Memories and Knowledge – What I'm Reading

“Most of what shapes the character of children as they grow will not be consciously remembered. Because we have been well-trained by certain rationalistic methods of education, we think someone doesn’t ‘know’ something unless he can reproduce it on a test. That kind of reproduction is certainly a minor form of knowledge and should not be disparaged. But in the Bible, a far more important aspect of knowledge is much closer to the bone than this. Children learn to speak a language fluently many years before the grammar of the thing is explained to them. A six-year-old child, fluent in English, could easily demonstrate fluency, while that same child would flunk a test about the language. This is an illustration of how children learn wisdom. Let him who is wise understand.” (My Life for Yours, p. 121-122)