What’s Inside?
Article — Mentoring: A Classical Imperative
Teacher Stories
Resources That Inspire Change
Poetry — The Loss of a Beloved Dog
Mentoring: A Classical Imperative
Part One: Mentoring Model
An understood imperative in education is that all new teachers need mentors. When I speak of mentors, I do not mean an authority figure who tells the teacher what to do. Mentors are folks who have been doing the job for a long while and they know the ins and outs of it so well that their wisdom is invaluable. Mentors are folks who listen and offer advice. Mentors have one goal and that is to encourage and offer guidance so that their mentees can be successful.
All new Classical Christian teachers need to find someone to mentor them either on their own or through their school. Fortunately, most of the best mentors come from our families. I had a terrific mentor growing up and an unusual upbringing as a result. My father passed away at a young age when I was just five years old and afterwards, my mother went back to school to finish her college degree. She had always wanted to be a teacher, but considering her life circumstances, she believed that getting a business degree would be the best course to provide for her family. My mother got cancer when I was nine years old, and she knew that she had a limited amount of time on Earth to teach her children the truths of life that would be necessary to lead us into adulthood. My mother, therefore, became very intentional and focused in her child rearing, because time was short and we had a lot to learn. She taught us about truth and falsehood, good and evil, and she taught us what real love was. These seemingly simple truths, taught consistently, transformed our lives.
As early as ten years old, I remember my mother talking to me and my sisters about education. In the early 1980s, the Eagle Forum in Texas and the national Eagle Forum organization was promoting meetings for those interested in learning about changes going on in educational philosophy and methodology across the country and in Texas classrooms. My mother attended these meetings and began reading on her own about educational philosophy. She began speaking to the social groups that she belonged to, and to her children, challenging us all to think through the purposes of education. She challenged everyone who heard her to learn to differentiate between educational philosophies that did not promote Biblical truth and those that did.
In terms of educational philosophy, she taught us two important lessons that really stuck with me. The first lesson regarded situational ethics, which permeated the humanistic educational philosophies at the time. Situational ethics, as the name indicates, stated that there was no real right or wrong in the world, but that all truth was determined by a person’s personal circumstances – in other words, all truth was relative. She taught us that God, not a person’s temporary situation, determined what was true and false and we should believe His Word over our own feelings. Secondly, my mother taught us that everything we learned or wondered about should be measured against the truth of the Bible, because it was the source of all truth.
Recognizing the virtues that each of us exhibited in everyday life, my mother encouraged us to use our strengths for good works. Like any good mentor, she challenged us in our areas of weakness as well. My mother was very loving, but the one thing my mother never did was to let her children get away with sin and vice. She knew that sin and the habits it develops were destructive and that she had a limited amount of time to expose and help root out as many of our sins and vices as possible. I did not grow up being guilt tripped, but challenged to be better than I was so that I could develop into a good adult. She often showed us how to think through plans for correcting our poor behavior and the situations it sometimes got us into. My mother understood that she was training young human beings and that she was not likely to be around before we became adults. Consequently, her training was intentional and focused. I believe wholeheartedly that many of us can learn to teach children well by following the examples of good mentors in our families.
Parent mentoring works for teacher mentoring.
There is a limited amount of time, so be intentional regarding every aspect of teaching.
Train children to love truth and hate falsehood, to love good and to despise evil, and to love God and your neighbor well.
Train children to measure all ideas against the source of all truth – God and His Word.
Train children to become good human beings by encouraging virtue and challenging them deliberately to root out sin and vice.
In my classes, I have learned over the years how to use the techniques my mother taught me as my mentor. I employ the same mindset she had in all of my classes. As a teacher, I am under similar time limits. Everything I teach is measured against the truth, goodness, and beauty found in the Bible so that my students can properly think about what they learn in class. My job is to teach students that the basis of all ideas and principles of truth come from the Bible. It is incumbent upon me to deal truthfully, kindly, and firmly with the sin and vice in the children I work with whenever I see it. Finally, my students are to know that they are loved and valued.
For students to learn at the deepest levels, their teachers must know the truth themselves and how to teach it. That is where teacher mentoring comes in. Many Classical and Christian schools have teachers who follow the prevailing public school philosophies without realizing it when they develop their lessons, set up their classroom organization plan, in the manner in which they present the material, in the design of their assessments, in how they choose to grade, and in classroom management. Most of these philosophies are based on flawed modern psychology. Only teachers who have been mentored and trained in the Classical Christian model can help the new teachers learn how to implement a profoundly good, yet complex model of education.
