“Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you are saying.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Jesus Christ) I have just returned from spending ten days working with a school outside New Delhi. I had worked with them years ago on how to engage their students … Read More
Storytelling: Deeper Than Learning
The universe is made of stories, not atoms. –Muriel Rukeyser Aha! Sonya was a very mature kindergartner whose mother was concerned that she would be bored in my class because she already knew how to do everything in the curriculum. Mom was especially peeved that I would be spending two days on the letter M, when her daughter already knew … Read More
Developing and Incarnating Community Character Traits
In my last blog, I mentioned the importance of a school developing a list of the traits that describe the character of Jesus, and then practicing them together in every aspect of school life. At a workshop my wife and I facilitated on deeper learning last summer, teachers from The Niagara Association for Christian Education (NACE) came to a more … Read More
Schools That Change Lives
What does this diagram represent? What about this one? If you got the first one, you probably got the second one. I’m not sure where I first saw these diagrams, but they come to mind when I think about the power a school has to affect students’ lives. I have had the privilege over many years in education to … Read More
Love & Logic: Reading Between the “One-Liners”
When I read the apostles’ letters to early Christian churches, I’m always curious about backstory. Why did Paul write these words to the believers in Philippi, for instance? Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. … Read More
The Limits of Love and Logic in Christian Classrooms
People sometimes ask me if student behavior today is worse than it was in the past. Given the impacts of technology, the media, and declining parent control–combined with the disappearance of corporal punishment–they kind of presume that kiddos must be a lot harder to manage nowadays. So are students getting worse? That’s a tough question, to be honest. My grandpa … Read More
Keeping the Mileage off Your Discipline Tools
My witty seventh grade teacher used to say, “Come on now, air out those armpits!” No, he wasn’t asking us to vent our stale areas–no junior high classroom needs more funky odors wafting about. What Mr. Vanden Berg wanted was participation, to see more hands in the air; and the statement worked because it was offbeat, unexpected. We all crave … Read More
Love & Logic and My Search for What Works
It was one of those years when spring gets trampled in the clash between winter and summer. Just after we emerged from five months in the deep freeze, May set off a heatblast that nearly scorched us. Still, something in me always demands fresh oxygen when school lets out. So after an hour of listening to the fluorescent lights buzz … Read More
Teaching the “Real” American Revolution
As we celebrate Independence Day and the political incarnation of the idea that is “America,” I think of all the teachers who have the opportunity to invite students into the story of the American Revolution. What guiding question will you use to spark curiosity and stimulate deeper investigation into this remarkable event? In a letter to H. Niles in 1818, … Read More
No More Crappy Homework
In his blog, “No More Crappy Homework,” David Mulder poses a question to his readers wondering if homework is worthwhile. He concludes: In some cases, yes. But in other cases…I would say it’s probably crappy homework, the kind I assigned to my middle school students 15 years ago. I am embarrassed of the quality of homework I used to assign, … Read More