Got Education?

My brother, who is a dairy farmer, can easily relate to the farmer who said "The problem with cows is that they don't stay milked." The life of a dairy farmer is one of consistency and repetition: twice a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. When you get a day off, it isn't because the cows aren't getting milked, it's because someone else is doing it.

I hesitate to refer to our students as cows, but there is some similarity between cows and milking, and students and educating. I guess you could say, "The problem with students is that they don't stay educated." They forget what they have been taught, or at least "misplace" the wisdom that we have given them over the years. They seem to develop their own ideas of how things should be done, paying little attention to our concerns and advice. It's hard to blame them really; they are young and the world is at their doorstep. They live with gusto and enthusiasm. They sometimes think they know it all, when really they have so much to learn.

"The problem with students is that they don't stay educated." Maybe it's not really a problem after all, at least not entirely. There is, tucked somewhere between the unbridled joy of seeing students learn and the pain of seeing them make poor choices and even fail, a blessing in not staying educated. It causes us to grow and mature, to develop a more reflective perspective on life, and to be constantly reminded of our reliance on God.

When a milk cow stops being milked, her usefulness in life is, for the most part, over. We too become less useful when we stop being educated. So, here's to education, not only in school but also (and especially) in life. May we (students and adults) keep learning and growing so that we can keep loving and serving. After all, I'm not yet ready to be put out to pasture!