It was announced this week that schools in Ontario are now closed until September, at least, due to Covid19. All school kids across Ontario are not able to return to their classrooms. Graduations cancelled. Track and Field meets cancelled. School trips and end of years events cancelled. And parents trying to help kids stay engaged and active without even the benefits of social activities to provide diversions. But it is about more that keeping them busy it is trying to instill some learning as the days have stretched into weeks and now months.
Educating on line is a great thing – but it is second best to being with the teacher and other students to learn together. I know whereof I speak! In the past I have attended the Festival of Homiletics. It is a grand gathering of preachers who spend a week listening to sermons and to lectures about sermons. It is a wonderful time for ministers to learn and to reflect together about life in ministry in general and preaching in particular. This year, like most other events, the Festival, which was to have been this week, was cancelled. Instead of gathering with hundreds of other ministers we all sat in front of our computer screens and listened to these amazing speakers and preachers through the flickering blue light. It was wonderful that the organizers acted so quickly so as to launch it online. It is wonderful that we have the technology to experience it this way. It is better to have this than to have nothing. BUT, it is just not the same as standing in a sanctuary with 100’s of other people and singing hymns together. It is not the same as hearing the collected voices of people saying the Lord’s Prayer together. It is not the same as striking up a conversation with someone about what we just heard and engaging in spirit filled conversation about the art of preaching.
So that makes me think of all the kids who are trying to learn something while desperately missing their teachers and their classmates. And their parents who have to watch them cope with their sorrow and loss. It is not only the loss of routine and the loss of having a skilled educator impart knowledge it is also the learning together that enriches the experience of all. Computers can do so much but there is nothing like the shared learning and the aha moments with others engaged in the learning process.
I think we can draw some parallels here to Jesus collecting a community around him. Jesus did not teach one other person – he taught a whole group. Several of the stories from the Gospels recount the conversation (maybe bickering) among the disciples as they worked through what it was that Jesus was teaching them. It was in group encounters that they learned of the parables and the seemingly new about the Kingdom of God. They did this in face-to-face learning and in conversation.
I know we are all trying our best to make do in this Covid time but let’s also take a bit of time to lament and grieve the losses not only for ourselves but also for our kids. My week of on-line learning has been good, but also limited in its depth, just because I was listening and reflecting all by myself in my dining room. I learn better when I can talk it over with others.
