Looking Beyond the Red Ink

When faced with the question of ‘alternative’ methods of education, I’m not entirely sure what I ought to say, because I’m not sure that I have a full grasp of what is supposed to be ‘conventional’. As a homeschooler, my education was never really ‘normal’, and while I know how the public school system works, I’m not sure I completely understand how it works. I have been told that schools largely teach to tests and expect their students to memorize formats and facts and dates, but because I have never experienced it first hand, I can’t really compare it to anything very well. However, while looking at the different alternative education philosophies, I did find one school, Evergreen State University, which seems to have found an education method that is not even found in homeschooling communities: they don’t give their students grades. 

While many other ‘alternative’ forms of education are at least somewhat subtle in their approach, this gradeless approach radically changes everything about ‘conventional’ education. By eradicating the unspoken yet normal goal of a class, to pass with an ‘A’, ESU poses an obvious question, one they are probably just itching to answer:

What, exactly, is the point of education?

I’m not quite sure what ESU has to say about this (if they have it written anywhere on their site, I couldn’t find it. It’s not exactly a very user friendly site, in my opinion) but analyzing it from my perspective, I would have to say that the point of education is a holistic betterment of the mind, body, and soul. Without grades, the focus turns from the potential jobs and bragging rights or even pride in a good grade, and turns back to, well, learning and the importance it holds for the person’s life not their career. Without the distracting red ink literally spelling out a grade that will affect the rest of your college career, the unconventional education philosophy of ESU constantly reminds you what education is really about, one ungraded assignment at a time: learning for life.

And while I don’t pretend to think that the whole Christian college community will switch over to a gradeless curriculum overnight, if at all, I think ESU highlights a very valid point:

We don’t learn by earning grades. We learn by really learning.

Of Hill-Rolling and Whimsy

In the later part of his book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller writes about making memorable (or good) scenes – not just in a movie, but in life. As a part of this week’s assignment, I was asked to see if I couldn’t make my own memorable scene – whether that be eating with someone I didn’t know at the caf, or just doing something crazy with some friends. Although Miller might be disappointed to hear it, I wouldn’t say that I’m one to create my own scenes – they always seem to find me.

This week’s ‘scene’ that stands out most in my mind would have to be on our Honors Sabbath Sunday, when multiple professors’ families came out and let a houseful of honors students play with their kids and make cupcakes. The most memorable part of that afternoon was when one or two girls (I can’t recall whom) started to roll down the hillside outside the honors center. Within a few minutes, five or more students and four kids were all rolling down the hillside, laughing as they went. I didn’t join in myself (not for lack of enthusiasm, annoyingly, I have a grass allergy that would have had me itching for hours afterward, so I sat out) but I honestly don’t believe I missed out in the slightest. Just watching people have such fun is half the fun itself. Seeing the joy and ‘whimsy’, as Miller puts it, that lights up their faces is, for me, like experiencing it myself. The hill-rolling stands out most prominently in my mind, but then of course there was the chance of seeing some of my professors tackled by a toddler, and watching fellow students play dinosaurs with a two-year-old. The whole day, I think, was full of ‘whimsy’, if not for the mere fact that we spend the afternoon doing nothing but playing with children.

Before I read Miller’s book, I never really considered the ‘scene’s in life to be something that took much effort – I always figured that life’s moments just came along and took you with them, but the idea that you have to consciously make them in interesting to me. I suppose to some extent, I knew that the hard scenes in life took work. Why wouldn’t they? They’re hard, and it takes effort to appreciate them. 

However, I had never really considered that the same is true for the whimsical scenes in life, but if this is true, it opens up whole new opportunities to me, and a new challenge. It’s an intimidating challenge, as I have always been much too cautious and too (I think) boring to live up to Miller’s standard of whimsy. However, at the same time, there’s this soft voice that tells me, try it, you’ll like it. For some reason, whenever I hear that voice, I can also see God smiling (smirking?) knowingly somewhere in my mind’s eye. So perhaps working for whimsy is something well worth trying. If God gave us imagination, creativity, and a love for fun, then perhaps we were made to use those talents and attributes to create whimsy. And maybe, in creating such whimsy, we can say that we’ve made something good, something pleasing to God.

Now, I’m not trying to say that this ‘whimsy’ is our sole purpose in our Christian walk or even a dominant force in our life – that is not its place. But I think that whimsy may be to the memory what good food is to the tongue, or sweet music to the ears. It is a gift that God has given us so that we may explore the beauty he has put before us. The thought makes me smile.

Perhaps, before the Fall, all scenes in life were created in whimsy. Now, in our fallen world, we must also create them in hardship. And while we are creating them (both whimsical and hard) we can know that regardless of how amazing or horrible they seem at the time, God will oversee all of our scenes to ensure that they lead us to something good, to the end result of our story (Rom. 8:28). Meanwhile, here in our earthly lives, I think God has given us the freedom to create our own scenes, with creativity and enjoyment, in both whimsy and hardship, through His power and to His glory. 

If this is true, I think life began to look a bit more enchanting.