It is a week before school starts,
So the cogs are slowly winding up,
Gearing up for the business/busyness
that is a “school year”.
“Curricula,” check.
“Course Outlines” (nearly) check.
“Resources”, always looking.
“Class lists”, check.
“Ah! ‘X’ is in my class.
That will interesting for him
and me.
The time table,
Yard duty,
The marking,
The discipline,
Those annoying sports days and
assemblies …
and parent meetings.
Diaries and homeroom.
Uniforms and chewing gum.
Is that what the new school year is about?
Or is it …
mentoring and example,
words of encouragement
and correction;
Growth and matuity
for both student and teacher.
Discovering gifts, talents and purpose
and crucially,
a destiny.
In all,
revealing our place
in God’s kingdom
and under His rule.
Education
A Week Before School Starts
It is a week before school starts,
So the cogs are slowly winding up,
Gearing up for the business/busyness
that is a “school year”.
“Curricula,” check.
“Course Outlines” (nearly) check.
“Resources”, always looking.
“Class lists”, check.
“Ah! ‘X’ is in my class.
That will interesting for him
and me.
The time table,
Yard duty,
The marking,
The discipline,
Those annoying sports days and
assemblies …
and parent meetings.
Diaries and homeroom.
Uniforms and chewing gum.
Is that what the new school year is about?
Or is it …
mentoring and example,
words of encouragement
and correction;
Growth and matuity
for both student and teacher.
Discovering gifts, talents and purpose
and crucially,
a destiny.
In all,
revealing our place
in God’s kingdom
and under His rule.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Education, Faith, Poem, poetry, Uncategorized
Tags: Christian, Christian Education, Christianity, Devotion, Faith, Poem, poems, poetry
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The Funeral
We had mum’s funeral yesterday.
The emotions were conflicted. The over whelming thought is that of joy. Joy that suffering and pain has gone and that she is now with Jesus – renewed. The cemetery manager actually commented how encouraging it was to have a “born again” funeral. (His words).
Yet mum was my/our mum someone important in our lives. We have a history together – an important history. So that is where the pain lies for us – the pain of loss. But even that pain will only be temporary. The time will come, when, before the throne of God we will be united.
Finally it was a privilege to conduct the committal and funeral. Because of the strong family presence it seemed, to me, like a special family gathering.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Education, Faith
Tags: Christian, Christianity, Devotion, Faith, family
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Family Disfunction and Teach-ability.
I have been reflecting lately on the task of the teacher and how it has changed in the last 40 years. The most dramatic change in that time has been the growing instability of the family. I recognise that the family has always been a volatile place but its volatility has increased markedly.
Let me put my reflection succinctly: unless the child is remarkable, children’s education is radically affected, in a negative manner, the greater the instability at home. If the home is a place of tension, anger, argument and uncertainty, the child’s ability to concentrate at school is adversely affected. There are some children who make a conscious decision to put home strife behind them and work hard at school. However, the vast majority of children do not have the maturity or emotional stamina to achieve that aim.
My challenge is simple ( some may say simplistic) yet profound. Adults in charge of children must seriously consider the atmosphere of the home if they wish their children to succeed at school. Adults are the adults. They have the responsibility, beyond their own desires and grievances, to ensure a harmonious well ordered house for the emotional, and I would add, spiritual, well being of the household.
In one place I was teaching, the staff spoke of “second generation disaffection with school”. To put it simply, disfuctional undereducated people were raising the next generation of disfunctional even more uneducated and unprepared children.
My plea: Those of us in charge of children have a huge responsibility for these young minds and souls. The way we structure and order our homes is important. Life has enough trauma with the unexpected events that life throws at us. The home should be a secure oasis: a place of refuge and comfort – not a battlefield.
With hindsight parents often remark how few years their children were at home and at school. These years seem to go so quickly. Parents and guardians do not have the luxury for petulant self obsession. Their responsibility is to the young minds and hearts in their care. The child’s future and future welfare depends on it.
