Recently the administration of our school attended a Leadership Conference. The keynote speaker was Jamie Smith, a professor of philosophy at Calvin College. His keynote addresses were based on his book “Imagining the Kingdom”.
Jamie challenged us with the idea of Christian education being a Re-narration of the Bible for our students. His challenge for us was to capture the imagination of our students. He postulated that the way into the heart is through the body and the way into the body is through story and that as humans, we tell ourselves stories in order to live.
As Christians, our worldview is carried in story, images, legends, and telling these stories captures our imagination. To help us with this we can form micro practices that will have macro affects with students. Liturgy or rehearsed action can be in the form of communal practice. The more we have communal practice, the greater effect we can have on our lives and our student’s lives.
An easy micro practice for us is in the area of prayer. St Ignatius of Loyola developed a mode of prayerful reflection often referred to as the Daily Examen. Often prayed at lunchtime and the end of day, the Examen has five simple aspects: become aware of God’s presence, review the day with gratitude, pay attention to your emotions, choose one feature of the day and pray for it, look forward to tomorrow.
My take away from the conference was this: pay attention to the details of what we do here in our Christian school every day, because the small things matter.
Great post. I’m looking forward to the discussion of how we can incorporate those micro processes into our classrooms, and inspire students to take them up in their own lives.
🙂
Classrooms have lots of “liturgy” or at least rehearsed action and communal practice — plenty of daily routines. Every “lecture” and every transition time is a mini-story (always more dramatic for some students than for others). My younger daughter told me a story today about a “round table” where she can work at her math, where the teacher is always present to help if needed, and CA said “So I can find out how to do it, and then I can do it instead of being stuck.” To her teacher, I’m sure this was such a small task that she barely noticed, definitely didn’t account it as a matter for gratitude at the end of the day — but for my daughter, it was a big deal and for me, a reason for whole-hearted thanksgiving. So to you teachers I say, you are always living the story, and you may never know the moments, comments, or actions that impact your students’ lives — but you don’t need to look at this as “something to add” but as something that you do already. For which I am thankful!
thanks Rebecca for the reminder that the little things really do matter!