One of the most chilling areas of psychology, for me (whether clinical, developmental, educational, or those associated with faith development), is child psychology. I’m not sure what it is, exactly. Perhaps it’s a result of my stint at the children’s ward at a state mental hospital during my CPE experience. Or perhaps it’s because a too-close examination of the inner workings of the childhood psyche explodes any naiveté we may want to hold onto related to children’s innocence. Or perhaps it’s the horrifying prospect of witnessing unleashed raw psychic emotional energy from the id without the restraining correctives of the accumulated layers of social constraints adults enjoy which keep them from killing each other—or themselves—at any given moment.

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In his controversial classic, Beyond Freedom and Dignity (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971), B.F. Skinner proposes a scientific model for the study of human behavior and challenges the traditional theory of man as a purposeful, autonomous being with personality traits, will, and emotions. He dismisses the metaphysical construct of “mind” as a motivator of behavior, limiting his analysis to what can be observed, and presents behavior as the product of the genetic endowment an individual has received from evolutionary processes and of his encounters with the external environment.

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The central thesis of Marjorie J Thompson’s Family: The Forming Center. A vision of the role of family in spiritual formation (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1996), is that, for good or evil, the home is the primary context in which spiritual formation takes place. Spiritual formation can take place through intentional teaching and practices, or it can take place through modeling and unconscious attitudes, but it will take place. Spiritual formation is likely the most foundational formation that takes place in a child’s early life, overlapping with mental, physical and ethical formation. The question for parents is what kind of formation is taking place? The answer for Christian families is that they should be formed to the image of Christ and not the world.

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At a recent conference the dialogue got sidetracked on the question about when the “new middle age” begins (I’ll confess that it was my fault, I begged the question). The participants had fun guessing and throwing out ages from 45 to 65. I ended that rabbit-chasing and got us back on tract by saying that our problem isn’t so much that the midlife chronological point has move up, but rather the issue is that we’re dealing with a widespread case of societal protracted adolescence.

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This topic is definitely of interest to those of us in the realm of church work. You might be familiar with James Fowler’s Stages of Faith which serves us well when looking into the spiritual development of individuals. William G. Perry, Jr. wrote about his theory in a 1968 work, “Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years: A Scheme”.

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So when was the last time you looked in your education toolbox and pulled out developmental theory? Strange question? Maybe but it is the focus of this post. Throughout the fall I will address different developmental theorists and how their theory might relate to Christian education.

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