Three basic educational questions

At a recent consultation I ran into a scenario that has come to symbolize for me what is wrong with much of what passes for “education” in congregations. I was being given a tour of the educational facilities by the congregational staff member and the lay Sunday School Director. They were proud of their facilities, and rightly so. Modern, well-maintained, and attractive, the building and the classrooms showed how much they valued education. Looking around their Sunday School Office (spacious and outfitted with enough equipment that would be the envy of any small congregation struggling to maintain a church office) I spotted a large stack of papers—two and a half feet high (I’m not exaggerating). I knew immediately what that stack was.

“What’s that pile?” I asked, playfully.

“Those are old Sunday School class attendance forms,” the Director replied. He explained how each class took attendance on an attendance sheet, returned it to the office, and how a Sunday Shool secretary would record the attendance in the computer.

“And what do you do with all those forms?” I asked.

“Oh, we keep them around for a while then we recycle them,” said the Director, placing his hand on the pile.

“And what do you do with the information about attendance that you record,” I asked, waiting for what I knew was coming.

“Umm, well, we, uh, enter the attendance information on the computer,” he replied.

“Yes,” I said, “But what do you do with the information? In other words, why do you take attendance?”

And there it was, that look on the Director’s face as it dawned on him that he could not give me a reason for why they were doing something. Other brave souls, when asked, have stammered, “Well, because that’s what we’re supposed to do. Isn’t it?” Or, “Um, I don’t know. We just enter the attendance on the computer.”

That scenario has come to symbolize for me how so many congregations have set up a “pretend school”—going through the motions of what a real school does without the reason behind it. This playing at school has consequences, not the least of which is this: a pretend school yields pretend learning.

When I was a principal at a school taking attendance was very important. We had to do it every day and we had to have an accurate count. The reason for that is because the state mandates the minimum number of instructional hours per day and per school year that a student needs in order to pass a grade (along with minimum evidence of learning mastery of subjects and skills). I’ve had a number of meetings with parents to tell them their child will not pass a grade because of excessive absences. But none of that applies to a church Sunday School, does it? When was the last time someone in a Sunday School class didn’t “pass” because of lack of attendance? And when was the last time your church gave a Sunday School-wide exam to assess mastery of learning related to the curricular resources? *

At the heart of the cause of ineffectiveness in congregational Christian education is the lack of clarity about fundamental educational questions. Having clarity about how one answers fundamental educational questions, and what one does as a result, is the difference between a “real” educational enterprise and activities that “pretend” to be educational.

The three fundamental questions

Here are the three fundamental questions every educator must answer to move beyond pretending toward engaging in an authentic educational enterprise:

1. What is most important to learn?

Every educational enterprise consists of passing on ideas, knowledge, concepts, principles, etc. But we can no longer believe that any educational enterprise can consist of a program of pansophia. No one can teach or learn everything about everything. But more importantly is the philosophical determination about what knowledge is of most worth? This is also a pragmatic question. Given the limited amount of time we have with students, the inefficient nature of learning, it’s important to know what to spend time teaching for depth rather than coverage.

2. What essential skills should learners have?

Concepts, ideas, and principles constitute only one type of knowledge. Another important type of knowledge is skills. But skills are not merely an “end product” of practice, skills are an important vehicle for creating knowledge. Doing is a form of learning. In Christian Education skills include what we call spiritual practices or spiritual disciplines: praying a certain way, reading the Bible a certain way, etc.

3. How should a student’s worldview change as a result of learning?

Education is a formative and transformative experience. It changes the way we perceive self, others, and the way we understand the world. Effective educational enterprises are intentional about what worldview (perspectives) they inculcate in their learners. Through education we make decisions about what values we want the learner to acquire, and we appreciate that values are attained through particular educational modalities (you can’t teach a value in the same way you teach a concept).

Questions to ponder:

• Can you answer these three basic educational questions clearly and with specificity? If not, it may provide a clue about the effectiveness of your Christian education enterprise.
• Can every teacher in your Sunday School answer the three basic questions? Are they the same as yours? Do they need to be?
• If you can answer the three questions does your Christian Education program reflect congruence in its practices, structures, and processes with your view of education?

*The data gathered from Sunday School class attendance can have some value. It can be the kind of interpretive data that can lead to decisions about organizational, administrative, and ministry responses. But it’s also been my experience that few people know what to do with and how to interpret that data.