Crumlin Road Presbyterian location About a year ago Dr Jonathan Saccs, the chief Rabbi for Great Britain said on BBC radio's "Thought For The day":
If discipline is a problem in our schools it isn’t only because of the schools. Teachers are just one of the many influences to which our children are exposed. There are parents, neighbours, culture and society and if discipline isn't a value there, then schools can't create it alone.
There’s a moment in the Bible that's long fascinated me. When Moses addressed the Israelites as they were about to leave Egypt after two centuries of exile and slavery, he didn't speak about freedom, or about the land flowing with milk and honey. Instead he spoke about the duty of parents to educate their children. Why? Because to defend a country you need an army; but to defend a civilization, you need education.
When we pay our taxes we don't always do so with delight but my guess is that there are some things which most people would be fairly happy about forking out for. The National Health Service would be one and another would be the education of our children. The area of North Belfast is a part of the realm which stands, not so proudly, at the top of the , not so sought after, table when it comes to social deprivation. We have a very low expectation when it comes to education and very few of our children go on to third level education. Not all children can go to university or college but all children should be given the opportunity to learn to think for themselves while they are in full-time education. All children should be inspired to read and to discover the world of imagination and knowledge. In recent days we have had local politicians and independent members of the various Education and Library Boards being forced to make stringent cuts in the schools' budget. Only a few people are in the position to decide why the boards have been unable to balance the books but surely we owe our children and young people a sound education beyond the "3 rs".
Today the film industry and the television companies are often blamed for capturing the reading audience but, at the same time, the successes of movies like Harry Potter, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the Lord of the Rings etc can also be used to inspire the movie goer to be a reader as well. Our school libraries need to have the money to buy the books and allow teachers the time to read to the children, using the picture medium as a spur and bridge into the literary world.
C.S Lewis, the Belfast literary giant says that to read is to learn to think- that’s what we want, men and women who can stand on their own feet and think for themselves. In our society it is imperative to move beyond the accepted thinking and even identities to develop our own thoughts and be able to express those thoughts in coherent and acceptable ways. We are a society which is hardly at peace with itself. We re-act to opposition and to the opinions of others without allowing our thought processes to take control and this means that we are often aggressive to others and very much an "in-your-face " people. We need to take the time to study what we read and we need to read and re-read until we understand and formulate our thinking and we need to allow what we read to make a difference to our lives. we will not always agree with what other people say but the way we disagree is important. too often we loose the debate, not because of the substance of what we are saying but because of the way we are putting the case forward.
When we read the bible we discover that because we are entering a world which is so distant from where we are today that the temptation is to give up or to stick to the passage we love so much to the impoverishment of our daily walk with God and the building of our spiritual character. Today we are led to believe that education should always be fun but that cannot always be the case, sometimes we have to do the long hard slog. We live near to the Cave Hill and we often take a walk up to the top. The walk is fairly steep at the end, especially for the not so young any more but when you get to the top the effort is all the more worthwhile. Standing at McArt's Fort the whole city lies at your feet and the view and experience is breath-taking every time. So it is in learning, we need to make the effort and not to give up. When you finally understand what God is saying it is very special. As someone has said, if it wasn't my father, "if a thing is worth doing its worth doing well!
Education will not change the world, only Christ will do that but it is well worth paying for and even being happy to pay for it. What do you think?
