Category Archives: children

Children, belief, and faith

Posted on June 3, 2007 by igalindo

I recently ran into a young married-with-children couple who are of the kind that is very intent on their children’s spiritual formation. During our conversation they shared their belief that Christians shouldn’t teach children about Santa Claus because it may … Continue reading →

Posted in children | 3 Comments

Getting the right answer wrong

Posted on May 25, 2007 by igalindo

One of the most unfortunate practices I see often in instruction is when a teacher’s goal is to get “right answers” from students. This is not to say that getting your students to get it right is wrong–in fact, it’s … Continue reading →

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Less is more

Posted on May 24, 2007 by igalindo

When it comes to effective teaching, “less is more.” While the brain is an amazing information and multi-sensory processor, it can only effectively learn one new thing (concept) at a time. The maximum number of “bits of information” the mind … Continue reading →

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I used to believe . . .

Posted on May 15, 2007 by igalindo

I’ve always found it fascinating to see how difficult it is for adults to appreciate children’s cognition. It seems as if when the brain makes those leaps from one stage of cognition to another we develop a sort of cognitive … Continue reading →

Posted in children, Christian Education, teaching, world view | 1 Comment

Teaching concepts

Posted on May 9, 2007 by igalindo

Concepts are some of the most powerful components of learning. In fact, concepts attainment is necessary for deep understanding—if you don’t grasp the concept, you don’t really understand. This is a challenge in teaching in part because most people don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in children, Christian Education, teaching | 1 Comment

Avoiding triviality

Posted on April 30, 2007 by igalindo

In Toward a Theory of Instruction, Jerome Bruner insists that a theory of development must be linked both to a theory of knowledge and to a theory of instruction, “or be doomed to triviality.” (Bruner p. 21) I’ve long felt … Continue reading →

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Children in worship

Posted on April 25, 2007 by igalindo

Children belong in the worship service and they can be full participants in the experience. While there are some legitimate pragmatic reasons why some churches take children out of the corporate worship service, there are no legitimate developmental or theological … Continue reading →

Posted in children, Christian Education, worship | 1 Comment

Teaching children the Bible

Posted on April 19, 2007 by igalindo

When I was an elementary school principal at a Christian school parents would often ask about the reason for why we required the children to memorize Bible verses (by fourth grade they were memorizing whole chapters as well as a … Continue reading →

Posted in bible, children, Christian Education, teaching | 1 Comment

Suggestions for children’s sermons

Posted on April 15, 2007 by igalindo

I recently visited a church in which a staff member did the “children’s sermon” during the morning worship service. It was all I could do to keep from moaning and cringing. This staff member broke all of the “rules” for … Continue reading →

Posted in children, Christian Education | 1 Comment

Teaching the unteachable

Posted on April 14, 2007 by igalindo

Sometimes I get the nagging suspicion that there may be some things that are “unteachable.” Ironically, those things may be the most important things we want to teach, things like maturity, emotional intelligence, faith, and the usable part of systems … Continue reading →

Posted in bowen family systems theory, children, Christian Education | 1 Comment