Just Enough Education to Perform?
Last Tuesday local councils sent thousands of texts, emails and letters communicating the news of secondary school place allocations for the autumn term 2010. In London, an e-admissions site collapsed, extending parental anxiety for hours, and Birmingham joined the capital in awarding only two thirds of applicants their first choice school.
Aristotle recognised the benefits of a good education as being immensely valuable in contributing to an individual's sense of personal fulfilment. 2,300 years later, the same conviction motivates legal battles to secure places at those institutions glorified in target-orientated league tables. The schooling of our children has become yet another source of stress in fatigued, failure-phobic modern Britain.
Our culture screams 'get your child to the right school, to be taught the right thing, so they can have the right life and make the right career choices' - which usually involves earning a substantial bonus at the end of each financial year, presumably to pay the cost of private education. Consequently, families routinely consider which area they settle in according to the schools for which their children could become eligible.
There is much to admire in parents prioritising their children's future to the extent that they will move half the length of the country to enrol them at the institution that spells success in every academic sense. Parents have an unenviable task; not a week goes by without some nutritionist, educator or lifestyle coach delivering another edict on how best to bring up your brood. No one wants to feel they have failed to do all that is humanly possible to give their child the best start in life.
It is therefore all too easy to join the stampede towards our culture's notion of success, where all that matters is academic, economic and social fulfilment. But while all of these are good gifts from God, the privilege of a Christian perspective is that, with Paul, we can count all human accolades as rubbish next to the surpassing wealth of eternal life in Christ and knowing him as Lord (Philippians 3:8), which suddenly releases the pressure.
As Deuteronomy emphatically records, the education of greatest worth is not readily available in classrooms of Ofsted excellence, but instead from the living, breathing example of parents, modelling whole-life discipleship in word and deed.
Which begs the question: does our determination to fight for the best education find an echo in the lengths to which we will go to establish our children in the gospel?
Naomi Carle
Links
Click here for the latest on secondary education league tables, school places and parents' choices
To find out more about how to support Christian teachers, purchase a copy of LICC's insightful publication, Supporting Christians in Education
If you're leaving education, or know someone who is about to take that step, read up on the challenges facing Christians stepping into the workplace with LICC's helpful booklet, Transition
Comments
You are absolutely right and you highlight something that I contend with week in and week out; to the point where sometimes I break down in tears at just how topsy-turvy we have things. We prioritise our time according to "success" in every area of work and play to the neglect of our children. We consider exam success more important than children's discipleship - how many times have I heard that little Johnny has too much homework or an important match or a sleepover. Don't hear what I am NOT saying but hear what I as a children and family pastor AM saying: that this is more of a refrain than "we must be at worship as a family today", "we must make sure we pray together as a family this week", "we simply can't miss that opportunity to pray with our children at night". .... Surely the greatest enduring thing any adult can do for any child is to commend the greatness of the Lord to the next generation - as recorded for all history in Psalm 78. I'm only so passionate about this because its time for change!
Just to echo what J says it is time for a change but first it's time for churches to begin honest discussion about these areas that impact all our lives. Naomi's article is really challening but it strikes me as a great 'discussion' starter for churches.
Date:
2010-03-08 10:00:03
Author:
Jason Gardner