I love Christian Education.  I have been blessed to complete nearly my entire scope of education in a Christian environment. K-12 I attended private Christian schools, most of my undergrad college (with the exception of a few quarters at community college) was spent in Bible college, and now, I'm working on my Master's at Regent University, a wonderful Christian institution. 

One of the most influential books I've read in quite some time was assigned to me as required reading last semester- The Weight of Your Words, by Joseph Stowell. Really great book.  This semester one of my classes has the Love Languages books as required reading.  

My whole point to this is that one of my assignments this week included reading an article by William Cox and in that article I came across some thoughts that have my head spinning--spinning in a good way that is.

So, let my actual blogging article begin.

Truth, any truth, once known, changes the person who learns it. This applies in some ways to all truth, from theology to addition. Even the child who learns 2+2=4 will be different from learning that fact; the effects range from building a foundation for other math facts, to the rudimentary understanding of order and solidity in the universe.   Coming to know truth and accepting the fact that it will change you, means being vulnerable to the truth (see my previous blog about truth not always supporting your pet theories or previous understandings), by extension, this means being in some way vulnerable to the people (teachers, authors) who present this truth. The student must trust the teacher bringing the truth, otherwise, the message will not be accepted.

This is both positive and negative in consequence.  On the positive side, it can perhaps protect us from false teaching because we do not trust the teacher, but on the negative, we can miss opportunities to learn new truths because we are not in a trusting relationship with the teacher.

As a former classroom teacher I can vouch for this. There is an old adage that states, "The students will not care how much you know until they know how much you care."  In psychology there is a concept called a "hierarchy of needs"; basically, humans have needs that range from basic for life like food and shelter, and then progress up, through personal relationships, love and understanding, and finally the higher levels with learning and self-actualization. A person can not move up this ladder until the lower needs are met.  Now, don't get hung up on the "self-actualization" and throw the baby out with the bathwater.  I think that this hierarchy of needs concept transfers over to the classroom.  Until basic needs are met, students can not progress to the next level.  I taught overseas one year and faced head on the issue of students being at the very first level and truly needing food and shelter.  I can testify that there is no point in trying to teach a child who is falling asleep to get away from the hunger pangs. You simply have to feed them first.  In the same way, people all have a need for love and understanding, needs for interpersonal relationships.  They are not going to move on to the next level (learning) until those needs are met.  This trust/truth relationship fits in right here.  Until the student has a trusting relationship with the teacher or other truth-presenter, they are not going to be able to accept and thereby benefit from, the truth.

In the world of educational theory this means that teacher effectiveness is not based on technical skill, but on spiritual and emotional relationship.

As I ponder on what this means to me as a professional educator (and ponder on the paper I'm supposed to write!) I can't help but be greatful for the obvious connection that this has to me as a homeschooler.  Because of the built in trust relationship I already have with my children, we move directly to teaching truth.