Best Preparation for School?

It’s been a while since we looked at education here at The Sojournal. As mentioned in the past, I am involved in the education system and have a real interest in improving educational outcomes. I’ve commented previously on the train wreck that is the New Zealand education system. Years of intervention seem to have done nothing to stop the slide. Now we have new entrant teachers voicing concern that an increasing number of children are unprepared for school when they arrive. They struggle to ‘concentrate or manage basic tasks like getting ready for lessons’. One teacher lamented that when she began her career she would have all her new entrants reading by the end of the year whereas now she’s trying to get them ‘into the mode of how to behave in a school.’

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Brief Thoughts on the Lay of the Land

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It’s been obvious to all but the most panicked and fearful that the foolishness of the last couple of years has worn itself out. Even apologists for the government’s authoritarian actions earlier in the shamdemic are critiquing the validity of mandates in an omicron environment while still sanctimoniously congratulating themselves on having supported the control health measures, and ‘loved their neighbour’ through their support of state coercion of citizens to be vaccinated. They rest in the self-righteous knowledge that they have helped save New Zealand.

Except that they haven’t. Sure people weren’t dying of covid when we were all locked in our homes for weeks on end and refusing to let people visit our island nation. But what’s happened since the arrival of omicron? Their god the state through its Messiah figure Ardern promised salvation from covid damnation through the sacraments of masks and vaccination. But like all false gods, this one has failed miserably, much to the mirth of the true God (Psalm 2). Only the truly naive and self-deceived can believe that this has all been worth it. Rampant inflation is one of many signs that God is not mocked. Idolatry always ends badly.

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Great Content

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I have been listening to The King’s Hall podcasts over the last few weeks. Thus far the content has been engaging and thought-provoking. Highlights for me have been the critique of the ‘Big, Fast and Famous” evangelical model of church and the podcast devoted to revivalism and decisionism. You can find the episodes listed here. If you want to understand why the Western church is in such a mess, these two episodes are well worth your time.

You can find the aim of the podcasts in the about us section of the website. The King’s Hall exists to make self-ruled men to rule well and win the world. They define a self-ruled man as one who is ruled by the Spirit of God. The ruling well aspect looks at the masculine call to dominion in whatever the Lord calls a man to. The ‘win the world’ aspect defines the Missio Dei (Mission of God) as nothing less than winning the world. There is no truncated gospel with a secular sacred divide here. While aimed at men, I think there is much to recommend the content to women too.