Relationship or Content?
I have been out of the loop. It has been several months since I last blogged. I suppose I have been disillusioned. Long story short, I do not feel my philosophy of teaching fits with much of what my current school is doing. At the heart of my philosophy of education (not just theological education, but all of education) is relationship. It is in my methodology and my assessment. It is the anthropology of my students. All humans are made to be in relationship, so it seems logical that the way we learn is heavily connected to relationships. This is especially important in the study of theology, particularly Trinitarian theology. A colleague of mine told me the other day that he asked his students, directly, if they thought education was more about relationships or content. One student answered bluntly that she was not in school to make friends; her goal was to get into Stanford. For her, and for many other students and colleagues, sadly, the focus of education is blind dogmatism and co