sunday school
My epiphanies have of late seemed to come, oddly, from attending weddings.
D's father, Uncle P, spoke at his son's wedding earlier this week. It was a pretty fun wedding, D's brother was hugely, irreverently funny, but seeing as the family is Christian, Uncle P spoke on a more sombre subject. To get to the point, he said he'd prayed for his sons to (i) love God, (ii) learn to walk with God, (iii) serve God, and for them to find spouses who would do the same.
This prompted a few thoughts, but what I'd like to post is this specific reaction: that it reinforces my belief that the philosophy the Christian faith espouses is one that it takes a fairly mature person to understand and appreciate.
For eg, if I heard the speech a few years ago, I'd have thought all three are close variations of the same thing, and thought he spelt them out for emphasis via repetition, which is pretty lame.
But then I thought of martial arts - or you could use literature or any other art form as an analogy. Enjoying language, liking to read and reading a book every now and then is one thing. Making it part of your life - by reading regularly, hanging quotes on your wall, joining a book club or forums, keeping in touch with the scene, etc, is a different thing - which can be seen from the fact that there are some people who enjoy reading but don't 'practise' it regularly. 'Serving' is perhaps analagous to teaching literature (even informally, through conversation) or writing poems or prose, being engaged with the literary community, etc - ie. 'giving back' to language and literature in some sense - again a different and arguably distinct level of involvement.
The thing is, I didn't really appreciate that distinction until I found something else that I really enjoyed and have slowly turned into a part of my life. Thats why I tell people sometimes I think learning martial arts has helped me understand the Christian faith better, which tends to raise eyebrows.
I'm not saying I'm mature enough to fully appreciate the nuances of Christianity. And there are several other aspects of Christian theology I don't agree with. All I'm saying is that before I could appreciate the particular distinction Uncle P alluded to, I needed to be a little older, and to have understood life a little better from another angle.
The policy implication of this individual observation is: why put kids through Sunday School? It could mean nothing to them and make them resent Christianity, or it could oversimplify concepts and make them unthoughtful polemicists. Why not allow them to ask questions and discover it for themselves, in which they will love it more truely? The broader question: how do you tailor education such that it is 'right' for the individual's 'life' level?
I think it needs dedicated teachers and individual attention. With mass education, you can't. Which is perhaps why church and broader educational policy for teens appears to encourage hantaming with all the one-sided arguments you can get in the hope that by chance a few of them are at the right level to get it. How much of the kids' time are we wasting?
D's father, Uncle P, spoke at his son's wedding earlier this week. It was a pretty fun wedding, D's brother was hugely, irreverently funny, but seeing as the family is Christian, Uncle P spoke on a more sombre subject. To get to the point, he said he'd prayed for his sons to (i) love God, (ii) learn to walk with God, (iii) serve God, and for them to find spouses who would do the same.
This prompted a few thoughts, but what I'd like to post is this specific reaction: that it reinforces my belief that the philosophy the Christian faith espouses is one that it takes a fairly mature person to understand and appreciate.
For eg, if I heard the speech a few years ago, I'd have thought all three are close variations of the same thing, and thought he spelt them out for emphasis via repetition, which is pretty lame.
But then I thought of martial arts - or you could use literature or any other art form as an analogy. Enjoying language, liking to read and reading a book every now and then is one thing. Making it part of your life - by reading regularly, hanging quotes on your wall, joining a book club or forums, keeping in touch with the scene, etc, is a different thing - which can be seen from the fact that there are some people who enjoy reading but don't 'practise' it regularly. 'Serving' is perhaps analagous to teaching literature (even informally, through conversation) or writing poems or prose, being engaged with the literary community, etc - ie. 'giving back' to language and literature in some sense - again a different and arguably distinct level of involvement.
The thing is, I didn't really appreciate that distinction until I found something else that I really enjoyed and have slowly turned into a part of my life. Thats why I tell people sometimes I think learning martial arts has helped me understand the Christian faith better, which tends to raise eyebrows.
I'm not saying I'm mature enough to fully appreciate the nuances of Christianity. And there are several other aspects of Christian theology I don't agree with. All I'm saying is that before I could appreciate the particular distinction Uncle P alluded to, I needed to be a little older, and to have understood life a little better from another angle.
The policy implication of this individual observation is: why put kids through Sunday School? It could mean nothing to them and make them resent Christianity, or it could oversimplify concepts and make them unthoughtful polemicists. Why not allow them to ask questions and discover it for themselves, in which they will love it more truely? The broader question: how do you tailor education such that it is 'right' for the individual's 'life' level?
I think it needs dedicated teachers and individual attention. With mass education, you can't. Which is perhaps why church and broader educational policy for teens appears to encourage hantaming with all the one-sided arguments you can get in the hope that by chance a few of them are at the right level to get it. How much of the kids' time are we wasting?