Education Post as an Afterthought
A population explosion is expected soon at Center--each new addition arriving in miniature--seven or so in the next number of months. The prospect of these babies arriving in a welcoming world, in their home and in their church family, is a great privilege for all involved, and not to be taken for granted.
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A low of 38 degrees, with patchy frost, is predicted here for Saturday night. I don't think I'm quite ready for this, but the the gradual cooling down that has taken place recently is certainly preferable to having warm weather until a bitterly cold system moves in that drops the temperature overnight to 16 degrees. That happened one year. Some of the milo is still green and needs more time to mature.
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Our place looks much relieved since yesterday when Shane had a day off from his regular job, and spent most of it mowing around the farm. I'll spare you the statistics on how tall the grass in the front yard had become. He saved one stalk as evidence of the long neglect.
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People have been seeing impressive rings around the moon, of late. Lizzie N. says that if there are stars inside the ring, you can count them and know how many days it will be till the expected precipitation arrives. Moisture sounds good to me, and if its arrival reinforces someone's belief in the veracity of this homespun weather prediction method, I'm not opposed. Neither am I holding my breath till I see it verified.
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Let me know if you'd like more information about the poetry contest in connection with the Partridge Pedal Party. Entries are due on Oct. 17, and contestants from six years old to adults can enter. Cash prizes will be awarded in a variety of age divisions and content categories. As a homeschooler, I often used occasions like this to focus on teaching that culminated in a contest entry. I'm doing the same thing with my comp class. I hope many locals consider entering or encouraging the people around them to enter.
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I've been giving a lot of thought to what constitutes an appropriate personal and community perspective on education. The education term is used broadly here. I wonder how the following can effectively be countered:
1. An overweening reverence for all things academic
2. Disdain for knowledge outside one's own frame of reference
3. Suspicion of efforts to investigate controversial matters
4. An elitist or super-spiritual mentality about any given perspective or information
So far I've identified the following values I subscribe to:
1. Learning can happen in lots of ways. Going to school is one among many ways it can happen.
2. A frame of reference needs only as much rigidity as the Word of God has rigidity. Beyond that, extreme flexibility is desirable.
3. Investigation of controversial matters may not be everyone's calling, but for those whom God calls, the summons can be safely obeyed. Safeguards within the Christian community should be honored, and all activities should be carried out in the open, with appropriate accountability.
4. Humility--not to be confused with silence, shyness, or conservatism--is always appropriate, no matter how much or how little "power" one possesses.
5. Questions are more appropriate than pronouncements in areas where knowledge is limited.
6. Usually it's good to reference others with credentials beyond your own when you subscribe to or promote a given perspective. Disdain for such credentials often reveals a lack of humility.
7. Generally, information is egalitarian--and should not be kept within the purview of only a select few.
8. Great certainty paired with minimal insight and experience should be challenged wherever it is found.
********************
A low of 38 degrees, with patchy frost, is predicted here for Saturday night. I don't think I'm quite ready for this, but the the gradual cooling down that has taken place recently is certainly preferable to having warm weather until a bitterly cold system moves in that drops the temperature overnight to 16 degrees. That happened one year. Some of the milo is still green and needs more time to mature.
********************
Our place looks much relieved since yesterday when Shane had a day off from his regular job, and spent most of it mowing around the farm. I'll spare you the statistics on how tall the grass in the front yard had become. He saved one stalk as evidence of the long neglect.
*******************
People have been seeing impressive rings around the moon, of late. Lizzie N. says that if there are stars inside the ring, you can count them and know how many days it will be till the expected precipitation arrives. Moisture sounds good to me, and if its arrival reinforces someone's belief in the veracity of this homespun weather prediction method, I'm not opposed. Neither am I holding my breath till I see it verified.
*******************
Let me know if you'd like more information about the poetry contest in connection with the Partridge Pedal Party. Entries are due on Oct. 17, and contestants from six years old to adults can enter. Cash prizes will be awarded in a variety of age divisions and content categories. As a homeschooler, I often used occasions like this to focus on teaching that culminated in a contest entry. I'm doing the same thing with my comp class. I hope many locals consider entering or encouraging the people around them to enter.
******************
I've been giving a lot of thought to what constitutes an appropriate personal and community perspective on education. The education term is used broadly here. I wonder how the following can effectively be countered:
1. An overweening reverence for all things academic
2. Disdain for knowledge outside one's own frame of reference
3. Suspicion of efforts to investigate controversial matters
4. An elitist or super-spiritual mentality about any given perspective or information
So far I've identified the following values I subscribe to:
1. Learning can happen in lots of ways. Going to school is one among many ways it can happen.
2. A frame of reference needs only as much rigidity as the Word of God has rigidity. Beyond that, extreme flexibility is desirable.
3. Investigation of controversial matters may not be everyone's calling, but for those whom God calls, the summons can be safely obeyed. Safeguards within the Christian community should be honored, and all activities should be carried out in the open, with appropriate accountability.
4. Humility--not to be confused with silence, shyness, or conservatism--is always appropriate, no matter how much or how little "power" one possesses.
5. Questions are more appropriate than pronouncements in areas where knowledge is limited.
6. Usually it's good to reference others with credentials beyond your own when you subscribe to or promote a given perspective. Disdain for such credentials often reveals a lack of humility.
7. Generally, information is egalitarian--and should not be kept within the purview of only a select few.
8. Great certainty paired with minimal insight and experience should be challenged wherever it is found.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
5:22 AM
2 Comments:
Re. points 4-6 and 8, I've found discussion of the Dunning-Krueger Effect to be instructive. I even found a copy of their paper, Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments, available online. It gives a great framework for understanding some situations; looking through the book of Proverbs and noting the references to "fools" is also interesting.
By
EldestSon, at 10/02/2012
To Eldest Son, Wow. I had no idea that what I've observed has been so well defined and documented. The research seems to suggest that at least part of the answer is education. In other words, people who over-estimate their competence, with only a bit of instruction, begin to see their own shortcomings, and thereafter estimate their true skill level more accurately.
The Proverbs terminology for this phenomenon is no less true for its pointedness. Beachys should probably find another term to use.
Now we need someone to help us sort out how to deal with situations like this between peers or when the roles are not as clear as they are in a classroom.
Thanks for the comment and the insight.
By
Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige), at 10/02/2012
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