"I hate it!" she yells, not at me by in my direction. "I hate that logic can't win."
We'd spent the last two hours discussing the Bible with a couple from a different religious persuasion. The time had gone well--overall--but now that they were gone we were decompressing and things were tense. It was bad. But we were winding down.
The idea that logic can't win reminded me of Seth Godin's blog post about getting people to know what you know. He states: It won't help.
Raw information, a downloaded education, and even better logic all break down at the point of presuppositions. We can't get to truth through reason alone because we lack knowledge, understanding and a clear view of everything. Reason is great. Education is important. But it can't save us. You don't even need to step outside Orthodox Christianity to see that smart people, sincerely devoted to following Christ, come to some really different views on things.
So if education can't save us, what's the point? Put in a way that's more relevant to what I do promoting a homeschool curriculum provider: If education can't ensure we win, what makes a great curriculum?
Here are the top 3 things that first popped into my head:
- A great curriculum helps you think through your presuppositions. Why do you believe as you do? What about this idea compels you? What underlying assumptions are you making? As you answer those questions, you will be better able to untangle the unspoken assumptions of others.
- A great curriculum encourages you to learn more. There is always more to learn, and a life-long pursuit of learning opens us up to wonders of the world around us. We can tackle difficult and debated subjects with joy.
- A great curriculum lets you see how others have thought about the same things and come to different conclusions. Looking back through history and seeing the outplay of ideas gives us a glimpse into truth. Hindsight allows us see how things turn out, which hints at the underlying reality.
Education can't save us. But a great education is one that is built on a love of learning and an examination of the past which can help us walk better into the future. Those are all things I see in Sonlight's homeschool curriculum.
What do you see as the purpose of education? What makes a great lesson/curriculum/study?
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester
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