The End of Education

 

Terminus, Roman god of boundaries

Terminus is the Latin word for boundaries as well as of the Roman god of them.  A terminus stone marked the end of one person's property and the beginning of another, and a related idea is that of imperium, which is the authority of someone over a particular sphere.  Violations of imperium were quite serious, especially in the realm of the Roman gods, where one deity frequently usurped the authority of another.  In Book 1 of Vergil's Aeneid, for example, Juno, the queen of the gods, wants to persuade the god of the winds, Aeolus, to do her bidding.  She begins by acknowledging that he has the power, given him by Jupiter, to stir up storms and then promises him a proper marriage to a beautiful nymph, something she is entitled to do as the goddess of marriage.  A few lines later, however, Neptune, the god of the sea, becomes enraged when his waters have been churned to a tumult.  Aeolus may indeed have authority over wind, but he does not, as the angered sea deity makes quite clear, possess it over the ocean.

On September 8, 2021, a senseless act of violence took place at the high school where I spent twenty-three years of my career.  North Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a large, public high school of nearly 3,800 students, all of whom were sent home early yesterday because one student stabbed another in a fight.  You can see news coverage of what happened here.

Let us return to the idea of boundaries.  In 1970, The Five Man Electrical Band released a B-side song that the following year became an A-side hit, "Signs."

It reflected the growing spirit of freedom in that era, one that pushed back against boundaries that restricted people from living to their full potential.  In a country built on the idea of vast freedom and freedoms, this was a good thing.  Yet with most good things, the eradication of all boundaries is a step too far.  We need certain boundaries in society.  They provide definition and clarity.  There was a time when we dressed and behaved a certain way at church and then differently when we returned home Sunday afternoon.  We knew that certain types of talk were appropriate in the business place and others at the football game.  There was a common understanding, reinforced by parents and educators alike, of what was acceptable at school and what was not, and although fighting among children and teenagers has never been approved by adults, there was at least the sense among young people that should it occur, it must not take place in a school, for there would be swift and serious consequences.  As Ecclesiastes 3:1 puts it, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven."  It is why Jesus cast the moneychangers out of the temple, a reference I made in another post discussing the difference between the sacred and the profane and what difference that makes in education.

We may never know what led these young men to think that the appropriate next activity in their lives would be to fight inside North Central High School.  We may never know why one of them did not see it as inappropriate to stab his classmate in the halls of his school.  We must, however, work to reinforce with our children proper boundaries in their lives.  School is a place where people learn and grow.  It is place to try, to fail, and to try again.  It is a place to create and produce something new from what has been learned, and because this is true, there are certain behaviors and language that are appropriate within its walls.  Stabbing someone is not among them.