The God of Technology, or The god of Technology

Jim Drexler of Covenant College alerted me to this article on CARDUS.  After reading it I immediately wrote Mr. Evans and asked his permission to post it on my blog, which is graciously granted. 

I believe you will find this article very helpful and informative.  It strikes a very positive and helpful balance for developing a Christian perspective on technology that is neither afraid nor idolatrous.  I also found this article of particular interest because Mr. Evans knows what he is talking about.  Here is an excerpt from his bio.:

Dave Evans is 30-plus year veteran executive of Silicon Valley who offers a range of professional services to rapidly growing companies and personal mentoring to individuals. Since 1990, Dave has been assisting high-tech clients in strategic planning, sales and marketing, new business development, mergers and alliances, growth management, and executive development. Dave's client list has focused on early stage start-ups but also includes Fortune companies including such leaders as Veritas/Symantec, HP, Intel, and AT&T. (He's also negotiated fishing rights for the Inuit in Alaska—but that's a whole 'nuther story).  Prior to consulting, Dave was VP and Co-Founder of software publisher Electronic Arts, led the introduction of the mouse and laser printing at Apple, and has held senior marketing positions with IBM/ROLM Corporation and voicemail inventor and manufacturer VMX (now Avaya).

Since his college days, Dave has had an abiding, faith-nourished commitment to living and helping others live a coherent life—thoroughly integrating soul and role, especially in the realm of vocation …

I also highly recommend that you read the excellent material found on the CARDUS website. 

The God of technology, or the god of Technology?

Posted with permission from Dave Evans.

July 31, 2009 - Dave Evans

After 34 years of high tech work in Silicon Valley, I have found myself drawn into more than a few discussions with people of faith about technology. How we think about technology matters, and I'd like to make some suggestions for these kinds of conversations.

First, let's define what we mean by technology. Dictionary.com (an online definition seems appropriate) defines it as "the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science." In short, technology is about tools.

All tools—from the first stick Adam used to soften the dirt to the latest wireless LAN software I had to reinstall to transmit this article to the editors of Comment—share the same character: they enable humankind to enhance the execution of human ability. Tools allow people to do the kinds of things they can already do, but do them bigger, faster, cheaper or better than they can without the tool.

Technology is just a tool, so our thinking about it needs to be grounded in a thoughtful perspective on tools—dare I say, a thoughtful theology of tools and technology. The definition of technology which I cited contains three key elements: creation, use and interrelationship. With these defining elements in mind, let's look at two ideas related to technology that I think warrant more thoughtful attention: newness and availability.

Newness

Technology, especially within modern society's understanding of technology, is focused on the new thing brought about by the latest science. Michael Lewis captured this perspective well in his book about legendary Silicon Graphics founder Jim Clark, titled The New New Thing. Why are we so inexorably excited about and drawn to the new thing? I'll argue because God made us that way, and it's a good thing. We are made in God's image; we bear the imago Dei.

One of the first things we learn about God is that he is creative, and in a dynamic way. God does not merely make stuff that lies there. God makes stuff that grows and lives and moves in time, space, history and the unfolding story of God and creation.

An astonishing hint to the nature of things is embedded in the fact that creation wasn't finished all at once in a Big Bang. Why didn't God bring the present world into being with just one quick flick of the divine wrist? He didn't zap the cosmos into completion, but labored at it a while, revealing new wonders day by day. At each step along the way, God reflected on the latest thing and concluded it was good. God created the way he did out of love. The dynamic God conceived and made a dynamic universe, and in so doing, wired the continual refreshment of newness into the very heart of all reality.

I'm not saying all new is good, but good new is very good indeed. We are invited—commanded actually—to co-create with God in order to bring respectful and loving order to this world. We are to engage ourselves in the human endeavor of stewardship to care for all creation in order that all persons, and everything else too, may more and more live into what God has in mind for the world.

It's an amazing adventure, and technology enables us to do that work. As anthropologists well know, tool making is an essential aspect of what makes us distinctly human, and as Christians we understand that it's an essential aspect of what makes us God's image-bearing children. It's a triple win—we get to participate in the innovating of technology (creation) and the application of that technology (use) to do good in the world (interrelationship).

I believe the movement of newness God set in motion in creation and in each of us fuels our healthy attraction to the new that we so experience in our encounter with technology. We in fact worship the (capital G) God of (small t) technology.

Availability

Most of us want the latest available technology. Usually, available technology is the newest thing that works fairly reliably and is economically accessible. When will the next iPhone or cold fusion or a 100mpg car be available?

Those are good questions, but they fall short. The key is not just the technology's availability, but how available it makes us. The purpose of technology is to buy us more time to be available to other things, or to makes us more effective in some endeavour (and so allow us a greater avail upon the world). Good technology is all about availability.

I may here sound as if I'm merely surfacing the age-old technological tension between good technology and good use of technology. While that's a relevant issue, it's not what I'm getting at here. I'm advocating for something less obvious and more profound: an availability consciousness that can transform our relationship with technology, both collectively and individually.

The Christian life is a particular way of life grounded in a continual awareness of God's constant presence and active invitation. Jesus said that he could do only what the Father showed him (John 5:19). Jesus lived in constant availability to the Father, and so should we. That means that all our endeavours and all the tools and processes and techniques and collaborations and organizations that we use to live out our lives are to be engaged, while still retaining a sense of availability to what else is going on and what else God may be showing us. We need to learn a way of being that is contextualized in a larger frame than the current situation, seeing a picture that's bigger than what meets the eye. By always being a little outside our situation, we are actually made more available to be present to the situation; this is an aspect of the freedom we gain by dying to self and becoming alive to God.

Such availability has a very real expression in our encounter with technology. Technology is attractive because of the God-given allure of the new new thing—but it's also "sticky," in that for many of us, it entraps our attention, making us so focused on it that we become less, not more, available. We may have technologically bought ourselves some time, but that time is only valuable (as opposed to merely accessible) if we can direct our use of it from a position of availability. Retaining access to this kind of awareness is what I mean by an availability consciousness. I'm not suggesting we reserve 6% of our brains to constantly chant, "What else is going on?" or "What's God saying now?" The issue is more nuanced than that—it has to do with one's point of view, one's way of seeing and engaging at all times.

Let me give an example. I went to a baseball game with a friend last night and the guy sitting next to us was drunker than he realized. He was also yelling more loudly, crudely and disruptively than he realized. He did not have access to a sufficient degree of self-awareness or self-control to see the impact of his actions. He's probably a pretty decent fellow with fewer beers in him, but neither he nor we could recognize it at the time. We all lost something in the process (he got thrown out, and we were distracted).

That's the critical question—can you recognize your degree of availability? Given the immense power for good and the incredible attractiveness of today's dazzling and elegant technologies, it's easy to lose our availability without knowing it. Ever so subtly, technology becomes the object of our attention, rather than the tool of it. Developing an availability consciousness will help us guard against accidentally slipping into making a god of Technology, rather than responding to the God of technology.

We need to match technology's advances with our own increasing maturity as technology creators, users and observers. Perhaps we can better respond to that challenge by reflecting on what newness and availability have to tell us about technology and its use.

When Change is Bad

I found this article articulates what many teachers feel—in public and Christian schools.  Too often, with the best of intentions, we throw a hodgepodge of ideas at our staff, what I call du jour training/idea of the year.  See my previous post: Rethinking Staff Development: “This Too Shall Pass.”

Solutions Are the Problem in Education

By Mary Kennedy

There used to be a saying that if you were not part of the solution, you were part of the problem. The implication was that we all, collectively, were creating the problem, and that the solution required all of us to change together.

But in education, solutions are a big part of our problem. School people are swamped by a deluge of solutions. They suffer from reform fatigue.

A few years ago, I visited teachers in several districts spread across the nation. I was struck by the variety of interruptions they experienced in their classrooms, and by how many of these had begun as good intentions. Here’s one example: A science teacher took part in a National Geographic Society project that gave his students a chance to collect samples from a local waterway and contribute them to a national database. Sounds like a great idea, right? His class got to participate in a national science study. But the timing of the project caused the teacher to interrupt his ongoing science unit. When the project was finished, students had forgotten where they were in their regular curriculum.

National Geographic is hardly alone in wanting to help educators. The number of associations, institutions, government agencies, and volunteers of all kind who want to solve educational problems has grown so large that teachers are now surrounded by helpful voices and besieged by ideas too numerous to attend to. Instead of strengthening teaching, this multitude of innovations and reforms distracts both teachers and students from their central tasks, making it difficult to concentrate, to stay on task, and to sustain a coherent direction.

Moreover, these improvements often contradict one another. Consider two ideas currently on the table for evaluating teaching practice. On one hand, we have lesson study, a highly structured undertaking that requires months of collective effort and careful thought. On the other, we have walk-throughs, quick and unstructured events that can be conducted by one person in under five minutes. These ideas seem to make entirely different assumptions about how we can learn about teaching, yet they are both popular right now.

There have always been zealous education reformers, of course. But the number and variety of helpful ideas is now so great that the solutions themselves have become a problem.

It is easy to brainstorm about alternatives in education, but hard to anticipate their unintended consequences. Take, for instance, pullout programs. These well-intentioned entitlement programs, introduced in the 1960s, pull students out of their regular classrooms for special instruction. The timing of the pullout has to fit the pullout teacher’s schedule, which means that the original teacher must adjust her instructional schedule to accommodate this movement. Since both teachers may be teaching similar content, they also need to coordinate their instruction, something that takes time. And that is not all: Every time a student is pulled from a regular classroom, and every time that student returns to the regular classroom, the ongoing instruction is interrupted. Students are distracted, and so is the teacher. Lesson continuity and coherence are at risk.

Pullout programs are one of many helpful ideas introduced to improve education. Every test, every assembly, and every public-address announcement is a helpful addition that ultimately disrupts instructional continuity. Every change of schedule, from hourly to block scheduling and back to hourly, requires teachers to revise their routines and strategies. Every new policy, from zero tolerance to team-teaching, pulls teachers’ attention away from their teaching and toward solving a logistical problem. Instead of thinking about how to engage students with curriculum content, they must think about how to revise their procedures, schedules, and strategies to accommodate the newest helpful idea.

Remember when we decided that teachers should have telephones in their rooms? The idea was to “professionalize” the job. Well, now that teachers have telephones, parents can call up at any time to leave messages for their children. So when students are struggling with the difference between ¼ and ½, or debating the merits of the Bill of Rights, the phone rings. And it is right there, in the middle of the classroom and in the middle of every lesson.

The problem is this: Both teaching and learning require sustained attention. Not only do students need opportunities to think, but so do their teachers. More than anything, teachers need time to compose their thoughts and make sure that, when they approach a new unit or a new lesson, they have a clear idea of what they want to accomplish.

Students are even more vulnerable to distractions. In my conversations with teachers, I have found that they care more about maintaining the momentum of the lesson than anything else. The central challenge of teaching is finding enough uninterrupted time to get students’ minds wrapped around an idea, and keeping it there until the idea makes sense to them. Disruptions don’t merely take a few moments of class time: After them, teachers often feel that they need to rewind the entire lesson and begin anew.

Yet we live in a time when reforms and fads have become so commonplace that every new board member or superintendent feels a need to make a personal mark on his or her district by introducing something new. As these policymakers come and go, teachers are buffeted by the raft of competing new ideas they leave behind. So routine turnovers in leadership reignite this continuing series of distractions, further reducing teachers’ chances of finding time for reflection and maintaining a stable environment for intellectual work.

No wonder that when the new superintendant comes to town, and the new professional-development program is brought in, teachers go into their classrooms and quietly shut their doors.

Every American teacher feels some level of reform fatigue. If you think you are part of the solution, check again. You may be part of the problem.

Mary Kennedy is a professor in the department of teacher education at Michigan State University, in East Lansing, Mich.  Vol. 28, Issue 37

How Facebook Can Affect Your Enrollment, Marketing, and Communication

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

According to Sharon Gaudin of Computerworld, a recent study shows that social networks for middle-agers (that’s most of us reading this article) are now a more popular form of communication than email.

I remember that just a few years ago many Christians, including Christian school administrators and teachers, viewed social networks as the exclusive domain of teenagers or were immoral, or both and therefore should or could be ignored.  Such a perspective was a mistake then and is a mistake now.  Social networks are a form of communication and social interaction.  Social networks are neither inherently good nor inherently evil.  HOW they are used determines their value.

According to a report by Nielsen Online (download PDF), social networks are used by two-thirds of all worldwide online users.  Social networks and blogs have become the fourth most popular online products.  The report lists e-mail as No. 5 on the list of users' favorite online tools. Search tools, portals and PC software topped the list.

Other highlights of the report include:

• Putting the growth of social networks – popularity and engagement – into context

• How the audience to social networks is changing

• The challenges facing advertisers on social networks

• What advertisers can do to find the magic formula for advertising in social networks

• Factors contributing to the Facebook phenomenon

• Why localization has won the day in many countries

• Where mobile social networking has taken the greatest hold

• What ‘traditional’ publishers can do in the face of the social network phenomenon

Mind Share

“Of the social networking sites out there, Twitter and Facebook seem to have the lion's share of the mind share these days. And Facebook has the lion's share of the market share, as well. In January, online researcher comScore Inc. reported that Facebook, once thought of as the up-and-coming social network, had overshadowed rival MySpace, with nearly 222 million unique visitors in December compared to 125 million for MySpace.

To back up comScore's numbers, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted in a January blog post that the social networking site had hit a big milestone -- 150 million active users, nearly half of whom use the network daily.”

Neilson’s report also shows the significant increase in the time spent on Facebook: In all the markets that the company tracks, Facebook is visited monthly by three of every 10 people online.

Our Parents and Prospective Parents are on Facebook

THE MOST SURPRISING FINDING OF THE REPORT is that Facebook’s greatest growth in global audience numbers has come from people aged 35-49!  Social networks aren’t just for the teenage set anymore.

This is the prime child rearing, school selecting age of the population!

Should We Use Facebook and Other Social Networks to Connect with Parents?

Frankly, I don’t know the answer to that question but I am researching the issue because I believe we should try.  Here are some of the issues to consider.

Our Mindset/Mental Model Must Change

Traditional advertising is one-way communication—the message is pushed or placed in front of the intended customer.

Social networks by definition are SOCIAL and therefore the “advertising” must be a conversation.  According to Nielson, “the point that social network members are co-creators of content and, therefore, have a sense of ownership within the site means advertising should be about participating in a relevant conversation with consumers rather than simply pushing ads on them. After all, it is social media. Advertising shouldn’t be about interrupting or invading the social network experience, it should be part of this conversation.”

This two-way conversation presents opportunities and problems.

Positively, it provides a framework for engaging in authentic conversations about education, Christian education, and our schools.  Facebook, for example, is a wonderful way to provide helpful information to current and prospective parents.

Negatively, we run the risk of false accusations and unjustified negative comments being made by disgruntled individuals.  The social network, if not managed well, could also foster gossip and slander.

In other words, promoting our schools through social networks can be a two-edged sword.

“Messaging within advertising should come from a more authentic, candid and humble perspective.

Social media has, once again, brought word of mouth to the fore as the ultimate form of advertising at a time when traditional advertising is suffering from a major lack of trust.

Nielsen’s analysis of social media conversations back in 2007 and again in December 2008 showed that ‘false’ was the term most closely associated with “advertising”.
Social media has fanned the flames of consumer distrust about advertisers claims. However, at the same time social media has provided the motive, opportunity
and means for advertisers to engage consumers in a more open and honest way.”

Building Trust and Friendships with Parents?

The report goes on to note that “social networks are ultimately about friendships, where members add value to each other’s lives through interaction.  Therefore, advertising should follow the same philosophy of adding value through interaction and consultation. Fan sites or sponsored groups are, perhaps, one of the ore successful examples of social network marketing that touch on the principles of interactivity and adding value …

However, the challenge for advertisers is that discussions within these groups won’t necessarily align itself with the brand-designed messaging. Much like a friendship, marketing on social networks requires continual investment – in terms of time and effort as opposed to financial – to be of value to both parties.”

In other words, some of the conversation on a Facebook fan page for our school will not reflect the message that we are trying to communicate.  Some of the comments posted by participants may be blatantly false. Although this presents a significant problem, it also presents an opportunity—an opportunity to correct false information, rumors, and gossip and to share positively the philosophy and impact of Christian schooling.  Doing so of course requires that someone from the school be fully engaged with the Facebook site.

What Do You Think?

• Does your school have a Facebook presence?  If so, why?  If not, why not?

• If your school has a Facebook presence, how has it worked?  Has it been a net positive experience or a negative one?

Technorati Tags: Facebook,Social Networking,Social Network,Advertising,Christian,Schhool,Education,Christian School,Christian Education

Can We Keep Up with the Competition?

(Reposted from Goggle Blogger)

We are in danger of becoming increasingly irrelevant and non-competitive. If we do, we will lose students.

Historically, our competition has come from free public schools, charter schools, and homeschooling. Our new competition is coming from technology enabled courses offered by public schools, colleges and universities, and virtual schools, including virtual Christian schools. This development is changing the educational landscape and the school market. The current recession is likely to accelerate this change.

Public schools are adopting interactive technology and distance learning (D.L.) at an accelerating pace. Moreover, there is an increasing number of online virtual schools in higher education and in K-12 education. These options make virtually (pun intended) any course available to any student anytime, anywhere. Students and their parents are no longer restricted to brick and mortar traditional schools to have access to high quality fully accredited courses.

The Explosion in Distance Learning

Alabama, not historically known for innovation or high quality education, is leading the nation in connecting every public school in the state to online asynchronous courses and synchronous courses offered through video conferencing and other interactive technologies. Every student in the state now has access to a wide range of courses, including honors and AP courses that have historically been only offered to students in larger schools in wealthier school districts. The image below shows some of the courses offered through Alabama's Access Program.

To view a short news clip from Fox News about the Access program, click here.

As reflected in the Alabama Access Program, distance learning is exploding. According to Drs. Horn and Christensen (authors of Disrupting Class1) of the Harvard Business School, public education enrollments in online classes have skyrocketed from 45,000 in 2000 to roughly 1 million today. It is projected that by 2020 over 50% of high school classes will be available online1.

The Florida Virtual School (FLVS) reflects this explosion in D.L. Founded in 1997, FLVS currently enrolls 63,675 students in grades 6-12. Enrollment is open to public, private, and home school students.

FLVS offers more than 90 courses—including core subjects, world languages, electives, honors, and over 10 Advanced Placement courses. FLVS courses are accepted for credit and are transferable. Florida Virtual School is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and courses are NCAA approved. FLVS also offers AP Exam reviews in April, even for students who did not take the course through FLVS.

Drs. Horn and Christensen outline four reasons why distance learning will continue to grow:

1. Distance learning technologies will keep improving.

2. Distance learning provides the ability of teachers, students, and parents to select right learning pathways for differentiated learning thus customizing the education to the learning preferences and needs of each child.

3. The looming teacher shortage caused by the retirement of baby boomers will propel schools to move to distance learning to gain access to hard to hire teachers in math, science, and other subjects.

4. The cost of distance learning will fall significantly.

Distance Learning Is and Will Disrupt the Traditional Classroom and School

I highly recommend Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Drs. Christensen, Horn, and Johnson. For a good overview, click on the play button below to watch a video podcast interview with the author, which runs approximately four minutes.

The short video below from Harvard Business School provides useful background context to Dr. Christensen's book. A key concept in this video is winning not by doing it better but doing it differently.

The key concepts in the video sound very familiar in our schools.

The Stimulus Plan is to Include $1 Billion for Ed Tech in Public Schools

According to Edweek2, the Obama Administration plans to spend $1 Billion for Ed Tech. The House Democrats' "American Recovery and Reinvestment" plan includes "$1 billion for 21st century classrooms, including computer and science labs and teacher technology training."

The House Democrats' plan overall includes $41 billion to local school districts, including $1 billion made available through the Enhancing Education Through Technology (E2T2) program, which last year was just $263 million. From the House Democrat's proposal:

We will put people to work building 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries to help our kids compete with any worker in the world.

Such developments have the potential to make public schools more competitive with Christian schools.

Competition from an Unexpected Source-Virtual Christian Schools

I can already hear the rejoinder "but we provide a Christian education in a Christian environment. This type of education cannot be replicated by technology."

It is true that neither distance learning nor any other technology can perfectly replicate the experience of community that one finds in a brick and mortar school. Warm human interactions, prayer in the classroom, chapel services, the excitement and lessons learned through athletics and fine arts are life changing and life enriching experiences that can only occur through face-to-face human interaction.

However, it is naive to assume that these rapidly developing technologies do not pose real challenges to our schools--and real opportunities.

The Challenges

1. The number of parents theologically and philosophically committed to Christian education is relatively small. Given the growing shallowness of Christianity in the U.S. and the evangelical church in particular, this number is likely to grow smaller.

As I noted in a previous post, for many parents, the "Christian" in education is not as important as "quality" in education. Many of our parents enroll their children in our schools for reasons other than the development of a biblical worldview, which frankly, most of our parents do not understand because their entire educational experience was secular, not Christian. They may have a Christian heart but most have a secular mind.

Once having experienced the benefits of Christian education, some of our parents come to a deeper understanding of and commitment to the philosophy of Christian education. Most, however, do not start with this understanding and many never acquire it.

Based on formal and informal surveys that I have conducted with parents over the years, I find that parents enroll their children in our schools for the reasons outlined below. Although survey results vary, in general the order provided below reflects the priorities of parents when deciding to enroll their children in a Christian school.

• A sense of security and safety
• Christian atmosphere (meaning good values, nurture, and protection from the "world")
• Academic quality
• Relatively small sizes
• Christian worldview

The essential question for us is "can distance learning replicate the above benefits of Christian education?" I believe that it can--at least partially and most importantly--well-enough for many of our parents. I believe this will become increasingly true for several reasons:

• Younger parents will be much more knowledgeable and comfortable with online learning (many will experience it first hand in college). Online learning will not have the stigma that it does for many of our current parents, administrators, and teachers.

• The notion of community is changing due to social networking sites like Facebook.

• Rising tuition may make Christian education increasingly unattainable for many.

• Technology will continue to improve resulting in enhanced synchronous interaction through high speed embedded video-conferencing technologies like Wimba.

Moreover, it is interesting to reflect upon how many of the reasons cited by parents for enrolling their children in a Christian school can be at least partially met through online classes.

• Security and safety is provided when students are at home with parents taking coursework online.
• Christian students interacting live with a Christian teacher does provide a Christian atmosphere, albeit in a more limited fashion. Moreover, our students view social interactions differently than we typically do. For them, interaction through social networks and other technologies IS social interaction and quite natural. As evidence, all you have to do is watch a group of teenagers together. They spend as much time texting their friends as they do interacting with those directly in front of them.
• Academic quality can be maintained when highly qualified teachers are teaching using interactive asynchronous and synchronous technology such as video-conferencing, chat rooms, Skype and similar programs. In fact, sometimes the quality can be better! It is now possible and relatively inexpensive for students to take online courses from instructors with Masters and Ph.D.'s, e.g., from India. For an example, click here.

To put this into perspective, consider the following information provided by one online provider of tutoring services.

• The small class size speaks for itself.
• A Christian worldview can be taught by using Christian teachers and Christian material. Sitting in a traditional classroom is not necessarily required. For example, Reformed Theological Seminary offers theological degrees through distance learning. As I was researching material for this article I discovered a video that I did not know existed by my own pastor outlining the benefits of distance learning for theological training.

To the extent that parents believe that they can provide their children most of what is available in a traditional Christian school by combining distance learning, homeschooling, and extra-curricular programs through community programs, we run the risk of experiencing enrollment declines. As technology improves, our younger more technology savvy parents may choose options other than the local Christian school. They will make a cost benefit assessment something like this: "I am willing to get 80% of the benefits of a traditional Christian school for 50% of the cost." The graphic below, which I developed for a workshop I recently conducted, illustrates the calculation being made by parents.

This leads to the next development in the market--the Virtual Christian School.

2. There are a growing number of Christian Virtual Schools such as Sevenstar Christian Academy. Schools such as Sevenstar offer online classes taught by Christian teachers, primarily to students of Christian parents. This is a new development that adds another player in the Christian school market.

As an experiment, I did a simple Google search for "Christian school distance learning". Here is what came up (note there are more than 10 pages of search results):

3. The recession is creating significant challenges for our parents. These challenges may affect parents' decisions regarding the enrollment of their children in a Christian school.

• Many of our families will experience job losses for one or both spouses.
• Many families will receive little or no pay increases, some will experience reductions. On the other hand, most of our schools will raise tuition.
• Employers are shifting health insurance premiums to employees and increasing co-pays thus reducing family disposable income.
• Families have lost wealth making paying for college more difficult or impossible. Some parents will decide to forego paying K-12 tuition to save money for college.
• Families are worried about retirement. Some may reallocate tuition to retirement accounts.
• Grandparents may have less disposable income to assist with tuition.
• Many families will focus on reducing debt and saving money.

4. The availability of high quality academic courses through both Christian and public schools, along with the recession, may encourage more parents to homeschool their children.

The Opportunities

Although the explosion in distance learning poses challenges, it also presents a significant opportunity. Consider the potential benefits of D.L. for our schools:

• Distance learning provides a vehicle for extending our school ministries by enabling our schools to offer Christian education to students who do not have access to quality Christian schools or whose parents cannot afford it. Distance learning provides the opportunity to expand the Christian school market in ways hitherto not possible.
• We have the opportunity to form strategic alliances to offer courses to our students that we otherwise could not afford to offer as individuals schools, e.g., Chinese, astronomy, etc.
• A new revenue stream is created by enrolling new students but without the added cost of new facilities and auxiliary services.
• Extending our educational ministry impact to international students along with the opportunity to connect our classrooms with classrooms in other countries thus fostering cross-cultural understanding and deepening our students' interest in world affairs and missions.

These are just a few of the potential benefits of this revolution in technology and learning. The question is "how are we going to respond?" As I see it we have three options:

1. The proverbial ostrich approach--deny the reality of what is already occurring. Adopting a smug, but in my humble opinion misplaced, confidence that D.L. is a fad or at most a niche phenomenon that will not materially affect the educational marketplace or our schools.

2. Adopt a theological superiority complex that in effect relegates distance learning to a sub-Christian status because it lacks the traditional definition of community. I call this the "Christian Luddite Syndrome" or CLS.

3. Prayerfully and creativity determine how we can redeem this new technology for God's glory, the advancement of His kingdom, and for the benefit of our schools and students. In short, we don't have to throw out the baby with the bath water. Whatever the shortcoming of D.L., we can and should work to redeem the technology to make it all that it can be in service to the mission of Christian education.

Can we keep up with our competition and should we care? I believe the answer to both questions is an emphatic YES. We face both a challenge and an opportunity. Our response will determine which it will be for our schools.

An African Proverb provides an insightful summary of where we may find ourselves as Christian schools:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

You Are Invited

I am currently working on a major distance learning initiative that will involved several Christian schools in the U.S. and overseas. If you would like to learn more about this initiative and your possible involvement, please email me (christianschooljournalblog@gmail.com) for more information.

References

1. Christensen, C., Horn, M., and Johnson, C., Disrupting class (2008): How disruptive innovations will change the way the world learns, McGrawHill, p. 91

2. Source: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2009/01/1_billion_for_ed_tech_in_house.html

Technorati Tags: Distance Learning,market,Christian school,Christian education,Technology,Ed Tech,Educational technology,innovation,disruptive technology,disrupting class,educational reform,enrollment

Why You Need a Hobby

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

I have a confession to make—I can be a workaholic.  I’m not as bad as depicted in this picture but I have caught myself checking emails on my iPhone in less than appropriate places!

Work is good.  God gave man work to do as a reflection of his image and as a statement of the honor that God bestowed upon us when he entrusted the earth to our care.  Work gives purpose to life, provides a productive outlet for our God-given talents, and is a means to enrich our lives and those around us.  Work was not the curse, work was cursed.  There is a big difference.

Nevertheless, excess can make the use of God’s good gifts a curse or even a sin.  Food is good and meant to be enjoyed.  Too much eating is gluttony, which is dishonoring to the Lord and bad for our health.  Sex is a good gift of the Lord.  Sex outside of marriage or self-centered sexual activity within marriage is sinful and demeaning.  Work is a good gift.  Workaholism can be a sin and harmful to us and to our families.

As I contemplated my life recently I realized that I have workaholic tendencies.  I am typically in the office by 6:15 to 6:30 AM, I work a full day without stopping, taking about a 15-20 minute lunch or having a working lunch meeting.  I often have evening meetings or functions to attend.

When I am home in the evenings, I am responding to emails, even while “watching” television or I am working on the graduate class that I teach.  I usually spend four to five hours on Saturdays writing articles (like this one) and preparing Sunday School lessons and faculty devotionals.  Then, there is the pool to clean, the yard to mow, the shrubs to trim.  This doesn’t even count the three miles of brisk walking I do six out of seven days.

I don’t mind work, in fact, I like it.  The Lord has given me the honor of serving the students and families of Briarwood Christian School.  I have a wonderful wife and three beautiful daughters.  The Lord has “blessed the work of my hands.”

Nevertheless, it occurred to me that I was not living a holistic life that reflected what it means to bear God’s image in all of its dimensions.  While work is a fundamental aspect of life—it is not life—there is more to life than work.  I came to the conclusion that my life was out of balance.

What to do?  I decided to restart an old hobby that I had abandoned 25 years ago—photography.  Although my skills are rusty, they are beginning to return—slowly.

The  Benefits of a Hobby

There are many benefits to a hobby.  The benefits of my photography, many of which are applicable to many hobbies, are:

• I have learned to see.  There is wonder and beauty all around us but we miss it because our minds are preoccupied.  Photography forces me to actually see.  In fact, even when I don’t have my camera with me, I find myself looking much more closely and creatively at my surroundings, the people milling around, expressions on their faces, patterns in architecture and nature, and different colors of light, shadows, and reflections. 

For example, in the past I would have missed the simple elegance of the wine bottles and glasses sitting outside a store in Birmingham.  I would have walked by with hardly a glance.  Instead, I stopped and took a picture.  I was surprised by how nice a picture such a simple sidewalk display could make.

Likewise, I would have never walked into a local hardware store to ask permission to take pictures.  I told them I needed practice taking difficult indoor pictures in preparation for my trip to Lebanon and Germany.  I promised to send them copies of the pictures to use anyway they desired.  They readily agreed.  To my delight, I was able to capture several interesting pictures from the hardware store.

would have missed the intensity of this great grandmother’s conversation with my wife.

I would not have seen this sad sight because I would not have been out and about looking for subjects to shoot (pictures of course!).

Again, my photographs are not particularly good, as I say, I’m rusty.  The point is that photography has given me “new” eyes—eyes that see more of life around me.

• I am less one dimensional.  The nature of my work causes me to focus on the analytical.  Photography gives me the opportunity to explore the artistic.  Photography can be thought of as “painting with light.”  It involves light, color, composition, perspective, patterns, and much more…all elements of art as depicted in the photograph below that I recently took.

This focus on the artistic encourages me to explore the more creative side of what it means to bear God’s image.  After all, God is both the master artist and the master physicist. 

• I am able to combine my interest in the technical along with developing skills in the artistic.  Digital photography correctly using an advanced DSLR camera is very technical.  I find the ability to combine both the technical and the artistic to be invigorating. To be a good digital photographer requires an understanding of some physics, light, focal length, depth-of-field, white-balance, filters, photo editing software, and more.

• My hobby can make me a more rounded and interesting person (Lord knows I could use the help!).  Conversations can be more interesting when they extend beyond work, family, and the news.  Photography also gives me more illustrations, literal and literary, to use when teaching lessons or making presentations.

• More personal quiet time.  Photography gives me the opportunity to “withdraw” from the rush, from work, from responsibility.  I am able to meditate, to consider, to think, and to savor.  I have time to create, not merely to do.  There is no “to do” list and no deadline.

• It encourages me to make new acquaintances and forge new friendships.  I have found myself walking up to strangers and engaging them in conversation, usually to ask permission to photograph them or their children, as in the photograph below.  I did not know the parents but I asked them to take photos of their girls selling doughnuts in front of a local store.  They were delighted to allow me to take photographs of the boys (of course I promised to email them copies, which I did).

The picture below was taken during the state championship baseball game.  I would have never noticed this little boy at the baseball game or his contemplative expression if I was not thinking about finding good pictures.  Many parents are delighted to receive my email with the free picture of their child attached.

I expect to have the same experience when I travel to Lebanon and Germany this summer.  I plan to do a lot of “street photography,” which will require that I initiate conversations with people that I would otherwise simply walk past.

You may already have a hobby or you may have other activities that add variety and interest to your life such as golf or scrapbooking.  If you don’t, I encourage you to consider finding a hobby that will stretch you as a human being and as a servant of Christ.  After all, he made us to enjoy him, his creation, and the life he has given us.

Are You a Workaholic?

Your life may be far more balanced than mine has been.  To check, take this “Workaholic Quiz”:

Twenty Questions from Workaholics Anonymous

• Do you get more excited about your work than about family or anything else?

• Are there times when you can charge through your work and other times when you can't get anything done?

• Do you take work with you to bed? On weekends? On vacation?

• Is work the activity you like to do best and talk about most?

• Do you work more than 40 hours a week?

• Do you turn your hobbies into money-making ventures?

• Do you take complete responsibility for the outcome of your work efforts?

• Have your family or friends given up expecting you on time?

• Do you take on extra work because you are concerned that it won't otherwise get done?

• Do you underestimate how long a project will take and then rush to complete it?

• Do you believe that it is okay to work long hours if you love what you are doing?

• Do you get impatient with people who have other priorities besides work?

• Are you afraid that if you don't work hard you will lose your job or be a failure?

• Is the future a constant worry for you even when things are going very well?

• Do you do things energetically and competitively, including play?

• Do you get irritated when people ask you to stop doing your work to do something else?

• Have your long hours hurt your family or other relationships?

• Do you think about your work while driving, falling asleep, or when others are talking?

• Do you work or read during meals?

• Do you believe that more money will solve the other problems in your life?

If you answered 'yes' to three or more of these questions, there is a chance you are a workaholic or well on your way to becoming one.(Source: Workaholics Anonymous)

If you need more balance in your life—consider a hobby!  It will make you a more rounded individual, give glory to God, and be a more effective leader.

Technorati Tags: Hobby,Photography,Productivity,Digital Photography,Workaholic,Balance,Interesting,Interest,Art,Light,Work,Pattern

Are You Spread Too Thin? How to Thrive and Not Merely Survive as a Christian School

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

(Reposted from Google Blogger)

I recently read an interesting article by the CEO of Yahoo! titled The Peanut Butter Manifesto. Click here to read the memo. I highly recommend it to you.

For the purposes of this blog article I want to focus on the following statement from the memo because it is instructive for us as school leaders.

"We lack a focused, cohesive vision for our company. We want to do everything and be
everything -- to everyone. We've known this for years, talk about it incessantly, but do nothing to fundamentally address it. We are scared to be left out. We are reactive instead of charting an unwavering course. We are separated into silos that far too frequently don't talk to each other. And when we do talk, it isn't to collaborate on a clearly focused strategy, but rather to argue and fight about ownership, strategies and tactics ...

I've heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular."

Spread Too Thin: Strategic Allocation of Limited Resources

The Christian school movement is not particularly healthy. Based on recent statistics that I have seen, the number of Christian schools and overall school enrollments are stagnant or declining.

Although there are external forces beyond our control that affect our schools, many of our problems are self-inflicted. One of our self-inflicted wounds is similar to that articulated by the CEO of Yahoo!--we are often not strategic in the allocation of our tangible and intangible resources and as a consequence we are not offering a substantial marginal value to our current and potential clients. I am referring to our parents a clients because notwithstanding our missions as Christian schools, our parents are essentially paying clients who make economic calculations in deciding whether to enroll or re-enroll their children in our schools.

School Finance 101

If there is one unalterable truth about school resource management, it is this: the laws of economics do not discriminate. The laws of economics apply equally to both religious and non-religious institutions, regardless of their mission. The laws of economics are not religious.

Economic laws, like physical laws, apply universally to all regardless of one’s religion, one’s motives, or one’s hopes and dreams. Economic laws can no more be circumvented than the law of gravity because the laws of economics are as much a creation of God as the laws of physics.

The laws of economics are the laws of God. They are in the same way that the laws of physics are the laws of God … They are the laws of God because it is He that decrees the existence of the entities whose nature it is to obey those laws: had He wanted other laws He would have had to create other things ….Like physical laws they are necessary but only hypothetically necessary. They work positis ponendis. In other words, these laws are formulated in terms of “if then” statements. Economic laws do not tell us what human beings will or will not do, how they will behave, [nor how they ought to be behave]. They tell us rather what will happen if human beings behave in certain ways.... [Emphasis added] (Sadowsky, 2005, p. 3)

Assuming that God will suspend the laws of economics because the school is a ministry, too many Christian school leaders believe they can violate those laws with impunity. With the best of intentions, usually with the goal of making Christian education affordable for everyone, many administrators and boards establish financial policies that violate basic economic principles, good business practices, and common sense.

School leaders have a responsibility to understand and to apply economic laws and sound financial practices to the management of their schools. Failure to do so is a failure to apply the very biblical worldview to school management that is its raison d'être.

The Cost of Excellence

A basic law of economics is that for an organization to survive, let alone thrive, its revenue must equal or exceed its costs. This is just as true for “Pearly Gates Christian School” as it is for IBM. Common sense enough but it is surprising how many intelligent people violate this basic axiom of economics when filling a leadership role in the Christian school. Motivated by the laudable desire to provide a Christian education to as many children as possible, many school leaders abandon common sense. Sadly, such well-meaning intentions threaten the survival of the very ministry they so earnestly believe in.

Artificially low tuition is one example of violating basic economic law. Yet many administrators and boards routinely establish tuition rates below the actual cost to educate and compound the problem by providing multi-child and vocationally-based tuition discounts regardless of parents’ ability to pay. With inadequate revenue, programs are often under funded, limited, and of mediocre quality. Shallow fine arts programs, out-dated and/or underutilized technology, limited foreign language offerings, and limited or non-existent programs for gifted and special needs students are common.

Providing a world-class Christian education cannot be done on the cheap, it is expensive. According to the NCES (2004a), expenditures for public and private education were estimated at $866 billion for 2003–04. Expenditures for elementary and secondary schools alone were estimated to total $514 billion.

Public school per pupil expenditures for the 2001-02 school year averaged $8,259. By comparison, tuition per pupil in ACSI member schools in the same year averaged $4,642, a difference of $3,617/student .

This 44% differential is “funded” by paying below market compensation, through fundraising and/or church subsidies, by offering programs of limited scope and marginal quality, and/or by incurring debt.

Many Christian schoolteachers bear the burden of subsidizing below cost tuition rates through low salaries and poor benefits. Sixty-eight percent of teachers employed in ACSI member schools with at least 10 years of experience earn less than $30,000 per year, (Association of Christian Schools International, 2005). By contrast, statistics from the NCES (2002) show that the average starting salary for teachers with no experience in public charter schools that used a salary schedule was $26,977, compared with $25,888 for public school districts.

Education is a labor-intensive enterprise with labor costs typically representing 65 to 80 percent of a school’s entire operating costs, (William J. Fowler & Monk, 2001). The combination of below cost tuition and high labor costs results in artificially depressed salary levels making staffing the school with highly trained and competent teachers throughout the program difficult, especially at the secondary level.

Low salaries and poor benefits often produce high staff turnover creating discontinuity in the academic program. The applicant pool is small, forcing the administrator to hire the “best available” from a pool of relatively mediocre teachers. The result is poor to average instructional and academic quality, the loss of parental confidence, low student retention rates, especially at the upper school level, and a reputation for mediocre quality.

Many Christian leaders find themselves caught in a vicious and self-defeating cycle. Under funding produces poor quality, which in turn restricts enrollment levels and school revenue. To increase revenue, school leadership needs to raise tuition rates but many current and prospective parents do not believe that the school’s quality justifies the higher cost. Parents choose to leave or not to enroll their children in the school in the first place. In a desperate attempt to stem the loss of students or to stimulate enrollment, tuition continues to be set below actual cost thus perpetuating the cycle.

Supply and Demand

The theory of supply and demand is one of the most basic in economics. Simply stated, supply is the amount of product or service that a business or organization is willing or able to provide at a specified price. Demand is the amount of product or service that a consumer is willing to buy at a specified price, (International Society for Complexity Information and Design, n.d.). Modifying this definition for the Christian school market, the definition may read as follows; supply is the quality of education that a Christian school can provide at a specified tuition level while demand is the amount of tuition that parents are willing to pay for the perceived value of the education provided.  Everything else being equal, demand (enrollment) will be strong when the market (parents) believe that the school provides a quality of education valued at equal to or above the tuition charged. If enrollment is stagnant or declining this is a sign that the market does not perceive the value offered to be equal to the tuition charged.

Common sense enough, but things are a bit more complex than the foregoing definition implies. To grasp more fully the economics of Christian schooling, two other economic principles need to be considered; price elasticity of demand and marginal value. Relax; this is not as bad as it sounds!

Elasticity refers to market sensitivity to price changes. Demand for very price elastic products or services will vary significantly based on price. Relatively small increases or decreases in price will have a significant impact on demand. On the other hand, demand for products and services that are price inelastic is relatively stable even with relatively wide swings in price. For example, farmers face a relatively inelastic market; modest increases or decreases in groceries have only a modest affect on consumer demand for staples. However, airfares are elastic; even slight price increases or decreases in airfare can dramatically affect ticket sales.

There are several factors that affect elasticity of demand (QuickMBA, 2004):

· Availability of substitutes, the more possible substitutes, the greater the elasticity,

· Degree of necessity or luxury: luxury products tend to have greater elasticity. Some products that initially have a low degree of necessity are habit forming and can become "necessities" to some consumers, e.g., the microwave and the cell phone.

· Proportion of the purchaser's budget consumed by the item: products that consume a large portion of the purchaser's budget tend to have greater elasticity.

For the Christian school this means that, other factors being constant, the availability of schooling options in the community will affect the administration’s ability to increase enrollments and what can be charged for tuition. The more options, the more elastic tuition rates will be. Likewise, the fewer alternatives that parents have, the less elastic tuition will be.

The quality of alternative educational options will also affect tuition elasticity. If area public and private schools are considered poor relative to the local Christian school, enrollment in the Christian school may be perceived as more of a necessity than it will be if the community is blessed with a large number of high quality public and private schools. In the latter case, parents have a smorgasbord of quality educational options. If parents perceive the local public schools to be safe, high quality learning environments, they are more likely to consider enrollment in the Christian school to be a discretionary “luxury” purchase. Only the most diehard adherents to a Christian philosophy of education will consider enrollment in the Christian school a necessity. If on the other hand, local schools are perceived to be unsafe and of poor quality, “purchasing” a Christian education is more likely to be considered a necessity, making tuition levels less elastic.

The Archdiocese of Chicago provides a compelling example of this principle. Faced with declining enrollments and a school deficit of $20 million, the Archdiocese commissioned a study to determine how to boost school enrollment. Boffetti (n.d.) reports that researchers discovered that:

Struggling schools, at the very least, needed to fill every available seat with tuition-paying students. Surprisingly, many inner-city parents, both Catholic and non-Catholic alike, did not know that Catholic education would only cost them $1,000 a year, with the diocese picking up the rest of the tab. When they learned the facts, many said they would eagerly pay to get their children out of the awful and dangerous public schools they were in.

 Suburban parents were more sanguine. Parents who believed in the importance of Catholic education already sent their children to Catholic schools. The rest of the parents did not think it would be worth the added expense because they felt that their suburban public school system was at least equal to, if not better than, the Catholic schools in terms of academics and amenities [emphasis added]. In other words, the “Catholic” in Catholic education was not worth an extra $1,000 per year to them. (pp. 7-8)

Marginal Value

A closely related concept to elasticity is marginal value. Simply stated, marginal value is the amount of benefit perceived by purchasing an additional “unit” of a product or service in terms of other goods or services. Several factors influence marginal value: price and perceived value being among the most important. Brimley and Garfield (2002) define the marginal dollar (a way of understanding marginal value) as the dollar that would be better spent for some other good or service. In other words, as applied to the Christian school, marginal value or the marginal dollar can be understood as the calculation that parents make that an incremental increase in tuition, either at the school their children currently attend or at competing schools, is worth more than say a nicer home, car, or vacation. That is, as tuition increases, parents make a calculation that the added cost is or is not producing an incremental value equal to or greater than the increase in cost relative to other educational options and other purchases. If parents do not perceive the quality of education provided to be of more value than other options, parents will choose those options.

The impact of marginal value calculations made by parents is seen in the typical attrition rate from junior to senior high common in many Christian schools. Many parents conclude that the added cost of four years of Christian schooling is not justified relative to the breadth of programs offered by local high schools.

The reflex response by many school leaders is to assume that the way to increase the marginal value of their schools is to keep tuition low. This is certainly an important element in maintaining value. Another approach, however, is to increase the incremental value of the education provided relative to tuition charged by improving quality, expanding programs, hiring better teachers, and enhancing facilities. In other words, value can be increased by giving parents more for their tuition dollars. The balance between quality and cost produces a perceived value; it is perceived value relative to other educational options and other purchases that determines the willingness of parents to purchase a “Pearly Gates Christian School” education for their children.

Strategic Budgeting for Marginal Value

There are many ways to increase a Christian school’s marginal value: three of the most important are:

• Hiring superior teachers,

• Effective integration of technology, and

• Careful stewardship of existing funds.

To accomplish these goals school leadership should engage in strategic budgeting in contrast to default budgeting. Default budgeting is budgeting based on current realities, existing exigencies, and existing allocations. By contrast, strategic budgeting aligns planned expenditures to strategic initiatives designed to enhance marginal value. Leadership allocates funds based on the school’s strategic plan, not merely on existing spending patterns.

Strategic Budgeting: Personnel

For example, because a school is only as good as its teachers, one of the most powerful ways to increase marginal value is to establish a long-term plan to enhance the school’s ability to recruit, hire, and retain superior teachers by offering competitive salaries and benefits. To accomplish this goal, prayerful, strategic, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made concerning the existing allocation of resources. Are there personnel who need to be let go? Are there curriculum offerings that need to be dropped? Are there programs that need to be eliminated or reduced?

Suppose the school offers a home economics course. The administration may have established this course several decades ago because it met a need at the time. This course is assigned a teacher and allocated resources. However, there are only 30 students enrolled out of a total of 500 high school students. Given cultural changes, marginal value would be increased by eliminating this class and allocating the funds for a media literacy or graphics design course. Such a course would serve a greater number of students and would increase the value parents are receiving for their tuition dollar.

Reevaluating the standard salary scale is another example of strategic budgeting. The basic idea is to create salary ranges designed to differentiate pay based on market supply and demand. Under such a plan there may be different compensation ranges for different classifications of teachers, e.g., for scarce specialty teachers and personnel such as advanced math and science teachers or technology specialists.

The idea of creating differentiated salary ranges whereby certain teacher classifications are paid more than others is counterintuitive for most educators. Educated and trained in a system in which teacher salaries are based on experience and credentials, regardless of competence and market conditions, is deeply ingrained in the psychology of school leadership and in the structure of schooling.

However, to put differentiated pay into a larger context, it is helpful to note the following research findings as reported by the Educational Research Service’s report, Teacher Compensation and Teacher Quality (Goldhaber & Eide, 2003).

Current teacher quality and staffing issues have affected some subject areas more than others. For example, studies have shown that teachers of math and science have some of the highest levels of attrition among all teachers. Additionally, some schools face teacher quality issues with the math and science teachers who do remain in the classroom….

The fact that teacher shortage and teacher quality issues affect math and science especially severely can be explained with the teacher labor market and the single-salary schedule. Lakdawalla (2000) found that the returns to technical skills have outpaced the returns to teaching skills. Teachers with math and science skills are most likely to be able to have high-paying technical jobs as viable career alternatives. This means that the opportunity cost for math and science teachers has grown more than the opportunity cost for all other teachers….

We find that the shortage for math teachers is greater than that for history teachers, because the wages of teachers are inflexible. Thus, schools will have more difficulty hiring math teachers with an adequate level of training and also face greater levels of attrition in the current math teacher labor force….

Goldhaber highlights the severity of the problem of finding and retaining highly qualified math and science teachers for most schools…

This leaves schools with difficult choices and challenges. They could procure and devote unprecedented amounts of money toward teacher compensation [or] differentiate salaries by teacher skills…[emphases added]

It is quite likely that schools will have to raise compensation for math and science teachers in order to compete with the private sector and attract individuals with technical expertise in those areas. The above point suggests a need to restructure teacher compensation and move away from the single-salary schedule…and should include concepts such as the supply and demand for particular teacher skills. (pp. 38-52)

When assessing teacher compensation, it must be borne in mind that money is not the primary motivator for teachers. If it were, many would have chosen a different profession. Hiring teachers intrinsically and passionately committed to the ministry of Christian education is critically important to ensuring that teachers are kingdom rather than self focused.

Nevertheless, the “workman is worthy of his hire.” Creating differentiated pay ranges has the benefit of positioning the school to recruit and retain the finest faculty available while not requiring the uniform and universal raising of all salaries. The result is that the school is able to attract advanced science and math teachers while simultaneously avoiding the large tuition increases that would result from adjusting the entire salary scale upward. It also enhances the marginal value of the school by increasing quality and minimizing tuition increases.

Strategic Budgeting: Technology Integration

Leadership can significantly enhance marginal value by enriching the academic program through integrated instructional technology. The key concept is integrated. The vast majority of both ACSI and CSI member schools offer computer classes. Very few integrate the technology into daily instruction.

Technology integration means that technology is an instructional tool, not merely a subject of instruction. Integrated technology is the seamless infusion of technology in both instruction and learning so that technology becomes a ambiguous tool used by both students and teachers. It goes beyond computer labs to the natural incorporation of technology into teaching and learning as naturally as a white board and notebook. Using technology for the sake of using technology is not the objective. The objective is to use technology to enhance teaching and learning when it is the most effective way to teach and to learn. Technology is not the end; it is the means.

The following abridged example of technology integration for a high school class illustrates the concept. Although designed for high school, this lesson could be easily modified for junior high students.

Lesson objective: Students will deepen their understanding of the relationships between social and human capital and the creation of wealth in a first and third world country.

Lesson Content and Assignment:

· The teacher will provide background reading and lectures on social and human capital, biblical concepts of economic justice, fundamental principles of economics, and the impact of educational attainment on the creation of individual and national wealth.

· Students are to use library and Internet-based resources to research economic, demographic, and educational data for both a first and third world country using resources just as the CIA Fact Book, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Census, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, etc.

· Data is to be collected using an Access database. Students will export the data to an Excel spreadsheet. Graphs are to be created depicting important data. Working with the math department, students will run a simple correlation analysis using Excel or a program such as SPSS.

· Students will use Word to write an eight-page research report. The report is to include embedded Excel charts and graphs. The report is to be in MLA format using Endnote for the citation of references and the creation of the reference section. This written report is to provide a discussion of biblical principles of social justice, a summary of research findings, and conclusions regarding the relationship between social and human capital to the creation of wealth in a first and third world country. Students are then to answer the following question: “What does this mean to me?”

· Students will use PowerPoint to present a five-minute summary of their findings.

Assessment:

· Students will be assessed using both a traditional assessment (test) and an authentic assessment. The authentic assessment is the quality of the research, the quality of the written report, the quality of technology use and integration, and the quality of their presentations. The teacher will use a rubric to evaluate the authentic assessment.

A useful middle school example is Was It Murder? The Death of King Tutankhamun: The Boy King. This lesson can be found at the following Internet site: http://www.pekin.net/pekin108/wash/webquest/.

Unfortunately, there is little evidence that Christian schools are integrating technology in a manner even close to the lessons described above. In a national study designed to assess the current level of technology access and integration, defined as Technology Level, in CSI and ACSI schools, Mosbacker (2005) found that the majority of CSI and ACSI schools are not characterized by the level of technology integration required to prepare students with the 21^st century skills needed in an information-rich, global economy.

The majority of the schools are at a relatively low technology level as measured by the CEO STaR Chart definitions. The STaR Chart is one of the most comprehensive categorizations of schools based on their level and use of the technological resources. The CEO Forum’s STaR Chart identifies and defines four school profiles ranging from the school with “Early Technology” to the “Target Technology” school characterized by integrated technology throughout the curriculum. The STaR Chart also matches potential educational outcomes — the potential benefits — to the level of technology and integration in each profile category. Based on technology presence and integration throughout the curriculum, the STaR Chart provides a technology snapshot of a school in each of the profile categories.

Most CSI and ACSI schools provide access to technology, there is little curricular integration.

Consequently, the majority of the schools are at a relatively low technology level with 77% of the schools defined as Low to Mid Technology. Twenty two percent of the schools are classified as High/Advanced Technology schools and only one school is classified as a Target Technology school.

Many parents will immediately perceive an increase in marginal value through the addition of integrated technologies. For this to become a reality, leaders will need to develop strategic budgets that fund the necessary hardware, software, and staff training, the latter being particularly important. Simply adding the funds for technology development without a strategic review of the existing budget may increase total cost unnecessarily. Realizing increases in marginal value will require reassessing current budget allocations and may require eliminating or reducing other expenditures in order to fund technology development without adding significantly to tuition. A combination of strategic budgeting and fundraising for technology purchases can make technology affordable while improving marginal value to parents.

Strategic Budgeting: Strategic Allocations

An important way to increase marginal value is to control cost by the prayerful and careful use of the resources entrusted to our care—stewardship. Jim Collins (2001) provides a poignant example of stewardship from the corporate world.

When we interviewed Ken Iverson, he told us that nearly 100 percent of the success of Nucor was due to its ability to translate its simple concept into disciplined action consistent with the concept. It grew into a $3.5 billion Fortune 500 company with only four layers of management and a corporate staff of fewer than twenty-five people—executive, financial, secretarial, the whole shebang—crammed into a rented office the size of a small dental practice. Cheap veneer furniture adorned the lobby…instead of a corporate dining room, executives hosted visiting dignitaries at Phil’s Diner, a strip mall sandwich shop across the street [emphasis added]. (p. 136)

Twenty-five members of a corporate staff to run a $3.5 billion dollar company is, by any measure, good stewardship! Look around. Has the school incrementally added more and more staff as it has grown? Is it necessary to have such a large staff? Can things be done more efficiently, for example, by utilizing administrative computing system more effectively and through better staff training? One method to assess staffing levels is to compute the total number FTE (full-time equivalent) employees to students. If that ratio is consistently increasing, it may indicate excessive staffing levels.

Being cheap is not equivalent to wise stewardship. Increased value and marginal return on the investment are the marks of wise stewardship. Being “cheap” does not promote excellence nor does it add marginal value. The wise use of resources through the strategic allocation of scarce resources does both. Excellence is promoted by allocating funds to strategic initiatives designed to enhance value and expand programs, e.g., hiring better teachers and/or developing integrated technologies.

Strategic allocation is no more complex than seeking the “biggest bang for the buck.” What will produce the greatest educational return on investment for the dollar spent? The concept of marginal return complements the concepts of marginal utility and marginal value.

Although a financial concept, marginal return, as applied to the present context, can be thought of as the return or impact on the school that is realized for the dollars invested.

For example, if a school has been given an undesignated gift of $50,000, the question is; where will that $50,000 dollars produce the greatest results? Should it be spent on new textbooks? Will buying new computers or science equipment produce a higher educational return for parents than spending the funds for a new bus or designating the funds for financial aid?

It is notoriously difficult to quantify the marginal return in the educational context. Nevertheless, carefully aligning expenditures to a strategic plan will increase the impact (return) for every dollar invested. The problem is that pressing short-term needs or pressure from parents often trumpets the strategic allocation of tuition revenue and financial gifts. Rather than allocating the funds based upon a strategic plan or upon a careful assessment of what will add the most marginal value for parents, many leaders spend the funds to cover short-term needs or to placate the loudest constituency.

Stewardship

If our schools are to survive, much less thrive, we must stop "spreading the peanut butter too thin." We need to think far more strategically. Where should we place our resources? What is the basis for our decision? What programs should we eliminate? What programs should we add? The the marginal value of our schools been stagnant or declining?

These are important questions that we must answer with ruthless honesty.

Technorati Tags: Economics,Marginal Value,Private School,Christian School,Christian School Enrollment,Technology Integration,Staff Pay,Staff Compensation,Teacher Pay,Value,ROI,Excellence,Survive,Thrive

“Tell Me Again, Why are We Doing This?”

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

New training course provides inexpensive, flexible professional development that boosts teachers’ enthusiasm for life-on-life influence.

We are Christian educators because in our hearts we know that it changes lives—and can ultimately change the culture. It is in this spirit that I want to alert you to a new professional development program that can reenergize your team and reinvigorate their sense of “why we do what we do.”

This new resource is from Dr. Jeff Myers’ Passing the Baton International (PTBI). In the last three years PTBI has equipped the faculty of 500 Christian schools to rediscover the ancient art of discipleship and help students become world-changing leaders.

PTBI just released its training on DVD with a bevy of teaching resources that make it simple—and inexpensive—to offer a full-bodied professional development program worth two CEUs. You can find out more at www.passingthebaton.org

How Passing the Baton Ignites Teachers’ Enthusiasm for Life-on-Life Influence

PTBI says that its new course “provides dynamic, proven professional development to renew teachers’ sense of joy and equip them to reconnect spiritually with students.”

It does this by showing teachers how to mentor, coach and disciple students in a biblical, natural and fun way—whether their interactions with students are 30 minutes or 30 seconds.

The evidence is impressive. PTBI conducted pre-test/post-test studies of 3,000 participants and found that its training makes a statistically significant difference in teachers’ understanding of and preparation for discipleship, as well as their motivation to become disciplers.

Can Passing the Baton Lead to Long-Term Change in How Teachers View Their Mission?

Renny Scott, Headmaster of Christian Heritage School in Dalton, GA is one of many fans of Passing the Baton. “You could feel the difference in the spiritual atmosphere at the start of the school,” he enthuses.

Does this mean that Passing the Baton is a miracle cure? Myers says it depends of the leader’s commitment to life-on-life influence: “This workshop is only a catalyst, but when an enthusiastic leader implements it, the breakthroughs can be incredible.”

Cynthia Greer is one of those enthusiastic leaders. After guiding her faculty at Westbrook Christian School (Rainbow City, AL) through Passing the Baton, she helped her faculty establish goals and plans that she says have “had dramatic results in the lives of students."

A year after hosting the training for his faculty and staff, Dr. S. L. Sherrill did a spiritual formation audit at North Raleigh Christian Academy and was pleasantly surprised to see “mentoring” show up on students’ radar as one of the things they appreciated about their school.

Paula Moore, Early Childhood Director at Providence Christian School in Cape Coral, FL tells of how one teacher got so excited that she called three meetings to discuss how to turn their school into a more encouraging, uplifting place. Paula says, “I personally have three children in our school and can attest to the huge transformation that has taken place.”

How PTBI’s New DVD Course Can Help You

In the past the Passing the Baton workshop was only available with a live speaker in an inflexible one-day format. It was expensive. With the DVD course you have the flexibility to offer Passing the Baton as a one-day training, a two-day retreat, or as a once-a-week program for 12 weeks. And the price is surprisingly affordable (more on that below).

Terry Broberg, principal of Cascade Christian High School in Puyallup, WA has previewed the course and says, “It’s money well spent for anyone who works with young men and women.”

In fact, pilot schools actually seem to prefer the DVD course over Dr. Myers’ live presentations (no offense, Jeff).

What You Get With the Passing the Baton DVD Course

The new course consists of 12 45-minute lessons, each of which includes a 20-minute video segment and follow-up discussion. A simple facilitators guide makes it easy to use on-the-spot (although, ahem, we would never admit that we didn’t prep for it).

The CDROM includes reminder cards and handsome posters for each session. There’s even an attendance-building guide with skits, brochures and bulletin inserts. Come to think of it, this thing would be a cinch to teach as a church-based Bible study.

The cost for the whole package is an easy-on-the-budget $127. Each teacher needs a “participant kit,” but these are reasonably priced at $20 each and include a 72-page study guide, a copy of Jeff’s hardcover Handoff book and a relay baton.

You can save $30 instantly by using the coupon code “baton” when you order on-line at www.passingthebaton.org. The coupon code is good until midnight April 22.

The bottom line: now you can host the Passing the Baton training at your convenience for just over $20 per person and grant your teachers two CEUs from ACSI. That’s as close to a “no brainer” as I’ve seen for a long time.

For years you’ve piled up kindling. It’s time to light the match.

The need to have a strong godly influence on students won’t wait around until the economy gets better. If you think that Passing the Baton could springboard your faculty toward greater influence, you can check out www.passingthebaton.org. Or you can call 423-570-1000 and talk to Sean Bevier who, as a long-time Christian school dean of students, can answer your questions and coach you in how to help your school become a nerve center for developing the next generation of leaders.

Technorati Tags: Leadership,Staff development

How To Deal Effectively with Conflict and Difficult People

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

Dealing with difficult people can be very uncomfortable!  Despite 20 years of experience, my stress level still rises whenever my administrative assistance informs me that: 

Mr. and Mrs. Jones want to see you.  They are upset about .....

One would think that by now I would have learned to be more sanguine but alas, I still feel my gut tighten in anticipation of an unpleasant conversation.

Although I have not yet learned how to reach a “state of nirvana,” I have learned a few things over the years that may be helpful to you.  I offer the following tips with the prayer that you will find them helpful the next time you face that angry email, phone call, or the unscheduled “do you have a minute?”

Conflict Cannot and Should Not Be Avoided

If two godly men like Paul and Barnabas, who ministered and faced persecution together, could not avoid conflict (Acts 15:39-40) then there should be no illusions about our ability to avoid it. Conflict is inevitable.  It is also an integral part of our ministry to students, parents, and staff.

I often tease parents during our Parent Orientation sessions.  When asking for their prayers I quip:

My job is relatively easy--"I only deal with people's children, money, and religion!

Parents laugh at this statement because they quickly realize just how difficult leading a school can be. Most of them would not want the job for any amount of pay!  Upon reflection, they become a bit more empathetic when assessing the school's response to a given situation.

A Little Humor

As illustrated by my quip, humor is a natural and effective way to reduce tension, demonstrate humility, and foster empathy--provided it is used appropriately and in the right context.  Misused or inappropriate humor can do more harm than good. Well timed and thoughtful humor, on the other hand, can relax a tense situation and put it into perspective.  Consider the following non-school examples (source: How to Use Humor to Diffuse Conflict, by Carla Rieger).

Time Deadline

Our manager was pushing the IT technician to fix a huge computer breakdown in under half a day. The technician was getting frustrated at the unreasonable request, but rather than push back with resistance, he said, "Actually, I only need two hours. The other two I'll be using to cure world hunger." They both laughed and the manager mellowed out.

Smaller Budget

A client kept returning our budget proposal saying it needed to be smaller. No matter how much trimming we did, the client kept pushing for "Smaller, smaller!" I finally took the proposal to a copier and had it reduced to two inches in size. I sent it to the client and said, "This is about as small as I can make it. Tell me what you think." He called me saying it got a huge laugh in his office and that he would now accept the proposal as soon as he could find his magnifying glass.

Again, be careful.  Humor can be very effective but it can backfire if it is poorly timed or inappropriate.

To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is! (Pro 15:23)

To Disciple and to be Discipled

When I know that I am about to be confronted with an angry or upset parent, or when confronted unexpectedly, I remind myself that every conflict "is an opportunity to disciple or to be discipled."  The objective is not to avoid conflict, it is not to deny that there is a problem, and it is not merely to "tolerate" the other person or the meeting.  Instead, conflict is a providentially appointed opportunity to disciple and minister to others or to be discipled by others (Rom. 8:28). 

When dealing with someone who is upset, don't ask yourself "how can I avoid this situation or how can I get through it as quickly and painlessly as possible."  Instead, ask yourself this,

How can the Lord use me in this situation to minister to Mr. and Mrs. Jones and how can the Lord use upset Mr. and Mrs. Jones to instruct me or to make the school better?

You will be surprised how much easier it is to deal with difficult situations and people when you adopt this biblical attitude.  I remind myself of the following verses when facing a difficult situation:

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety. (Proverbs 11:14)

Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. (Pro 27:5-6)

The upset parent or staff member can be our instructors!  Only pride would keep us from freely acknowledging our need for correction--even if not given in an appropriate manner.

Humility

Relax!  You and I have clay feet.  We make mistakes.  We sin.  Unlike our teenage children, we don't know everything. 

We don't have to pretend otherwise to be effective leaders. In fact, acknowledging our frailties reflects genuine humility, fosters listening, reduces defensiveness, and in general reduces tension.  It also puts us in a state of mind to learn from the situation while fostering respect for those who are upset. 

Admit mistakes.  Do not be defensive.  Own the poor decisions.  Doing so models Christian character, is instructive to those who are upset, and leads to the development of stronger schools.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Pro 16:18)

Listen!!

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. (James 1:19)

This verse reminds me of Steven Covey's statement that one of the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People is that they seek first to understand and then to be understood.  In our pride or defensiveness we often seek to justify more than we seek to understand. We want to defend more than we want to learn.  This attitude is both wrong and counter-productive.

Even if the other person is out of line or just plain wrong, we can often learn something of value from the confrontation.  This requires that we talk less and listen more. 

Sometimes people just need to vent.  Have you ever been in a meeting where the other party keeps repeating the same grievance over and over?  You got it the first time or certainly by the second rendition but they keep going? 

Take a deep breath (quietly!), be patient, and give them ample time.  Doing so shows respect, gives them time to vent, and may reveal something important to learn.

Speak the Truth--In Love

Humility does not mean that we ignore sin or false accusations.  It is sinful to ignore the truth in order to avoid conflict.  Sometimes we need to confront the parent or the employee with their sinful behavior.  For example, the dad who is acting inappropriately during an athletic event, the teacher who responded disrespectfully to a student, or the parent who was verbally abusive to a teacher must be confronted and corrected.  Ignoring sinful behavior in the school corrupts the school's culture.

HOW we speak the truth, however, is extremely important.  We should be clear and candid but gracious even if we have to confront the sinful behavior of others. 

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. (Eph. 4:15)

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. (Pro 15:1)

The wise of heart is called discerning, and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness. (Pro 16:21)

Turn the Other Cheek, Go the Extra Mile

Remember, LIFE AND MINISTRY ARE NOT ABOUT US!  When we remember that we are to "be living sacrifices" (Rom. 12:1-2) it is easier not to take personal offense when dealing with conflict.  Every action we take and every response we give, or don't give, reflects upon God's glory, His kingdom, the testimony of the Gospel, the reputation of our schools, and our leadership. 

When dealing with angry or unreasonable people, it is helpful to remember Jesus' instruction:

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mat 5:41-48)

We can demonstrate going the extra mile in our schools with a strong bias for "yes."  In other words, unless the request violates an important policy or foundational principle our bias should be to say yes.  While it is not always possible to agree, it is possible to agree to requests more often than we like to admit. 

One of the keys to saying "yes" is to avoid the "convenience" trap.  That is, if we are not vigilant we can too quickly say no because saying yes would require sacrifice and inconvenience.  Remember, sacrificial service not convenience, is Christ's example for our lives and ministries.

Take a moment to reflect on the following verses.

But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter." And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given. He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.

And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus. Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.

When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves." But Jesus said, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." (Mat 14:6-16)

Note several things:

1) Jesus has just been told about the beheading of John the Baptist.  His natural human response upon hearing this terrible news is that he sought solitude, perhaps a quiet place to grieve the loss. 

2) Jesus is inconvenienced.  The inconsiderate and insensitive crowd follows Jesus--demanding more of his time and energy--notwithstanding his own desire for solitude. 

3) Jesus does not feel sorry for himself, he does not ignore the needs of those around them, and he does not complain--instead--he gives of himself yet again in order to serve them.  Rather than feeling sorry for himself he has compassion on them!

Responding versus Reacting

 Stop!  Pray! Think!  When confronted by an upset parent or employee, when reading a brusque or mean-spirited email, or when listening to an angry diatribe on the phone, do not immediately react.  Wait.  An immediate  emotionally driven response does not reflect the Fruit of the Spirit and will be counter-productive.

Rather than responding immediately take a moment to say a silent prayer.  Then reflect on the issue before responding to it. 

For example, I will often compose a response to an email and then set it aside for several hours or for a day.  Inevitably I find myself revising the email being careful with the words I choose to ensure that my response is not emotional, is clear and gracious, and deals with the facts, not the emotions surrounding the issue.

I often employ Paul’s “sandwich” style as found in  his Epistles.  You are probably familiar with his style.  He starts out with a compliment or praise, moves to instruction/correction, and closes with praise or positive acknowledgment.  Here is an example from I Corinthians.

Opening:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge-- even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you--(1Co 1:3-6) …

Instruction/Correction:

… But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ … (1Co 3:1) …

Closing:

… The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. (1Co 16:23-24)

Follow-up

Do not ignore the matter!  It will not go away.  Whatever the issue—address it.  Dr. Kynerd, our current Chancellor and former Superintendent, has given me very wise advice.  He counsels, “Under promise and over deliver.”  Reflect on the benefits of this statement for a moment.  What are the potential benefits if we under promise, over deliver, and always follow-up?  Conversely, what are the consequences if we over promise and under deliver?

Fruit of the Spirit

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Gal 5:22-23)

When dealing with conflict, ask yourself the following questions:

• How will my response reflect love?

• How can I find joy in this situation for myself and for the one who is upset? (“count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Jas 1:2-3)

• How can I show kindness EVEN if I am being “abused”?

• What good deed/work can I perform in this situation?

• How can I use this situation to demonstrate faithfulness to my Lord, to my calling and to my students, parents, and staff?

• How am I reflecting gentleness in my response as I seek to “speak the truth in love?”

• Am I demonstrating self-control or am I reacting?

Keeping Authorities Informed

With the exception of gifts, people do not like surprises!  If you are dealing with an issue that is likely to come to the attention of a board member, the pastor, or others in positions of authority—inform them in advance of the situation.

I routinely give my board chairman and/or the pastors a “heads-up” on situations that may percolate.  Doing so is a courtesy to them so that they are not caught off guard.  It also fosters trust and gives you the opportunity to seek advice.  There is NO DOWNSIDE to this proactive communication!

Likewise, if there is bad news share it with the school board forthrightly.  Don’t sweep things under the rug, don’t pretend everything is fine if they aren’t.  You owe it to your board and others to keep them fully informed of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Making the Hard but Necessary Decisions

Sometimes an effective response may be require a parting of the way.  For example, an employee may have to be dismissed or a parent may have to be told that the school can no longer serve him or her.  This should be a last resort measure but it may be necessary. 

Over the years I have had to make the unpleasant decision to terminate an employee or to tell a parent that his behavior is such that the school can no longer effectively serve his family.

Such decisions should only be made after much prayer, hard work, and longsuffering.  The highest levels of integrity must be maintained.  But failure to make these hard decisions is a failure of leadership. 

 When you make these hard decisions remember that you do not have the liberty of defending yourself to others.  With the exception of those with authority over us, we must not share information regarding the circumstances of our decision with others in order to justify ourselves.  We also do not have the liberty of gossiping (sharing something that is true is still gossip!).  The Scriptures are clear—“Love covers a multitude of sins.”  This does not mean that sin is swept under the rug—it means that we protect the reputations of our protagonists even if doing so causes others to question our leadership and decisions.  Again, this is NOT about us.

In Summary

• Conflict cannot and should not be avoided

• Use humor to diffuse anger

• See conflict as an opportunity to disciple and/or to be discipled

• Be humble

• Listen

• Speak the truth in love

• Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile

• Respond—don’t react

• Follow-up

• Demonstrate the Fruit of the Spirit

• Keep the appropriate authorities informed

• Make the hard decisions

Why You’re Not So Special-Generation Me

Reprinted from Newsweek (April 27, 2009) By: Raina Kelley

Growing up, my literary heroines were those who, like me, struggled to be good: Jo from "Little Women," Harriet the spy, Laura Ingalls and Pippi Longstocking. A strong-willed (and loud) child, I craved examples of unruly knuckleheads tethered to a loving family that encouraged us to be our best selves despite our natural inclinations. Precocious but naive, I thought of myself as an ugly duckling—misunderstood in my youth but destined for a beauty and stature completely impossible for my loved ones to comprehend. I shudder to think what a monster I would have become in the modern child-rearing era. Gorged on a diet of grade inflation, constant praise and materialistic entitlement, I probably would have succumbed to a life of heedless self- indulgence.

Perhaps, one day, we will say that the recession saved us from a parenting ethos that churns out ego-addled spoiled brats. And though it is too soon to tell if our economic free fall will cure America of its sense of economic privilege, it has made it much harder to get the money together to give our kids six-figure sweet-16 parties and plastic surgery for graduation presents, all in the name of "self esteem." And that's a good thing, because as Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell point out in their excellent book "The Narcissism Epidemic," released last week, we've built up the confidence of our kids, but in that process, we've created a generation of hot-house flowers puffed with a disproportionate sense of self-worth (the definition of narcissism) and without the resiliency skills they need when Mommy and Daddy can't fix something.

Indeed, when Twenge addressed students at Southern Connecticut State University a couple weeks back, their generation's narcissism was taken as a given by her audience. The fact that nearly 10 percent of 20-somethings have already experienced symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder, compared with just over 3 percent of the 65-and-over set? Not surprising. That 30 percent of college students agree with the statement: "If I show up to every class, I deserve at least a B"? Didn't get much of a rise either. When they're faced with the straight-out question—do you agree with this research, that you guys are the most narcissistic generation ever—there are uniform head nods and knowing grins to each other. "At the end of the day I love me and I don't think that's wrong," says Sharise Tucker, a 21-year-old senior at Southern Connecticut State, a self-professed narcissist. "I don't think it's a problem, having most people love themselves. I love me."

But as Twenge goes on to illustrate, all that narcissism is a problem that can range from the discourteous—residential advisers at Southern lament students disregarding curfews, playing dance music until 3 a.m., demanding new room assignments at a moment's notice and failing to understand why professors won't let them make up an exam they were too hung over to take—to the disastrous—failed marriages, abusive working environments and billion-dollar Ponzi schemes. Seems that the flip side of all that confidence isn't prodigious success but antisocial behavior.

Armed with a steady influx of trophies just for showing up, "I Am Special" coloring books and princess parties, it is hard for kids to understand why an abundance of ego might be bad for them. Hot off their own rebellions in the late '60s, my parents struggled to give me the freedom to be me while also teaching me generosity, compassion and humility. I didn't make it easy on them. I was the kind of kid who threatened to drink Drano if asked to load the dishwasher. "Don't get cocky, kid," was the response from my dad when I declared my grades too good for my behavior to be monitored. "Pretty girls are a dime a dozen," my mother would remind me when I came up with the brilliant idea that school was getting in the way of my social life. My mom would also trot out fables to keep me in check. Ever read the original ending to Cinderella? The evil stepsisters get their eyes plucked out by pigeons and end up beggars. But it worked, mostly, and "Don't believe your own bulls––t" became my mantra. Of course, I still hate to be told what to do, dislike following rules and will waste hours trying to get out of the simplest household task; but hey, I'm a work in progress.

But no matter how you were raised, the handiest cure for narcissism used to be life. Whether through fate, circumstances or moral imperative, our culture kept hubris in check. Now, we encourage it. Pastors preach of a Jesus that wants us to be rich. The famously egocentric wide receiver Terrell Owens declares at a press conference that being labeled selfish is fine with him. Donald Trump names everything he owns after himself and calls his detractors "losers." We live in a world where everyone can be a star—if only on YouTube. The general sense among students on that New Haven campus is that with the world being such a competitive, cutthroat place, they have to be narcissists. Well, you may need a supersize ego to win "America's Next Top Model" or to justify your multimillion dollar bonus. But last I checked, most of our lives don't require all that attitude. Treating the whole world as if it works for you doesn't suggest you're special, it means you're an ass. As an antidote to a skyrocketing self-worth, Twenge recommends humility, evaluating yourself more accurately, mindfulness and putting others first. Such values may seem quaint, maybe even self-defeating, to those of us who think we're special, but trust me: it gets easier with practice.

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/194640 

Technorati Tags: Narcissism,Selfish,Self-image,Culture,Self-Esteem

The End of Christian America?

Reprinted from Newsweek (Apr 13, 2009). Jon Meacham

The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades. How that statistic explains who we are now—and what, as a nation, we are about to become.

It was a small detail, a point of comparison buried in the fifth paragraph on the 17th page of a 24-page summary of the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey. But as R. Albert Mohler Jr.—president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the largest on earth—read over the document after its release in March, he was struck by a single sentence. For a believer like Mohler—a starched, unflinchingly conservative Christian, steeped in the theology of his particular province of the faith, devoted to producing ministers who will preach the inerrancy of the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the only means to eternal life—the central news of the survey was troubling enough: the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990, rising from 8 to 15 percent. Then came the point he could not get out of his mind: while the unaffiliated have historically been concentrated in the Pacific Northwest, the report said, "this pattern has now changed, and the Northeast emerged in 2008 as the new stronghold of the religiously unidentified." As Mohler saw it, the historic foundation of America's religious culture was cracking.

