Faith Works 9-5-20
Jeff Gill
They never taught me that
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9%. Keep that number in mind.
One of my least favorite statements that I all too often hear is "they never taught me that in school." Right after "they should teach that in school."
As for the latter, I'm amazed how often people say something should be taught in school to which I'll say "um, yes, it already is." Sometimes it's already a graduation requirement or other mandated course or section of a course, other times it's an option.
But I'll stick with the initial concern I'm bringing to the table, as a person of faith as well as a community member – the churchly part will come up at the end, so stay with me.
My main point is not math, though I'm about to throw some at you, but it is this: schooling is not to teach you things as much as it is there to teach you how to think. How to think clearly, methodically, rationally, systematically. The stuff is the means, and yes, the Statehouse and school boards will mandate certain specific content they want communicated, but the real reason we as a society and a nation and a state have free public education is that it's there to teach young people how to think.
Example: elementary schools teach children how to read. Should they read Beatrix Potter or Ezra Jack Keats or Charles Dickens? Or R.L. Stine? That's not the point. Once you've learned how to read with proficiency, you can read any or all of those authors. How. To. Think.
And this is so incredibly important for parents and family and neighbors and everyone to understand because when it comes to "they never taught me that in school" the reality is the teachers and staff of any school simply can never meet those inchoate expectations. Because they have your child for 9% of the time.
9%.
When this comes up in face-to-face conversation the first reaction is usually incredulity. Nah, that's not right, is it?
18 years times 365 days times 24 hours equals 157,680 hours, and add another 96 for four leap days in there: 157,776. Total hours of a child's life to age 18. Divide that into the result of 13 years times 6 hours times 180 days, which is that 14,040 I started with. And you end up with 8.89% but I'll call it 9% for simplicity's sake. You can also see why absence becomes a big issue: if a child misses 10% of their schooling consistently for whatever reasons, that drops to 12,636 hours, and now we're unambiguously at 8%. That's all of a child's time teachers and the school system has access to.
You may argue "wait, you're counting sleep time." Yes I am. Ask ANY teacher if a child's sleep patterns at home impacts their education. Oh yeah. Or you might argue about those first five years counting against the total, but if one child hits kindergarten and first grade already knowing letters and numbers and colors and animals, and another is still just amiably throwing blocks around the playmat, their educational arc is going to bend differently.
We all have collectively the other 91% of a child's time, and I would argue their education in our hands. Parents and families and fellow church members and community: we have much more time and influence in our hands than the school does. Teachers do the best they can with the 9% of their time they get, to teach our children how to think. What they think, even much of what they know, is up to us. If our kids get 4 hours a day on average over their first eighteen years watching TV, that's over 16.5% of their lives spent soaking in mass media. Versus the 9%.
This is also why faith communities and religious leaders regret the loss of church camp so much. Because if a young person is in worship an hour and a half every week (never misses a Sunday) that's 78 hours in a year; if they go to a church camp at 3 pm Sunday afternoon some summer week and get picked up Saturday at 11 am, that's 140 hours in a short-term intensive faith community experience. 92 hours even if you take sleep time out . . . versus 78 in church if they never miss.
But the point always comes back to the home, which is where their time and their foundations and much of their application will play out. For education, for faith formation. We can't lose sight of that.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in Licking County; he's directed many church camps over the years, and knows what he's up against to balance 8,760 hours in a year against 140 at camp. Tell him how you learn at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.
