When there are no apprentices ...

... there are also fewer masters.

In other times and in other cultures, the apprentice system of learning yielded a steady crop of leaders through the generations.

Now we just have distance learning.

An apprentice is someone who learns not by memorizing facts in a book, but by the teacher's quality of life. This is accomplished by the apprentice coming to live with the master, if not in his home, at least in his studio.

The apprentice, in effect, gives up his life to take on (eventually) the kind of life his master lived. Out of this grows greatness.

We forget that many of the paintings attributed to the likes of a Michelangelo or a Leonardo da Vinci were in part executed by their apprentices. The point is that the portions of a great painting done by an apprentice are no different than the portions the master painted.

I love that wonderful scene in the movie Karate Kid: the kid shows up at the master's house ready to do karate...

... and the master tells him to wash his car: No, you don't apply the soap like that; you apply the soap like this. What does swirling a soapy sponge on a car have to do with becoming a karate master?

Everything.

These days I suspect even masters -- which is to say, teachers -- have forgotten the correct way to swirl their sponges.

I think of my friend Sue Lani's post, in which she bewails how legislators are wanting to change the term "kids-at-risk" to "kids-at-hope."

These legislators think they can help society just by labeling children-at-risk with a different word.

But are these legislators willing to take some of these at-risk children into their homes, into their lives? Are they actually willing to do the hard work of mentoring them? I think not. They don't have time for that.

And in their case, it's probably a good thing they don't.

Logos2Go

John 1.38-39 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" "Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.

2 Kings 2.15 Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him opposite them, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.