It is exam time of year. The 11 and 12 students this week will have sat their General Assessment Tasks or GATs, for short. University students are also cramming some last minute knowledge.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Students are told to bring their pens and things in a clear plastic bag so they cannot smuggle any notes into the exam. This is to encourage them to approach the exams by being ‘true to themselves’.
In 2016 the English examination theme was “Whose reality?” My daughter, in year 12, had written a great English essay and received a high mark. She explained to me that truth is relative.
That each person has their own personal truth and that ‘what was true for one person is not necessarily true for another person.’
I understood what she meant, this is the post-modern perspective that honours difference perspectives and various experiences of truth. And her English teacher rated her highly for her recognition on this value of relative truth. I congratulated her on her well written essay.
I then said to my daughter “Do you know that I do not believe in what you have said?” I looked at her carefully to make sure she got the tone of what I was saying.
“I actually believe in one, ultimate truth! God! If we believe in God, then all else is measured by that truth.
While I respect the idea that truth is relative and we all have different perspectives, I also believe in the truth that is not relative but is fundamentally true!” I then encouraged my daughter to look beyond her studies and consider for herself that there is a One True God.
God is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Rev. Linley Liersch, Horsham & Dist Uniting Church
