This title is from an editorial in the Seattle
Times earlier in the year by Antonia Clark. She is a retired college
instructor who taught English in several northwest schools. Her thoughts
about the lack of reading skills among graduates today resonated with me.
Although her comments were directed at today's
educational system, I saw a great deal of relevance to the way we approach
our own religious education.
Several factors have caused this decline: the
computer revolution, dependence upon visual aids, condensed versions of
texts, and the hurry-up nature of all we do. Reading books takes time. We
are not encouraged to write our own compositions and interpretations of what
we have read and heard. We now have multiple answers to check off, little
ovals to fill, all to accommodate computerized grading.
Antonia contends "college education" today is
not education but training. Training is directed to a single goal: the
mastery of a skill, usually for a job. Education is a process of learning,
of exposure to ideas that may be opposed to previously held notions, not
directed to a single goal, but rather developing an understanding of the
world through study of mankind's history.
She also stated that a well-educated person
should have some knowledge of many different disciplines and that each
discipline has its own vocabulary, its own terminology and manner of
expressing ideas. We must recognize this, for differences in how we speak
and write are a reflection of a difference in the ways we read, hear,
interpret and understand, even the way we think.
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Now, how does this apply to our own spiritual
growth or that of our children? Take Bible study. We all have a favorite
translation or version. Each can be interpreted in a different way. Each of
us holds a position as to their infallibility. But what is the basis for
that position. How many of us take the time to study Bible commentaries,
biblical history, the culture of the people in biblical times, the writings
of modern day religious scholars to get a sense of the background and
context in which the Bible was written.
Do we need to do more reading and less
watching? Notice how visual multimedia presentation has taken over the
worship sanctuary. Can we expect to see the day when there are no Bibles or
hymnbooks in the pew racks? In children's classes have we substituted
crafts for reading stories?
Antonia closed her article with - "Regrettable,
we have become a nation of highly skilled technicians; we are not an
educated populace, and only an educated populace can function effectively
as a democracy. It is not enough to teach the rudiments of reading and then
let students loose to interpret more and more complex texts. When we teach
reading in elementary school and in college, teach reading through different
methods for different purposes; and teach that reading is rewarding, and
have proved that it is so. Then we will once again be a nation of readers
and independent thinkers".
We as Baptists hold to the concept of soul
freedom and the priesthood of believers. How can we effectively carry out
that belief if we truly don't have an informed knowledge of what we're
talking about?
--Harold
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