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Education in a Work Centered World

Education in a Work Centered World

Last updated on: March 3, 2020 at 12:00 am by John Mark N. Reynolds

Education in a Work Centered World 2020-03-01T10:01:17-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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American entertainment has reflected over the last few decades a shift from the family centered life to the work centered life. Life takes place in the office, we retreat to our apartment to rest. Younger Americans are moving toward a permanent “dorm life” with many no longer aspiring to buy their own homes.

The increased opportunities for work are good. For most of human history, a person knew their future in terms of a work. A person farmed, because almost everyone farmed. Work was divided by who could do it. Nobody would return to an era when few could choose the job they would pursue.

Work has become separate from other parts of life. Because work produces income, there is pressure (even from the office!) to work constantly. In the best workplaces, there are constant rewards for doing more. The non-profit world of schools and colleges may not always reward with money, but the mission of the school can become so all encompassing that every other part of life suffers. No good professor or teacher ever feels adequately prepared for class. There is always more to do.

There is a reason that teaching was once a monastic calling!

In a culture that “keeps score,” and then keeps score in money, some types of work have a value that other parts of society or kinds of work find hard to match. The work that has become dominant in our lives is work that deals with ends that can be quantified.

As a result, this sort of work, even when it tries, cannot also be the work of the family, the Church, or a school. Most work is tied to an end that is good, but different from the tasks of the family, school, or Church. The farm as a business, for example, exists to make food, an important task. Corn is something that can be quantified and more corn means a better farm.

The Orthodox, classical Christian School and College exist to make saints for the Kingdom of God. We have no “product,” just people. Philosophers have pointed out that one cannot quantify even as simple a thing as human consciousness. There is no unit of consciousness. Virtue is even less measurable.

I have been in colleges where they tried to put a number to the increased sanctity of students over time. This was tied to “measurable” externals like attending Church or works of charity. These are all good things, but one cannot help but point out that this would mean the Pharisees that missed Jesus would get a higher sanctity score than the thief on the Cross. The thief on the Cross received immeasurable grace and moved from damnation to Paradise on the hard school of the Cross.

The temptation to “count” or only be sure when we can make a chart is very powerful.

The very work centered nature of society pushes some educational programs to adopt a “product” language in describing their work. The rise of an administrative class should be nearly foreign to education, but now governs many schools. There is, naturally, a business side to any school, but this is not the central mission. A college might provide a cafeteria whose product is food, but that is ancillary to the mission of the college. As those other tasks have grown, as more money has moved into the system, there has become a greater temptation to bringing work words to education.

Schools must break up the administrative systems and reject the use of business or work centered language to describe our mission. At The Saint Constantine School and College we have gone to the extreme of having all our full time employees teach. Our decision makers are drawn from those who minister to students. As much as possible, we try to keep students and their education in mind when we make decisions, even financial decisions.

This has practical implications. As President, I teach classes and these must remain and be shown to remain my first priority. We must also, as scholars, write, research, and present that research in order to have a genuine educational community. There are many other tasks related to the growing business of The School, but these must take third place in my work and my work must not consume all my life. If students see this is true in my own life, they will be helped.

Practically, this means that a school must resist two other temptations: trying to make the School meet every need and demanding “total commitment” from a student.

As an Orthodox school, we work to not have so many events that our students cannot attend to the liturgical life of the Church. We do not assign homework to young children and though our school and college are very rigorous (by American standards), we do not encourage our students to work all the time. I have sent a college student home to spend time with friends and family rather than to go to another lecture!

We also work hard not replace the parish. We have two liturgies a year, one in each semester. We have daily chapel, but these are not adequate to the life of faith. Our parents might wish for more, but we urge them to become more involved in the local Church. We are not a replacement for Divine Services. We are not a Sunday School program or a religious youth group. Our College sends students to Church to meet those needs. A college that becomes all inclusive, that does not rely on family or Church, that even takes students away from normal church or family life, is training a student to be “work” centered in an unhelpful way.

The temptation to do and be all that a student needs is related to a “total commitment” attitude that comes from our work centered culture. This is a particular problem in the American context as many Americans are proud to never take vacation or to work overtime constantly. American sports coaches demand “110%” commitment without ever describing from where the extra ten percent comes!

As we teach, we must help students move away from these demands. A person that is a parent cannot give his whole life to the office. A person that must work, and do so faithfully, does not have the time to be a “perfect” parent. The pressure to perfection, as if both duties existed, is terrible. This applies to many students who in numerous classes are encouraged to study and do more. If they were not taking Greek, they could give more time to Biology. If they were not taking Biology, then they might have more time for Church related activities. They would volunteer more at Church, if they did not have to care for a mother at home.

All of these demands, coming from a productivity based, numbers based, work culture burns out many of my best students. They must be taught the simple lesson of a balanced life. Of course, as an Orthodox educational program, we also look Godward.

God became man, so man could become God. Theosis cannot be put on spreadsheet.

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