Categories: Christianity, Education, Family, Teaching, Uncategorized
Tags: Christianity, Education, Faith, family
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Saying Good Bye to the Class of 2011
I didn’t think it would be so hard. I have been a teacher for a long time and I’ve seen many students leave over the years. But this time it has been more difficult. I have been their home room teacher for over two and half years. When we first met we didn’t like each other but a year later I was asked/volunteered to be their Homeroom teacher and so the journey together started.
Now they are leaving. Secondary school has finished and the rest of life is beckoning. They are keen and yet nervous about exploring more of life. But there is still so much to learn, there are still so many warnings to give, issues to alert them about and skills to learn. Nevertheless they are going.
My wish for them is fulfilled lives. Happiness is transient and fleeting but fulfillment is an on going objective – something to strive for – a means of making life more than just mediocre.
The class has the personality and the ability to leave mediocrity in its wake. There are so many skills, abilities, qualities and traits that none of them need to be ordinary.
Most of all, and best of all, there is a strong understanding of the reality of a relationship with Christ and a place and purpose in the Kingdom of God. My most ardent prayer is that this won’t be squashed by the cynicism of the world. It is my prayer that this relationship and this sense of place and purpose that will sustain them in all the hopes, aspirations, trials and traumas of the years to come.
Lord bless them and keep them. Amen.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Education, Faith, Uncategorized
Tags: Christian Education, Christianity, Devotion, Faith
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Changes I Have Seen In School
Having been involved in schools as, student, parent and teacher over 55 years there have been a huge number of changes in that time. I have listed some but I’d love to read what you would like to add to this list.
1. At Ocean Grove PS we started writing with nib pens dipped into an inkwell. The inkwell
Ocean Grove Primary School circa 1957
could also be used to colour tip the hair of the blond girl with long tresses sitting in front of you. I was given the highly esteemed position of “Ink Monitor”. We had to dilute the “Swan” ink towards the end of the year as the school ran out of money. Biros were introduced in grade 5. They were expensive and novel.
2. The cuts/the strap/ corporal punishment was present (and received) through all my student life. And no, I wasn’t scarred emotionally.
3. We loved smelling the pages that came from the spirit duplicator – each page just slightly fainter than the page before. Then came the photocopiers with grey photocopy paper on a continuous roll. Now we have fancy scanners and printers that rocket along – when the work. There were also ink printing machines which wrecked your clothes with their unwashable ink.
4. If I went home and was stupid enough to say that the teacher was angry with me, my dad would add to my pain. Now, woe betide any teacher who challenges the little darlings.
5. I started with a slate and chalk – now there are iPads. Technology and communication is probably the most dramatic of all the changes.
6. Nobody had heard of drugs when I went to school. In my later teens the drugs of concern were alcohol and cigarettes.
7. Desks were not tables and chairs, they were solid (one piece) oak furniture – and if the lid dropped on your head you would be concussed for a week.
8. We had bottles of milk (1/3 of a pint) at the start of each day. If left in the sun too long it was awful. Also, being a “Milk Monitor”, (another esteemed position) who had to deliver milk to the classes and punch holes in the silver tops, we were able to get out of folk dancing and having to hold hands with girls.
9. Class sizes were huge. There must have been well over 40 students in some classes. Now 26 is considered a big class.
10. For most students family life was far more stable in days past. However, there was far less openness about abuse and family violence. As children we all knew of others who were frequently belted and everyone (including the teachers) kept quiet about it.
11. Marching into school with martial music was the fashion when I was a student. My dad, who had experienced WW2, thought it was appalling.
12. My early school years were also in the days before central heating. I have vivid memories of the Headmaster taking a few year 6 boys out to chop the wood and sharing it amongst the classes. He even asked the boys to hold the block of wood while he split it with the axe. Today there would be all sorts of regulations about that activity.
Things that haven’t changed
The importance of inspirational teachers.
Uniforms
Rebellion – petty (hair length/dress length/ chewing gum …)
Rebellion – major
Nits
What changes have you noticed?
15 Reasons Why Christian Education is Important
Sound Christian Education takes the Bible seriously.- Truth is seen as absolute.
- Christian Education believes a Christian worldview can make a positive difference.
- It gives students a strong foundation in a world of shifting values and morals.
- Christian Education recognizes God’s sovereignty and Christ’s Kingship, and …
- therefore God’s claims over all of creation are taken seriously.
