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This is where I will post various bits of information concerning all of the crazy stuff I do. There will be homeschool posts for Classical Conversations. There will be music lesson updates for my private lessons students. There may be information on Heritage Makers specials (online scrapbooking), and other creative outlets I participate in, such as crafting, decorating, and painting. There also might be "normal" blog posts if I get so inspired!







Monday, June 27, 2011

A sad look at our teenage generation

I have been reading (well, attempting to read) the book "Total Truth" by Nancy Pearcey. My book club is reading it, so I am plodding through. I keep telling my husband I am not smart enough to read this book, because it is so jam packed full of information I don't always comprehend. Don 't get me wrong - it is an amazing book! I have just learned that I need to take it in little doses, and "chew" on them awhile before I read on. Basically, it is a book about developing a true Biblical worldview, and how so many Christians do not really have one, and why that is, and what the dangers in that truly are.
She says that "the danger is that if Christians do not consciously develop a biblical approach to a subject, (ex. biology, ethics, law, etc...) then we will unconsciously absorb some other philosophical approach.' This usually involves gradually letting ideas creep in that are in reality totally non-biblical. Christians also often "segment" their lives into the "church" activities and then everything else - school, jobs, etc... We don't know how to integrate our faith INTO all other areas of our lives.
Pearcey then takes a detailed look at Darwin and the "theory" of evolution (which really isn't even a theory by the way), and secular humanism, and how they have impacted nearly every aspect of society. It is really fascinating, yet terrifying. Again, this book is really technical with really complicated words that sound like they are from the National Spelling Bee, so I feel much smarter after each chapter. She discusses how if we teach in schools that you come from nothing, that you are an accident of the cosmos, then how can you possibly expect children to have any self-worth whatsoever? The idea of relativism, that there is no absolute truth, has truly scary implications if taken to it's logical conclusion.
On Saturday afternoon, I watched a video by the Institute for Excellence In Writing. Andrew Puduwa was actually explaining the writing system, but in the process made a few comments that were along the same lines as Pearcey's book. He stated that when God was removed from the public school system, something had to be inserted in God's place. Other 'gods' crept in. The god of 'creativity' over all else is one example. According to relativism, if you were 'true' in your 'creation' of something, no one else can say it's 'wrong'. Oh my. He also said that the reason we "lose" so many teenagers in high school is because the questions that teens most want to ask are "illegal" to talk about in the classroom. The literature they study doesn't ask the questions that they need answered. The way history is studied, (with relativism) makes it impossible to infer any right or wrong. The three things weighing most on adolescent minds? Who am I? Why am I here? What am I supposed to do with my life?" Well, the answers to these questions require absolute truth, which is not permitted and looked at as offensive.
So today I was watching this weekend's episode of the "Glee Project". For those of you who are not aware, I am a gleek, due to the fact I was actually Vice President of my high school glee club, and used to direct my own show choir for many years. I am fully aware that the Fox TV has a LOT of problems, (which I won't get in to now...) but the "Glee Project" on Oxygen is a reality show where 12 teens are competing in a singing contest to win a guest spot on Glee on Fox. I love singing competions, so I am hooked. Well, this week they were working on "vulnerability" in their music. They were going to perform the song "Mad World" and they had to write a word on a big poster tied to them that descibes them. Then they had to walk around Universal's Citywalk while wearing their sign. I almost cried watching this. The words they wrote: misunderstood, used, gay, anorexic, numb, rejected, fake, and fat. These are the words they picked. And I sat there realizing that the reason they are so lost, is because of the reasons I stated earlier in this post. America is raising a generation of people who believe they came from nothing, and that there is no absolute truth. That IS depressing.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=w2QD879HKWA

1 comment:

  1. Gosh K - you have really gotten to me with this one. I just came back from the practicum in SC and this is one of the things that was really bugging me - that I was not raised with a Biblical Worldview and have been feeling desperate with regards to how I can go about beginning to develop one so that I can then teach to my little fellas that way. Better to start off the right way when they are so young and have not learned otherwise yet - right? I think that once I get my brain around this Latin stuff, this book might be something I need to get my brain into. Any other suggestions? Keep up the awesome work!

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