The Paideia of Auto Repair

I recently replaced the rear struts and sway bar links on my car. The nearly continuous clunk I was hearing when I went over bumps – when do you not go over bumps in Metro Detroit? – is gone now. I made a few mistakes, including one that took my handy son to correct, but all in all it wasn’t bad. After the fact, I reflected on the four-hour ordeal that saved me over $1,500 from Toyota’s local dealer. I loved saving the money, but it would’ve been impossible without the following.

The Auto Repair

First, there was the mechanic who decided to document his changing of struts on YouTube with near-Hollywood quality film work and verbal explanations. It was almost impossible to fail… even for me. After watching the video several times (and keeping it nearby on my phone while doing the repair), I was able to complete the task.

Second, I needed the right tools. Metric rachet sets, impact driver, varied sockets and Allen wrenches, and a torque wrench. Oh, and the floor jack and jack stands. And it doesn’t hurt to have a garage shielding me from the rain outside. All of this is costly. So, it’s a little deceptive to say I saved $1,500 dollars. I only saved that much because an investment in house and tools had already been made.

Finally, I needed two mental habits: attention and patience.

A few days later, it occurs to me that this is a near perfect formula for our classrooms and our students.

The Classroom Analogy

A Teacher:

Our teachers know how to render the Latin subjunctive case or solve for multiple variables in polynomial equations or analyze literary themes in texts and deeply desire to share this information with your children. What is required of you? You must prepare them to want to learn. This is a parent’s job. Of course, not all tasks will be equally appealing, but if parental authority is established and an example of learning set, that goes a long way.

A Tool:

Our teachers also seek to give your children the “tools” of learning, roughly equivalent to the tools of language (reading, writing, and speaking) and number (analysis, calculation, and creation). The better the tool, the easier the job. You’re making an investment (tuition) for sure in their future, but don’t neglect the dinner-table conversations, before-bed reading, and the general life engagement that will sharpen your child’s saw and assist the LORD in making them a danger to the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

A Temperament:

Finally, cultivate patience and attention in your children. Make them wait. Bake bread. Buy a lawnmower and cut your own grass. Save money and don’t spend it. Persevere through tough math problems or Greek sentences and rejoice in a job well-done. And knock those God-forsaken screens out of their hands – or never allow them in the first place – and cultivate real attention to detail by doing human things, in human ways.

If I’m honest, I don’t love working on my car. But honestly it also compels me to admit that this is my fault. When you really understand the physics and chemistry involved in the making, operation, and maintenance of a car – a sway bar link, for example – it is a wonderful and glorious thing to understand. That I – a lowly English major – can learn to repair a car and demonstrate stewardship over what God has lent to me is a marvelous thing as well.

Tee your kids up for us. Prepare them in piety to become all that they might be, by God’s grace, in His Kingdom.