“When Will They Ever Learn?”

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The news had just announced the passing of Mary Travers, of Peter, Paul & Mary fame.  It made me sad and nostalgic for that time in my life.  I wanted to dust off my 331/3 collection of their songs, hearing once again “Puff the Magic Dragon”, “Leavin’ On A Jet Plane”, and my personal favorite, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”.  In that song they sing these words, “When will they ever learn, when will they eeeeeeever learn?”

While the song is one of the protest ballads of that era, pointing out the consequences of our apparent lack of learning, it is also a phrase we might use today in reference to our students and their preoccupation with most anything . . . except their learning.  We, as parents and teachers cry, “When will these kids ever learn?”  The more I ponder this time-worn phrase (yes, they did say the same of our generation), the more I realized that more often than not, we are to blame.  It’s the system that is failing, not our students.  We, to quote from Jeremiah chapter 2, ” . . . have committed two sins:  (You) have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug (your) own cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water”. while this was Jeremiah’s stern warning to the people of Judah’s concerning their departure from God, it has implications for our discussion and call here to HIGHER LEARNING.

We actually need a call to a different learning . . . not different in form necessarily, but in function.  For years, we in education have operated under quite a pendulum swing, going from one philosophy of education to another.  We move from pole to pole in our attempt to keep up with the latest trends and techniques.  We institute the latest fad or philosophy in our attempt to reach our students, and in the end we echo the preceding age . . . “When will they ever learn?”  Perhaps it is WE that are represented in this question.

First, we have forsaken God.  A prophet in our time, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, used the same phrase in his now famous address to the West following his release from a Soviet gulag . . . “We have forsaken God”.  He had come out from under the socialistic, atheistic, totalitarian regime of Communism, and so warned us who claim to be one nation under God, to safeguard that trust so that the generations of Americans to follow would learn to keep God as their trust.  My wife and I have had the privilege of visiting Russia on a number of occasions.  Following her first visit, as our plane left the Moscow runway headed for home, she commented, “I just experienced what it looks like for a nation to forsake God!”  His Word emphatically states that we will never see the righteous forsaken, and God Himself said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”.  It is we who have done the forsaking, we have left Him, the source from Whom we live and move and have our being.  In Him all things were created and hold together.  In this forsaking, the generations to follow bear the brunt of it.

Secondly, we then created our own devices and containers of knowledge.  Instead of planting students by streams of living water (Psalm 1), our forsaking has caused us to construct our own water vessels . . . vessels that are cracked and flawed, not holding that water.   If we cannot acknowledge the Creator of all things and in all that we can know, then we must come up with other explanations, vehicles, and systems for learning that scream for focus, purpose and meaning.  The apostle Paul, writing to young Timothy, talks of those that are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God ~ having a form of godliness but denying its power . . . always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.  That sounds like a broken cistern to me!

Now taking this thinking from a spiritual/philosophical discussion to an educational one, the question now becomes, “How should they learn?”  I submit to you that this HIGHER LEARNING, to which we’ve been called, must be lived out practically in the manner of our classroom instruction.  Many parents and teachers think that students learn best by acquiring factual knowledge.  This results in a focus upon achievement (who can acquire the most?), and competition (who can remember it better?).  Rather, Christian schooling is based on several critical distinctives that cannot be overlooked in the education of Kingdom children.

• Students are being educated in responsive discipleship.  That is, viewing students as image-bearers who respond actively to God’s will for their lives and learning.  This biblical view of knowledge implies a multi-faceted engagement with creation.  So it is imperative that instruction in the Christian school classroom must be engaging . . . where students are encouraged to consider their responses to God, themselves, others, and the creation as the basis for any given subject matter and lesson.  This response is where knowledge, understanding and wisdom are formulated and come together in the heart, soul, mind, and strength of the child of God.  This is when learning truly takes place.  When will they ever learn?  When we seek to have them respond to instruction as disciples of Christ.

• Students will learn when we provide for diversity.  By diversity here, I mean in uncovering and utilizing different ways of learning.  Treating students as if they are all the same actually contradicts the essence of who we are in God.  He has created each one of us individually in personality, temperament, ability and gifting.  While we cannot instruct each student individually, we can offer varying expressions and methods of instruction that reach the various learning styles in our students.  Cynthia Tobias, in her  acclaimed work, “The Way They Learn”, breaks down learning into four basic modes.  Her pivotal point in the book (should be required reading in our Christian schools!) is that teachers, more often than not, teach from one style . . . theirs.  This means that, more often than not, they are teaching to no more than one quarter (25%) of their class, basically those that learn from that style.  So, variety of style in instruction, may be the most vital aspect of diversity in the Christian classroom.  When will they ever learn can now be rephrased as HOW will they ever learn?

• Instruction must contain diversity of cultures.  We live in an international world that is getting smaller and smaller.  Through technology, travel, and exposure, we are finding that the global society is a reality we must attend to.  Christian schools, because of their gospel emphasis, their mission perspective, and their call to “all the little children of the world”, must incorporate this global perspective in the curriculum and in the daily instruction to the whole class of students represented.  Students will learn when they see their own culture being included and when they see the richness of other cultures and expressions of this world.

• Expression must also be taught as it relates to the richness of the body of Christ.  Our children must see the full expression of worship and faith that is found in the diversity of the Church.  One of my greatest experiences was living in Eastern Europe and sharing with others of like faith in Christ, yet in the context of their language, heritage, and customs of faith.  While all students can get the opportunity to visit other places, that international proximity can be brought right into the classroom.  The draw of missionary endeavors should be a natural part of every Christian school, bringing living, breathing expression of other cultures to our students.  This will provide energy and wholeness to a Christian education.  When we speak of a truly biblical worldview, I cannot see how we can ignore this aspect of how they will learn.

So, in answer to, and in honor of Mary Travers’ eternal question, “When will they ever learn”?  I say they will learn when we learn to how to truly instruct and nurture them with a view to see the whole of life and learning from a biblical perspective.  This perspective must contain the elements spoken of here, as well as some others that you can add to this conversation as we walk toward that HIGHER LEARNING . . .