The well-educated person

Faustina is still so young, yet it is not too early (I don't think it ever is!)to think about the kids' education. I was chatting with a woman yesterday who adopted twin girls from Romania and she was saying that at the age of 15 her girls are still developmentally delayed because of their first year in an orphanage where they did not receive proper attention.

Mike and I are both very tuned into the education world. It is not that we are especially smart (not at all!!), but I like to think it is that we are very average people with common sense that care about a good, traditional, classical education. We both have our BA's in Classics. We both are or have been teachers, and Mike is an Academic Dean.

My book lists are always long and I always have a new area that I would like to learn more about and dive into. I have been fortunate with a family and parents that instilled a love of learning in me and I also have had a good education. Truly, the most important habit a person ought to practice is the love of learning. While teaching the Republic at Trinity, our friend Scott Pentecost gave me an article about "Immanence and Transcendence". This article was very insightful and layered with complicated knowledge, but a main idea was that our world is always both paradoxically concrete, present, and tangible ('Immanent' from the Latin 'maneo' to stay or remain) and our world is 'beyond us' it is transcendent in the supernatural. The fact that truth does not ever change, but our life circumstances and experiences do leave us with an infinite amount of learning to be done.

Children are always learning, and it is a fascinating journey to guide them and be a part of their learning. Lately, I have been reading more books about education, classical education, curriculum, and different methods of learning. Mike and I do not know what we will decide in a few years to do for a more formal education for Faustina and Jude, but the fact remains that they are learning every day now and it is never too early to begin even a somewhat informal 'formal' education (if that makes sense!).

As I begin to build our 'library' for the kids, I am shocked as I go to 1/2 price books, Barns N Noble, or any bookstore and see how dumb the little kids' books are!! That probably sounds harsh, but....wow. Most the pictures in books just about drive me insane. I have found that I need to have a list of books I want and look for those more traditional books, and often I go to several different places (especially if I am looking for good prices!).

Of course, a good education is worth nothing unless it is oriented toward God, toward truth. It is so amazing in our secular culture how people believe they know so much (often they are very book smart) and how it is so easy to become engrossed in entertainment, money, possessions, and pleasure when really none of that is important in the long run. Life is short and we are always moving toward the end of our life and the afterlife. As morbid as that may sound, it is true and as parents Mike and I want to help our kids to always keep this in mind in their education.