See Dick and Jane learning in school...

...NOT!

A couple of articles in the past few day about the future of education are spot on - any parent of young children, teenagers, or college students (maybe) ought to pay attention. So should church leaders!

Dr. Tim Elmore, of GrowingLeaders.com, writes in "Left Brain Schools and Churches in a Right Brain World"

Based on our research, learning that sticks in the minds of students is connected to three elements:

• A healthy, trusting relationship with the teacher
• An interactive learning community
• Creativity and innovation that stimulate the "right-brain.

Our Dilemma: Right-brained Students Must Attend Left-brained Schools



Let's discuss how education primarily takes place and why it fails to be effective. In the two columns below, I summarize how the information we teach is usually delivered to young people today:


STUDENTS TODAY
  SCHOOLS TODAY

Right brained thinkers
  Left brained delivery

Learn by uploading; expressing themselves
  Teach by downloading lectures

Experiential in nature
  Passive in nature

Music and art enables them to retain information
  Music and art classes cut

Desire to learn what is relevant to life
  Teach for the next test

Creativity drives them
  Curriculum drives them

Frightening. True.

And just as troubling: many of our church "learning" situations are the same.
Follow the link above to read the whole post; it should be a sobering wake up call that any leader - especially those in the church environment - should pay attention to.

 
In a post on "presentations" but very much on topic, Garr Reynolds writes in "The Need for Connection and Engagement in Education" about the differences between "just sitting there" and getting students "doing something." There's a great story about an 8 year old observing a college physics class that tells it all.
 
Follow the link above to the whole story, including a couple of video presentations on the topic.
 
What's the takeaway for ChurchWorld?
 
Dr. Elmore challenges church leaders to move beyond the left brain tendencies and engage in activities like the following:

• Teaching must not merely supply information for students, but be an inspiration for students
• Teaching must do more than measure a kids' memory; it must motivate a kid's imagination
• Pastors must include not just the facts of the Bible but the heart and fruit its supposed to produce
• Pastors should not be reduced to increasing intelligence (knowledge), but increasing innovation
• Teaching cannot be only about what to think, but how to think

Pay attention students: class is starting...

Read to Lead

Bob Buford, the entrepreneur behind the start of the Leadership Network and author of the Halftime series of books, had some very interesting comments recently about the future direction of learning by reading.

He recently spent the day with Moe Girkins, the CEO of Zondervan, the Christian publisher. Zondervan finds the world of the printed page changing rapidly as a new generation of nonreaders takes over So the Rupert Murdock owned print empire has gone for a new approach in running Zondervan. All of Moe Girkins’ experience and background is in technology -- Motorola, Wireless and Dell. She has no experience at all in books. Buford had the following comment:

I received a great lesson from Moe about the changing nature in the book world -- Amazon.com, Kindle, Walter Issacson, former editor of TIME, cancelling his years-long New York Times subscription – he gets his news on the Internet -- Facebook, ceaseless text messaging, on and on and on. Moe told me, what to me was, an eye-opening fact. She asked, “Guess how many books the average American reads after they leave formal education?” After I said I had no idea, she held up one finger. I said, “No!” She said, “Yes, just one.” I expect I spend about fifteen or twenty hours a week reading and this was a jolt to me. Though not entirely, because my friend, Tom Luce, recently the Deputy of Education in Washington DC, had told me that virtually none of his young politically absorbed associates read The New York Times, The Washington Post, or long David McCullough books about former presidents. They go directly to the Net.

I had recently read that statistic in a couple of other places, and was surprised. As I have mentioned before, reading is an important part of my heritage, present reality, and something that my children seem to enjoy as well. To me, reading is the ultimate way to develop yourself and get insight on becoming the best leader you can be. Steve Sjorgen noted these reasons for reading (from Community of Kindness):

• Reading increases your well-roundedness
• Reading gives you consistent sources to draw from
• Reading is very attractive to big thinkers and other highly skilled leaders
• Reading helps you develop insight
• Reading breeds wisdom

So how do these two very different realities co-exist? How do we communicate the importance of reading to a generation (or two) that no longer finds it important?

There's more to the Bob Buford story - but that's for tomorrow!