Google, Alexa, and Siri are just some examples of technologies we have at our finger tips to search for answers to our questions. Information is so easy to find and it is conveniently is all around. When is the last time you had to go searching for answers in a dictionary or other book for answers? I am teaching a dictionary skills class to a fourth grader and at the beginning it was coming across as a foreign language because it was so different to what she is used to. This lead me to ponder, when answers are easy to find, how hard is it to discover the truth?
I have younger siblings and one received his news from Snapchat and the other from Instagram. Yet in the age of bias and controversy, how reliable are the headlines found here? The news will often have to retract stories from these headlines, but funnily enough this never makes the same headlines. Misinformation is prevalent in a society that has forgotten how to search for the truth.
You may be asking yourself, why is this a topic I have chosen to write about on a blog dedicated to a teacher writing to parents? Because this skill of finding the truth does not come naturally. This skill must be taught by parents and teachers. Parents, think about your child’s teacher. There are so many great teachers in the world, but I would caution you to let them be the only one to teach your child about how to seek the truth. If this skill is not taught at home then what your child learns at school is the only tool your child will know.
This topic has been on my heart for several weeks, yet I have hesitated because I know it has the potential to be divisive, however, our children’s future is to important to stay silent on.
I remember going to college and sitting in classes of very learned professors who were well taught on their craft. In particular I remember sitting in a honors Bible class with a very intelligent and well spoken professor and being interested in what he was saying. I also noticed however that he did not allow questions that opposed his views, as he was the one who has researched more so his word is law. So many of my classmates took his word as such because of how well spoken he was on the topic yet I remember disagreeing on certain points but being too hesitant to speak up. So many of my classmates were swayed because they did not have the skills or solid foundation of searching for the truth so they let the professors truth become their own. I am thankful to both my parents and teachers who taught me to never stop questioning what I was taught and also gave me the tools to search for the truth so I was able to solidly build my own foundation of what is true instead of using someone else.
When I teach my students I tell them all the time to talk to their parents about our lessons and to continue studying for themselves; to never stop asking questions. There is a scripture I constantly come back to which is Mark 9:42, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”
Our jobs is not to give children the answers to life. Instead we must help them discover where to look and how to ask the right questions. If we can do this we raise a generation of truth seekers as opposed to a generation swayed by whoever shouts the loudest.