Modern Education For Fragile Machines

Is modern education stripping us of our humanity?

Photo credit: @DreySantesson

Having been involved in classical Christian education for years, my husband and I often get the question: “What about the kids who don’t fit the mold?” What about children on the spectrum, slow learners, and other special cases? 

It’s a fair question, of course, and there is a time and place for it. Many kids learn at different paces. As parents of a daughter with Down’s syndrome, we get it.

However, there’s often something more going on. This question is asked with such repeated frequency and urgency in our broader culture that one might start wondering if the exceptions are the rule. Instead of aspiring to any kind of standard, we keep lowering them according to passing mantras: What about the weirdos? What about hard cases? What about those who march to their own drum? What about people from Portland?

In today’s world, the concept of “normal” is derided—normal is just a setting on a dryer. 

We continue to soften, reduce, and dumb down. There are no more “outsiders” - outsiders are everything. We aim at the least common denominator, a target that keeps changing even as it weakens and diminishes. It’s as though we’ve changed the rules of basketball to accommodate a player with a broken arm.

But what if we’re completely missing the point? What if human nature is not fragile but moral? What if humans are not machines of efficiency - what if we are instead, like Pharoah, defined, driven, and addicted to what we want? 

Dumbed-Down America 

Take, for example, the recent trends in the public school system. In Language Arts curriculums, there’s a growing push to align education with the digital world. Rather than focus on classical works of literature, children are encouraged to learn more about social media. The reasoning behind this is that “media education” makes school more “relevant” to today’s students.[1]

A similar trend can be seen in the seeker-friendly church movement, which peaked in the 1990s and has since lost momentum. Church services were designed to appeal to non-Christians. And non-Christians, I guess, are always confused, hurting, driven by their emotions, and can’t speak basic English. The case has been made that much of the resulting “church growth” merely came from the discontented members of other churches.

Am I being too harsh? (God’s ironic joke on me right now is that I’m actually paid to ghostwrite articles for a seeker-friendly, pentecostal mega-church. I consider them dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and I’m happy to help however I can.)

What Is Happening to Us?

This approach of catering to the lowest common denominator hasn’t led to a flourishing society. In fact, the most depressed and anxious generation on record is now entering the workforce. A business owner I spoke with recently shared that he employs fifty people, not because he needs that many, but because most of his workers don’t show up regularly.

Work is just… hard. 

Where did we go wrong?

When Jesus’ disciples learned that he advocated eating his flesh and drinking his blood in John chapter 6, they were concerned. They had been on board so far - after all, Jesus offered free snacks. They wanted a little more of that and a little less of this cannibalism, please. 

It was a hard teaching. Seems like maybe Jesus should have clarified his point, right? Rather than offering a simple explanation or a user-friendly pamphlet, Jesus left them alone. He didn’t narrow it down to the plain facts with an emphasis on a user-friendly curriculum.

Instead, Jesus taught in three distinct ways:

1. Relationally: He engaged with people through dialogue. His teaching was incarnational, adapted to his audience, teasing, revealing, and withholding information. He invited a deeper understanding within a mysterious verbal dance. 

2. Without Catering to Fragility: Jesus didn’t soften his message. He wasn’t worried about whether people immediately understood him. His teachings were often cryptic, satirical, and provocative. His words created confusion and hard-heartedness, which apparently bothered him not in the least. 

3. Speaking to Human Nature: Jesus recognized that humans are defined by our desires. We are not merely driven by survival or basic instincts; our wants shape who we are. 

When the above-mentioned disciples then pointed to the magic manna in the wilderness, seemingly to remind Jesus that this could still be an option, it was doubly ironic. The manna symbolized our daily need for God’s grace, linking it to our need for sustenance. Yet, the Israelites didn’t fully grasp the lesson—and, in doing so, Jesus’ disciples unknowingly aligned themselves with the Israelites hard-heartedness.

When the people craved bread, Jesus pointed them to a deeper spiritual truth—drawing parallels to the manna in the wilderness.

We are feeders and wanters, addicts by nature. We will either be fed by Christ or by a substitute. We either consume or are consumed.

“Wanting well, like thinking Clearly, is not an ability we are born with ; it’s a freedom we have to earn.” [2]

Symbolism in Fairy Tales and Scripture

Many are offended by the darker elements in some fairy tales, such as the witch in Hansel and Gretel, who wants to eat children. But these tales were intentionally meant to reflect deeper spiritual realities.

After all, people eat people in the Bible. Jason Farley pointed that Harod is pictured as consuming the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter in the midst of abundance (Mark 6). In the very next story, we see Jesus feeding people in the wilderness, revealing the stark contrast. 

It will alwasy be one or the other…

In contrast, modern picture books featuring harmless, cute animals in career uniforms can summarize the way we educate children today. Everything is neutral, and there is no real danger afoot.

The message to kids is clear: you are, by nature, functional, a machine. You are defined by what you do. You are fragile. 

Compare this to the kinds of stories we used to tell children, in which crafty foxes lurked in the forest, speaking words of flattery, consuming the unwary. 

Fragile handling leads to hard hearts. True knowledge is food for the soul and we can only recover our humanity within the feast of true wisdom. 

1. https://ncte.org/statement/media_education/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

2. Luke Burgis, Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life, Swift Press (June 2, 2022)