Bible Study

A lot of people have issues with the Bible. A lot of these people even belong to churches. It's a big book, full of challenging and life-changing words. Some people like to look through it, and while they have a very easy time accepting parts like loving our neighbour, they aren't as willing to accept other parts of the very same work.

But if one considers the Bible untrustworthy in some places, why is there any basis to believe that any part of it at all is trustworthy?

That's kind of how I see the issue. I kind of think that the Bible is take-it-or-leave it, with no "create your own" option. Personally, I've decided to take it, but that doesn't mean that I automatically understand everything written in it. It just means that I'm trying.

I compare Bible study to something I learned in horseback riding. In riding, there is a saying that goes as follows:

"If your horse says no, you either asked the question wrong, or asked the wrong question." (Referring to moments when your horse may not do exactly as you think you've asked him or her)

Bible study is similar, because I've found that every time I felt I had found error, the error was not in the text itself, but in the way I was framing things. In Bible study, we need to learn to ask the right questions, the right way, and be humble.

Teaching Kids to Read and Write

For three years I was an International Baccalaureate, or IB, student. The students accepted in this program are typically very high achievers, and the program itself imposes very high standards. This year I decided to leave IB, and so have been able to observe the difference between a regular academic setting with that of an IB classroom. Last year in IB English, we studied world literature and focused mainly on analytical skills; it was assumed, and fairly accurately, that the previous two years of the program would have made us into decent readers and writers. This year in academic English, we have already had more lessons regarding common technical errors than we had in total in IB last year. Sadly enough, it appeared that these lessons were necessary.

But it is not only secondary education that is failing to teach basic reading and writing in an effective manner, in fact, this responsibility largely belongs to elementary schools. I babysat two girls this summer, a six year old and a nine year old, and part of my responsibility was to make them practice their writing, one handwritten page each per day. Through them, I witnessed not only extremely substandard writing levels, but also a dislike of writing. They argued with me every day for half an hour before I could get them to write anything. They were also much more interested in watching movies than having me read to them. This leads me to believe that elementary schools instil neither a love of language, nor proper reading and writing skill.

It appears that reading and writing are being taught poorly in public schools. Personally, I find this phenomenon disheartening, especially when we consider that written language is one of the early marks of more advanced civilizations. Are we going backwards?