{Parenting} Shaping a Learning Culture

What kind of culture or environment do we want to create for our child? That’s the question we’re asking ourselves as we prepare for parenthood. So far, we’ve talked about cultivating a God-centered culture.

Another component of the culture we want to create is a learning culture. We believe that all of life is a classroom. Learning isn’t just something that happens at school or at church; learning can and should happen everywhere. “Learners have a hunger for growth.”

But learning isn’t automatic. Unfortunately, we can go through all kinds of life experiences and miss a lot of learning opportunities.

It’s no small thing, we believe, that followers of Jesus are called disciples (i.e. students, learners). Followers of Jesus must be learners throughout their lives. For Christ-followers to continually grow, there must be a learning culture.

Some thoughts on the kinds of learners we want to be and the kind of learner we hope to raise …

Hunger. Learners are curious and have a hunger for growth. They ask questions. They read. They learn from other people and from life experiences.

Creativity. We wrote about creativity in our review of the movie, “The Astronaut Farmer.” Basically, we want to encourage our child’s natural creativity, not stifle it. Most people lose their natural God-given creativity before they reach double-digits. We want to do our best to cultivate and encourage our child’s creativity!

Wisdom. Learners do more than simply gain knowledge, they develop wisdom and discernment (i.e. knowing what to do with information and knowledge). IOW, learners develop the ability to process the information they learn.

Application. Learners apply what they learn. Frankly, knowledge doesn’t do a whole lot of good if it isn’t ever applied or put into practice.

Learning is important, but again, it’s not automatic. For learning to happen, there’s gotta be a learning culture.

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