Education

A Defense of Good Christian Education

5 October 2011 Education

Paul Wallace shares some excellent thoughts about the validity of a Christian education. He uses Richard Dawkins’s recent comments against the idea of a school for atheists as his framework. Check it out: “Richard Dawkins’ Atheist Academy of Unguided Truth” at Religion Dispatches. It sounds like Wallace’s school fits well with my sensibilities.

Tagged as: Education

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Two GoogleDocs Education Usage Scenarios

31 October 2010 Education

Occasionally, I like to post on a tool that has been useful for me, either in teaching or research. Today, I’d like to talk about a tool that’s useful for both: GoogleDocs.

By now, most folks are aware of the existence of GoogleDocs. It should come as no surprise that I, being a rabid Google fan, would be a user. Let me take you through two ways that I use GoogleDocs. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.

Tagged as: Education, environmentalism, google, googledocs, green, paperless, teaching

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Thumbnail image for All Truth is God’s Truth — Even in a Christian School

All Truth is God’s Truth — Even in a Christian School

17 August 2010 Education

During our teacher in-service last week, Dr. Stephen Livingston, our Head of School, asked the faculty this question: “Why are Christian schools afraid of academic greatness?”

Tagged as: academic, all truth is god's truth, augustine, Christian Education, christian schools, truth

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New School Year Draws Near

15 August 2010 Education

The 2010-2011 academic year begins tomorrow for Houston Christian High School (HCHS), which means that I’ll be fairly busy teaching classes. During the course of the school year, I hope to blog quite a bit about my experience for two reasons: new courses and new methods.

Tagged as: Christian Education, Christian School, Christianity, discussion, Education, From Achilles to Christ, harkness, Louis Markos, student-centered discussion, teaching, worldview

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Colonizing the Student: “Constructive & Chaotic”

24 February 2010 Education

In a previous post, I demonstrated the number of different interpretations that exist in a classroom. The question that I left with was this: “How does this serve the student? Is it constructive or chaotic?” The answer to the latter question is “YES.”

Tagged as: author, chaos, classroom, colonialism, difference, diversity, Education, educational theory, meaning, postcolonialism, reader, text, theory

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Colonizing the Student: “Creating Diversity and Difference”

31 January 2010 Education

The classroom is a text. Under traditional models of teaching, the teacher would be considered the author and the students are the readers. As the teacher attempts to convey monolithic meaning, the students receive and interpret the monolith in their own ways through their own viewpoints. Thus, if I have 15 students, then 16 of us are producing meaning: 1 author + 15 readers = 16 makers or meaning.

Tagged as: author, classroom, colonialism, difference, diversity, Education, educational theory, meaning, postcolonialism, reader, text, theory

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Colonizing the Student: “Craving Difference”

15 January 2010 Education

Now we come it: colonizing the student. What do I mean by that?

As I mentioned earlier, I think that the relationship between teacher and student could, in dysfunctional situations, be compared to the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized.

Tagged as: colonialism, difference, diversity, Education, postcolonialism, teaching

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Thumbnail image for Colonizing the Student: “The Purpose of the Educator”

Colonizing the Student: “The Purpose of the Educator”

14 January 2010 Education

The student’s brain is traveling down a dark road, and the teacher’s hope is to entice it to make a stop at some intersection and buy some goods, some snacks for the road. Occasionally, it will stop in for a full meal or maybe stay the night in one of the roadside motels. We put the student in front of our favorite authors, our favorite thinkers, our favorite teachers, the people and ideas that challenged and stretched us, and ask them to tell us what they think about it. This is the bait. If we get a nibble, we’re usually pleased. If we get a real bite and then we’re able to reel them in, then we’re really jazzed.

Tagged as: bob dylan, colonialism, communism, Education, john birch society, learning, postcolonialism, teaching

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Thumbnail image for Colonizing the Student: “Introduction”

Colonizing the Student: “Introduction”

10 January 2010 Education

Lately, I’ve been thinking about educational theory. As I’ve been doing this, I’ve been reading a variety of essays about race and class struggles as well as some texts dealing with genocide and imperialism in Africa. Perhaps an odd combination when it comes to thinking about students…

Tagged as: colonialism, Education, pluralism, postcolonialism, sherman alexie

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Gadamer and Harkness

29 December 2009 Education

As mentioned previously, I am working through some hermeneutical issues, and, thanks to Merold Westphal, I am particularly interested in the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer. In reading Westphal, I came across this quote from Gadamer’s Truth And Method:

To reach an understanding in a dialogue is not merely a matter of putting oneself forward and successfully asserting one’s own point of view, but being transformed into a communion in which we do not remain what we were.

Tagged as: communion, conversation, Education, gadamer, harkness, hermeneutics, understanding, Westphal

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