In the last few weeks, educational institutions at all levels have announced their plans for students to return, or not return, to in-person instruction, remote learning options, or some hybrid of the two. And all over America parents of school-aged kids are either cringing or celebrating.
It’s the same for college students. Confused, crying, or singing. It all depends on what their institution decided to do this fall. Stay home and receive instruction remotely, come back, or something in between.
With the options now disclosed, some parents shudder at the idea of remote learning starting again in the fall. But others are embracing the notion of homeschooling or, faced with reality, are even trying to improve before the fall begins.
But if you shift back to remote learning, remember that online education carries with it three particular pitfalls. These same pitfalls exist in the traditional classroom, but the characteristics of remote learning heighten the likelihood that students, peers, and parents can overlook these problems and forge ahead without considering them in the process. Why should this matter to you? Because each of these pitfalls represent issues in direct conflict with a Christian worldview, making them especially relevant to Christian students and their parents.
And these pitfalls pertain to online education at all ages and stages, from grade school to grad school. So as you return to remote learning, guard against these three pitfalls:
- Pitfall #1: Assuming that information is the same thing as knowledge.
It’s not. In our internet-driven culture, information and data are king. And data is rapidly available at the click of a mouse or the tap of a button. This is both a privilege and a problem.
It’s a privilege because of the mountains of useful and helpful information available to anyone anywhere with a smart phone. We can easily and swiftly find answers to hard Bible questions, helpful medical information, sound advice, various perspectives, weather reports—the list is infinite—just by a quick search.
But this availability has duped us into conflating information with knowledge. To “Google” something, we believe, is to gain knowledge. And that’s the problem of online access. We are not interested in taking the time to gain knowledge before we tweet or post. We just grab information we think is true and send it out in bursts of data.
So students are prone to perform a quick cyber mining operation and assume that they know something simply because they have acquired information. Information is good in many ways, but information divorced from its context or from truth is unhelpful and even dangerous. Information does not produce knowledge (Prov. 15:14). Instead, information must always be interpreted, and data should be contextualized and applied with knowledge and wisdom.
The Bible acknowledges the need for information, but praises knowledge (Prov. 2:10, 8:10, 18:15). Gaining knowledge requires discipline, reflection, interpretation, and application. Remember that just because a student accumulates information doesn’t mean that she has gained knowledge. Real learning comes from the application of knowledge and the growth of wisdom, and it begins always with knowledge of God and His truth (Hosea 6:6, James 1:5).
- Pitfall #2: Forgetting that the best learning takes place in relationships.
Solitude is important, and at times essential for processing knowledge and producing wisdom. But God wired us for relationships (Gen. 2:18). Schools shutting down during the Covid crisis left a gap in the learning experience.
On July 31 USA Today reported that, after several weeks of distancing and remote learning, “many students missed their friends, yearned to be out of the house, developed erratic sleep habits and drove their (often working) parents crazy. On top of that, many were dealing with the trauma of sick or dying family members, economic hardship and disruption to the life they once had.” In addition, “As the pandemic drags on, it’s clear that not all kids are all right. Nearly 3 in 10 parents said their child is experiencing emotional or mental harm because of social distancing and school closures, according to a nationwide Gallup poll in June.”
However you interpret that information, it is certainly evidence that people, at every age, learn better in relationships. That’s why Jesus, history’s greatest teacher, pulled together twelve men and mentored them in personal relationships (Luke 6:12-16).
Critics of homeschooling frequently argue that it isolates students and deprives them of socialization and healthy relationships with their peers (see here). But, in fact, homeschooling parents intentionally build instructional communities. Parents often combine their resources into cohorts, associations, or organizations that foster communities of learning, sports, socialization, field trips—you name it.
On the other hand, parents who are accustomed to dropping off their kids and letting the school handle the integration of socialization and learning have suddenly been called upon to find intentional ways to make it happen.
And don’t forget the teachers. If your child is an engaged learner, he flourishes under the personal, relational instruction of a qualified, gifted, and engaging teacher or professor. And those teachers miss your kids. They didn’t choose this profession so they could clean classrooms and email information. They became teachers because seeing a student have an ah-ha moment is the highlight of their day.
So the key is to be intentional. As much as possible, stay in the mix, stay connected, and help your child do the same (Prov. 21:5).
- Pitfall #3: Ignoring the temptation to take short cuts.
Remote learning feeds one of the worst inclinations of sinful human beings—taking short cuts to avoid hard work (James 4:17, Col. 3:23). When your child has an assignment and is in a rush to get finished, so he can see friends or watch TV or whatever, he’ll look for ways to find data fast and grab any information that meets the requirement. And the internet is more than willing to accommodate.
Sadly, the explosion of online education has not only made data more accessible, it has made cheating more prevalent. When no one is looking over your shoulder, and you are pressed by deadlines, it’s easy to justify downloading someone else’s work rather than doing it yourself. Kids learn this early.
Not only is this unethical, it also hollows out the hard work that leads to real learning. Don’t let your child fall into this trap. College students especially must be vigilant. The freedom that comes with being an adult also comes with the pressures to perform. Personal accountability is essential (Prov. 4:23).
Parents can combat this tendency by being alert. Monitor your child’s assignments and make sure they are doing the real work. Remember, just because they get a grade doesn’t mean they learned anything.
But the best way to help your child do their own work and turn learning into knowledge is to take it seriously for yourself. Be a role model (Phil. 4:9). Behave as you want your child to behave, respect knowledge over information, refuse to take short cuts to get what you want, and encourage them to do the hard work that it takes to learn.
The mind of the discerning acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks it.
Prov. 18:15