Richard Williams is Wrong: Christians, at least, Should do their Best to Protect their Students

William Richardson posted some thoughts on education here: http://vimeo.com/45152953

He raises many questions.

How do we incorporate new technology wisely?  Is this a time in educational history to let things all go, and see where they lead?  Do we all need to use a blog or twitter or talk with people in India to show that we are twenty-first-century teachers? 

In order to fish a bit from the video at a proper angle, I will begin much further up the stream.  Here are a few assumptions:
  1. We are Christians.  We do things differently than people who are not Christians.  We are impressed by different things.  We listen to different spirits.
  2. The world in general may have great things for Christians to take up, enjoy, etc., but we need to be circumspect, in this world, but not of it.
  3. Jesus was and is the greatest teacher of all.  He reminds us that there is really one Teacher.  His spirit will "lead us into all truth." His presence, his method, his ways are all good.  He is the best teacher.
In Genesis, within a few chapters of each other, we find two great technological projects, one good, and one evil.  The evil project was the tower of Babel.  Man, by the work of his hands, would make himself like God.  His pride was in his technology.  The good builder was Noah, crafting a marvelous ship which really would save the world.  The evil builders said that they would reach the heavens...they would take on divine powers through the work of their hands.  I think this is an instructive set of stories to consider in light of any technology.
  • What is the motivation for having produced this new thing? 
  • What do people generally do with this thing?
  • Does this thing generally free people for more time to consider and converse with their Maker...or to pursue "the imagination of their own hearts" as was said of the builders of Babel.  
  • Is this really helping toward a good end? 
  • What kind of negative effects might this have (despite the benefits)?  A fun one for the creative imagination to run away with would be batteries that run on human blood (just too cool not to mention).  But we can consider cloning, conditions for organ harvesting and the like.  More is not always better.  Certainly wasn't with Babylonian masonry (hehehe). 
So, I think people who aren't Christians have a good reason to look to technology to be their link, their life, their soul, their education, their revolution, their pastor, their hope, their confession, their change, their god.  Mankind has thought to make itself mightiest, immortalize itself if you will, through the work of its hands ever since the Tower of Babel. Technology makes us seem stronger, gives us power: but God says that it is not by might, nor power, but by His spirit that good, that real change, that victory, that hope will come (Zech. 4:6).

Because of that, we as Christians need to be wise in the way we evaluate whatever hip idea, research-driven commandment, or trend that comes along.

What about all the Educational Energy for iPads, Social Networking, etc.? Am I not a 21st century teacher if I do not do this or that?

We begin with Jesus.  What did he need (not a great deal of technology)?  How much was he able to teach (all that he needed to)?  Are we in an inferior position today (well, we are not God, but he left his spirit which he has promised is what we need)?  People who are not Christians would think such a line of thought is crazy...and so they should.  We'll let them revel. 

So I take it that any teacher who competently teaches a subject to students that are cared for and engaged is doing a good job and does not need to worry about adding any technology.  Does a certain teacher not use twitter, or blogs, or even the iPad a great deal, yet students all clearly learn a good deal.  Praise God!  Has another teacher found a safe way to incorporate iPad chats with Swiss students?  Praise God!  But may the second teacher (or her administrator) never make the first feel like he is missing or wrong or behind...or that that teachers' students are somehow missing out.  Jesus is the good teacher; look to the master.   

Jesus said and believed that the meaningful change to the world of life and true education was the giving of his Spirit (which those who repent of their sin and believe on Him will receive) not from a new device or its features:

John 14: “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

___________________

Of course, there is a time to let go and let grow in life.  However, there are a few things we should find troublesome from Richardson's video, but I will focus on the most obvious:

Richardson: I want to be "found by strangers" on the internet: http://vimeo.com/45152953
An implication is that teachers are being too old-fashioned and authoritarian if they carefully direct their courses and keep kids from going online to do their work/tests/etc.  Teachers are not with-it if they are concerned about who might see their students online.  The implication is that all the good things will outweigh whatever bad things they might see.  Two billion internet users means two billion teachers, even if a good percentage of them are shady characters at best. 

Jesus didn't teach that.  He said anyone who seriously stumbles a kid will experience worse-than-death (millstone tied to the neck, thrown into water); he didn't say that you can stumble them with one hand as long as you have something nice in the other.  Psychologists may say what they like about exposure to really bad things; one generation labels homosexuality a disorder...next it's awesome.  (But it's sin, like the other sins (adultery, lying) people struggle with.)  Anyway, Richardson is speaking from the spirit of our age, not from God's wisdom.  Teachers need to hold the care and protection and education of their students with as strong and gracious and pure a grasp as God can give them.  Letting it go is not the solution. 

The "stranger danger" factor that Richardson mocks is still a real danger and part of why parents send their kids to our school...to get away from that. 

The F.B.I. agrees:
“It’s an unfortunate fact of life that pedophiles are everywhere online,” said Special Agent Greg Wing, who supervises a cyber squad in our Chicago Field Office.
When a young person visits an online forum for a popular teen singer or actor, Wing said, “Parents can be reasonably certain that online predators will be there.” It is believed that more than half a million pedophiles are online every day (emphasis mine).
“The younger generation wants to express themselves, and they don’t realize how vulnerable it makes them,” Wing said.

Full F.B.I. article: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/may/predators_051711/predators_051711


But what about that nineteen-year-old young man who is such a cinematographic success (or other account of a young person of high-tech success who had to endure a low-tech education)?
Because a boy can film well even though he didn't learn that in school shows that his school did what it should have--give him a decent education so that he could pick up and master a skill of his own later.  That is our job.  It is not our job to make students skilled in a given thing but to give the foundation for later acquisition.  This is largely a moral duty, which is why a good dean of students is probably the strongest teacher on campus.  I don't see how a boy's technological success makes a Christian school that doesn't have video courses or widespread blogs or twitter or google docs or iPads look inadequate. 

Again, our work, before the Lord, is not to make students rich or powerful or even smart.  Our work is to help make others wise, and it is not wise to follow Richardson's advice. 

Well, those are some of my first thoughts.  If you somehow made it through it all, and want more, here are some more interesting things:
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