THE TEACHER WAS WRONG

One of my sons wrote a test at school when I was a student at a seminary. We were living in a students’ hostel in a room and parlour apartment. My son’s teacher asked the class to itemize things that are found in a bedroom. My son listed books among other things, but his teacher marked him wrong.

When he came home, he looked at the books in our bedroom and informed me that his teacher rejected his answer that books are in a bedroom. Unknown to the teacher, there was a bookshelf with books in our bedroom and our son was aware of that. As far as that knowledge is concerned, my son was right, his teacher was wrong. Maybe the teacher had read some books written by people who had extra rooms or home libraries, where books are not kept in their bedrooms.

This raises the questions, who knows what is right and who doesn’t? Whose ideas need to function on the global stage and whose does not? My answer is simple. Everybody should have equal opportunities to flourish. An egg of an idea can come from Africa and be fertilized by an idea from the West and vice versa.

Daniel Trautmann gave me a gift of a book in Chicago. He handwrote a message in it that is relevant, “Dear friend and brother. The gospel of Jesus Christ is so rich no one culture can express it fully. Thank you for your serious work to express the glory of God from an African perspective. I have much to learn from the Church in Africa.”