I'm in my nineteenth year of teaching. That does not grant me the broad perspective of more seasoned folk, but I think I know a thing or two about education. I've been having conversations with a lot of people lately about a deliberate shift that needs to take place in the Christian school world, one from educating for conformity to education for transformation. Education must go beyond measurability and markings, but must go "all in" on playing its shaping role in a journey on which God--not the educator--is the primary director. In short, we are agents of transformation. Yes, this is about transformational Christian education, or TCE for short.
I'm speaking next week in the Memphis area about this idea of TCE and why it's past time for Christian schools to begin moving in this direction, beyond conformity and measurable metrics that look good for college-prep hungry students and parents.
Briefly put, the first thing we should be about as administrators and teachers is empowering kids to savor creation. This is a biblical concept because--according to my colleague Scott VonderBruegge--"The first attribute of God that is mentioned in Genesis is His creativity."
So the question is "What are we doing in our lessons, according to our standards for learning, that position students to savor creation? God's original declaration about his world was that it was "good", just as he liked it!
My question, for what it's worth: What should we be doing in Christian schools to make this happen?
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