Which
institution do you hate to deal with the most: Bank? Post office?
Motor vehicles? IRS? Supermarket? Social security? Which bureaucrat
gets the “Heart of Stone Award”? (Serendipity Bible 10th
Anniversary Edition, page 1201).
At
that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and
learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this
is what you were pleased to do.” (Matthew 11:25-26 NIV).
Bureaucracies
can be the expression of either of two extremes: “the Heart of
Stone Monolith” or “the Bleeding Heart Cascade”. I think it is
obvious that neither one of these extremes will do. A bureaucracy is
in many ways a professional organization that shares certain
characteristics with a college professor. A professor, as with a
bureaucracy, is a repository of expertise and specialized knowledge.
The professor ideally will receive respect and a good measure of
abeyance from his students. Anyone who has gone through school will
recognize teachers with traits manifesting two extremes: a teacher
with a heart of stone versus a teacher with a bleeding heart. The
heart of stone professor has a closed mind and closed ears. He is
absolutely and always totally right and the students had best keep
quiet and absorb and do everything the professor says exactly without
questioning anything. The other extreme is the bleeding heart
professor who endlessly compromises on everything, is totally
solicitous of his students, and—if the truth be known—is full of
self-doubt as to whether he has anything valuable or substantial to
offer. In the first instance the student as customer is always
wrong. In the second instance the student as customer is always
right.
The
ideal professor will be neither one of these extremes. He will of
course have expertise and specialized knowledge, but he never assumes
the stance of complete rectitude – one who has cornered the market
on knowledge, understanding, and perception of truth. He always
stands ready to accept that students can have interesting questions
and can cast a new light on accepted truths. He has neither a closed
mind nor closed ears. He is readily assessable but retains standards
and backbone. In contrast, the two extremes are essentially
artificial, inhumane, and dishonest. We sense intuitively that
something is wrong, delusional, and untrustworthy about them –
something that cannot pass reality checks. The need is for
bureaucracies (and college professors) that are for real.
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