Summer is a great time to think about something like school structure. Anthony Hurst is our speaker on this week’s episode. Anthony taught for many years and more recently has been interacting with dozens of schools as a rep for Christian Light and as a speaker at educational events. He brings a wealth of experience to the subject of structure in a school.

Anthony begins by distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy motives for school structure and challenges us to focus our school structure on serving our students and patrons and not projecting a lofty self-image. Our structure needs the guidance of clear vision, says Anthony. And not just the vision of one person but that of the community.

Structure provides consistency across staff changes and grade changes and across time. Structure provides a sense of security. It offers some protection to us on our bad days and keeps us from falling to the level of our flaws.

In the conclusion of his talk, Anthony also touches on some specific elements of structure that will help you get started evaluating the quality of the structure at your school.

Links

• This talk was first published as “Intentional School Structure” https://www.thedockforlearning.org/content/intentional-school-structure
• Educational Events: https://www.thedockforlearning.org/event
• Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/
• 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn

One generation starts it, the next enjoys it, the third loses it. There’s some truth to this. We’re over three generations into the Christian school movement in North America. Of course, at the level of individual communities this is very uneven. Maybe you’ve just started a school. Regardless of where you are, it’s important that you ask yourself: am I content with a 3 generation Christian school movement? If not, you have some challenging work cut out for you to bridge whatever generation you’re in, to the one following you and the one before you.

This episode has 2 parts: perspective of an older man and the response of a younger man on what it takes to continue a vision for education across generations. How can an older leader effectively hand over his responsibility and a younger leader take it up?

Edwin Eby has served on the CASBI committee and also speaks as a pastor. Mark Miller has experience in the school board and administration at Legacy Christian School in Ohio.

Speaking for the older generation, Edwin emphasizes that each generation must in some sense start over. And while an older person can’t just package his values and vision in a neat bundle and give it to a younger person, he believes that one generation can purchase the values of another through their own labor and investment. This transfer of ownership is vital to the continuity of a vision and leadership. To say this another way, we can’t repeat another’s experience or just assume their sense of responsibility; each man must hold his own baby before he knows the meaning of being a father.

Edwin outlines a process for older men to walk ahead, walk beside, then walk behind leaders in training. For younger men it’s reversed. They first walk behind, then walk beside, and finally walk ahead, taking the lead into the future.

Mark responds by recognizing that owning responsibility and vision as a younger person requires overcoming selfishness and gaining a perspective larger than your own. Become a student of history, both of your organization and the wider history of the world, says Mark. Without this you run a high risk of leading in the wrong direction. In addition to understanding the history of your organization, you need to understand the people you’re leading. You need to know their culture. Once again, this calls for attentiveness and patient learning in a young leader. Mark highlights servant leadership as key to both the effective transfer of leadership and to the fruitfulness of any leader. In addition, there are numerous issues that Mark sees as important for school leaders to tackle including working with homeschooling families, business as mission, and excellence in academics.

Links

• This talk was first published as “I Must Decrease; You Must Increase”: https://www.thedockforlearning.org/content/i-must-decrease-you-must-increase
• Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/
• 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn

In the last episode, we heard from Gerald Miller about the central role of the family. For this special question and response feature, I sat down with Gerald Miller, administrator at FBCS for a related conversation about the role school leaders have in growing healthy families in their communities. We talked about the current parenting scene, tried to paint a picture of what could be, and thought about the opportunity at hand.

We’re delving into this topic because it’s vitally important and often complicated. Messy, as we often say. How do teachers and school leaders avoid trespassing onto the territory of the parents? What do we do with all the knowledge we gain about families and parents? What do we do with problems in the home? How do we hear and respond to the concerns, frustrations, and aims of parents? In short, how can you as a school leader work to care for the families in your community? What is your role in growing healthy homes?

Links

• Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/
• 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn

What if we understood school as part of the heart of the church rather than a useful arm? Would this change the way we did school? What if we saw teachers as working in close collaboration with the ordained leaders of a church, as extensions of that ministry?

The New Testament points to the church established by Christ as the essential basis of the kingdom of God. In this episode, Gerald Miller says, “The church is where the kingdom of God finds its expression. And the local body of believers is the heart of the kingdom.” What does this mean for the school?

Gerald, a long-time teacher and school leader sees the school as a servant of the church. There’s at least two things to emphasize here, the work of education is essential, more like a heart than a hand. Secondly, the work of education is a corporate responsibility and never the exclusive domain of the school. Gerald describes the role of the individuals in a school as raising up young people that love God with everything and serve others and as transmitting the values of the church. In sum, this is a vision of educators working closely alongside of the church.

That’s the first half.

In the second half, Gerald offers basic practical outlines for roles that must work at pulling together if the church and school will be effective partners. He gives valuable advice for each one. Those roles are church leaders, board members, parents, teachers

A key idea you’ll hear in this talk is the critical importance of communication and of investment in people.

Links

• This talk was first published as “It Takes a Community to Educate a Child” https://www.thedockforlearning.org/content/it-takes-a-community-to-educate-a-child
• Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/
• 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn

Drop us a question for the special, upcoming Q & R episode with Gerald Miller.

As principals and administrators, it’s your responsibility to guide your teachers in effectively disciplining students and to get involved in handling the toughest cases. Many of you also teach and are on the first line of discipline yourselves. In this episode with Glendon Strickler, you will hear an overview of how to discipline students that will enable you to better equip your teachers as well as grow in your own approach to discipline.

Glendon’s ideas have been formed through his experience of some very challenging teaching assignments and through his experience as a principal. He backs up his points with numerous stories from those experiences. Throughout the talk you’ll hear him unpack lessons he’s learned such as: effective discipline takes time, why students misbehave, approaching discipline through a student’s perspective, building a strong defense, and more.

There are three main sections in the talk.

1. Basic discipline techniques (6:25)
2. The steps in a discipline session (28:00)
3. Techniques to avoid (41:15)

Links

• This talk was first published as “Modeling and Teaching the Anabaptist Christian Faith in a Practical Way Through Discipline” on The Dock: https://www.thedockforlearning.org/content/modeling-and-teaching-the-anabaptist-christian-faith-in-a-practical-way-through-discipline
• Other recordings from Teacher’s Week 2010: https://www.thedockforlearning.org/series/faith-builders-teacher's-week-2010
• Questions for the Q & R episode: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/KQnYsYgPAq
• Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/
• 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn

Drop us a question for the special, upcoming Q & R episode with Gerald Miller.

Sometimes problems come to us disguised as great opportunities. This episode with Stephen Gingerich addresses the challenge of working with high needs students. We’re not exploring specific learning disabilities here. That is sometimes part of the picture and deserves attention. This is more general and establishes a baseline for how we engage a high needs student.

Drawing on his years of experience in education, much of it gained through his work in Guatemala, Stephen develops his approach around the three great virtues: faith, hope, and love. He reminds us that our goal is to prepare children for life. And for that they need well-formed skills but they need well-formed character more. And this character they absorb from their role models. This means they will take a part of us with them through their life.

Stephen’s talk is generously sprinkled with stories of what relating to needy students looks like.

Links

• This episode was first published as "Working with High Needs Students" on The Dock: https://www.thedockforlearning.org/content/working-with-high-needs-students-(stephan-gingerich)
• Questions for the Q & R episode: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/KQnYsYgPAq
• Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/
• 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn
• [book] The Five Love Languages: https://a.co/d/03ROxKG0