I read this on the wall in the library at Planet Word DC today:
“If librarians were honest, they wouldn’t smile, or act welcoming. They would say, You need to be careful. Here be monsters. They would say, These rooms house heathens and heretics, murderers and maniacs, the deluded, desperate, and dissolute. …. If librarians were honest, they would say, No one spends time here without being changed. Maybe you should go home. While you still can.”
First of all, I highly recommend this museum of words. The founder, Ann Friedman, was inspired by the National Museum of Mathematics in New York. She comes from a political perspective very different from mine. But, she and the museum have accurately understood the power of words.
As we worked through the place, housed in the very historic Franklin School building, I could not help but think that not only are words powerful, but so are schools. Christians need to think about what they are reading and where their children go to school. Maybe you SHOULD go home, that is go home if you have not even trained your child for the world he is about to encounter. Send your son or daughter to a school that actually teaches children how to read and think like Christians. Yes, read. Yes, go beyond trying to personally teach your child every single thing he needs without employing anyone else to help. But…have the right Christians training him.
You see, nobody goes to school without being changed. A teacher is supposed to make sure that change is a good change. How can a teacher do this when he’s prohibited from explaining the difference between Jesus and a false prophet? How can an instructor help raise your child in an officially pluralistic, government run, public school where he’s not allowed to accurately contrast the Gospel of Jesus Christ and some false religion?
You see books are dangerous. Learning is dangerous. You DO need to be careful.
Don’t avoid books or schools or the wide world God gave us. But, take the danger seriously. Our kids need a lot more Christian training than we think!
We are people of the Word. Jesus is the Word. God created the universe with Words. Kudos to Planet Word for understanding the centrality of language.
Wonderful Day. I highly recommend you tour this place. Kids had a great time, worked hard, ate and wrestled in Franklin Park.
