Dead Noses Smell No Roses

Many years ago I worked with an older gentleman who was always sharing bits and pieces of pithy wisdom with anyone who would listen.  He especially liked sharing these thoughts with younger guys around him.  He was the person from whom I learned a statement I often make to our students, "Experience is expensive and a wise man buys it second hand."  I learned a lot from this older and wise man.  One thing that I thought about driving to school this morning (Yes, we are making up a snow day on Saturday!  Stupid groundhog!) was a statement I heard him say more than once, "Dead noses smell no roses, so give flowers while they can be enjoyed." The real meaning isn't about flowers.  It's about giving praise and credit when it is due, not after a person is gone and can't enjoy it.

In the 37 years I have been in Christian education I have been blessed to work with some wonderful people.  I have worked with men and women who could have made a lot more money in a lot of secular fields but chose to dedicate themselves to Christian education.  They made this choice even though it meant great sacrifices at times.  One such person is a member of our staff here at ACS who has been a part of our school for over 30 years, Mr. Duane Manning.  Duane came here right out of college and became the driving force behind our music, drama, and speech programs.  This certainly isn't all he has done, but when you mention speech and drama in North Carolina Christian school circles the name Duane Manning always comes up.  He is a legend in this state.  He works tirelessly to produce state champion performers in drama, speech, choric speaking and readers theater competitions year after year.  Just this week his groups in Junior High and Senior High choric and readers theater won yet more state titles and many will go on to compete at the national competition next month.   I had a fellow administrator ask me, in sarcastic humor, "Is Duane EVER going to retire?"  He was paying tribute to the fact that Duane's students are hard to beat in competition.

But, there is a deeper purpose in Duane's ministry here.  Sure, he takes what he teaches our students very seriously but he takes his personal investment in the spiritual growth and maturity of our students far and above any performance or production. For all these years he has spent thousands of hours counseling and mentoring young men and women.  He has hosted groups of them in his home many times every year.  He has maintained contact with them over the years and I rarely meet a graduate of ACS who doesn't ask me about him.  He is the embodiment of what every Christian educator should be.  He sacrifices in every way to pour himself into the lives of the hundreds of students who have sat in his classes over all these years.  The most telling fact about the love and respect he has earned from his students is that nearly every graduate who drops by for a visit always makes a point to stop in and catch up with one teacher..... Duane Manning.

I don't usually dedicate a blog post to individuals but, dead roses smell no roses.  I don't anticipate Duane will graduate to glory anytime soon but I want him to know how much this administrator, this staff and the graduates of ACS love and appreciate who he is and all he does.  Here's to you, Mr. Manning!  You're the best!!

Battling the Silo Syndrome - Part Two

In my post of a couple of days ago I explained what the "silo syndrome" is and how it is affecting Christianity in the 21st century.  At the close of the post I mentioned the one most important distinction of Christian education is Biblical integration.  I want to follow up by explaining, for those unfamiliar with the term, what Biblical integration is and why it is the single most important distinctive of Christian education.

Christian education has its roots at least as far back as the colonial period of American history.  This is something revisionist historians have tried to hide from students of American history.  The earliest schools in America used the Bible as primary textbook to teach reading, spelling and philosophy as well as character traits.  In the earliest period of American history, scriptural principles were taught in all schools in the young nation.  A study of the roots and progress of public education will reveal until the turbulent 60's there was still an element of concession to religious freedom within the public schools.  The Bible could still be read, teachers could have or permit prayer to be said in class and the ten commandments could often be seen in school hallways and classrooms.  But the tide had already started to turn and today all of those things are either restricted or illegal in America's public school system.  Private non-sectarian schools have existed since the founding of America and while many of them did and still do maintain a strict code of conduct, uniform dress codes and an emphasis on character and integrity, their academic programs are usually devoid of any open connection to Scripture in faculty or curriculum.

This is where Christian education is and must always be distinctive.  Christian schools aren't the only academic institutions that have conduct codes, dress codes and character training, but ONLY Christian education connects all the dots with the implementation of Biblical integration.

What IS Biblical integration?  Let me start by telling you what it is NOT.
--It is NOT including a Bible verse at the top of a worksheet.
--It is NOT praying before the start of class.
--It is NOT reading a Bible verse about fish while teaching a lesson on fish in biology.
--It is NOT having class devotions everyday.
--It is NOT pulling out Bible verses on dress codes or honesty or hard work to support what we require in our classrooms.
--It is NOT using a Bible verse to teach sentence diagramming in English class.

Simply stated, Biblical integration is taking a lesson objective and/or lesson outline, and teaching it from a Christian perspective.  It is not just a lesson or objective devoid of God, his character, nature, or creation, nor is it solely about God, his character, nature or creation.  It is a melding of the two.  It is understanding the objective or lesson from the Christian point-of-view.

Biblical integration is not something that just happens at the end of a lesson.  Students should be encouraged to think Biblically all throughout the lesson.  Remember, seeing something from God’s perspective is not a separate task, unless that is the lesson objective.  For instance, students may compare and contrast how Christians understand a lesson in comparison with how a pantheist or naturalist might see it.  Sometimes when the integration happens last, students tune out, figuring it won’t be on the test or that the integration is just an add-on.  The goal of good integration is for students to view a subject the way God does, and to see how this understanding impacts them personally as well as society at large.

The goal of Biblical integration is to help students to think biblically and critically about every subject. Further, the goal is for students to think biblically and critically about every aspect of their lives. Ideally, students should seek to see each subject the way God sees it. When students truly understand something from a biblical perspective, they should gain a greater understanding of the character or nature of God, or have a greater understanding of how God designed things to be.

