Signs of Intelligent Life for Our Schools
Signs of Intelligent Life for Our Schools.
“The person who loves shall alone be the person who knows. The one who loves well, will outstrip all the searchers in the knowledge of the very things that the intellect desires to understand… So it is better to love a little than to know everything.” (George MacDonald, Growth in Grace and Knowledge).
E.T. Phone Home. What if a friendly alien from a galaxy far away decides to enter our Milky Way galaxy and come straight to our tiny little planet earth to see if we have any signs of intelligent life? What examples of intelligence could we offer him as he explores our earthly home? If there are signs of intelligent life to reveal to him, what would that look like? Perhaps we can picture this earnest alien life form entering the hallowed halls of our school, asking that we reveal our distinctive signs of intelligence? Maybe we could offer qualities like these…
Our Signs of True Intelligence… We are:
Sign #1, Incarnational: The teaching is not mechanical but personal, and our methods tend to be unplugged as we carefully and intentionally manage technology in the learning process; flesh-and-blood educators develop human relationships with students and parents, and demonstrate what a living, breathing learner looks like; the learning is intimate not distant, substantive not virtual; students are trained in how to use their own active minds instead of having machines do their thinking for them. Computers are unworthy mediators in the learning process, for they are neither wise nor loving. Real teachers are.
Sign #2, Coherent: Teachers connect the dots as they offer integrated content areas and thematic units of study; interdisciplinary studies have unifying factors as they are taught in historical context; cultural events make sense in a whole-cloth teaching style that helps things hang together; understanding dawns at a deeper level as literature and history and Scripture and science and art and nature are woven together in a meaningful way. Reality is composed of many factors that tie together into one coherent whole, so it makes sense to study the same way.
Sign #3, Playful: A light-hearted spirit in a learner’s playground; a sense of joy in the process of engaging in schoolwork; the teacher stimulates glad hearts as they inspire students to apply themselves to the learning process; each classroom enjoys at least one good belly laugh each day; intellectual playfulness is encouraged by inspiring the imagination and maintaining a creative environment throughout the school. A healthy school helps each student to whistle while they work.
Sign #4, Experimental: Teachers feel free to see what works and what doesn’t; they are entrepreneurs of learning as they innovate and explore worthwhile methodologies; they maintain a hybrid of approaches to learning in order to help each student learn; the truly successful school has a wide profile of student learning styles, learning differences and disabilities, socioeconomic classes, multiple intelligences, personalities and giftedness; exciting schools tend to be countercultural, maybe a little eccentric, or at least innovative.
Sign #5, Traditional: We retain the tried-and-true if that’s what works best; we realize the time-tested, old- school elements in pedagogy don’t have to go out of style; the courageous school is unafraid to appear old-fashioned, outdated if it is in fact effective; independent thinkers don’t have to follow the latest trends in education; a traditional structure still has room for live-wire personalities and new-school methods.
Sign #6, Outdoorsy: Use nature as God’s second book; it is vital to get as much fresh air as possible; multi-sensory is how we’re made and so that’s how we teach; exploring nature and studying how it works is a meaningful context for all kinds of learning; discovering nature’s gifts and dangers practically demands a scratch-n-snuff methodology; a love of science begins with an appreciation of nature not the scientific method. As Francis Bacon once wrote, “It is as if the Divine Majesty took delight to hide His works, in order to have them found out; and as if kings could not have a greater honor than to be God’s play-fellows in that game.”
Sign #7, Industrious: We have a disciplined, systematic approach to learning the 3 R’s; each class is a craftsman’s workshop in which the student is the apprentice learner and the teacher is the master learner; there is ongoing instruction in language and computation skills as each student acquires the tools of learning; in the midst of hard work, there is great joy in the satisfaction of progress in learning and personally experiencing the rewards of a job well done.
Sign #8, Virtuous: Character development is woven into the school’s mission and daily purpose; there is moral accountability as the student’s conscience is strengthened; teachers are kind and firm as they maintain boundaries for student behavior; there is clear moral instruction throughout the school in the midst of society’s moral confusion; the school nurtures integrity and personal responsibility; the school environment enjoys a gracious personality and a general culture of lovingkindness and goodness; each student is encouraged to develop a moral imagination.
Sign #9, Communal: an emphasis on building meaningful relationships between students and teachers, between teachers and parents, healthy peer friendships in the student body, within the teaching staff and Board members; a school is dependent on a community of learners because we all learn better together than alone; the school culture encourages an interdependence for the sake of student learning. Anything that works against personal community in the school is rejected, whether it’s political factions, personal divisiveness, or impersonal technology.
Sign #10, Truthful: The school’s mission is founded on the true eternal truth of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, on His holy Scriptures, and on the reality of God’s image in each person from conception onward; at all costs the school avoids the pitfall of “always learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7); since Christ bears witness to the Truth, is the source of all truth, and actually embodies the Truth, only the Christ-centered school will be able to discover and grow into the truth which joins together knowledge with wisdom.
Sign #11, Mindful: The entire school is yearning to grow in loving God with all our minds; that we train the student’s intellect to acquire truth, we strengthen the student’s conscience to grow in goodness, and we inspire the student’s imagination to express his/her creative instinct and recognize beauty; since each brain has a mind of its own, each student is a unique learner and needs continual access to the feast-table of learning; teachers keep growing in establishing brain-friendly classrooms by being aware of the latest cognitive studies and brain research.
Sign #12, Shrewd: Students are taught how to be street-smart and clever, as opposed to gullible and naive; they learn how to think logically and ethically, how to support their own opinions, how to discuss controversial matters with clarity and kindness; students are learning how to shrewdly outthink opposition in a reasonable and effective way; students are on the road to using biblical insights and their spiritual wits as they advance the Kingdom of God. As Jesus said, all of us are to be “as clever as snakes and innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16).
“Let the main object of this, our teaching, be as follows: To seek and to find a method of instruction by which teachers may teach less, but learners may learn more; by which schools may be the scene of less noise, aversion and useless labour, but of more leisure, enjoyment, and solid progress; and through which the Christian community may have less darkness, perplexity, and dissension, but on the other hand more light, orderliness, peace and rest.” (Comenius, early 17th century).