Reply to High school senior daughter asked me "What's the point of all this?"

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "High school senior daughter asked me "What's the point of all this?""

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Stanley Hauerwas wrote a beautiful piece in the magazine First Things back in 2010 for Christian students heading off to college. That's its primary point of view, but the following resonates for everyone, I think:

"To be a student is a calling. Your parents are setting up accounts to pay the bills, or you are scraping together your own resources and taking out loans, or a scholarship is making college possible. Whatever the practical source, the end result is the same. You are privileged to enter a time—four years!—during which your main job is to listen to lectures, attend seminars, go to labs, and read books.

It is an extraordinary gift. In a world of deep injustice and violence, a people exists that thinks some can be given time to study."

The problems of the world are huge, and we want our children to learn empathy, argument, reason, and knowledge, to be able to solve the big problems and to be of service to one another in our communities. That's the point. And she can do it anywhere, not just at Penn or Duke. (Though if she goes to Duke, she should find an excuse to take a class with Hauerwas!)

Full article here if anyone is interested: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2010/10/go-with-god.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics