Educating All God's Children


Book Description

Children living in poverty have the same God-given potential as children in wealthier communities, but on average they achieve at significantly lower levels. Kids who both live in poverty and read below grade level by third grade are three times as likely not to graduate from high school as students who have never been poor. By the time children in low-income communities are in fourth grade, they're already three grade levels behind their peers in wealthier communities. More than half won't graduate from high school--and many that do graduate only perform at an eighth-grade level. Only one in ten will go on to graduate from college. These students have severely diminished opportunities for personal prosperity and professional success. It is clear that America's public schools do not provide a high quality public education for the sixteen million children growing up in poverty. Education expert Nicole Baker Fulgham explores what Christians can--and should--do to champion urgently needed reform and help improve our public schools. The book provides concrete action steps for working to ensure that all of God's children get the quality public education they deserve. It also features personal narratives from the author and other Christian public school teachers that demonstrate how the achievement gap in public education can be solved.







God, Grades, and Graduation


Book Description

"It's widely acknowledged that American parents from different class backgrounds take different approaches to raising their children. Upper and middle-class parents invest considerable time facilitating their children's activities, while working class and poor families take a more hands-off approach. These different strategies influence how children approach school. But missing from the discussion is the fact that millions of parents on both sides of the class divide are raising their children to listen to God. What impact does a religious upbringing have on their academic trajectories? Drawing on 10 years of survey data with over 3,000 teenagers and over 200 interviews, God, Grades, and Graduation (GGG) offers a revealing and at times surprising account of how teenagers' religious upbringing influences their educational pathways from high school to college. GGG introduces readers to a childrearing logic that cuts across social class groups and accounts for Americans' deep relationship with God: religious restraint. This book takes us inside the lives of these teenagers to discover why they achieve higher grades than their peers, why they are more likely to graduate from college, and why boys from lower middle-class families particularly benefit from religious restraint. But readers also learn how for middle-upper class kids--and for girls especially--religious restraint recalibrates their academic ambitions after graduation, leading them to question the value of attending a selective college despite their stellar grades in high school. By illuminating the far-reaching effects of the childrearing logic of religious restraint, GGG offers a compelling new narrative about the role of religion in academic outcomes and educational inequality"--




The Case for Classical Christian Education


Book Description

Newspapers are filled with stories about poorly educated children, ineffective teachers, and cash-strapped school districts. In this greatly expanded treatment of a topic he first dealt with in Rediscovering the Lost Tools of Learning, Douglas Wilson proposes an alternative to government-operated school by advocating a return to classical Christian education with its discipline, hard work, and learning geared to child development stages. As an educator, Wilson is well-equipped to diagnose the cause of America's deteriorating school system and to propose remedies for those committed to their children's best interests in education. He maintains that education is essentially religious because it deals with the basic questions about life that require spiritual answers-reading and writing are simply the tools. Offering a review of classical education and the history of this movement, Wilson also reflects on his own involvement in the process of creating educational institutions that embrace that style of learning. He details elements needed in a useful curriculum, including a list of literary classics. Readers will see that classical education offers the best opportunity for academic achievement, character growth, and spiritual education, and that such quality cannot be duplicated in a religiously-neutral environment.




Children’s Spirituality, Second Edition


Book Description

The Society of Children's Spirituality: Christian Perspectives launched in 2003 with its first conference held at Concordia University Chicago, in River Forest, Illinois. An earlier edition of this book, composed of chapters based on presentations from that conference, was published in 2004. In 2018 a decision was made to revise this book from the inaugural conference, updating some chapters and providing a new perspective on the ongoing work of the organization, now called the Children's Spirituality Summit. For example, given the advances in what we are learning from brain research, a chapter on this topic has been extensively updated. What this revised volume provides is a collection of chapters offering theological perspectives, social science research, and insights on ministry practice about the spiritual lives of children: how they relate to God, how this relationship grows, and what helps in promoting the spiritual formation and vitality of children in the home, church, and school This book offers twenty-three chapters by professors, graduate students, social science researchers, and ministry leaders from different denominational traditions addressing a wide range of issues in theory, research, and ministry practice with children. This second edition offers much to learn from, stimulate your thinking, and improve your practice.




The Idea of a Christian College


Book Description

More than ten years after its publication in 1975, The Idea of a Christian College has become, in the prophetic words of Nicholas Wolterstorff, "a classic, a standard." Widely used by students, lay readers, teachers, and administrators, it provides a concise case for the Christian college and defines its distinctive mission and contribution. This revised edition is Holmes' response to the many professors and students who have read the work enthusiastically and urged the author to clarify certain ideas and to address further aspects of the overall subject. The author has extensively revised several chapters, has eliminated one-gender language, and has included two new chapters: "Liberal Arts as Career Preparation" and "The Marks of an Educated Person."--Back cover.




Navigating Public Schools


Book Description

This book will equip Christian parents to navigate the increasingly secular public school system with the aim to help their kids stand firm in their faith, uphold a Biblical worldview and shine a light for Christ. There are also powerful resources for anyone involved in public education on campus: teachers, administrators, volunteers, and pastors.




Global Perspectives on Catholic Religious Education in Schools


Book Description

This book shares global perspectives on Catholic religious education in schools, chiefly focusing on educational and curriculum issues that take into account the theology and the pedagogy which support learning in connection with Catholic religious education. Further, it offers insights into the distinctive contribution that Catholic religious education makes to religious education and education in general across diverse schooling contexts. Bringing together insights from leading scholars and experts on Catholic religious education around the globe, the book offers an essential reference guide for all those involved in researching, planning and designing curricula for Catholic religious education, as well as developing related theories in the field.




Christian Perspectives for Education


Book Description




Empirical Theology in Texts and Tables


Book Description

Empirical theology offers fresh and stimulating insights into the concerns of both the Church and the Academy. It does this by accessing relevant empirical evidence using the tools of the social sciences, and placing this evidence in the context of theological critique and contemporary debate. In this pioneering collection of focused essays, leading experts of empirical theology illustrate key perspectives within this rapidly expanding discipline. The first section of the book explores theoretical issues underpinning the main methods of obtaining empirical data, and the use of these data within theology. The other two sections display the role both of qualitative studies, and of the analysis of quantitative data, in exploring a range of theological beliefs and religious, social and educational concerns.