Examine Your Life Not Test Your Life

Last updated on: August 25, 2015 at 9:29 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

Examine Your Life Not Test Your Life 2015-08-25T21:29:12-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Most of us should examine our assumptions more than we do. There is a reason that the Socratic command about the examined life is repeated so often. Socrates was right: the unexamined life is not worth living. A man who will not ask himself questions thinks he is a god, but has the mental life of a boar and is surely a boor. The life of the mind is necessary for full human flourishing. Thinking can make a person uncomfortable, but mental inactivity is a denial of one’s own personhood.

We know this and yet there is a danger that is growing in the very best students, or the students who should be the very best. I meet young men and women who cannot flourish because they have lost the joy of the examined life. Thinking has become a constant grim duty and they lack the ability for recreation…for play.

I am not sure what causes this tense, serious, grim looking student, but I know this “intellectualism” has often come in a package. The student has experienced an academic program that has killed all wonder through the endless search for grades, high exam scores, and entrance into all the right programs.This is not the examined life at all, but a series of external examinations. The student is often mentally tired without having ever done real mental work.

Faculty often experience this fatigue when filling out the endless forms of assessment activities. This saps energy better used by teaching. Pity the professor or teacher who is already burned out after the orientation week! Worse is the lack of evidence that the activities help. An assessment of assessment would be funny if it were not exhausting.

The teacher and her student often lack the time for education because they are busy schooling themselves.What a pity! Is it any wonder that many bright students stop reading, trying new cultural activities, or experimenting? In our world of standards, credentials, certificates, and endless graduations, a student might move away from the keyboard or put down the Number 2 pencil and groan that their highly examined life is not worth living.

If the assessment obsession causes mental weariness that makes deeper thought impossible, then we must change. There is nothing more perverse than mental activity that wears out the soul while not putting on any future muscle. It is pain without gain.

Here is a suggestion. We must allow our teachers more freedom. To catch the incompetent, we have clipped the wings of the competent. Creativity is rendered more difficult when both student and teacher are assessed by a test. Perhaps it is better to set most teachers free, trust them, pay them like professionals, and see who might be attracted to the profession.

One strength of homeschooling is that in the best home schools, the parents are free of rules as are the students. All bad education looks alike, but the examined life is different for each person.

School administration, my sad role, must envision the school, find the proper resources, and mostly stay out of the way. This I know: when teachers and students are afraid or have no power, the result is not education but indoctrination. That indoctrination is in the platitudes of the secular elite instead of religious fundamentalism makes it no less mentally stultifying.

The examined life can only come when good teachers and good students have time and freedom to talk, walk, and argue. Something has always gone wrong when what we call education is either a business or a grind. Looking even for a moment at the writings of the mothers and fathers of the church would have warned us, but we are too busy assessing to read.

Education

Previous Post

August 24, 2015

Dreaming the Wonderful Dream: The Saint Constantine School

Next Post

August 26, 2015 Divine Standard Time

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What city was known as the City of David?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Nazareth Bethlehem Jerusalem Jericho

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »