Teaching argumentation in the high school English classroom in fall 2016 proved more challenging than any other leading up to it thanks to one man: Donald Trump. Many of my students loved him: they wore Trump shirts, MAGA hats, and spoke excitedly about attending his rallies and having the chance to vote for him. These […]
Instead of seeing all the conflict in our culture as a threat of division, what if we were able to receive it as a God-given opportunity for discipleship and even witness? In this culture of polarization, we have been given, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:19, the ministry of reconciliation. And there is nothing more […]
If you haven’t read Michael Gulker’s article in this issue (“How to Argue,” p. 6), I recommend you do so before reading on. Gulker is the president of The Colossian Forum, an organization based in Grand Rapids that aims to teach Christians how to have productive, Christlike discussions, even when (especially when) they disagree. If you […]
Has there ever been a time when it was more important to teach students how to critically discern what is true from what is false when encountering political rhetoric? Has there ever been a time when this has been more difficult? A teacher who tries to talk about politics in the classroom is likely to […]
Hanging on the door of my classroom is a copy of the Belgic Confession, article 2, “The Means by Which We Know God.” It reads: We know God by two means: First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all […]
A picture showed up in my Facebook feed in February. Two eggs: a brown egg and white egg cracked open on a plate, shells visible, the whites and yolks displayed. A “cute” analogy to show students that even though we are different on the outside, we are all the same on the inside, and that’s […]
Shop teacher Gord Winkel, as usual, was the last one to slip into a seat in the back of theroom. He disliked staff meetings passionately, mostly because he usually had noidea what was going on in them and was always afraid that at some point hewould not speak up when he should and that the […]
Every day one of our Bible teachers selects a quote to add to the announcements scrolling on the TV screens around our school. I often read the quote as I walk the halls, appreciate the wisdom it contains, and continue about my day. One day this past January, however, I read the quote and had […]
About a year ago, Cedarville University, a Baptist school in Ohio, enacted a new curriculum standard based on Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” As reported then in Christianity […]
In his money management course Financial Peace University (FPU), Christian financial counselor and best-selling author Dave Ramsey tells his audience something to the effect of “your parents never talked about sex; they never talked about money; you thought they had neither; turns out they had both!” In a humorous way Ramsey identifies at least one […]