Shadow Day
I’ve been visiting high schools with my youngest son who will be moving up from Middle School next year. Here in Sacramento you have a choice of what High School you’d like to attend and they have different specialties and programs in order to compete for the best students.
I spent today visiting two history classes, a poetry recitation competition, a Latin class who was translating Virgil, an engineering class and a robotics class.
What A Wonderful World We Live In
I was impressed by how many worth while things there are in this world, things that you can easily spend a lifetime pursuing. My son is 13 and I’m 50. I was excited about talking about the civil war, about designing robots and working on the machines to build them. I wanted to start to learn Latin so that I could read Virgil in the original language and talk about it with a small group of eager young learners.
I know how mundane High School can be. I hear about it all the time from my children who are in High School. I’m also impressed by the blessed opportunity my children have to learn and to live and to contribute in this amazing world.
When We’ve Been There Ten Thousand Years…
My thoughts turned to the age to come as I pondered all of the richness of this marvelous creation and all the learning and development humanity has produced. I think about the ships from Tarshish in Isaiah 60 who are bringing the riches of humanity’s cultural development to the new Jerusalem. I imagine the music, the food, the technology, the literature, the science, the dance, the arts, the business acumen, all of it unleashed not for evil or destruction but for glory.
Walking through the halls with high school kids I have pangs of nostalgia wishing I could explore how many of these wonderful endeavors.
I’m 50 now though, with responsibilities, commitments, and in the age of decay a limited amount of time.
Even Ben expressed some frustration at having to chose between programs in schools. Even he doesn’t have life enough to pursue all of the amazing possibilities that lie before him.
I console myself in the thought of the resurrection. That in the age to come there will be time for Virgil, time to robots, time for enjoying nature and studying it. Time to spend with friends and family. Time to continue to develop and enjoy the glory of God poured into his marvelous creation. What I’m learning here and enjoying here is just a stub.
Leadingchurch.com 
Have you heard about the new “Massive Open Online Courses” (MOOCs) – free college courses from top colleges offered online via platforms like Coursera or EdX? They appeared on the scene just a year or 18 months ago and are a new big internet phenomenon. (Just google Coursera or EdX … I’d give the URL, but then this would sound too much like a scam.)
For example, I’m just finishing up an absolutely incredible journey through times and places I never knew existed via “History of the World since 1300” offered by Princeton University on the Coursera platform. I’m about your age, but studied engineering when I was a real undergrad. The MOOCs are still experimental, but I’m like a kid in a candy store. It is the opportunity that I thought I would never have to “go back to college” to study the humanities. The courses are also very flexible for busy people and you can decide for yourself how much time you want to put in: nothing bad happens (except that you won’t get a “certificate of completion”) if you have to skip an assignment or even end up doing nothing but watching the videos.
It is also very interesting comparing the emphases in these college classes to my own college education: for example, I’ve encountered much more emphasis on reasoning out and presenting an argument, as opposed to obediently absorbing facts. (I don’t know the demographics of your church, but I’m guessing that, from a pastoral point of view, it might be interesting to take a peek into the intellectual environment those high school kids that leave your church and go off to college will likely encounter.) In addition, these free courses are attracting about 1/3rd US students and 2/3rds students from all over the world, which can lead to fascinating discussions due to differences in culture and perspective.
Thanks Carol, I’ll have to check this out. pvk