Patricia Cranton, author of Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning: A Guide for Educators of Adults (Second Edition), is a must read for Christian educators. We often talk about the need for persons to be transformed in the likeness of Christ, but we aren’t clear about what this transformation looks like and how we as educators can educate towards transformation. This book presents excellent groundwork for this discussion.

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The librarian and staff at our theological library have been inviting professors to lunch and conversations. My turn came last week. They are a very intelligent, nice, and helpful group of folks, as librarians tend to be. It was good to be with folks who help make my job in education and research much easier and more pleasant. During the lunch conversation I talked about the educational theory that informs my approach to teaching the education courses at the seminary, Constructivism. Which prompted the question, “So, what is Constructivism?” That’s a good question worth revisiting.

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The following is from the book Myths: Fact and Fiction about Teaching and Learning by Israel Galindo. How well do you know fact from fiction?

MYTH: Following a time-honored tradition, upon becoming physicians, all doctors take the Hippocratic Oath.

TRUTH: Not all doctors take the Hippocratic Oath. In fact, very few do.

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There is one thing you can be sure of as a primary educator in a local church: inevitably (just as certain as death and taxes), Sunday School teachers will begin to ask for “new curriculum.” This is regardless of the size of the church, the quality of teachers, or even the quality of the curriculum resources teachers currently are using when this mysterious angst strikes!

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The collection of articles that comprise Religion in the New Millennium: Theology in the Spirit of Paul Tillich, are from presentations given at the gathering of international scholars of religion meeting in New Harmony, Indiana in June 1999. The writers were challenged to address current issues of faith and culture through the lens of Tillich’s theology, especially as developed in his classic work The Religious Situation (1926). Not all presenters and writers were students or experts on Tillich or his theology, and that makes for a frustrating sense of unevenness in reading through this volume.

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I like Star Wars, the movie, as much as the next person—at least the original (while not technically sophisticated, or particularly well-acted, nevertheless it retains its charm). But there’s nothing like being corrected by a 16-year-old Star Wars geek on a quote from a movie I saw during its original release. In a movie theater. Before the uppity kid was even born!*

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