Passion for ideas

The Shower, Dish Washing, and Lawn Mowing Test - When your hands are busy and your mind is not, where do your thoughts go?

As an introduction, I would like to cite some thoughts I shared with my parents (and the world at large) last year:

As you know, I tend to shoot from the hip. I don't know precisely where my degree will take me, but I do know that there are a lot of empty tin cans piled up in front of me at the shooting range. Good ones, too. Big family-sized cans with fancy labels. So, as I shoot from the hip, I'm bound to hit something good. Especially if I keep shooting and don't run out of ammo. Or maybe I should work a little more on my aim.

I hope at this point my aim is getting better. I might not have hit a can yet, but boy the dust is flying nearby!

I ponder a lot of things that pertain to education. I think of the problems that need to be overcome. As I root through the problems seeking for solutions, I always seem to come back to the idea that people should just adhere to the basic premise of Christianity -- love one another, and love God. It would solve all the world's problems. It seems to be a losing proposition to pick up some problem and attempt to fix it when there are so many fundamental problems underlying it that must be solved first. But, from a more practical standpoint, prophets have been propounding their message for millennia, and have gained but little traction. So, best to give your greatest effort where you can, in spite of any simmering sense of futility.

Of deep concern to me is the lack of clear goals for "education." People seem to push education as essential to success without clearly defining success or what it means to be educated. The apparent push is that more is better and even that more earlier is better. But I resonate with a comment from Etienne Wenger [1] in which she associates education with identity: "... once education is understood in terms of identity, it may no longer seem such a good idea to front-load 'education' at the beginning of a life" (p. 263). Education, undefined and without clear end goals, ram-rodded down the cannon of our children's minds, which is aimed at a really large GDP as though that were the pinnacle of happiness for humanity seems a fool's errand. Monetary success cannot be equated with happiness and focusing on monetary reward is counter-productive to true development of a god in embryo.

I've heard many people, recently one of my professors, talk about how little they remember from high school. Then what was it all for? I'm reading classic literature on my iPod currently that I never could have valued in high school, but which I value immensely now. But, who goes back in their thirties to read Moby Dick, Les Miserables, or A Tale of Two Cities? Rather, most think: I'm educated now because I have a high school diploma ... and wasn't that miserable. Just TV and nachos for me now, thanks.

What we need is lessons in ethics, morality, kindness, charity, diligence early in life and then hit the books more later. And we need to play! More recess, more time to spend outside! I think we need that.  My Kindergartner had way too much homework last year.

But, enough of that. I also find value in the power of stories to instruct. They seem to have a power to change lives and I'd like to tap into that. A good story can engage you and shape your entire identity. I have a number of books and movies that have done that for me. I took trigonometry and did pretty well, but it didn't shape world view and my life as much as reading A Separate Peace, or Ender's Game, or even a Louis L'Amour book every now and again. Not to mention the parables of the Master Teacher.

There is much to be gained both in the creation and delivery of a story as well as the consumption of it. Stories perhaps tap into one of our most innate character traits -- that of relating to other individuals and their tragedies and triumphs. Concern for others seems to be a better goal than riches and can be fostered through the sharing of stories.

All truth is related and part of some grand celestial plan and if our thoughts are not aimed toward that ultimate knowledge, we will be "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7).

[1] Wenger, E. (1998). Education. Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. (p. 263-277). New York: Cambridge University Press.