Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone. Thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch and in today's episode, we're asking the question, who is forming our kids? This is prompted by a troubling article I read recently in the New York Times about how American children are increasingly unwell and that school could be part of the problem. Look, if you're paying attention to the national news, and I understand if you're not, but if you are, you'll know that education's a huge problem in our country right now. Just about every key metric says that we're getting worse at it, not better, and that that trend has been going on for a long time. And one of the most troubling places you can look is how unhealthy American children are. Like for example, one in four Americans, who are 17 year old boys have, ADHD. One in four, 25% autism diagnoses have skyrocketed to one in 2,500 children in the 80s to now one in 31 children today. Also troubling anxiety is found in 32% of adolescents. Our kids are not doing well. And what this article was exploring is that the emphasis that schools have been placing, really going all the way back to kind of no Child Left behind in the George W. Bush administration, is that testing is what's driving American school systems. The way we know kids are doing well is test scores. We are a performance-obsessed culture when it comes to education. And the question that's being asked is, is that fueling anxiety? In addition to that, parents who are worried about their children's test scores or, you know, if their kids are struggling to keep up are not asking, hey, maybe this system is not good for my kids, but instead are saying, perhaps maybe they have a learning disability. And as a result, diagnosis are going up. Because a diagnosis will result in a modification of the educational plan. And look, sometimes those diagnoses are legitimate, of course, but no one ever stops and says, well, maybe we should have just modified the educational plan from the beginning. Even national trends looking at things like kindergarten will show that play is increasingly being de-emphasized, with recess and free time being stripped back in favor of performance, which most sociologists will say isn't even congruent with human rhythms. As a result, many parents are starting to think about whether or not traditional school is even the best option for their kids. They're looking into homeschooling and private school at increased rates I think this is a spiritual problem more than it is an educational problem. I think it's an educational problem. But they say if all you have is a hammer, everything's a nail. I'm not an educational expert, but I am a pastor, and I can't help but think of a proverb here from Proverbs 4. 23, which says this above all else, guard your heart, for from it flow the springs of life. The idea here is, what I believe to be true about myself, what I believe to be true about the world, will ultimately be the single most determining factor for how I live and move in it. if we're raising kids to think that their real value is in their ability to perform academically, if we're raising children to believe that their prospects in life are anchored almost exclusively to academic performance, then it isn't any surprise that we're raising anxious, troubled children. Well, of course not. If you grow up in an environment that is telling you perform, perform, perform, perform, you're going to be anxious. By the way, that's not even just true academically. That is true athletically. I mean, I know this. Coaching sports at the youth level is that even at an early age, parents are pushing their kids to specialize, pick a sport, play in multiple travel teams, go to skills camp. Because the message to our children is real value is found in being the A student. And if you can't be the A student, the star athlete. And if you can't be the star athlete, the great performer in theater or band. And what we really want, and what they know we want is for them to be all of those things. And when you make achievement the end goal of life, you get anxious, struggling, depressed children. So parents, grandparents, coaches, teachers, listen, the number one thing that matters for a student is not their academic performance or their athletic performance or their musical performance. The number one thing that matters is they know how valuable they are without ever doing anything. They're made in the image of God. They're loved by God, in fact, so much that God sent his own son to live and die in their place. That's the message kids need to be hearing. Look, we want to be as good a student as we can, as good as an athlete as we can. But we want to do it for the glory of God, knowing that. That even if we fail, our value is absolute. Christian parents should be raising kids who are free from the treadmill and the tyranny of, performance. And I know you might be thinking, well, then, Zach, if I set a kid free what if he never gets into a good school? What if he never gets a good job? But last time I checked, God is sovereign. The hope of our kids future is not their performance. It's the goodness of God. And by the way, free kids, kids free of anxiety and depression tend to actually perform better because they don't need it. They do it because they want it. Listen, we are increasingly creating a toxic environment for children. Their anxiety, their depression. It is our fault. We've got to set ourselves free and them free from performance culture. Our value is in God, not in what we do. And if that's what's in our heart, hearts, life will start coming out instead of whatever it is we're doing now. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!