Education

Anyone who has spent time with students has heard the common lament, “I’m just ready to be done with school.” There are a number of reasons students feel this way. They want to enter the work force and receive some compensation that enables them to act on desires that they otherwise are constrained from doing…at least independent of the largesse of another. Students are ready to be done with school because they do not see what their time in the classroom accomplishes. They can feel like the time they have spent studying is simply a form of babysitting. It is not usually the case that you point to an hour in class and say now…I know this. The fruit of learning is something that appears over time. There occasionally might be some skill taught at one setting. I think of learning a language. At one sitting you might learn the Cyrillic Alphabet. But it takes time to learn grammar and vocabulary. It takes time, repetition, many of the same kinds of activity that we might in another context call work. The fruit of this labor may bring monetary compensation, but it may not. If we judge the value of work only by the monetary compensation or even primarily we realize there are many things that require attention…that don’t pay. Learning does provide an opportunity one of many to mature as an individual. This maturation enables one to enjoy the fullness of life…and face the difficulties of life by drawing on the resources of the wider experiences of human life.