No Time to Think
Daniel Arnold, who is a junior in high school, would like to attend one of the nation’s top universities. Being highly motivated, he set out to find out what a high school student has to do to gain admission to such a university. What he discovered is the subject of an article he wrote (“Why Isn’t Just Thinking Rewarded?” The Los Angeles Times, 11/27/04).
To get into a top university, he takes every honors course available, attends every class, reads every assignment, works every physics problem, and writes and rewrites every English essay. On top of that, he mentors math students, participates in sports, enters math and science competitions, interns with a civil rights attorney, and gets high scores on the SAT I and II. He also donates hours to help get out the vote, cares for the needy, and nurtures the poor. According to Arnold, universities seem to consider good grades, high SAT scores, and community service just par for the course.
Arnold has a complaint. His objection is not that the expectations are too high. His protest is that today’s high school students are so busy that they do not have time to think. He means “deep thinking,” that is, “puzzling over a question until a glimmer of the answer appears.”
This realization hit him when he was sitting in front of his computer just thinking. He says that he felt guilty that he was thinking and not doing. He also noted that he can put on a college application that he had 500 hours of community service or 50 hours mentoring math students, but that he would not get credit for just thinking.
This Carlsbad, California high school student asks, “Didn’t Einstein have to just think for hours on end?” He also points out, “College professors say their students do not know how to think critically.” He then asks, “How can they think critically, before they have learned how to formulate good questions, and then spend hours trying to answer them?”
Arnold concludes his article by saying, “Good ideas are grown in the garden of the human mind. And thinking is the water that makes that garden grow.”
As I read his article, I thought, “You may not get credit for thinking on a university application, but the Scripture puts a premium on meditation, good old thinking!” Consider Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2, 63:6, 77:12, 119:15, 119:23, 119:48, 119:78, 119:148, 143:5, and Philippians. 4:8.
Like Arnold, our lives are so crowded with things to do that we do not have time to think. We need to unload some of the baggage so that we can read the Scripture long enough and deep enough until we can “formulate good questions, and spend hours trying to answer them.” Thinking deeply about God’s thoughts is the water that makes the spiritual life grow.
© G. Michael Cocoris, 2/72005
To get into a top university, he takes every honors course available, attends every class, reads every assignment, works every physics problem, and writes and rewrites every English essay. On top of that, he mentors math students, participates in sports, enters math and science competitions, interns with a civil rights attorney, and gets high scores on the SAT I and II. He also donates hours to help get out the vote, cares for the needy, and nurtures the poor. According to Arnold, universities seem to consider good grades, high SAT scores, and community service just par for the course.
Arnold has a complaint. His objection is not that the expectations are too high. His protest is that today’s high school students are so busy that they do not have time to think. He means “deep thinking,” that is, “puzzling over a question until a glimmer of the answer appears.”
This realization hit him when he was sitting in front of his computer just thinking. He says that he felt guilty that he was thinking and not doing. He also noted that he can put on a college application that he had 500 hours of community service or 50 hours mentoring math students, but that he would not get credit for just thinking.
This Carlsbad, California high school student asks, “Didn’t Einstein have to just think for hours on end?” He also points out, “College professors say their students do not know how to think critically.” He then asks, “How can they think critically, before they have learned how to formulate good questions, and then spend hours trying to answer them?”
Arnold concludes his article by saying, “Good ideas are grown in the garden of the human mind. And thinking is the water that makes that garden grow.”
As I read his article, I thought, “You may not get credit for thinking on a university application, but the Scripture puts a premium on meditation, good old thinking!” Consider Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2, 63:6, 77:12, 119:15, 119:23, 119:48, 119:78, 119:148, 143:5, and Philippians. 4:8.
Like Arnold, our lives are so crowded with things to do that we do not have time to think. We need to unload some of the baggage so that we can read the Scripture long enough and deep enough until we can “formulate good questions, and spend hours trying to answer them.” Thinking deeply about God’s thoughts is the water that makes the spiritual life grow.
© G. Michael Cocoris, 2/72005
