Lack of Inner Compass...

Radio makes me think. Talk shows on CBC radio or NPR often keep me company while working around the house or driving alone. I find it fascinating to be challenged to consider different viewpoints or issues that I wouldn’t consider following my own interests. While doing the proverbial list of May long-weekend tasks, I was introduced to someone I’d never heard of through an interview that proved fascinating.

Leo Koretz was a financial wizard who “made” 400 million (in today’s money) around 1910 by convincing people to invest in worthless Arkansas rice farms, Panama timber operations, and then later Panama oil extraction. He was so persuasive that people begged him to take their money to invest in his financial empire. One person apparently even threw a bundle of money over an office wall, with written instructions pleading for him to invest the funds. Every bit of the operation was fake, however, as investors who traveled to Panama found out when they showed up expecting a bustling oil empire and found nothing there. The entire operation was a fraud. He “hid” in Nova Scotia for a time before being sent back to face charges in Chicago.

The interview with the researcher got very interesting after the story was told. How could someone so talented and effective go so far astray? The response was “the lack of an inner compass” that didn't guide him correctly. Abruptly, the interview ended to my dissatisfaction. So, why am I recounting this to you on our Christian school newsletter?

First, it is essential to realize that we aim to do much more than deliver learning content at LCES. We seek
to impart knowledge that is always accompanied with wisdom. Wisdom orients action. Our present students
will eventually be charged with key leadership pieces in their life that offer, much like Mr. Koretz, the opportunity to use it for God’s kingdom or for something else. We are the training grounds for making future decisions well.

Second, the need for our children to be equipped with discernment and critical thinking to choose well in a
sometime confusing world of choice and “opportunity” is essential for their future well-being. Unlike the many who were duped and hitched their dreams to Mr. Koretz’s imaginary wagon of success, we want our stu-
dents to be critical thinkers with good questions that pursue truth and God’s kingdom.

It takes much more than a compass to get it right. SJ