What we want for schools reveals what we value as a society.
"What's the point of school?" Parents have a stock set of responses,
but the question remains unsettled, even two centuries after the
Prussians invented compulsory education. The Prussian idea of what a
school is for - to mold the populace to serve the state - seems
unacceptable today. In vogue, instead, are slogans like "acquiring
marketable skills" and "realizing your full potential." These ideas
powerfully shape our culture. Ultimately, they boil down to pursuing one
supreme value: individual success in a competitive world.
Schools are a mirror of our society as a whole; what we want for
schools makes plain what and whom we value in our common life. In the
Christian tradition, the life of discipleship is also a school. In this
educational community, under the instruction of our one Teacher, we
learn not to seek empowerment, but to find strength in weakness; not to
out-achieve others, but to serve them; not to pursue our passion, but to
obey a call.
Also in this issue: poetry by Christian Wiman; reviews of new books
by Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris, Francisco Cantú, Leif Enger, Carol
Anderson, Stephanie Land, and Susan Wise Bauer; and art by Margaret
McWethy, Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, Gérard David, Jackie Morris, Gustaf
Tenggren, Sergey Dushkin, Anja Percival, Dmitry Samofalov, Christoph
Wetzel, Sherrie York, Cathleen Rehfield, Pawel Kuczyński, and Jason
Landsel.
Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people
eager to put their faith into action. Each issue brings you in-depth
articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art to help you put
Jesus' message into practice and find common cause with others.
