January 28, 2013

Accountability

When my children were in school I was very attentive to their curriculum, teachers, and environment. If books were not appropriate, I got on the curriculum committee and worked to change what the school district purchased. When a teacher started teaching eastern meditations and spiritualism, I transferred my child to another class. Today I hear a lot of criticism about what is being taught in colleges, including Bible Colleges. As a non-traditional student going to a Christian college, I now understand some of the criticism and concerns. Some professors and academic types want young people to set aside their previous life and educational experiences so that they are more moldable for higher level thinking. No doubt some of my professors are lamenting the fact that this 64 year-old student is not as impressionable and moldable as the traditional student. Is it possibly that what is missing on the college landscape is lack of parent involvement?

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----I don’t care what some people think about what they know. The truth is what it is. It was that yesterday, and it will be that tomorrow. Of course, nobody knows the truth completely. But it can be known sufficiently, and many do know it sufficiently. They’ve learned what they’ve come to believe as true by growing up amongst others who believe it. Now this doesn’t make stuff true, but it sheds light on what’s going on with some of these professors. I recognize there are concepts better understood if you abandon what you know momentarily in order to see what more basically constructs them. Because you believe in the truth of what you know, you will return to what you know with added perspective to further build your own life amongst everyone else doing the same. For the one simple fact remains that what was sufficiently true about what you knew yesterday is yet true today and must be built upon, not washed away. Good professors will understand that most of us are constructing what we believe to be sufficiently true because we have the right to be the individuals we are, however right or wrong we are. They won’t try to mess with that. They will just present their information the best way they can to add to all of the individual mixes while trying to tidy up what errors they can along the way.
-----Other professors abound. They are not just offering information for people to build into their lives. They are the enemies of the lives which built their students. They engage a process to deconstruct the present culture so the one they wish to be might emerge in its place. They conquer their students by either coercing or cajoling them to abandon the materials of the culture which made them. When finished, these students, like viruses, if they were sufficiently brainwashed, will go out into the working world spreading the professor’s deceit to whoever might admire them.
-----Any attack upon the professors’ re-milling efforts are fended off by expounding the utility of abandoning what you know momentarily so you can learn more fully. Of course they know that is not their intention, and they also know the utility of a believable lie. So attacks on their deconstruction have been feckless. But you are exactly right. Still, parents have a giant say in where their children attend college, being the main link to the funding of their education. There isn’t even any need to argue with the professors, having the ability to empty their classrooms. But alas, knowing who those professors are is a giant chore. Most people leave hard work up to somebody else, of whom there are just to few.
-----I guess it’s like a good ball game. Whoever’s desire to win is great enough to more control what happens on the field will win. These people conquerors are hell-bent to transform everything about life to match their own selfish ambitions. Our desires are more to make the most of our lives out of what is happening around us ( a good individualistic perspective.) No wonder we are loosing. Yet, there remains the one individual who in the end counts the most. As old and trite as it sounds, He will retool the culture by simply correcting everything that is not true.

Love you all,
Steve Corey