Microwave education is like a “whitewashed tomb”, a pretty painting of a flower on a stone wall. Reflective learning is the real flower, growing from a seed and blossoming into beautiful, fragrant life.
The heart is the key to reflective learning. The heart is the key to Biblical education. I want to show you 3 aspects of “the Heart” in relation to education.
If I had to pick just 3 areas to emphasize in teaching on education, I think I would focus on the 3 below, and summarize them with Katherine Dang quotes. IOW, if you are new to Biblical education or struggling to “get it”, may I give you 3 things to focus on “getting”? Meditate on these until they become internalized, until you make them your own. Study them. Pray for them. I believe they are Key.
1) “You follow me as I follow Christ.” Or as Katherine Dang says, “Teach what you know.” Actually she puts it stonger, “ONLY teach what you know. Don’t (try to) teach what you don’t know.” A true teacher teaches from their heart. This is Biblically one who disciples. I often put this in Paul’s terminology, for discipleship is what we are called to in teaching, lead through where we have been and where we are going. We can’t give what we ain’t got. Our teaching must come through our own transformation from reflectively renewing our minds, which will birth what we learn in our hearts. From there it grows and will bear fruit, enabling it to be reproduced in the hearts of others.
2) “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.” This relates to the subject itself. We must get to the heart of the subject. What are the principles and rudiments? As Miss Dang says, “You don’t have to teach a lot to teach a lot.” Or teach by “IV drip”, just a drop at a time. This is great news if we are only to teach what we know! Do you hear this? Teach only what you know, but you don’t have to teach a lot. IOW, you can teach if you don’t know a lot! Just learn the principles and rudiments of the subject and start there. Then continue to lead as you go along.
Reflective education plants seeds, the seeds of the Biblical principles and the rudiments of a subject (the heart) and then waters them and they grow to be “the greatest of all”. Refelective education is EXPANSIVE, not evolutionary. (I think that came from GACE.) (Read the whole scripture passage in Matthew 13:31-32.)
3) “The seed that fell on good soil sprang up and bore fruit, increased up to a 100-fold.” The heart of the student is our third aspect of the heart. Seeds planted in good soil, and watered will grow and reproduce. I don’t have a specific quote from Miss Dang, but she does talk about how as parent/teachers we are really only responsible for giving our children the rudiments.
We must remember, we are not teaching “subjects”, we are teaching students. IOW, I don’t teach math, science, English really, I teach Amariah, Levi, Isaiah, Shekynah, …. This is why parents should be the best educators. They should know and be able to reach their own children’s hearts better than anyone else. We are not wanting to “candy coat” our children with a Biblical education, turning them into legalists. We are wanting to plant Biblical thinking/reasoning in their hearts, that it would spring forth in the Spirit of liberty, that Truth would make them free indeed. Do you see why we must renew our own hearts first, to get to this point with our children?
We need to cultivate the soil of our children’s hearts. Prayer is the absolute best cultivator, because then God is doing the work from the inside out. The “Mashal” is another cultivator, that reaches the heart. It is the way Jesus, and much of the Bible teaches. This is not an 1828 definition, but one that will give you the “heart” of the meaning of Mashal. It is teaching by proverbs, parables, analogies, stories. Notice how much of the Bible is this. God wrote it to reach our hearts.
I’ll write more on this another time, but for now want to mention that living literature (that fits the guidelines of Phil. 4:8) is an excellent heart cultivator. Some of the best can be found: 1) in the Bible itself, of course. 2) in literature suggestions from FACE. 3) in literature re-published by Lamplighter Publishing.
