They keep on doing their survival dance, because no one has
told them about their sacred dance. (Falling Upward Richard Rohr P14)
One of the factors in my inability to express my christian faith in a public arena is fear of misinterpretation. I don't want the interpretation of labels: catholic, protestant or fundamentalist. I desire for people to "listen to my intent" not just re-contextualize the "words". I am just finishing a re-draft of a Chem II college lab curriculum. It struck me how much interplay there was between the theoretical underpinnings of chemistry and the performance of lab activities. Students need some theory to understand the lab but once they perform the lab, they add (hopefully?) to their broader understanding of Chemistry. This process of re-contextualization is, I believe, one of the keys to learning. However, what I believe real education rests upon is the ability to see into one's own re-contextualization. A mature student realizes not just the fact that more knowledge was gained but that different contexts provide nuanced interpretations of knowledge. Public education it seems has codified its opposition to religion in separation of church and state mantras. It has set up a context . Unfortunately, it's unaware of its context. Yet on the outside millions of people go about doing the experiment of integrating thought and spiritual life . This estrangement may in part have come about because many of us in education are worried about being misinterpreted. Hence, students proceed as if there is no experiment necessary or even see that there is an experimental model. We in public education have decided the context and the tune of the dance. Does "public" have to mean "secular" in its narrowest sense? Is there no room for soul in the machine of education? I thought the goal of education was to teach us dance? Does the dance have to be so robotic?
