Lamentable, isn’t it – the diminished presence in our vocabulary of the word whither? Is its desuetude another consequence of the culling homogenization of our culture, a process which with biting irony is labeled multiculturalism? Or, is it simply a response to time’s ravaging touch? Either way, it is a loss. Whither goest thou seems to have more gravitas that where are you going. Somehow the accent in the former is on the destination and not so much on how to get there.
While we are counseled today to ‘follow the science’ we should consider the weightier significance of the word when we ask the question where. After some honest reflection we would realize that the innocently offered advice to ‘follow the science’ is dangerously misleading. Science does not lead. It can reveal new paths of pursuit and facilitate our progress on any that we choose to follow; but – the promise of artificial intelligence notwithstanding – science does know and cannot answer the whither in the question whither shall we go (Unless, of course, we are referring to what our ancestors praised as the ‘Queen of the Sciences: theology, the study of God).
Only the most ungrateful of souls would dispute the indispensable role science has in our lives. How wondrous and ever relevatory are its accomplishments. Science and its encompassed disciplines have ushered us from living in unlit mountain caves to journeying in solar powered spacecraft. It is therefore both appropriate and expedient that science, technology, engineering and mathematics be given attention in our educational systems, the so-called STEM curriculum.
In uncovering its mysteries these STEM disciplines address and define the what and how of creation. However, though they excite wonder and curiosity they cannot resolve the why of creation. This challenge is the realm of philosophy, religion and art which are offered in educational systems identified by the acronym STREAM.
Educational endeavors which focus on the utilitarian objective of skills development tend to neglect such value ladened subjects as art, philosophy, literature and even history. And yet it is these fields of study where the why and whither questions about creation and existence are most fruitfully examined and pondered. Students of these soft subjects are fortunate. Theirs is the opportunity to share and to celebrate the exploration of life’s indefinable realities, an undertaking which has inspired and guided us since our prelapsarian beginnings.
Academic institutions which are rooted in Christianity (along with others to be sure) prize the study of these soft subjects recognizing as they do that science and its related fields may empower their students but the ‘Rs’ and ‘As’ in STREAM are what advance them in their response to the question whither.
We at the National Catholic Community Foundation are pleased to note that so many of the organizations posted on our Catalog of Ministries are Catholic schools where the pursuit of art and the study of religion still cultivate young minds.