Ring the bells! Another school year has begun!
How the school year gradually morphed from starting just after Labor Day, to subsuming all of August, I'm not quite sure. Nevertheless, there it is, at least in the State of Georgia.
This year is special because my youngest son, Benjamin, starts high school. He is ready to begin that great adventure, that will form him academically and personally. He will learn lessons that will help shape his mind and his heart. He will begin to follow the passions of intellect that may determine his career path, and the stirrings of the soul that may guide his friendships and romances.
It can be a hard journey to watch your children take. There will be ups and downs, and you will need to be there for all of it. You have to increasingly let them make their own decisions, and pray that you have given them the foundation to make the right ones. And even when they make the wrong choices, you have to hope they learn from it, and hold out the net to catch them when they need you.
This is the year where his academic direction begins to take shape, and as he is moves through high school, the choices will increase, and the consequences of those choices will become more profound and harder to reverse. Some systems track you fairly quickly on whether you will be college prep or tech school. Many students don't really solidify their career track and/or major until they are a sophomore or junior in college. I know I didn't. And if I were to be judged by my grades alone as a Freshman in high school, I never would have been allowed to get on the college prep track. Fortunately, I was able to improve academically my last three years of high school, and gain acceptance into a major state university.
Benjamin is already having to make some hard choices about electives. He is interested in band, choir, drama, and technology, and may only be able to do one or two of those. The choices he makes now will have effects for the rest of his life. Hopefully, he will be able to test and sample until he settles on what he enjoys the most, and what is most important to him.
Freshman year includes the central course of Civics, the vital core of why we have public schools. It's not to provide students with a particular career. It's not to keep kids off the streets while their parents work. It's not to achieve certain test scores to help the school system stay funded or accountable. The foundational, original intent of public schools is to provide an informed electorate to participate in a healthy, vibrant democracy. We have lost grip with the seminal importance of this course, and I am glad to see Benjamin's school keep this subject front and center.
It will be a tough year. Benjamin will also have Honors classes, such as Algebra, Literature and Physical Science. He will need to buckle down and study. The most important skills that students should learn in high school are study and research skills. The body of knowledge has grown so vast that it is impossible to teach it all. Students must be taught to navigate the material themselves. Teaching to a test rather than research and critical thinking skills may be the greatest failing of our education system. But it is not the fault of our educational personnel. They have been pushed this way by politicians who have greater interest in controlling the fiscal resources that flow to schools than what kids learn, parents and others who don't really want students to think for themselves, and private interests who see schools not as learning centers but as profit sources.
As one example, there has been great controversy in how American History is handled, of the inherent biases that are brought to bear in how it is taught. Although there are certain base facts and dates that need to be learned, I don't think history, as best can be done by imperfect people, should be taught solely from a liberal or a conservative viewpoint. Instead, students should be encouraged to research, study and think for themselves. In today's age of massive information (and misinformation), with the power of the Internet and everyone having a library of resources at their fingertips larger than any physical library that ever existed, training students how to use those resources is so much more important than remembering the exact date of the Battle of Bull Run.
So we look forward to this great adventure, with both joy and apprehension. Our son will grow and change, and we can no longer make all his choices for him. We have to have faith that the collective we, and by that I include Alison and I as parents, his older brothers, his grandparents, his teachers, and his church, that all of us have helped give him the ability to choose well.
We've all had to go through this. We've all had to grow and leave the nest. It can be a scary thing, but a necessary thing. And it is best to do so surrounded by people who love and care for you. In that, Benjamin has an advantage, an advantage more important than money or social position. I pray that many of our other young high school students have the same.
Of course, if starting high school isn't traumatic enough, it signals that we are only a couple years from something even more frightening to contemplate - somebody's going to be old enough to (Gulp!) start driving!
Go Bears! (but not too fast)
No comments:
Post a Comment