In keeping with the theme of this month’s issue, John Walcott asked the panel members to recommend some of their favorite books for Christian educators or for their students.

Justin Cook submitted the following recommendations for teachers:

An Ethic of Excellence, by Ron Berger (2003). Ron Berger is a master teacher in the expeditionary learning system of schools. He empowers his elementary students to do high-quality work that has authentic contexts by creating healthy cultures of critique in his learning communities. He urges us to take kids off of the treadmill of mediocre first drafts. Diving more deeply into projects, students complete multiple drafts of a product because they are committed to craftsmanship. Ron Berger helps us see all students as culture makers who help each other strive for excellence because they know their work is important. Video options: “What Does Good Work Look Like?” <youtube.com/watch?v=rCqiOZv36KQ> and “Austin’s Butterfly” <vimeo.com/38247060>, both by Ron Berger.

Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, by Andy Crouch (2013). Crouch’s follow-up to Culture Making, this new book identifies the ways that God has empowered us as his image-bearers in a creation that needs us for flourishing. However, misuse of power always leads to the double-edged sword of idolatry and injustice. As leaders in our schools, it is essential that we think carefully about the ways in which we exercise power over children. Although it isn’t overt in the book, Crouch helps us consider the way that we need to exercise and share power with children as a means to leading them into their own image-bearing role. Video option: Andy Crouch interview on Playing God, with John Wilson from Books and Culture <vimeo.com/72980184>.

Anatomy of the Soul, by Curt Thompson (2010). Curt Thompson provides a unique perspective on current brain research and its exploration of our relationality in combination with our biblical desire for love of self and neighbor—to know as we are fully known. Exploring neuroscience and the psychology of attachment, Thompson helps us understand our own narratives, how we have become who we are based on our upbringing and relationships, and then helps us to see how our being rooted in a mysterious grand narrative of scripture can deepen our capacity for love, joy, and flourishing.

The Social Animal, by David Brooks (2011). Serving as an intriguing companion to Anatomy of the Soul, New York Times columnist David Brooks creates a fictional couple, Harold and Erica, to reveal how human beings are motivated by often subconscious nonrational relational forces in our desire for flourishing. He relies on extensive, fascinating studies to help us ponder how our characters are formed in our various life stages from birth to death, individuals neurologically shaped by our social environments as much as by our genes. Video option: The Social Animal TEDTalk, March 2011 <youtube.com/watch?v=rGfhahVBIQw>.

World Class Learners, by Yong Zhao (2012). Yong Zhao analyzes the way in which education in the West is desperately trying to compete with the East in international tests like the PISA, while simultaneously the East is desperately trying to become more western in its proliferation of entrepreneurship. Rooted in global economic trends and predictions, the book provides a powerful critique of standardized learning outcomes that suppress student uniqueness and diversity, and makes a compelling argument for how we might empower students to find their own creative gifts and to flourish through challenging them to be innovative in a “product-oriented” pedagogy that is illustrated at schools like High Tech High in San Diego, California. Video option: Yong Zhao Keynote, at PBL World 2013 <youtube.com/watch?v=cOE8Zy5ZrZ0>.

Gayle Monsma offered the following suggestions for teachers:

Mindset by Carol Dweck. This book changed the way I view learning. It explains the necessity of having a “growth mindset” within the context of schools, athletics, and family. The terminology and content of this book have become part of our school ethos in how we approach student learning, as well as our own growth as professionals. If I could prescribe one book for all teachers to read (and reread every five years), this would be it!

Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. This is a fantastic novel that shows a dramatic example of how to live with hope in the midst of a world very unlike the one God originally created. It inspires us to continue to “play beautiful music” and as Christian teachers gives us a perspective on living redemptively in these “in-between times.”

Culture Making by Andy Crouch. (I agree with Justin on this one!) It took me a couple of tries to get through this book, so I suggest tackling it when you have a good amount of time to immerse yourself. It challenges us as Christian teachers to move beyond our traditional emphasis on developing a Christian worldview and instead become instructors who focus on cultivating culture-makers. Crouch’s critique that we currently produce better art critics than artists has stuck with me and inspired me to modify my teaching so that more “culture-makers” emerge from my classroom.

I know it’s not a book, but I highly recommend the blog “Nurturing Faith” by Dan Beerens <nurturingfaith.wordpress.com/>. This blog continues to challenge me in my calling as a teacher in a Christian school. In particular, Beerens’s series describing the characteristics of a “flourishing student” were foundational in the crafting of our school’s updated core purpose. Add it to your list of favorites!

And a few books to use in the classroom:

As a principal, I don’t do very much classroom teaching, so my list of books to use in the classroom is a bit short, as I wanted to have some personal experience with using the books in the classroom before recommending them.

In a grade 9 unit around the theme of community-building (as compared to fence-building), I recommend The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. This is the story of a boy living just outside the fence surrounding Auschwitz, giving great opportunities to discuss both the literal and figurative fences we build at the expense of community. Telling the story from the naive perspective of a nine-year-old allows for a unique approach to the horrific events of the Holocaust.

To give the students another experience with the events of the Holocaust, I recommend having them read MAUS by Art Spiegelman. MAUS is a set of two graphic novels in which the author retells his father’s experience as a Polish Jew during the Holocaust. In addition to telling an important story, it’s great to expose students to variety of genres, including graphic novels.

You Are Special by Max Lucado is a wonderful picture book that is written for a young audience, but still enjoyed by teens and adults. The well-written text, combined with interesting illustrations, supports the never-too-often-heard message that everyone has worth as an image-bearer of our creator.

Christian Altena closed our list of recommendations with the following comments:

Every year I find myself having to beg off this topic a bit. My diet of reading is not varied: all history, all the time. So to my fellow teachers of history, I would recommend keeping a number of serious “doorstop” books around. I don’t always read them straight through, but more often consult chapters here and there, looking for the hidden, yet fascinating stories—you know, the ones that never make the textbooks because they might offend someone, or in other words, the stories that actually interest students because they turn flat historical caricatures into real flesh and blood people. Of these I would recommend Daniel Waker Howe’s What Hath God Wrought (2007), Gordon S. Wood’s Empire of Liberty (2009), and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals (2005).

For use in the classroom by teachers and students, I would like to suggest the following websites and a podcast. An invaluable resource of archived stories can be found at <NPR.org>, <CBC.ca>, and <BBC.com>. There are always stories that are relevant to a current classroom lesson and provide great fodder for discussion and debate. The podcast Backstory is also a favorite of mine. Three professors of American history discuss a theme across the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.

 

The panel consists of:

• Christian Altena, who teaches at Chicago Christian High School in Palos Heights, Illinois.
• Justin Cook, who serves as the director of learning at the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools in Ancaster, Ontario.
• Gayle Monsma, who serves as principal at Covenant Christian School in Leduc, Alberta.
• John Walcott, who is assistant professor in the education department at Calvin College.