Lecture

Welcome to biblical integration and its significance in the role for a Christian educator. As you know, ACSI has many requirements in order to be certified and to get accreditation as a teacher in the Christian school world. So I recognize right away that many of you who are participating in this class are doing so because somebody somewhere told you you had to do it. And so I’m going to ask you to please buy into Carol Dweck’s work—Carol Dweck, the well-known author of Growth Mindset, who is out at Stanford. And Carol Dweck’s work has application, I believe, for us as Christian educators. Carol Dweck says, “Look we’re either stuck in a fixed mindset or we’re in a growth mindset.” And the whole purpose of our training together and coming together to learn is to recognize that we all need to continue growing. I’ve been in Christian education now for decades. I don’t quite want to tell you how many years. But I would say that even in preparation for these lessons, I have been personally compelled and urged in my own spirit that I have got to continue to grow and have a growth mindset in my own life.

I want to encourage you, if you would, to take a moment—you can stop this wherever you are—and take a moment and get your Bible. Make sure you have pads of paper, pencils, and some of your curricular materials. You know when we just take notes— especially to my younger brothers and sisters who are involved here—when we just take notes electronically, the research now is actually quite clear, that we can take notes and the information never even makes it into short-term memory. So this is actually a learning suggestion that in your own life, and as well as with the students you work with, please have them go back to some of the old-school pencil and paper.

Now, we are going to be going through twelve lessons related to biblical integration. Our very first lesson is just a basic introduction and a basic overview. I’m going to begin in prayer in this session and then we’ll go on.

So Father, we’re grateful that you trust us to influence lives, young people, children, and we’re grateful for all of the Christian schools represented all over the world. And so we would ask Lord that you would use these sessions, to continue to empower and build up the educators that are involved. In your name, Amen.

Well, you know when we talk about biblical integration, we have to recognize the fact that this is something that takes intentional work; that Christian educators must be intentional and purposeful in how we look at curriculum and how we look at education and how everything is related to God’s Word. I have a visual here for you on the table as you can see. There are two copies of the Bible. I just wanted to have that here so that it is in our minds, a picture of the fact that we start with God’s Word. And then the middle book would represent any textbook, any standard of learning, any accreditation handbook. Anything that you would say [is] your scope and sequence, your goals and outcomes, and even, yes, even our assessment instruments, would be in the middle, and then God’s Word on top. So the illustration is there to demonstrate for us that everything we know and do as educators needs to be surrounded by the Scripture. The Bible gives us the framework, and then it gives us the life and the worldview through which the world is understood.

You see all of us and all of education is coming from some place and some belief system. And when we look at how societies—and not just North American societies— but how different cultures all over the world are shifting, we can readily recognize that there’s currently a shift away from really any Judeo-Christian thought. And so we are always as educators influenced by the culture in which we live. And some of that is good, and some of that is particularly a challenge for us. But God is not surprised that we’re living at a time where there are challenges.

When we are working in accredited schools, one of the most significant ways in the United States that our schools are being impacted is by the acceptance and the application of Common Core standards. And these are national standards that have been accepted. We are also influenced by textbook standards—textbooks that have been published by biblical publishing companies, also textbooks that have not. We’re even influenced right now significantly by the assessment companies. Actually the group in Princeton, ETS, drives an awful lot of education. And you have SAT and ACT tests that are very significant as far as determining who goes to college, who goes where in college. But what’s fascinating now is how much curricular pressure there is on the middle school, as well as the elementary school, to go ahead and start prepping kids, so that—students, excuse me. Prepping students so that they can be highly successful on those exams. So again, there are many examples of how we are influenced as educators. Because every area in which someone works, there are always standards in which we must uphold.

