Shade Tree Wisdom 9/11/12

          350,000 Chicago school children are not in class because teachers are on strike. When it will end depends, I suppose, on politics.

          If that news isn’t depressing enough, the news is regularly filled with failing children. China outdoes our graduates in math and science courses. The ads are filled with devices children can use to enhance their learning skills.

          Now here comes a thoughtful article suggesting we simply stand aside and allow children to do a little learning on their own.

          My office in Detroit overlooked the play area where children spent their recess time. How often did I not hear someone shout, “That isn’t fair” and something was corrected and play went on, but they were learning to get along in society and maybe even take a little disappointment as part of life.

          So the piece says, “Maybe the best thing that parents can do is to back off a bit. To let children face some adversity on their own, to fall down and not be helped back up.”

          The great concern of teachers and administrators in high-achieving schools is that children are so over-protected that they fail to develop character. They never get a chance to develop the crucial ability to overcome real setbacks and in the process develop strength of character.

          Here comes Solomon with a word for his son (Proverbs 4, 20-23)
         “My son, be attentive to my words;
          Incline your ears to my sayings.
          Let them not escape from your sight;
          Keep them within your heart.
          For they are life to those who find them,
          And healing to all their flesh.
          Keep your heart with all vigilance,
          For from it flows the spring of life.”

          Really, this is where those deep truths that make life meaningful come from, for that begins with this, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved.”

GPD 9/11/12