Ecclesiastes Junior University

Why do we work? – Answer-

Why do we need money? –Answer-

Why do we need food, shelter, and health? –Answer-

Why do we need to survive? –Answer-

Why do we believe we have a purpose? –Answer-

This is called the “Why Game”. No, it is not a technical economic term so I guess you can call it whatever you like. You may even feel led to call it crap, but I believe it zeroes in on the same conclusion as the author of Ecclesiastes.

For the bulk of the book of Ecclesiastes the author asks the question “why?” and it often develops the feel of an IB TOK (Theory of Knowledge) course; somebody gets fed up with the philosophical argument of the day and sounds off, “It doesn’t matter anyway. We’re all food for worms.” But the weird part about this sentiment is that it can be found in The Bible. Astounding! The word “meaningless” appears 36 times in a search on Bible Gateway, all but one of those included is from Ecclesiastes (the other one is from Job). At the very end, the author springs a trap on us, “Ah-hah”, and his point comes swooping to the fore:

“. . . Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” – Ecclesiastes 12:13

This is to say, the whole duty of man is to love God and to love his neighbor. In that duty we can find meaning. So as Mark points out in “Ecclesiastes U.” our happiness (as viewed by the author of Ecclesiastes) and our demonstrating love to others has little to do with whether we attend the Ivy League or (what some Ivy Leaguers view as) the Inconsequential League. Instead, we find meaning in doing God’s work. There are dueling econometricians on this subject of elite colleges but an indicator often overlooked as being beneficial is close contact. If a student seeks out a faculty member to nurture their talents this is a better indicator of success than them going to a school of any price tag. In later articles we will tackle specifics of education, but the following will be broad strokes, an overview of how we can serve our fellow man.

Education is probably the greatest vehicle for social mobility available today in America and one of the most overlooked areas of compassion. There is no shortage of written material about the failures of education and how we ought to change our institutions, but very little has been written about this incredible benefit of close contact, and I don’t mean reduced class sizes. So, issues of teacher certification, salary, public v. private school, school choice, vouchers, discipline, principal involvement, diversity, funding and all the surrounding issues are not on tap in this article. What I’m more curious about is apprenticeship and mentoring.

A friend of mine cringes when they hear John Mayer’s new song, Waiting on the World to Change. She’s right, let’s not wait on the world to change. Let’s volunteer and be a mentor of some kind. Let’s hope that Teach for America and other educational ideas can have some positive impact but let’s realize too that we can, right now, with minimal red tape, go out and make someone’s educational experience more positively significant. It is good to want to change the education system, maybe someday I’ll be in a position to really make some changes, but instead of simply waiting for the world to change I will be buying a car soon and signing up for Big Brother, Big Sister. Couch Surfing would dub this Adventure Economics because I have no idea where this sign up will lead me to, but I know it will be good.