Renoir
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela
Recently, I was in a meeting, observing some leaders who were making important decisions about urgent responsibilities that needed to be managed by some new employees of this organization. An elderly CEO, an advisor of the other leaders in the room said,
"The problem is, most younger college graduates who are applying for these positions are ill prepared to take on such responsibility. They have not read broadly on many subjects or world view and so they have almost no perspective of historical issues. Because they are media dependent, they are subject to believing popular views espoused in media. Raised on television and entertained to death, with a constant appetite for movies, their opinions are shallow and reactionary. Thinking clearly and well and synthesizing ideas from reading profoundly and exposing themselves to great thinkers is clearly not even a part of their training or a part of their daily habit or routine. Add to that a lack of character training and an inability to work hard and long through difficult seasons of work, and you will find it almost impossible to find an excellent candidate who can handle such important responsibilities. "
Though, obviously, many do graduate from college with excellent abilities, this statement is generally true about many young college graduates. Educational tests have shown a constant drop in academic abilities.
I feel so strongly that we live in a more and more ignorant world of people who are easily led as sheep to slaughter because they follow others rather than think for themselves. Ignorance and mental weakness brings poverty of soul and ultimately of life. This is a dangerous description adults when there is no valued wisdom, experience, academic prowess and character. When the adults are lacking, it follows that the children will have no excellent food for thought upon which to train and feed their brains.
Scripture commands us to,
"Worship God with our minds."
God has created human beings to have a great capacity to use their brains to understand, learn, study, comprehend, create, invent, debate. And so one of the stewardships we have as moms is to take responsibility for our children's minds. God will hold all of us accountable for how we were faithful to shape and train their minds for his glory. It is one of the equal ways we are commanded to worship God. It is a glory to God when we seek to fill and expand our brains to be superior in thinking skills.
It is also a glory of a woman to be disciplined in her ability to think well and to articulate ideas and truth well. It exalts God, even as Mary did when she gave her magnificat.
No matter what educational choice a family makes, it is still the parent's responsibility to be a steward of their children's minds.
Like a muscle that needs to be stretched and used over and over again to become strong, so our brains must be stretched and exercised to become mentally and academically strong.
We must teach our children how to think correctly about:
God, His attributes, His character, His word, so that they can have a true understanding and love for who God is.
Biblical morality, so that they can build their lives on true foundations for relationships, choices, foundations for living.
Wisdom, and understanding so that they can learn to stand strong on their own to resist the ways that culture calls to them.
Read to them and help them fall in love with reading and books so that they will have a big vocabulary, a large understanding of the world, be versed in knowing how to think about ideas, facts, religion, politics, languages and all facets of education.
The leaders of the world are most often those who are well educated to think well and clearly.
How important it is, then, that we as moms, take the time to become the best educated we can be. I am not referring to degrees from college. Degrees do not necessarily determine a person's ability to think, or to influence.
But we must be readers, students of the Word, interacting with wisdom, and learning how to reason and defend our faith and ideals, so that we will have the internal resources to build our children into world leaders.
So, throughout history, when women attend to the education of their own minds and souls, and that of their children, a country flourishes for having foundations of intelligence, wisdom and truth in every arena.
Hopefully, I can begin writing more about educational issues that will help encourage many of you as you seek to influence your children's minds. Having influence on my children's minds has been one of the most fulfilling tasks I have ever enjoyed. The fruit in their lives has catalyzed the growth in my own.