The WHY of education and the WHY it is today we must take a step out in faith

Won't Back Down is truly a great theme to lead us into a deeper reflection of ourselves and our culture. Check out this video clip.

Last night we watched Won't Back Down and I felt that the movie tried hard to explore and expose the crisis that our education system is in. In the movie, popping in and out, in-between pushing numerous societal hot bottoms, we are presented the reason for action NOW and not later. I ask you to go back and review this clip paying particular attention starting around 1:28 through 1:32. Here we have the call to action - the WHY, as it were and I will add, it is nonnegotiable.

"We are not here for teachers and parents; we are here for our kids."

Somewhere deep in this plea we hear a call to understand education as well as all things human are generational. This is a call we cannot ignore yet it is exactly what we do, ignore. Obviously we cannot and must not turn our backs on the need to "fix" education in this country. One major stumbling block to seriously tackling this "fix" is due to how we all succumb to the fast-paced world of total distraction, relativism and anything goes - where we are all "occupied" - using this term in its military reference - what may be called seized and controlled by forces unnamed - thus being disarmed by way of a certain type of blindness causing us to misread the generational religious and spiritual warfare going on in our lives and in our civilization.

Researching for my class on spiritual direction today, I ran across the following article that reveals the need to ask the larger question of: WHY- Why do we educate our youth?

Here is a quote:

Education is in crisis not merely because standards of literacy or mathematics have fallen, but because we have no coherent vision, as a society, of what education is for or what it is meant to achieve. We have assumed that, if it is not merely a cage to keep our young people off the streets, its purpose is to train workers in the great economic machine, the same machine that we hope will produce endless growth. But we cannot know what education is for, since we have no idea any longer what man is for, or what a human being actually is.

As Frank Sheed once put it: “This question of purpose is a point overlooked in most educational discussions, yet it is quite primary. How can you fit a man’s mind for living if you do not know what the purpose of man’s life is?” We need a philosophy of education based on an adequate “anthropology” or picture of man, if we are to put education back on the right track.

See the entire article

The Purpose of Education: A Catholic Primer

by Stratford Caldecott

There are no easy fix to education especially if we just want to go along with the status quo. Yet if we look at the possibilities could this moment in time be an invitation to take a leap out in faith and become more than what or who we are.

Otherwise...are we not ushering in the "perfect storm?"

(*This video is part 2 and does not include parts 1 & 3, however I thought the lyrics appropriate to include.)

Another Brick In the Wall Lyrics 

by Pink Floyd

Another Brick in the Wall Lyrics - Part 1 (Waters)

Daddy's flown across the ocean
Leaving just a memory
Snapshot in the family album
Daddy what else did you leave for me?
Daddy, what'd'ja leave behind for me?!?
All in all it was just a brick in the wall.
All in all it was all just bricks in the wall.

"You! Yes, you! Stand still laddy!

Another Brick in the Wall Lyrics - Part 2 (Waters) 

We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

"Wrong, Do it again!"
"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you
have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
"You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!"

Another Brick in the Wall Lyrics - Part 3 (Waters) 

[Sound of many TV's coming on, all on different channels]
"The Bulls are already out there"
Pink: "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgh!"
"This Roman Meal bakery thought you'd like to know."

I don't need no arms around me
And I dont need no drugs to calm me.
I have seen the writing on the wall.
Don't think I need anything at all.
No! Don't think I'll need anything at all.
All in all it was all just bricks in the wall.
All in all you were all just bricks in the wall.