The Agincourt Project
When I was finishing up college I was given a grant by my school to write what I called "The Agincourt Project" (Agincourt).
The concept was that high school students were increasingly disengaged from high school studies, and the reason was because we were confining them to a life stage that did not exist.
Adolescence--I claimed--was a construct of Western civilization, and that all of the physical changes associated with functional adulthood were finite, yet we assigned adolescence to a twelve year transitional period. We take potential world changers with imagination and inquisitive minds and tell them to wash up and do their homework. In the church it's even worse--the virtues that we reward (implicitly or explicitly) are obedience, chastity, and study. A kid can act with fantastic courage, true moral or ethical conviction on an array of issues, and great kindness and be unrewarded.
We lift up the quiet kid who knows the Bible and doesn't get laid.
That being said, I think we need both, because study is critical, obedience is necessary, and messing up sex can wreck someone's heart, but I still think that we lift up the wrong stuff.
Lifting up the amazing potential of who God made us to be calls us to greatness.
The cure for moral weakness is not pure obedience, it's an understanding of what we're made for and living that way. Great challenge calls out great humans.
This concept, written in a more academic and more secular way, was the philosophical basis for Agincourt.
The next step was to figure out something important to do--in the case of Agincourt the task was pretty big--save the world.
Again, challenge calls forth excellence.
As Agincourt is a passion in my heart I will write about it some more later, but I tucked in my wife and I want to go hold her.
Peace--
RAC
The concept was that high school students were increasingly disengaged from high school studies, and the reason was because we were confining them to a life stage that did not exist.
Adolescence--I claimed--was a construct of Western civilization, and that all of the physical changes associated with functional adulthood were finite, yet we assigned adolescence to a twelve year transitional period. We take potential world changers with imagination and inquisitive minds and tell them to wash up and do their homework. In the church it's even worse--the virtues that we reward (implicitly or explicitly) are obedience, chastity, and study. A kid can act with fantastic courage, true moral or ethical conviction on an array of issues, and great kindness and be unrewarded.
We lift up the quiet kid who knows the Bible and doesn't get laid.
That being said, I think we need both, because study is critical, obedience is necessary, and messing up sex can wreck someone's heart, but I still think that we lift up the wrong stuff.
Lifting up the amazing potential of who God made us to be calls us to greatness.
The cure for moral weakness is not pure obedience, it's an understanding of what we're made for and living that way. Great challenge calls out great humans.
This concept, written in a more academic and more secular way, was the philosophical basis for Agincourt.
The next step was to figure out something important to do--in the case of Agincourt the task was pretty big--save the world.
Again, challenge calls forth excellence.
As Agincourt is a passion in my heart I will write about it some more later, but I tucked in my wife and I want to go hold her.
Peace--
RAC
1 Comments:
Ryan,
Where did the name "Agincourt" come from?
Help me understand the key sentence..."all of the physical changes associated with functional adulthood were finite, yet we assigned adolescence to a twelve year transitional period." Can you rephrase for me...I'm having trouble understanding.
I remember when I was in high school, and each year they would send me to a "leadership camp." Why? I don't know. I don't remember leading stuff much. And at the leadership camp, I learned about team dynamics, effective communication and zip lines. Not courage, moral conviction or ethical conviction...it was a secular program.
Did your work on Agincourt find that so-called "adolescents," if properly challenged, can demonstrate these things proficiently?
Peace,
Justin
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