Category Archives: Christian Education

Veggie Tales, I never knew you

Posted on May 23, 2007 by igalindo

I’ve only watched one Veggie Tales story. It was a televised Christmas special some years ago. I thought it was cute, and well done. It didn’t convince me to change our practice in our church to NOT use videos in … Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Education, Design, Sunday school | Comments Off on Veggie Tales, I never knew you

Educators in the second chair

Posted on May 22, 2007 by Pat Clement

The following article, “Leading From the Second Chair: Christian Education Ministers as Servant Leaders,” was published by Patricia E. Clement in the March 07 issue of Catechetical Leader Magazine, the professional journal for the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership – … Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Education, second chair | 2 Comments

Biblical literacy

Posted on May 21, 2007 by igalindo

I just bought a new bible. Not that I need it. Like most clergy cum seminarians I have about a dozen of them, including my “first bible” given to me upon entering fourth grade. I have my ordination bible, a … Continue reading →

Posted in bible, Christian Education, Sunday school | Comments Off on Biblical literacy

Avoiding program proliferation

Posted on May 18, 2007 by igalindo

When I was a school principal we had an annual fundraiser in which our small army of 800 elementary school students sold hundreds of dollar candy bars. You know the ones, those one dollar, delicious, long bricks of chocolate and … Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Education, Sunday school | 4 Comments

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

What Bruner said

Posted on May 11, 2007 by igalindo

In 1966 Jerome Bruner, Harvard psychologist and educator, wrote: There is a dilemma in describing a course of study. One must begin by setting forth the intellectual substance of what is to be taught, else there can be no sense … Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Education, philosophy, teaching | Comments Off on What Bruner said

You learn what you need at the time you need it and not before

Posted on May 10, 2007 by igalindo

I often start my workshop presentations by saying, “Don’t take notes. It won’t help you.” (in fact, I start out most of my seminary class sessions that way). I tell the participants to trust themselves to learn what they need … Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Education, teaching | Comments Off on You learn what you need at the time you need it and not before

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

How NOT to explain things

Posted on May 8, 2007 by igalindo

In a previous post (“On metaphors, analogies, and rigid thinking”(April 20th, 2007) I wrote about the limitations inherent in metaphors. I stated that while metaphors can be helpful to introduce a concept we do people a disservice in leaving them … Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Education, teaching | Comments Off on How NOT to explain things

Putting the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble

Posted on May 7, 2007 by igalindo

I had a conversation a few weeks ago with a couple of church leaders who wanted to “mobilize” their church members into ministry. They wanted to turn around the situation in their church (common to many congregations) where 20% of … Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Education, theology | Comments Off on Putting the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble