Education: What Has Changed What Has Not

If Jesus had online educational capacity, He would not have had 612 apostles.

Online education is a tool, but it is a tool that impacts geography and access to information. We can now dialog on a great book, even if we are hundreds of miles apart. This weekend students, staff, and faculty of The Saint Constantine School will do just that in Houston. We will discuss the Phaedrus with our beloved mentor Al Geier. He will be in Rochester, New York and we will be able to learn from him.

We will not be inviting hundreds of students. Why?

Technology has brought him from Rochester to us, but it did not change our human limitations. Online allows us to learn in different neighborhoods, but it does not change our essential personhood. People need to be mentored by people. Nobody ever formed an apostle in an auditorium. He can only pay attention to so many people at a time and we need that attention. The worst student needs more attention, not less. Thank God that Jesus did not outsource Peter to a part-time rabbi.

The temptation is to reduce education to mass broadcasting. Here accreditation which is designed to be a minimum standard becomes the goal. In the years I spent at the University of Rochester, not once did anyone say: “We are accredited!” Nobody doubted Rochester’s accreditation, because alma mater so surpassed the minimum standards. As part of a team starting a new school, I know that getting to “start” can be a good goal, but only at first!

We need to educate every student to the best of our ability. We will always fall short of our goals, but we should never design a system we know will fail our students. As a Christian, I am taught that all people are created in the Image of God. I should never decide that an inner city student doesn’t need Shakespeare or a farmer in Ohio does not need personal mentoring.

If we are going to give the same diploma or degree as an elite school, we should never trick a student into believing they received a comparable education when we intentionally designed a system that is not comparable. We can hand out credentials, but what has not changed is that the real world will measure ability. If we say our graduates have a second language, do they? Nobody will ask if they passed our classes, they will ask a question in the language and wait for comprehension!

But if we don’t do it, won’t someone else do it? Perhaps, but our mothers were correct: “If everyone jumps off an educational cliff, we need not do it.” We might put Bible verses up on the edge of the cliff, but encouraging people to borrow money for an educational process with less than a fifty percent retention rate is immoral. It is true that someone will offer credentials for credit, but followers of Jesus should not lest He cleanse the temple of higher education by tossing us out!

We can get access to mounds of information on a smart phone. We still need great teachers and personal relationships.

Socrates and Glaucon.

Jesus and John.

John and Ignatius.

Albert and Thomas Aquinas.

C.S. Lewis and Sheldon Vanauken.

Don’t let any school cheat you out of the essence of education: a personal relationship with a mentor and lifelong guide.