What does education have to do with intimacy?

The goal of education is either performance or intimacy. Intimacy is dependent on true identities - I know who I really am; I know who you really are; In relationship with you, I learn more about who I really am; In relationship with me, you learn more about who you really are. If education is the pursuit of intimacy, it is the pursuit of true identities. We don't see our real selves in mirrors; we see our true selves in the hearts of those closest to us. Because human hearts are often broken, cracked, dull or hardened, we see ourselves less clearly. One Heart invites us to look - and see clearly. The invitation of our Heavenly Father is to come to Him so we can begin to see ourselves more clearly. We have no access to His Holy Heart without Jesus. But Jesus will take us to Our Father; His taking us there is grace. When we bathe in His blood, we get to go to Him and see what He sees. We see ourselves as we were created to be - like Him, in His image. And we see Him, too. He teaches us to see others as He sees them, too. If education is the pursuit of intimacy and true identities, it is the pursuit of God. When education is about performance, performance standards provide our identities. We see ourselves in the mirrors that reflect what we do and we watch closely to see who does things well. Your good performance has a chance to make me "less than"; performance standards destroy intimacy. My identity becomes "honor roll", "special ed", "math wiz", "struggling reader", "gifted and talented", "at risk", "learning disabled". I will either embrace this identity, surrender to it, medicate it, hide from it, or fight it - any choice leaves me continually dealing with it. Like it or not, in institutional education these identities becomes keys that grant me access through certain doors - these doors lead me to rooms where I encounter more and more performance standards. It's like a maze I am convinced I must navigate and the only thing that propels me forward and gives me keys to what seems to be the best rooms is my good performance. Anything less than good performance, hands me a key to a detour; detours take longer and convince me I am behind on this journey that has become a race. But after a while, I notice a pattern - there's always another room; I always have to earn another key. If education is about intimacy, then there is another way. If the journey of this life is not about earning keys by my good performance, there must another way to gain access to the best, most beautiful, rooms. What if, instead of a performance key, the rooms could be accessed because I was walking with someone who already had the key? What if instead of earning access, I could enter because I was with someone who already had access? What if I was created to explore the beautiful rooms - and my access was never dependent on my performance, but instead on my relationship to someone who belonged there and wanted to share the delights and mysteries we could enjoy there together? What if my experience in the room was about experiencing deeply satisfying, discovering healthy hunger and developing life-giving appetites, and asking good questions? What if my journey in this life was dependent on my relationships instead of on my performance? What if the goal of education was right relationships? If education is about right relationships, education is about intimacy. We have two roads to choose for education: the road that requires performance, or the road that offers true identities in right relationship. I choose right relationships; they lead to true identities. On this road I get to know God and I get to know myself. I get to know you, too.