Fulton Sheen observes in his book Go to Heaven:
“A little child who today is telling a Sister in school that God made him, that he was made to know, love, and serve God, and to be happy with Him in the next world, knows more, and is more profoundly educated, than all the professors throughout the length and breadth of this land who babble about space-time deities, who prattle about new ethics to fit unethical lives, who negate all morality to suit their unmoral thinking, but who do not know, therefore, that beyond time is the timeless, beyond space is the spaceless, the Infinite Lord and Master of the Universe.”
Education is crucial not only for intellectual, but also spiritual, development. Learning must seek the Good, the True, and the Beautiful to make the fruit of our education sweet.
Unfortunately, a vast number of parents in our country, and I among them, put the education of their children on autopilot.
Fortunately, Covid lockdowns brought e-learning and shocked parents out of their complacency. Parents could not help but see the evil lessons that were being taught, and the great harm being inflicted thereby.
This is how God makes good out of evil. Praise be to God, people are flocking to homeschooling and classical education. Parents are getting actively and deeply involved in the education of their children, seeking out better options and fighting for change in established schools with questionable curriculum.
Teachers obsessed with new or revived ideologies cavalierly dismiss age-old wisdom, without ever having taken the time to understand it. Perhaps this is the case because truth is not really what they seek; rather these teachers dream of a how they would benefit from a population indoctrinated with the ideas they teach.
“Do not put your trust in princes; they are but men, they have no power to save.” (Psalms 146:3)
Covid taught us (for the millionth time) the truth of this wisdom; medical science trotted out new truths almost on a daily basis, as each successive truth was proved false.
Humans cannot rely on reason alone: it is too limited and too easily manipulated by sinister wills. Learning must have the proper context so the information received is processed through a clear lens, and then reflected outward in thought and action that is true and good and beautiful. Archbishop Sheen describes the proper context in the quote above.
Reflection
Am I placing my trust in God or in man?
Do I reject ideas that conflict with what I know to be Truth out of fear or submissiveness or apathy, or because such ideas justify what I want to do?
(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)
