My wife and I divide and conquer when it comes to homework help with our children. She assists with all of the math and artistic issues. I assist with languages and composition. For the most part, we have been able to work through any questions that have arisen. Over the last two years, however, my middle school son’s homework has become more nuanced and has required me to engage my brain to a greater degree.
The assignments are meant to teach or test reading comprehension. The computer program will provide a short story for the student to read. He or she then must answer a series of questions, based on the text they have just read, from a set of multiple choice answers. Sound simple enough. I have several graduate level degrees and the first time I helped my son with an assignment, I missed the first three questions I answered. I was furious (and more than a little embarrassed). I read and reread the questions and answers again. Each time served to frustrate me a little more. The answers I had chosen were 100% correct based on the text provided. Then I read the instructions again. The instructions clearly stated that the student was to select the MOST CORRECT answer. It wasn’t that my answer was incorrect; it simply wasn’t the most correct answer.
It is very tempting to marry ourselves to a correct answer when we find it to the exclusion of a more correct answer that we may have missed or that may be revealed later.
Let me be clear, I have zero issue with these assignments. To be completely honest, I find them to be very enjoyable. At times, they have become family affairs as all four members of our family debate the merit of one answer over another. These assignments have caused my son to read with a little more focus and to take a little more care when coming to a conclusion. They have served as humbling reminders in my own life. It is very tempting to marry ourselves to a correct answer when we find it to the exclusion of a more correct answer that we may have missed or that may be revealed later.
Finding the right answers in life is often a process. While I believe that there is such a thing as absolute truth, our understanding and application of said truth is, in many ways, relative. Many different factors influence our ability to perceive and parse through the information that is available to us to come to conclusions. Finding the best and most correct answers is a process that begins when we are born and continues until the day we die. It takes careful consideration and frequent re-calibration. It’s not necessarily that what we have been taught or what we have believed was incorrect. It is simply incomplete and in need of growth and development.
It isn’t that we don’t have answers to the questions, it is that our answers are incomplete and need to be reevaluated in light of new information.
One of the great ironies of the information age is that having all of the information has served to create more questions than answers. There is no shortage of questions in our world today. Again, it isn’t that we don’t have answers to the questions, it is that our answers are incomplete and need to be reevaluated in light of new information. We need not fear the big questions that come up in life. Questions are part of the process of growth and maturation when properly engaged. What should concern us are incomplete and incorrect answers.
In 2 Timothy 2:15, it reads, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” In all areas of life, whether middle school English or the faith of an adult and everything in-between, we are constantly in the process of obtaining and applying truth in appropriate ways. This requires a posture of humility and grace. It requires us to acknowledge that we are doing the best we can with what we have, with a willingness to admit when we discover better. Questions will come and it is up to us to do the difficult work of discovering the best answers.
