Gearing Up for Back to School

Across the nation, students and parents are preparing for the beginning of the school year or have just begun the academic calendar year.

This time is often chaotic and includes the explosion of the fast-paced schedule of family life. There are assignments to guide our children through for homework as well as back to school nights and countless activities and sports sessions to drive them to. Through it all, parents and kids can feel stressed and crazed. 

What is all of this for, we might ask?

The beginning of the school year is a great opportunity to reflect on the reason for school. 

First, what is the point of an education?

The English word education comes from the Latin word educare which means “to lead out or bring forth.” 

Education is meant to lead and bring a student somewhere intellectually and formatively where he was not before. The person is led to the truth and becomes good. He ought to gain knowledge about the true causes of things as well as grow in the formation of virtue.

The true goal of education is the formation in virtue and human flourishing. Learning is not about the memorization of material nor is it simply a process that involves the delivery of content from teacher to pupil. Education’s goal is to bring one to encounter the true, the good and the beautiful so that one can live in the true, become good, and lead a beautiful life. This means that education is a formation of the entire person. 

The goal of education is tied to the nature of the human person. Human beings are body and soul. We have reason and free will. We become good by knowing the truth and by acting towards the good. 

Something is good for human beings if it fulfills our nature. Therefore, the most important question for educators is not whether the material learned is “useful” or will help the student get a job one day. Rather, schooling must be concerned with how curriculum and school culture forms young men and women into good people. 

To be good is to be able to think well. To reason toward what is good, not just toward what is beneficial for one’s own needs. To be good is to act well. To use one’s freedom, not to do whatever one wants but to do what we ought. For freedom that is focused on unhindered liberty is enslavement to one’s desires. Freedom oriented towards sacrifice and virtue liberates one beyond his or her passions to serve the common good.

Second, the beginning of the school year ought to bring us to ask how we remain composed during the chaotic nature of the school year?

So many parents complain and are exhausted by the routine of life. Parents are shuttle services between activities, and it all can be perceived as overwhelming. Parents spend less time with their kids and rarely eat together as a family. They may go out to eat but everyone is fixated on their phones rather than talking to one another.

The race of school, sports, and activities can be healthy and formative for students. 

However, it must be tamed by prudent decision-making from parents. Is there time for the family to breathe? Is there built in opportunities for the entire family to simply enjoy each other’s presence or is the family unit divided by sports every single day of the week?

 There are two great remedies to the chaotic schedules of the American family. 

First, prioritize meals. 

This is not just about physically sitting with each other but even cooking together. Finding time to eat dinner together and prepare meals forces communication and grows intimacy between family members. Remove phones from the equation and communicate with each other. This will organically make the to-do list of school and sports more manageable.

Second, be devoted to Sunday worship. 

This is not merely about what we owe to God. Worship is healthy for the human being and has countless positive impacts on our kids. 

A study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health noted, “Researchers found that people who attended weekly religious services or practiced daily prayer or meditation in their youth reported greater life satisfaction and positivity in their 20s.” 

Attending church makes us more whole because we know that we are deeply loved and cared for. 

That life has an objective meaning and that we are made for relationship. 

Both remedies can serve families across our nation as the school year ramps up. The schedule should not negatively impact our relationship with our kids. We must proactively move towards nurturing them, in and out of the school year.

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