[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]If your family is anything like our family, it’s been a minute since you had a solid morning routine. (Okay, okay – For those of you who know the Knoblochs, you know from previous years’ school drop-offs that morning routine has never been our forte.) But this year especially, after so many months without much of one, we are welcoming morning routines and more-structured days.
We are excited to see old friends and welcome new families into the Academy community, and to start this school year with the hope of getting back a sense of normalcy that has been missing for quite awhile now. But, going back to school is also the first time since March that we will enter back into society in a significant way. What felt normal last year feels much different this year, and “opening up” to school has caused some anxiety in our house. Going back to school is a welcome change for us and yet, we face new uncertainties even as we go back to what we know.
Growing Through Uncertainty
“Opening up” can be like that, can’t it? Whether opening up our homes to new, not-quite-yet friends or opening up to new experiences that take us outside our comfort zone, welcoming change almost always invites uncertainty to the party as well. It takes courage to grow through uncertainty.
In some ways, the unknowns of this year make everything feel different. And yet, in many ways, unknowns are nothing new. We have been growing through uncertainty every day of our lives since we were born. In fact, we have a name for this process; it’s called “learning.” Learning is essentially a welcoming of the new and unknown, day after day.
Training Minds Through Uncertainty
Albert Einstein said, “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of minds to think.” Education, especially classical education, is the ongoing process of learning how to approach uncertainty and change. We first learn phonics in order to sound out unfamiliar words. We memorize basic math facts to help us later solve more complex problems. Throughout all our students are learning, we are teaching them to ask the question: How do I take what I know and use it to understand this new thing that I don’t know?
This continual process of learning doesn’t rid our lives of uncertainty. If anything, the more we learn, the more uncertainties are revealed. Effective education – this training of our minds to think – often causes us to think of more questions.
Christ-Centered Learning Offers Certainty
This is where the Academy’s Christ-centered perspective of learning – one that acknowledges Christ before, through, and in all things – proves powerfully grounding. In Christ, our students can find certainty even in the midst of all that is unknown. As they study the Bible, as they use science to better understand God’s creation, as they wrestle with questions of the human experience in literature and history, the solid thread of Truth permeates and connects it all together. “For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17). Christ provides certainty in a world of unknowns.
This new school year, while it might be a welcome change for many families’ routines, also presents some uncertainty. But most certainly, we are not facing this alone. We welcome Christ in our midst for another year of learning in new and previously unknown ways, how He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
