“To accumulate knowledge was good and beautiful, but the reason for men to acquire it would have been more meaningful, and no one spoke of that.” – Jacques Lusseyran commenting on his school experience in his autobiography, And Then There Was Light
How many times have you heard someone say that as long as their students or children know where to find information, they’re not concerned with them having a bunch of facts stored up in their brains?
Need to know the 18th president of the U.S.? Look it up. The chemical formula for salt? Look it up. The fourth amendment to the Constitution, the capital of Utah, the names of the allied countries during World War II, how to figure the circumference of a circle, the meaning of laissez-faire, the definition of inflation? Look it up, look it up, look it up.
The problem with maintaining so much empty brain space is that you end up with no tools with which to think. It takes a lot of knowledge, including “facts and figures,” to think – that is to reason and judge and gain wisdom and understanding.
By way of example, the typical homeschooler would never apply the “as long as they know where to look it up” philosophy to the study of the Bible: “As long as my child knows how to use a concordance, I’m not worried about how many biblical facts he has stored up in his brain.” The child who knows not only the stories of the Bible but can turn to them instantly, who knows the order of the books of the Bible and endless facts about them, who has committed to memory a host of verses, is a child well-equipped to think rightly about his faith and about how he ought to live. He is the child prepared, when the occasion demands it, to apply his brain to difficulties, to make connections, to lead and not to follow.
The same applies to general knowledge. Look around. Those who know the most, who have the best vocabularies, who have accumulated the most “facts,” tend to be the best thinkers – and the leaders. The rest follow.
Here’s the hitch, though – knowledge must be whole. Knowledge out of context is merely information. You may be able to spout off the main provisions of the Monroe Doctrine, because you learned them in school and had to know them for a test, but unless you understand the meaning of the doctrine within the context of its times and history, you don’t have much to work with.
There’s a reason to accumulate knowledge – in order to think more clearly, more deeply, more rightly. Contextual knowledge is the main tool for doing this. It’s not the only tool, but without it, we are intellectually weak – and practically, morally and spiritually vulnerable.
Tammy Drennan has homeschooled and helped others start homeschooling for 23 years. Her web sites and blogs include: www.homeschoolstarter.com and www.educationconversation.wordpress.com.
- Home Where They Belong
