Education In The Media Age

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.

Who Should Care?

But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die." And the Lord said, "You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"

Jonah 4:9-11

Our smartest thought is only equal to God's dumbest thought. It is hard to think clearly when the fog of self makes life's journey so difficult to navigate. This life was not about Jonah, and it is not about me.

Without God, people cannot experience life, and those without God act like people without God. They are purposeless, empty, self-absorbed, and angry and have nowhere to go for answers.

Unlike Jonah, we should care and be willing to be used to solve the problem, and the first problem we need to allow God to solve has do to with our hearts, not theirs. 

Wasted Gifts?

There is a substantial amount of money being donated to political causes in the United States. As of today, according to OpenSecrets.org, the candidates for public office have been given $993,651,906.00.

I cannot help but wonder why? 

I am amazed at the amount of money competent business people seem to waste on politicians. Our nations’ leaders have failed to lead. We are a nation that has abandon God, abandon reason in the areas of family, gender, abortion and public aid, budgeting, etc.

We spend extraordinary money on educational systems that are broken. Information at institutions of higher learning seems filtered through a politically correct cheesecloth. Safe zones, where the free expression of ideas are no longer welcome, are becoming more normative. Those who graduate from college often need to be retrained because the schools have become more of a holding tank than a training ground. 

To add to the confusion, we pay athletes, who have used and enjoyed the freedom they have been given in our country, millions of dollars to entertain us and then watch them disrespect the very symbol that represents the system that gave them their opportunity. 

Why? Why are there so many people willing to give so much for so little in return? Incompetent government, spoiled self-centered athletes, and fantasy world universities represent the problem not the solution. 

People and businesses must be donating for some reason that serves themselves. They must be giving for what they get out of it regardless of what it actually accomplishes. They must be giving to obtain power or position for themselves and are willing to continue to support a broken system for their personal benefit. 

This seems terribly short sited.

For years those who have donated to the nonprofit I serve have insisted that we show that their investment with us, in the form of a gift, is well used. Obviously that is not the same standard placed upon those in politics, athletics or education. 

Silver Birch Ranch is beginning to make plans for it’s 50th summer. For fifty years we have worked with children and families in order that they may know Christ and learn how to make Him known. The real answer for the challenges we face is to know God. Those who truly know God, love God. Those who love God love people. If you know God, love God and love people you will make proper decisions and be worthy of donated dollars. 

If you are going to give your money away I would suggest that you give it to Silver Birch Ranch. They have been able to stay focused for 49 years and are still serving our nations children and families. Since gifts given or fees paid to government, athletic events and colleges seems like a certain waste you could use your resources to fund something outside those “norms” that has the possibility of actually fueling real hope and change. 

I think we, as a nation, should rethink why we give. You can find more information on Silver Birch Ranch at silverbirchranch.org. 

The meaningless die meaningless...

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.
(Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 ESVST)

The living know they will die, but often live as if they will not. The truth of the matter is very simple: we will all die. Death is as much a part of life as life. The day of our birth is special, the day of our death is special, and it is filled in-between with either meaningful or meaningless activity.

Meaningless activity would be activity that dies with the person or shortly after the person dies. Meaningful activity is something that will last for eternity.

Whenever we are involved in things that focus on us in the here and now, we focus on the futile. Then we wonder why we feel so insignificant. We feel insignificant because we have not enjoyed the source of significance.

We were made to enjoy God and will find no joy without Him.

Maybe they knew something.....

A funny cycle keeps happening in history that might be worth noting. Those who are living now tend to look at those who have gone before them with admiration for what they accomplished, yet they often seem to think that the preceding generation was somewhat simple or naive.

When I entered Christian camping and attended the Christian Camping International conferences there was both an air of apparent respect, as well as a feeling of superiority that seemed to permeate the younger camping professionals.

The tone and content of the message was that the founders were very nice men of faith who were a bit simplistic, and that the “industry” was fortunate that another generation came along to rescue the obviously perishing.

These “founders” were men of simplistic faith. They borrowed money without a plan to pay it back. They staffed the camps with untrained volunteers. They created activities that were not installed or inspected by professionals. They made decisions. They got their hands dirty and actually worked the soil of the grounds during the day, and did the desk work when they were too tired to work outside. They didn’t and couldn’t pay people, so they used volunteers. They seemed to always be on the edge of disaster, but also seemed to have learned to balance on the edge rather well.

In many ways, these men were like Noah, Daniel and the boys, and Elijah. They knew God and listened to Him, and that alone was the secret to their success.

Today, before this generation would build an ark, they would need a feasibility plan, a budget, and evacuation plans in case the ship sprung a leak. The project would not start until double the funds were in so that there could be enough funds in the bank to maintain the vessel. There would have had to have been a public relations campaign to insure the public that Noah was not nuts, and an exhaustive study on how to get the animals to move on demand, so that they would enter the ark.

We would also need an exit strategy before we started, and a plan for how we would govern the people aboard the ark, address the maintenance issues we would encounter, and brainstorm as to how we would handle every possible adversity that may arise.

Or, we could do as Noah did, and get up the day after he was told to build an ark, and get busy building it.

Modern pastors and teachers seem to always be looking for something newer and better, when, in reality, there is nothing new under the sun. The modern-day preachers are not more educated, more gifted or talented, nor have additional insight, and in fact, they may be lazy as they ride the tide of a generation that understood that all life is about God, not man, and actually was guided by and trusted Him.

American Christians have become like secular America, in that physical laborers are tough to find, in that most want desk jobs, an easy life, and respect without doing anything to earn it.

Many gauge the success of their work by attendances, offerings, and facilities, which would be the same criterion by which secular businesses judge themselves.

Many pastors talk of the grueling schedule they keep, and the stress they live under, as if those in other professions lack stress and gruel, and if you doubt how hard they work and how stressful their jobs are, you only need to ask them, and they would be glad to tell you all about it.

One of the stark contrasts in those who minister today as compared to the founders is the specialization that has occurred. Some just teach and have rather little contact with the people. Some just do the business side of the ministry. Some just do the cleaning, some the marketing, and so forth.

The Christian camping founders did not have those lines. They did whatever was necessary to get the job done, and often knew that there were those who were more qualified, but unwilling, so the less qualified did the work, only to be criticized by those who could have done it better, but would not.

In fact, many Christian works have been criticized throughout the years because of their lack of “professionalism” by the professionals who themselves are unwilling to participate. After years of leading a ministry, I am accustomed to the idea that everyone can do my job better, but they, too, are unwilling.

While playing collegiate football, I learned that a football team could only play with the players that were actually on the field. The injured or talented that would not join the team would not have any effect on the outcome of the game. Likewise, these Christian camping founders understood that you can only play with those who “suit up,” and that the many who did not “suit up” will sit and evaluate, and even criticize, those who do.

I think the Christian camping founders would think that we took the treasure they handed us and buried it in hopes that we would not lose it, when we should have been following their lead by investing our time and energy in the impossible, so that generations to come would be able to clearly see our God. I could only imagine what some of our ministries would look like if the founders would have continued on for many years.

Instead, future generations will clearly see business plans, long range plans, and other ideas that are now as common in ministry as they are at Wal-Mart stores.

Those who are in leadership today would be wise to learn from those who went before them, realizing that 100 years from now, should Christ not have returned yet, those who are running the ministries will be looking at us as simple and naive people, for they will have learned and grown so throughout the years.

The job we have on this earth is to know Christ and to make Him known, and the best position to do that from is one of obvious inadequacy. This has not changed and will not change. The modern generation’s focus on adequacy changes everything, and will only lead to ineffectiveness, for you should not attempt to change what cannot change.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

What has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done,

and there is nothing new under the sun.

Looking in the Mirror

Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.
(Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 ESVST)

This verse holds the key to a leader's sanity. If anyone is in leadership, they will be doubted. In fact, many who are under your authority believe that they can do your job better than you, and  all whom you serve could give you a lesson on how to serve them better.

Everybody wants to have their voice heard, but they do not really mean that they want you to hear them. They want to you listen to them and do what they say. If not, they will claim that you do not listen to them.

A leader hears many voices and, probably, actually listens to them, but in the end, he still needs to make a decision that he alone is responsible to make, and for which he alone will stand accountable for before God.

I have been guilty of criticizing leaders, and was wrong to do so, for my information was limited, and my criticism was to enhance what those around me thought of me. When I focus on me, it always turns out poorly.

Having It All But Possessing Nothing.

There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.
(Ecclesiastes 6:1-2 ESVST)

There are those who have much, yet live in poverty. They are spiritually bankrupt, ethically challenged, and enslaved in the saddest possible way.

Imagine having it all but having nothing. There seems to be a game that must be played in convincing those around you that having it all fuels significance and security, when those who have it all are the most insignificant and insecure people group.

Those who have nothing can lose nothing. Those who have much can lose much. Therefore, those who have much are often more anxious, angry, and arrogant.

It is hard for a rich person to love God, for they are too busy loving what God has given them.

When one is entrusted with possessions and honor, one must understand that these things are given to him/her to be used to help others, not as provision for self-indulgent lifestyle.