Biblical integration is seeing how any topic or subject reveals the character or nature of God, mankind, creation, moral order, and purpose.  It is single most important distinctive about Christian education because only through Biblical integration can we, as educators, equip our students with the critical thinking skills and Christian worldview to enable them to stand against the attacks of Satan in the day to day challenges of life beyond their days as a Christian school student.

Grace and peace to you all.

Battling the Silo Syndrome

Paul wrote so eloquently in Colossians 1 about the pre-eminence of Christ and how He was not only the Creator of all thing but is also IN all things.  Christians don't have a secular option.  For those who are believers all things are sacred because Christ is all and in all.  One of the traits of post-modernism has been the tendency of many believers to compartmentalize God out of most areas of their lives.  God is what they "do" on Sunday but that's where it ends.  It's like the farmer who raises several types of grain on his farm and has a silo for each type of grain.  He strives to keep the grains separate, in its own silo.

One of the disturbing traits often seen in the 21st century Christian is a type of "silo syndrome".  There is a silo where the believer keeps God and his religious activities.  Then there are other "silos" for the other activities of life;  a silo for his business, a silo for his dating, a silo for his college choices, a silo for his career choice.  And on and on.  God is kept separate from his other areas of life.  It doesn't take a genius to see that this is a dangerous way for a Christian to live his or her life. A few years ago I had a senior in a Christian school tell me where he went to college was none of God's business, that was his decision to make.  I was stunned, but soon came to realize that this type of thinking was not all that uncommon for Christians today.

I have been in Christian education for over 35 years and have seen the pendulum swing far and wide in the field.  Christian schools  in my native North Carolina began in the 1960's, often out of a way of avoid integration.  They were often "white flight" schools that masqueraded as Christian schools.  It was a shameful period of history for Christian education.  What was also a blight on our ministries was the tendency to devalue academics by putting teachers in classrooms, teaching subjects for which they had little or no academic background.  We embarrassed the name of Christ by being "fly by night", slipshod organizations proudly, if ignorantly, proclaiming that all we needed to be a good teacher was a knowledge of the Word.  Thankfully, most of those schools have long since closed their doors, but the stigma they left still affects us in the public eye today.  But I am a little disturbed about how far the pendulum has swung the other direction.   I fear even in our Christian education field we are teetering on the edge of a sort of "silo syndrome" in our philosophy of Christian education.

There is an alarming trend in many so-called, "Christian" schools to move away from biblical integration in all subject areas.  In our attempts to be academically minded we have come dangerously close to isolating the teaching of the Scriptures in the Bible class "silo" or in the chapel "silo" and have started to speak less and less of the Bible in math or history or science or literature.  The problem this presents is the diminishing of the main distinctive in Christian education.  In the next segment of this blog I want to address what is the TRUE distinctive of Christian education.  It isn't dress codes or conforming to rules or being able to quote a litany of Bible verses.  It is biblical integration, and it is absolutely vital we never move away from that and fall prey to the "silo syndrome" in our Christian schools.

Grace and peace to you!

The EPIC Generation - Part Two

In my last post I explained the basic traits of this generation of young people, often referred to as the EPICs.  They are Experiential, Participatory, Image driven and Connected.  In my opinion, reaching these young people with the gospel as well as academics is not MORE challenging than past generations, but they present DIFFERENT challenges.  I have listened to church youth leaders as well as classroom teachers talk with frustration about the difficulty in finding "what works" with today's teens and even college aged students.  I want to share a few thoughts about some ideas I have found that work.  Most of this has come from a combination of personal experience and discussing with other educators things they have tried with good success.

1)  Invest in developing personal relationships with your students.  Today's young people are for more interested in teacher-student relationships than past generations.  Remember, they are Connected and are very into connections.  By investing, I don't mean just a cursory chat every once in a while, but a real conversation about things that matter to the student.  In my day (yes, the Golden Ages) we didn't engage in casual conversations with our teachers because we saw them as so far above us they were often unapproachable.  The line between teacher and student was wide, dark and crystal clear.  While we still need to keep a line of distinction between teacher and student (they don't need us to be their buddies, but their mentors) we need to be willing to be transparent about who we really, our own interests, challenges and spiritual struggles.

2)  Accept they fact that what drives them may seem shallow and surface at times, but to them it is very important.  If we scoff at it we will lose the chance to minister.  I am just not into Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. and honestly, a lot of it seems shallow, trivial and a waste of time to me.  BUT, that is NOT the way this generation feels.  This is how they connect, build relationships.  That's why we now have teachers and students who are Facebook friends and Twitter followers.  There are some inherent dangers in this and I intend to address some of these potential pitfalls at a later time.  For now I'll just say that we must not criticize or ridicule their obsession with social media. It is only going to become more prevalent in the future.

3)  Be willing to take up the challenge to realign your approach to teaching so that you can take advantage of some of these traits.  Make sure you include MUCH visual imagery in your lesson plans.  Open your class to include discussions that permits students to share personal experiences.  Make sure that you plan classroom activities and field trips that involve students participation, even at the high school and/or college level. 

4) Use social media to YOUR advantage.  Create your own website and make sure it isn't lame!  Create a Facebook page for your class and only accept friend requests from your students and their parents.  Make sure you keep it professional, positive and free from personal information.  Expect your students to do the same.  You can do the same with Twitter or other social networks.  This shows your students you are willing to engage in social media but know how to use it properly.  (Spare us from the people who post numerous "selfies", what they had for breakfast or use it to gripe, complain and attack).

Bottom line, when it comes to this generation of young people, their potential for success is unlimited.  I find them very exciting and, as well as a man of my age can, I understand what motivates them.  We can either sit around and moan about how hard it is to reach them or we can set about the business of trying to find creative ways TO reach them.  I choose the latter!