Essays

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"In the brief span of Jesus' teaching career, He demonstrated a simple approach to pedagogy and curriculum. He took whatever was at hand, whatever was before Him, whatever experience was familiar and accessible, and He used these, along with God's Word, to bring light and understanding where there had been shadow and unknowing."

"God made these children scientists, tree-climbers, team members, poets. He made them inquisitive, active explorers. All we have to do is give them time, space, tools and some guidance. All we have to do is cooperate with God's design."

"Our amazing Creator demonstrates, not surprisingly, an amazing creativity in the unique combination of talents, learning styles, physical traits and character qualities He has placed within each individual. Redemptive Educators value and appreciate those unique combinations…and seek to nurture the development of each child, by employing those intelligences natural to the child…."

"A Christ-centered school … cannot just do 'business as usual' with a Bible verse stuck on. A Christian school needs to courageously claim a wholly 'other' endeavor: a Redemptive Education."

"Music is a powerful entry point to our minds and hearts. It provides a swift, smooth pathway to fueling our meditations. It follows that cultivating in our children a love and appreciation for beautiful music in a variety of genres, with melody, harmony and lyric that convey truth and grace, whether by sound or by text, is a natural way to edify their interior person.

"Even as our thinking shapes our speech, so does our speaking shape our thought. We explicitly model for our children how to make our voices convey respect, how to answer the question, 'Can you say that in a more gracious way?' What we say matters. How we say it matters."

"Sometimes, love will call us to action. Sometimes, knowing will compel us to doing. But it is also true that action can lead to both knowing and loving. A biblical understanding of the goal of education comprises all three: knowing, loving, doing—each fueling the others, each leading to growth in the others, all choreographing a dance of delight in God, His creation and His people.

"The word "producer" is not a word for boys and girls, nor for those who educate them. Our business is helping children explore God's world and discover their place in it. We are daily dealing with the hidden things of the soul—desires, thoughts, ideas and wills."

"Everything we do in education should minister to the whole person: body, soul and spirit."

"One of the reasons Redemptive Educators love multi-age classes is that we can capitalize on the "holy un-sameness" of the children. Children learn appreciation for the myriad gifts represented in their classmates. They learn humility and patience with their own faults and those of others. They become the big sisters, little brothers, neighbors and friends that make our school a community."

"The very first lessons humankind encountered were in a garden tailor-made for their education and enjoyment. God infused the entire creation with expressions of His beauty, His power, His character. It is out in the natural world that children are most able to thrive and grow."

"When we are being told a story, things change dramatically [in our brain]. Not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any other area in our brain that we would use when experience the events of the story are, too."

"The good news is that children, like adults, can be influenced positively when immersed in a book featuring beautiful language, rich imagery and a quest for high ideals."

"There is a delicious moment when we first pick up a new book and open its cover. And then let the story begin!"

"God invites us to explore! And so we invite our children to explore God's world and discover their place in it with us as their joyful co-adventurers in the journey."

"While only the Holy Spirit quickens us to spiritual vitality, the agents of imagination—story, dance, music, drama, art, poetry—quicken our minds and souls, through our senses, to understand Good and Truth viscerally and authentically, rather than just theoretically."

"Redemptive Educators: Give your children story and song, fragrance and flavor, drama and dance, color and line. Pray for their loves to be shaped by His Beauty, His Truth, and His Goodness."

"Let’s give our children noble stories, rich sensory experiences, interactive creative explorations by means of the arts, songs that sing the Truth into their hearts, so that we might help to educate their imaginations toward virtue."

"What else might I discover if only my eyes were trained to see? What might I find if only I learn to notice?"

"Our framework [for studying any literature, music, art, idea, philosophy, etc.] asks: What was God's original intent [for this literature, music, art, etc.]? To what extent do we see His intent reflected in it? To what extent do we see the fall of man in it? How is God calling me to respond to it?"

"We cannot escape the escalation of pressure and the demand for increasing involvements … for our children unless we purposefully and prayerfully determine to swim against that tide in our homes and in our schools."

"In any cluster of berries, you find a whole range of readiness for harvesting. The green are mixed in with the pink and the deep purple."

"We sing the heritage hymns of the Christian faith more often than contemporary choruses simply because our children typically have so little exposure not to great classics …."

"…He will not neglect to bring about increase in the 'harvest' of all those many investments you are making … as you 'sow' into the lives of your precious children."

"When no one is telling you what to do, what to think, how to play, where to go, what to make, the mind is left alone with itself and its ideas."

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