We live in the communication age, have hundreds of years of trial and error to study and respond to, and are daily using tools that today’s silver-haired generation would never have imagined.
Yet, in the midst of all the changes, the cause for excellent education remains the same as it has been for thousands of years.
Mankind was created to be relational beings, and effective education can only happen in the context of healthy relationships. Those who struggle with relationships will struggle with academics, significance, and security.
Any school district in any community cannot improve education apart from improving family relationships. Districts that are faltering can never be made successful through legislation, additional resources, or better teachers.
Better schools will only be experienced when we see better parents, for there seems to always be a correlation between academic success and parental involvement.
Our nation would be best served by living as if all life mattered, rather than putting our energy into making shirts declaring that someone matters. First and foremost, we need to live as if our children matter by giving them our time and attention.
Instead, we so often hire someone else to spend time with our children so we can be about making sure the children are fed and clothed. Parents often spend so much time trying to sustain life and meet their own desires that their time and influence with their child is minimized.
Even churches have joined in this failing process by hiring staff to spend time with their youth because the adults of the church are too preoccupied to rearrange their schedules.
If we are relational beings, and we are then effective, educational processes must revolve around healthy relationships and not just academic information. This is becoming increasingly difficult as the definition of “healthy relationships” becomes harder and harder to define.
Today, children in the United States are more confused relationally than any other time in our history. They are confused as to what a family is and to what roles each family member plays. They are confused as to what love is, and have no idea with the term actually means.
They have grown up seeing the adults in their lives use what they should be loving, and love what they should be using, and they have no idea of what is and is not true.
Confusion always arises when each man does what is right in his own eyes, and we are in the midst of trying to accommodate all people, no matter what they believe and how their belief system affects the people and situations around them.
The problems in education will, most likely, not be addressed, for in order to do so we would need to admit our mistakes, reestablish our relationship with God, and rearrange our lives so that other lives matter more than ours.
Public schools cannot address the issues of this day because they represent the issues of the day. Our children are trained in political correctness while ignoring obvious truth, for in a Godless educational system there is no obvious truth, and these young impressionable minds will be influenced by the loudest, strongest, and most prevalent voice.
If we were to address the public education crisis, I would do the following.
Reestablishment of the fact that there is one God who created and sustains the universe and who has a purpose for all He has created.
Hire teachers who know God and love Him.
Train teachers to focus on healthy relationships.
Hire faculty to work with parents with the goal of healthy parent-student relationships.
Teach simple truths not based on what each person believes, but on what actually is true. Family and gender need not be confusing, and a teacher is responsible to clear the confusion, not create confusion.
Insist on parental involvement within the school and educational process.
When children are convinced that their significance and security comes from God, who does not change, and they know what good relationships look like and have experienced the same, they will do well academically.
In essence, effective education is a byproduct, not a product. We do not produce it. We enjoy it because we have focused on those things that support it.
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