Part Two: Mentoring in Real Life
My mother passed away when I was fifteen years old and before her death she guaranteed that my sisters and I had money to attend college. When researching what occupation I might take up after college, I took a couple of education classes. When I studied the different educational philosophies, none of them made sense to me. They were all either opposite of one another or so similar, that I could not tell the difference between them. They were all based on psychology and using manipulation to teach children. Why the philosophies were so complicated puzzled me greatly. The different philosophies all had one thing in common: none focused on teaching children important ideas and truths, but all focused on training teachers how to manipulate children into learning. I wondered to myself, “If what children need to learn is good, (I had enjoyed learning as a child) then why do we need to trick them into learning? Why cannot they study and read and write and think and discuss ideas with their teacher?” Based on these experiences, I graduated from college with a BA in History swearing I would never become a teacher.
Previously, in the early 1980s, my mother’s best friend, Eileen Waage, “Miswaage” to me and my sisters, and my mother learned about a Classical Christian and uniquely American philosophy of education called “The Principle Approach.” They began studying the philosophy and methodology and became convinced that homeschooling us was the best plan going forward. Unfortunately, my mother became too sick to homeschool my sisters and I, but Mrs. Waage taught her daughter at home until she graduated from high school. She continued homeschooling her son and wrote an elementary math book that showed how to find the Biblical principles of a subject by searching out the Scriptures. In addition, she explained the Classical model of math to folks in the 1990s that had been universally understood by teachers back in the 1840s using a math book called Ray’s Arithmetic, in which only mathematical principles and exercises were presented. The books were so small and short, they were unrecognizable as math books. Interestingly, the Singapore math books today follow much the same method of explanation as Ray’s Arithmetic.
After moving back home to attend college I would visit Mrs. Waage and her family and sometimes my sisters were in attendance, too. Whenever we would see Mrs. Waage, she would spend time talking to us about education and the world and mentoring us in how to continue thinking Biblically in every aspect of our lives. The summer after I graduated from college, Mrs. Waage asked me and my sister to attend a weeklong seminar where the philosophy and methodology of “The Principle Approach” was being explained to potential homeschoolers. Having known Mrs. Waage since I was six years old, I felt compelled to do as she asked even though I had no interest in attending the seminar.
On the first day, I began to be intrigued, because they were not discussing psychology or manipulative tricks to teach children, but real ideas with real methods of teaching. Students and teachers would study and read and write and think and discuss ideas!! Woo hoo!! Just what I thought should happen in a classroom was being explained to me! I attended the rest of the week with eager anticipation and I was not disappointed. At the end of the week, I knew that I was being called to teach using the Classical, Biblical, and American model of education. It was liberating and exciting, yet overwhelming and daunting. How did one even begin to start? Fortunately, Mrs. Waage agreed, maybe without even being actually asked, to mentor me and to show me how to teach the American Classical Christian model of education.
It took a little bit of time, but I found a job at a Christian school in Fort Worth using the American Classical Christian model in its History and English classes. Mrs. Waage mentored me almost daily my entire first year. Most importantly, she taught me how to get started. The Principle Approach methodology is intense and each subject and each lesson requires a process in which the teacher researches the subject and identifies Biblical principles that apply to different aspects of the subject. Next, the teacher puts together a plan and creates notes for actually teaching the lesson and incorporating the Biblical worldview where it fits.
Mrs. Waage taught me invaluable lessons on classroom management, which emphasized being the leader of the class and having high expectations of the students in terms of academic work and behavior. One of the most important lessons Mrs. Waage taught me was to learn to teach my students according to their age level. She taught me how to teach the students to take notes in their notebooks and how to transition from one subject to another. She taught me not to allow students to put their hands on their heads, because poor posture in a learning environment causes the student to close himself/herself off from learning. I did not understand until I saw her instructions work in real time. When I was absent, she substituted for me. She listened and offered advice and showed me how to do so many things. She was always encouraging and when I made mistakes, she would help me figure out how to do better the next time. Mrs. Waage was the person who mentored me and taught me how to teach Classically and Biblically. What a gift she was to me!
A Call to Action
I believe we are at a tipping point in what some call the “Classical Renewal” in America. (I argue that the struggle for Classical Christian education never ceased. God always had a remnant fighting the war.) People talk about the growth of Classical education in America, but no one ever gauges or discusses the quality of it. In my personal experience, I have seen that the quality of Classical education varies greatly from school to school. Mrs. Waage used to say that a school was only as strong as its weakest teacher.
Teaching Classically and Biblically is not intuitive, and it requires years of extensive training, mentoring, and practice to be done well. Jesus spent three years mentoring the disciples for the job He was leaving them to do. He understood and modeled for us mentoring. As Christians committed to Classical Christian education, we must as individuals and as institutional groups, commit to learning our craft well and not settling for what appears to be good enough compared to others. God has never called His people to mediocrity, so we must all expect more of ourselves and each other if we are to get this right.