- No subject or curriculum is outside the orbit of God.
- Students are recognised for who they are: sinners in need of God’s grace in Christ.
- Also students are given a vision of God’s Kingdom and their place in it.
- Good Christian education recognises the unique, God given gifts and talents of the students and
- challenges them to achieve their amazing potential.
- It assists parents in their God given mandate.
- Sound Christian Education treats the student as a whole person whose aim is to grow in Christ-likeness..
- A foundation in God and His world prepares the student for tomorrow.
- Healthy Christian Education develops critical thinking by having the courage to explore other world views from the perspective of its own worldview.
What reasons can you add?
As this post proves to be regularly accessed I have included some other sites:
Australia
http://www.cen.edu.au/ Christian Education National
http://csa.edu.au/ Christian Schools Australia
A wonderfully informative website:
http://www.whychristianschools.com.au/wcs/index.html
USA/Canada
http://www.csionline.org/ Christian Schools Internation
http://aacs.org/ American Association of Christian Schools
UK
http://www.christianschoolstrust.co.uk/find_a_school Christian Schools Trust UK
Who Made the Moon Part 2
A continuation of my short review of Sigmund Brouwer’s book
I encourage Christians to read this book and struggle with his ideas. He challenges us to know our science before we make uninformed comments which make us look foolish. He makes a compelling argument for Theistic Evolution.
But I am uncomfortable about a number of things. The distinction Brouwer makes between Evolution and Evolutionism is weak. He suggests one comes from a world view and the other from well considered science. He fails to recognise that no human endeavour is neutral. We all come from faith and value positions (often unconsidered!) in all our life’s actions.
However the biggest problem I have is a profoundly theological one. The book fails to make room for the “Fall”. This is profound because it is the whole “raison d’etre” for salvation history: From the first glimpse of the gospel in Genesis 3 to the Cross of Christ. If there was no first Adam who consciously rebelled, why was there need for the second? I believe the historicity of the first Adam is crucial in our understanding of Jesus Christ.
Is it worth reading? I believe it is. It has challenges for the Christian to take science seriously and to engage in intelligent, not blindly emotional, debate. It challenges parents to prepare their children for the world of scientific thought. It reminds Christians that they do need to have an answer to the faith they possess in a sceptical world. These are all crucial issues which Brouwer raises and ones for which we need competent answers – if not his, then our own.
Categories: Book Review, christian, Christianity, Education, Faith, Family, Teaching
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WHO MADE THE MOON
WHO MADE THE MOON: A Father Explores How Faith and Science Agree
by Sigmund Brouwer
In this articulate book the author sets out, for his children’s sake, to show how science and the Bible agree. It is a journey fraught with pitfalls as both conservative Christians and athiest scientists will be offended by much of what he writes.
Brouwer writes with grace and insight and one cannot argue with his sensitivity towards the topic and its emotional tensions. However, his overriding concern is that the creation debate does not thwart young Christians (in age or maturity) from growing in their faith.
With meticulous research he strives to show how the “Big Bang Theory” is supported by the creation accounts in Genesis. He adds to this the voices of other conservative evangelical Christians (such as Billy Graham) or Christian bodies that support or do not decry the “old earth” view of the creation account.
The big questions is, of course, are his views correct? Or, one could add, do his views weaken the very thing he is striving to support and strengthen – the Christian faith.
… to be continued
Categories: Book Review, Education, Faith, Family, Teaching
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Examen
A question I have recently been taught to ask myself is, “Where have I seen or experienced the grace of God throughout this day?” It is an amazing question, because if you look carefully, you find God revealed in all sorts of situations, people and events.
Today was “Parent Teacher Interview day”. This is usually a time when hard questions and answers are given and taken. But even here, as parents and teachers strive for the best of a student, we see Christ appear in the words, the aspirations and the solutions.
Christ is seen in the hopes and fears of parents, in the desires of students and in the teacher’s desire to point to a destiny and purpose. For me the question is a reminder to keep my eyes and heart open for the many “Christ” moments in the day.
Categories: Devotional, Education, Faith
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Travels from Ur 