When we look at culture, we can look at some very specific examples of times in which we, in places in our history, when the dominant culture influenced curricular decisions that we made. If you go back in time, and you don’t have to go back that long to pick up a textbook where God’s Word would be often referred to. It would not be that long ago where you picked up a language arts book and a reading textbook for primary-aged children and phonics was very purposefully and intentionally taught. In fact, it’s compelling that we as a nation took phonics out of our schools at the very same time we took God’s Word out of our schools. I would argue that English is a phonetic language, and if you want to teach English, certainly you must bring in the principles of phonics. But it’s very interesting; and really since that time, we continue to see a major slide in the performance of our students.

So again, the purpose of the time that we are going to spend together is to really look at what does biblical integration look like? And how do I as an educator weave my curriculum and what I am teaching and how I am teaching and who I am teaching all the way through a biblical worldview? But this is not something that just happens in a very quick manner. And I would just encourage all of you as we talk about biblical integration, and we’re also going to be looking at biblical worldview, it’s very important for all of us to recognize that my worldview and your worldview is constantly being shaped and reframed. You know, Scripture tells us to have the mind of Christ. And we can’t have the mind of Christ without really studying Scripture, without being reflective.

And so I know the temptation for you is perhaps going to be, “Oh, just let me get through these twelve sessions. I’ll answer the questions at the end.” Oh, by the way there are going to be some questions at the end. And so the temptation is, “I just want to get this done so I can get my piece of paper.” And yet all of us have had students like that. In fact, when I was working on my doctorate, I found a button and I wore it for a while towards the end when I was doing edits on my dissertation, and it said this: “I don’t need the education, just the degree.” Because I felt like that towards the end. “I just want to finish this.” But our prayer and our thought is that this will become something that’s very, very useful for you.

I just wanted to take a moment to share with you where I’m actually located. And I am currently out in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the beautiful campus of Our Daily Bread. And Our Daily Bread and ACSI have partnered together in order to develop some updated materials to help you as Christian educators. You will be hearing more about Our Daily Bread and some of the wonderful pieces of curriculum that they already have in place. But I thought it would be appropriate for you to know that this is where we are today. It is a great illustration of what we see happening globally. And as a Christian educator, I’m so pleased to see different organizations working together.

My guess is in whatever school you are located, you are finding that your school is becoming increasingly connected to the community, getting to know—and that’s even part of the curriculum is: How do we connect with the community? How do we leverage the assets of our community?

You know, I grew up outside Philly; and one of the wonderful things when you grow up outside Philly our curriculum was full of wonderful field trips to Valley Forge, which was ten minutes away, and all of these other places—to Gettysburg. I remember going and visiting Underground Railroad stations in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because the bottom of Pennsylvania is the Mason-Dixon Line. And so even how we look at what is around us to include in our curriculum. Well the glorious thing today is that many believers are starting to look around as well, and looking for better ways to partner together, and how are we able to look at the strengths of different organizations to work together. So this is an ideal opportunity.

What I’d like you to do as we finish this first session is to take a three-by-five card or even if you’re using a legal pad of paper, what I’d like you to do is just to take a moment and jot down some of your initial thoughts. You may even want to make a declarative statement and say, “I will have a growth mindset.” Now you may not feel like that yet. But even if you say it and make a declaration, it may really help you. But even to be able to jot down a few things that you have questions about, and also jot down a few goals. Throughout our twelve sessions together, I’m going to be asking you, periodically, to take a moment and go ahead and jot down some notes to yourself, some questions, but also to set some goals for yourself. I’m not talking about goals that are just so crazy that it would take you five years to attain, but it may be a goal when we’re talking about something, “You know what, I’m going to look up one article. I’m going to go look up this person that’s quoted. I’m going to get on Amazon today, and by tomorrow I’m going to have this paperback, and I’m going to go ahead and read it.”

So again, the whole purpose of this is for our growth so that God is able to use us in a much more effective way. Now some of you are updating your certification and many of you have had ACSI certification for decades. I would be one that would be in that category that’s been doing this for a long time. To my peers—my peers as far as when we were born—and as brothers and sisters, those of us who are at this point in our lives, I just want to encourage you like I encourage myself and I’ll say, “Come on, Ellen, come on, you’ve got to keep learning, and you’ve got to keep learning and growing.”