My Dangerous Idea

I wrote in earlier posts about the World Question and what my response would be to last years question of what i believe to be true even though i cannot prove it. I promised that i would write about this year's question "What is my dangerous idea?", so here it is.

My dangerous idea is that our modern public educational system is almost completely failing today's youth. If the purpose of the education system is to prepare young people for adulthood and to give them what they need to succeed in life, than it is failing miserably. More and more education above and beyond the basic 12th grade is required to have anything more than a minimum wage job. And oftentimes even that is not enough. I currently have my Masters Degree and am preparing myself to get my Doctorate, but even with all of that education, it was very little preparation for the real world.

The public school system does not prepare people to work and hold down a job, it teaches them to be students. For those people who are not very good at academics (even though they may be great at other things), forcing them to fit into the education system and attempting to force them into a mold that they may not fit simply teaches them to see themselves as a failure instead of building the strengths that they have to help them to be productive.

I do not blame the teachers and educators for this as they often do their jobs very well. Oftentimes they do this at their own personal expense of time, finances, and other potential gain. I believe that the flaw is in the system itself.

In order to explain this properly i need to go over some historical background. Prior to the industrial revolution much of what would have been considered the education of a child was done either through working in the family business, working in the fields, working in the home, and/or doing an apprenticeship/journeyman work. When a child was old enough to be able to do any work,....

Well, that's better, but still not finished...

Not What i Can do For Him, but Who i am With Him.

Isaiah 66:1-2
Thus says the Lord,
"Heaven (is) My throne
And earth (is) My footstool
Where (is) the house that you will build Me?
And where (is) the place of My rest?
For all those (things) My hand has made
And all those (things) exist"
Says the Lord.

"But on this (one) will I look
On (him who is) poor and of a contrite spirit
And who trembles at My word.


This passage talks about how we tend to focus on what we can do or build for God. The reality is that there is nothing that we can do or build for Him that will please Him. He already has it all. He created it all. But the one thing that He does look at and desires from us/his people at the time is that we are/they were poor (depressed in mind or circumstances; also translated humble) and of a contrite (maimed, [figuratively] dejected) spirit and who trembles (afraid, reverence) at My word.

We want to do great things. God wants us to seek and fear Him. When we seek and fear Him, He can use us to do great things. But when we try to do it our way, we inevitably fail.

Poetry & Purpose in Isaiah 61:10-11

Isaiah 61:10-11
א) I will greatly rejoice in the Lord
ב) My soul will be joyful to my God
א) For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation
ב) He has covered me with the robe of righteousness
א) As a bridegroom decks (himself) in ornaments
ב) And a bride adorns (herself) in her jewels

א) For as the earth brings forth its buds
ב) And a garden causes what has been sown in it to spring forth
ג) So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations

The poetic structure of the passage has been highlighted using Hebrew letters

The first section is preparation and lead for the second section
The first two lines are what the author is doing, or who he is
The 4 lines after that explain and flesh why that is so

The second section explains who God is and what He is doing
The last line appears to be the purpose of the entire passage

In the last stanza notice the parallel between the last two lines.
garden ~ Lord God
what has been sown ~ righteousness and praise

In the last stanza i find it interesting that "the earth brings forth it's buds" while "the garden causes what has been sown in it to spring forth"
The first is a natural process while the second is what has been/is being produced (purpose).
That in turn applies to the last line.
"So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations"