Mankind’s Failed Educational System
If our modern educational system is not producing all the answers we seek, should we at least be impressed with the system itself? Certainly, universities can successfully teach some areas of material knowledge. But what happens when these institutions are cut off from the values that should guide them?
What goes on in the modern university? Here is what one unhappy academic wrote: “The average American persists in thinking that the classroom is the center of activity of a university. Because it makes for good relations with the public (as well as with the legislature), university administrators encourage such fanciful notions. But among themselves, they know how anachronistic and downright inaccurate they are. Asked to describe the mission of his school, a vice chancellor of a Big Ten university listed five separate areas of responsibility: economic development, service to the state, the creation of new knowledge, and training graduate students. And, finally, dead last, teaching” (Profscam, Sykes, p. 29).
The modern university has strayed from its roots. Not only does it minimize the teaching of values, it minimizes the value of teaching. Certainly there is value in research, and in economic development and public service. But true education, as Scripture presents it, goes far beyond knowledge production; it must teach the spiritual values without which all the other pursuits will lead to ruin!