes from what we know about the education system and how it is not in the best interest of our children to continue on there.  Let me say from the beginning that Public Education can still be great and for some families it is absolutely the best decision, for them.  There are many schools making progressive changes to curriculum and even the way that the school is set up that are promising for the future of education.  Please read the rest of this post with that in mind because I in no way want to make anyone feel bad for the decision they made for educating their child. 

As we were about to start our first year on this new adventure I read many books on the topic.  One of those books, “A School of Our Own” by Samuel Levin and Susan Engel, actually looks at Education Reform from inside the system.  A young man who attended his local public school found himself troubled by the fact he saw many of his peers struggle in school.  Most children were bored and under challenged while others were barely getting by.  The kids had limited voice in the books that were used, the subjects that were taught and the activities they were engaged in.  Contributing to the problem was the lack of healthy food choices within the cafeteria.  He came up with a solution to use a portion of the unused property on the school grounds to start a student led community garden that would provide supplemental, healthy, food for their cafeteria.  What he found was that students couldn’t wait to participate in a project with purpose.  They fundraised, received assistance from the public and he eventually received the blessing from the school administrators to grow the project.  That project eventually provided fresh fruits and vegetables for multiple schools in their district.  So, when the following year he had an idea for an educational experiment with a student led “school within the school” he at least had the interest of a select few educators.  I won’t explain the entire book but, long story short, it looks at the challenges the author endured while trying to break centuries old, bad habits in our educational system and creating a different type of school that was by the children and for the children. 

Susan, Sam’s mom and the co author of the book, had this to say about one of the problems in Public Schools.

“…even when teachers welcome a question, they see it as a door to an answer, or a nice reminder that some of the students are actually interested in the topic.  Rare is the classroom where teachers treat questions as the topic…”

Schools are creating curriculum and teachers are building out an entire year’s lesson plans with little to no consultation with those who will be stuck in the classrooms listening to their prepared lessons.  To make it worse, the educational requirements, standardized tests, benchmarks and overall school calendar, leave little to no time for any deviation from that lesson plan.  What if the types of questions that the lesson plans inspire could become the real stuff of the educational process that motivates our children? 

I’ll tell you why I think public education, in this country, has moved from this type of teaching and I don’t think it is found only in our schools.  The type of free form thinking and questioning that this model would inspire is dangerous to some.  It isn’t certain, it relies on an educator being able to find those “teachable moments” and move in the direction the classroom is taking them.  States monitor and test to make sure every child is learning and there is no way to do a standardized test for the diverse set of topics that each individual class would be exploring.  But here’s the thing, the kids would be learning.  They would be inspired to learn more because it is no longer a random set of facts to remember. It would be the stuff that fascinates them being explored, tended to, and sometimes just in proximity to the students while they are in the presence of fully capable and talented educators. 

I don’t find it coincidental that as we have begun to question the institution of education, that the questions begin to arise concerning all institutions.  The last few years I have been reflecting on the way that the church operates and who is left out, who is left behind, who is hurt and who really benefits?  Just like in our educational system, there is usually a set of people who clearly benefit.  For denominations that is usually different conventions that for the most part, set the standard for what is orthodox and acceptable.  There is really a small number of publishers writing curriculum for Sunday School and VBS.  What this does is the same thing that the educational system is trying to accomplish.  Everyone learns the same and there is no dissent, no questioning, and most importantly to the institution, no theological deviation.  The problem is, just as each child, environment, and circumstance is vastly different, so to is the life of a wide range of “believers”, “unbelievers” and those undecided.  What if the teachers and preachers didn’t rely on curriculum but just relied on reading the words of Jesus and seeing what it inspired among them?  Just as I am learning to look for teachable moments in our homeschool, the church community would benefit from an overhaul in the Christian education department. 

Just as it is in the public education system, the decentralizing of religious education is also viewed as dangerous.  In the case of theological education within our churches, you are putting education into the hands of unpaid, untrained “lay people” but I’d say we’d all be better for it.  Do we forget that in the history of the Christian faith, the message of Christ was brought to people and lands that had little to no experience of the God that Jesus pointed to?  The questions they asked and the conclusions they reached actually looked quite different.  An apostle would enter an area, preach, work for some time there and then leave.  Much of the letters written to those churches, that we have within scripture are really slight corrections here and there and reminders of the central message they received.  There is an awful lot of freedom in the way that they practice their faith.

For those of you still reading that have had any sort of experience in the church, think back to the number of people you went to church with who had little to no voice or input into the teaching, sharing or sacraments within the church.  I’d say in my experience that most churches would have about 80% of the members that would fall into that category.  They are there, they may share a thought from time to time but they most certainly would not challenge the status quo.  That means we are missing the valuable input and experiences of 80% of the congregation.  Add to that, for most of the life of the church and even in most contexts today, women have been asked to sit down when it comes to teaching adults and specifically adult men.  The list could go on and on of the people that we have discounted their thoughts and opinions for the sake of the centralized institution.  I have found that when you tell people that their opinion matters, give them a safe space to share and then demonstrate that to them by listening and being moved by their responses, people actually become passionate about learning and growing.  That applies to all things education.  Maybe the reason we are seeing so much burn out in schools and in the church is because we have taken the passion out of learning.  We have told our educators to not trust their instincts which then trickles down to the students in our schools and the lay people within our churches. 

So, back to the title of this particular entry, “The Question is the Topic”.  Just like that brilliant boy brave enough to imagine a different way that education can operate, we too can listen to the questions of our kids, of our students, of our church community and look behind the question.  Take the time to study, to question our assumptions, to tear it apart without fear of whether we will ever be able to put it together again.  If we strip it down to where we can no longer recognize it and are struck by fear, we have to remember that if the institution is that fickle and fragile, how valuable was it to begin with?  If it really is Christ’s church, then shouldn’t we have hope in its resurrection?