Being intentional and extremely clear about what we are teaching in our schools, holding ourselves and our students to high standards, and training and mentoring teachers are all imperatives for our schools to truly be places of transformation.
If you are a new Classical Christian teacher, or a teacher new to teaching a particular subject, be humble enough to seek out counsel from a more experienced Classical Christian teacher. Follow his/her advice even if you do not understand it at the time. When you do, you will come to understand his/her wisdom. Classical education tends to draw those who are intellectually advanced; therefore, teachers new to Classical Christian education need to be humble enough to learn their craft and depend, for a time, on those who have been practicing it longer. Training the next generation of children is a tremendous responsibility, so we have to prepare ourselves in the best manner possible for the job at hand.
Teacher Stories
I spent a year working as a homeschool teacher to four girls in 4-6th grades. Every now and then, we would take a field trip to the local university library and enjoy a day of research in the morning, lunch at the student union, and writing in the afternoon. By the end of the day, the students would write out a short research paper on a topic of their choice and then read their paper to the group. One day, the fourth grader did research on the Sperm Whale.
When she wrote out the information about the Sperm Whale, she shortened the name of the whale by omitting the second half of the whale’s proper name. As she began reading, she explained the length, width, and height of the “Sperm,” as well as the weight, color, and anatomical shape of the “Sperm.” She continued explaining where the “Sperm” swam and migrated and what the “Sperm” liked to eat. We learned about the “Sperm’s” mating habits and when the “Sperm” had their babies.
I kept a straight face initially, but once the other girls began snickering, I could not help but laughing myself. We accidentally egged each other on with contagious laughter during the presentation. Once she finished, the fourth grade girl looked extremely hurt and she began crying. I apologized profusely and we all left. I asked her sister to let her father know what had happened so that he could choose how to handle her lack of knowledge. There was no way that I was going to explain the birds and the bees to her!
Resources That Inspire Change
"The Cultural Energy of Schools" with Katharine Birbalsingh, Michaela …
youtube.com
Resource 1
Katharane Birbalsingh’s address is about much more than culture. She comes on at the 20:55 minute mark. It is at the 55:09 mark that she calls everyone out to “HOLD THE LINE.” Watch her inspirational appeal.
We are in a battle for truth as well as the hearts and minds of children and adults, and those of us who know the truth must “hold the line,” because we will lose the war if we do not.
Go to her website and watch the documentary about the strictest headmistress in England. If you have any strong objections to what you see and hear, ask yourself why? Next, ask yourself if you are focusing on what is best for yourself or the children you are teaching?
Resource 2
Wonder why parents are sometimes slow to adopt the Classical model and they challenge the academic and behavioral standards of the school so often?
It is no surprise after reading John Rosemond’s book called Parenting by The Book (Bible). Rosemond deftly details the development of modern psychology and the harm it has perpetrated on the American family. The same psychology is responsible for the breakdown of America’s schools as well, which is no surprise.
I lost my beloved dog of sixteen years this week. Molly, or Mollypop as I often called her, had been with me through thick and thin. Molly’s joy, kindness, love, and humor kept me seeing the glass as half-full instead of half-empty. I believe the Lord sent her to me so that she would provide me with support, comfort, and companionship. She did a tremendous job, and I am eternally grateful for her.
Treasured Friend
I lost a treasured friend today
The little dog who used to lay
Her gentle head upon my knee
And shared her silent thoughts with me.
She’ll come no longer to my call
Retrieve no more her favourite ball
A voice far greater than my own
Has called her to his golden throne.
Although my eyes are filled with tears
I thank him for the happy years
He let her spend down here with me
And for her love and loyalty.
When it is time for me to go
And join her there, this much I know
I shall not fear the transient dark
For she will greet me with a bark.
Four Feet
by Rudyard Kipling
I have done mostly what most men do,
And pushed it out of my mind;
But I can’t forget, if I wanted to,
Four-Feet trotting behind.
Day after day, the whole day through..
Wherever my road inclined..
Four-feet said, “I am coming with you!”
And trotted along behind.
Now I must go by some other round,
Which I shall never find..
Somewhere that does not carry the sound
Of Four-Feet trotting behind.
We Have A Secret
We have a secret, you and I
that no one else shall know,
for who but I can see you lie
each night in fire glow?
And who but I can reach my hand
before we go to bed
and feel the living warmth of you
and touch your silken head?
Only I walk woodland paths
and see ahead of me,
your small form racing with the wind
so young again, and free.
And only I can see you swim
in every brook I pass
and when I call, no one but I
can see the bending grass.