In his classical approach to systematic theology, Thomas Oden references the fact that modern journalism unwittingly derives its sequence of good reporting from classical Christian theology, “which itself sought to report the best of good news.”((Thomas C. Oden, The Word of Life: Systematic Theology, Vol. II (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992), 30.)) These four classical questions (modern journalism adds a relevant fifth question, When?) encompass the part of Christology that focuses on the teaching about …
Category: On Teaching
“I believe the ideal teacher would approach any masterpiece that he was presenting to his class almost as if he had never seen it before.”1 Ezra Pound, ABC of Reading, 86 [↩] …
The educational aims of a good teacher are less about training than they are about transforming. The former is aimed at doing while the latter is aimed at being. This is why Classical Christian teachers are less interested in teaching students what to do and more interested in teaching students how to be. For the teacher with the proper educational aims, things like grades, scores, and other modern measures of achievement can often be a …
Entrepreneurial teachers exchange the security of the school for the freedom and responsibility to build their own unique brand as a teacher and to market their classes. Brand is just a fancy way of saying reputation for the quality work a person does. Instead of confining their gifts and offerings to the four walls of a classroom, entrepreneurial teachers flip the entire school on its head and make it a platform on which they can …
Teachers are not in the classroom to be the students’ friend, but teachers should be friendly. Teachers are not in the classroom to be the students’ nemesis—as so many students (and some teachers) suppose—but teachers should challenge students. Teachers are not in the classroom because it’s their job, but teachers should work hard in the fulfillment of their calling. Teachers are not in the classroom to create busy work for students, but teachers who wisely …
Ignaz Semmelweis was an obstetrician at Vienna General—a teaching and research hospital—during the mid-19th century. While Semmelweis worked there, the mortality rate among women in the maternity ward grew to 10 percent. That means while other hospitals at the time had a .02 percent mortality rate in their maternity wards (one in fifty women died), at Vienna General, one in every ten women who delivered a baby there would die of childbed fever. The symptoms …