What's the Purpose of a Classroom?
Learning That's Courageous, Curious, Contagious
My social media feed filled with bleary-eyed kids on front porches holding miniature chalk boards and new lunch boxes tells me it’s back-to-school season. As students and teachers head back to the classroom, now’s as good a time as ever to think about what’s happening in there. I mean, really? What is the purpose of a classroom?
Think about other places: a kitchen, a field, a bedroom, a patio, a garden. A place’s purpose becomes pretty obvious based on the things that fill it. You don’t find an oven, stovetop, and sink in the middle of a gym court; you find a hoop, painted lines, and balls—because the purpose of a court is basketball, not baking.
So what do you find in a classroom? I guess the answer to that question varies. You might find test tubes and a giant periodic table or a piano and chorus risers or a bust of Socrates. Classrooms come in many shapes and sizes, but every true classroom has two things that never change: teachers and students.
Because the purpose of a classroom is learning.
As we head back to school, I want to encourage teachers and students alike to come back to the heart of learning—learning that’s (1) courageous, (2) curious, and (3) contagious.
There’s a reason why we all get butterflies on the first day of school. It takes courage to learn. You have to humble yourself and admit you don’t know everything. You have to allow someone else to lead you into knowledge and concepts and truths where you’ve never been. It takes courage to face your failures, to encounter perspectives new and strange, to endeavor to conquer tests, finish essays, and face your peers.
And courage isn’t just for students. The learning process requires courageous teachers too. Before every first day of school I sit in my classroom with the lights off afraid that I forgot how to teach over the summer. No joke. Teachers have to lead unsure and unsteady followers into the unknown, and that kind of leadership always takes courage. It also falls to them to bolster the fortitude of those behind: “Be strong and courageous, do not be terrified, do not be dismayed!”
Learning also requires a curious attentiveness, eyes that are able “to look the world back into grace,” as Robert Capon puts it. Consider the violin: “How much curious and loving attention was expended by the first man who looked hard enough at the inside of trees, the entrails of cats, the hind ends of horses and the juice of pine trees to realize he could turn them all into the first fiddle.” Progress in the classroom requires a loving pursuit of the created world—and the Creator.
In the end, this chase after truth, goodness, and beauty inevitably proves contagious. Learning has a kind of bandwagoning effect. When a few are in hot pursuit, it drags the rest along. When some are in the midst of real discovery, the others can’t help but peer in too.
Consider the kitchen. All it takes is the sound of sizzle and the smell of a few chopped onions in a buttered pan to draw all the children to the counter. It takes effort to fend them off from grabbing stools and spoons, putting their noses into pots, and wanting to help. Because time with a teacher who delights in what is good is what students long for and the taste of truth is too strong an elixir for them to resist.
The Hearth in Washington, PA!
I’m headed back to the classroom soon, but in a new location! If you’ve been following us for any length of time, you know the Ashbys have moved to Washington, PA, to start The Oaks Academy, a Christian, classically-minded, college prep school.
We are soft-launching our educational efforts with The Hearth this fall, where I will be offering Algebra I and Literature & Composition to 8th and 9th graders. We are so excited about the students and families that have already gathered with us, and we are prayerful and hopeful about the future of Christian education in Washington County!
Pray for us, and consider how the Lord might use you to help us in the coming years. Who knows, maybe you are meant to teach at The Oaks Academy? Maybe to send your students there? Or maybe you are meant to give?
Find out more about The Hearth and The Oaks Academy here:
And always feel free to reach out to us with ideas on how you can support us!