"That really hit me hard," he told me last week. "The Northwest was never as religious, never as congregationalized, as the Northeast, which was the foundation, the home base, of American religion. To lose New England struck me as momentous." Turning the report over in his mind, Mohler posted a despairing online column on the eve of Holy Week lamenting the decline—and, by implication, the imminent fall—of an America shaped and suffused by Christianity. "A remarkable culture-shift has taken place around us," Mohler wrote. "The most basic contours of American culture have been radically altered. The so-called Judeo-Christian consensus of the last millennium has given way to a post-modern, post-Christian, post-Western cultural crisis which threatens the very heart of our culture." When Mohler and I spoke in the days after he wrote this, he had grown even gloomier. "Clearly, there is a new narrative, a post-Christian narrative, that is animating large portions of this society," he said from his office on campus in Louisville, Ky.

There it was, an old term with new urgency: post-Christian. This is not to say that the Christian God is dead, but that he is less of a force in American politics and culture than at any other time in recent memory. To the surprise of liberals who fear the advent of an evangelical theocracy and to the dismay of religious conservatives who long to see their faith more fully expressed in public life, Christians are now making up a declining percentage of the American population.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey that got Mohler's attention, the percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 percentage points since 1990, from 86 to 76 percent. The Jewish population is 1.2 percent; the Muslim, 0.6 percent. A separate Pew Forum poll echoed the ARIS finding, reporting that the percentage of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith has doubled in recent years, to 16 percent; in terms of voting, this group grew from 5 percent in 1988 to 12 percent in 2008—roughly the same percentage of the electorate as African-Americans. (Seventy-five percent of unaffiliated voters chose Barack Obama, a Christian.) Meanwhile, the number of people willing to describe themselves as atheist or agnostic has increased about fourfold from 1990 to 2009, from 1 million to about 3.6 million. (That is about double the number of, say, Episcopalians in the United States.)

While we remain a nation decisively shaped by religious faith, our politics and our culture are, in the main, less influenced by movements and arguments of an explicitly Christian character than they were even five years ago. I think this is a good thing—good for our political culture, which, as the American Founders saw, is complex and charged enough without attempting to compel or coerce religious belief or observance. It is good for Christianity, too, in that many Christians are rediscovering the virtues of a separation of church and state that protects what Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island as a haven for religious dissenters, called "the garden of the church" from "the wilderness of the world." As crucial as religion has been and is to the life of the nation, America's unifying force has never been a specific faith, but a commitment to freedom—not least freedom of conscience. At our best, we single religion out for neither particular help nor particular harm; we have historically treated faith-based arguments as one element among many in the republican sphere of debate and decision. The decline and fall of the modern religious right's notion of a Christian America creates a calmer political environment and, for many believers, may help open the way for a more theologically serious religious life.

Let's be clear: while the percentage of Christians may be shrinking, rumors of the death of Christianity are greatly exaggerated. Being less Christian does not necessarily mean that America is post-Christian. A third of Americans say they are born again; this figure, along with the decline of politically moderate-to liberal mainline Protestants, led the ARIS authors to note that "these trends … suggest a movement towards more conservative beliefs and particularly to a more 'evangelical' outlook among Christians." With rising numbers of Hispanic immigrants bolstering the Roman Catholic Church in America, and given the popularity of Pentecostalism, a rapidly growing Christian milieu in the United States and globally, there is no doubt that the nation remains vibrantly religious—far more so, for instance, than Europe.

Still, in the new NEWSWEEK Poll, fewer people now think of the United States as a "Christian nation" than did so when George W. Bush was president (62 percent in 2009 versus 69 percent in 2008). Two thirds of the public (68 percent) now say religion is "losing influence" in American society, while just 19 percent say religion's influence is on the rise. The proportion of Americans who think religion "can answer all or most of today's problems" is now at a historic low of 48 percent. During the Bush 43 and Clinton years, that figure never dropped below 58 percent.

Many conservative Christians believe they have lost the battles over issues such as abortion, school prayer and even same-sex marriage, and that the country has now entered a post-Christian phase. Christopher Hitchens —a friend and possibly the most charming provocateur you will ever meet—wrote a hugely popular atheist tract a few years ago, "God Is Not Great." As an observant (if deeply flawed) Episcopalian, I disagree with many of Hitchens's arguments—I do not think it is productive to dismiss religious belief as superstitious and wrong—but he is a man of rigorous intellectual honesty who, on a recent journey to Texas, reported hearing evangelical mutterings about the advent of a "post-Christian" America.

To be post-Christian has meant different things at different times. In 1886, The Atlantic Monthly described George Eliot as "post-Christian," using the term as a synonym for atheist or agnostic. The broader—and, for our purposes, most relevant—definition is that "post-Christian" characterizes a period of time that follows the decline of the importance of Christianity in a region or society. This use of the phrase first appeared in the 1929 book "America Set Free" by the German philosopher Hermann Keyserling.

The term was popularized during what scholars call the "death of God" movement of the mid-1960s—a movement that is, in its way, still in motion. Drawing from Nietzsche's 19th-century declaration that "God is dead," a group of Protestant theologians held that, essentially, Christianity would have to survive without an orthodox understanding of God. Tom Altizer, a religion professor at Emory University, was a key member of the Godless Christianity movement, and he traces its intellectual roots first to Kierkegaard and then to Nietzsche. For Altizer, a post-Christian era is one in which "both Christianity and religion itself are unshackled from their previous historical grounds." In 1992 the critic Harold Bloom published a book titled "The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation." In it he cites William James's definition of religion in "The Varieties of Religious Experience": "Religion … shall mean for us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they consider the divine."

Which is precisely what most troubles Mohler. "The post-Christian narrative is radically different; it offers spirituality, however defined, without binding authority," he told me. "It is based on an understanding of history that presumes a less tolerant past and a more tolerant future, with the present as an important transitional step." The present, in this sense, is less about the death of God and more about the birth of many gods. The rising numbers of religiously unaffiliated Americans are people more apt to call themselves "spiritual" rather than "religious." (In the new NEWSWEEK Poll, 30 percent describe themselves this way, up from 24 percent in 2005.)

Roughly put, the Christian narrative is the story of humankind as chronicled in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament—the drama of creation, fall and redemption. The orthodox tend to try to live their lives in accordance with the general behavioral principles of the Bible (or at least the principles they find there of which they approve) and anticipate the ultimate judgment of God—a judgment that could well determine whether they spend eternity in heaven or in hell.

What, then, does it mean to talk of "Christian America"? Evangelical Christians have long believed that the United States should be a nation whose political life is based upon and governed by their interpretation of biblical and theological principles. If the church believes drinking to be a sin, for instance, then the laws of the state should ban the consumption of alcohol. If the church believes the theory of evolution conflicts with a literal reading of the Book of Genesis, then the public schools should tailor their lessons accordingly. If the church believes abortion should be outlawed, then the legislatures and courts of the land should follow suit. The intensity of feeling about how Christian the nation should be has ebbed and flowed since Jamestown; there is, as the Bible says, no thing new under the sun. For more than 40 years, the debate that began with the Supreme Court's decision to end mandatory school prayer in 1962 (and accelerated with the Roe v. Wade ruling 11 years later) may not have been novel, but it has been ferocious. Fearing the coming of a Europe-like secular state, the right longed to engineer a return to what it believed was a Christian America of yore.

But that project has failed, at least for now. In Texas, authorities have decided to side with science, not theology, in a dispute over the teaching of evolution. The terrible economic times have not led to an increase in church attendance. In Iowa last Friday, the state Supreme Court ruled against a ban on same-sex marriage, a defeat for religious conservatives. Such evidence is what has believers fretting about the possibility of an age dominated by a newly muscular secularism. "The moral teachings of Christianity have exerted an incalculable influence on Western civilization," Mohler says. "As those moral teachings fade into cultural memory, a secularized morality takes their place. Once Christianity is abandoned by a significant portion of the population, the moral landscape necessarily changes. For the better part of the 20th century, the nations of Western Europe led the way in the abandonment of Christian commitments. Christian moral reflexes and moral principles gave way to the loosening grip of a Christian memory. Now even that Christian memory is absent from the lives of millions."

Religious doubt and diversity have, however, always been quintessentially American. Alexis de Tocqueville said that "the religious atmosphere of the country was the first thing that struck me on arrival in the United States," but he also discovered a "great depth of doubt and indifference" to faith. Jefferson had earlier captured the essence of the American spirit about religion when he observed that his statute for religious freedom in Virginia was "meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindoo and infidel of every denomination"—and those of no faith whatever. The American culture of religious liberty helped create a busy free market of faith: by disestablishing churches, the nation made religion more popular, not less.

America, then, is not a post-religious society—and cannot be as long as there are people in it, for faith is an intrinsic human impulse. The belief in an order or a reality beyond time and space is ancient and enduring. "All men," said Homer, "need the gods." The essential political and cultural question is to what extent those gods—or, more accurately, a particular generation's understanding of those gods—should determine the nature of life in a given time and place.

If we apply an Augustinian test of nationhood to ourselves, we find that liberty, not religion, is what holds us together. In "The City of God," Augustine —converted sinner and bishop of Hippo—said that a nation should be defined as "a multitude of rational beings in common agreement as to the objects of their love." What we value most highly—what we collectively love most—is thus the central test of the social contract.

Judging from the broad shape of American life in the first decade of the 21st century, we value individual freedom and free (or largely free) enterprise, and tend to lean toward libertarianism on issues of personal morality. The foundational documents are the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, not the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament (though there are undeniable connections between them). This way of life is far different from what many overtly conservative Christians would like. But that is the power of the republican system engineered by James Madison at the end of the 18th century: that America would survive in direct relation to its ability to check extremism and preserve maximum personal liberty. Religious believers should welcome this; freedom for one sect means freedom for all sects. As John F. Kennedy said in his address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in 1960: "For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew—or a Quaker—or a Unitarian—or a Baptist … Today I may be the victim—but tomorrow it may be you—until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped."

Religion has been a factor in American life and politics from the beginning. Anglican observance was compulsory at Jamestown, and the Puritans of New England were explicitly hoping to found a New Jerusalem. But coerced belief is no belief at all; it is tyranny. "I commend that man, whether Jew, or Turk, or Papist, or whoever, that steers no otherwise than his conscience dares," said Roger Williams.

By the time of the American founding, men like Jefferson and Madison saw the virtue in guaranteeing liberty of conscience, and one of the young republic's signal achievements was to create a context in which religion and politics mixed but church and state did not. The Founders' insight was that one might as well try to build a wall between economics and politics as between religion and politics, since both are about what people feel and how they see the world. Let the religious take their stand in the arena of politics and ideas on their own, and fight for their views on equal footing with all other interests. American public life is neither wholly secular nor wholly religious but an ever-fluid mix of the two. History suggests that trouble tends to come when one of these forces grows too powerful in proportion to the other.

Political victories are therefore intrinsically transitory. In the middle of the 19th century, the evangelist Charles Grandison Finney argued that "the great business of the church is to reform the world—to put away every kind of sin"; Christians, he said, are "bound to exert their influence to secure a legislation that is in accordance with the law of God."

Worldly success tends to mark the beginning of the end for the overtly religious in politics. Prohibition was initially seen as a great moral victory, but its failure and ultimate repeal show that a movement should always be careful what it wishes for: in America, the will of the broad whole tends to win out over even the most devoted of narrower interests.

As the 20th century wore on, Christians found themselves in the relatively uncontroversial position of opposing "godless communism," and the fervor of the Prohibition and Scopes-trial era seemed to fade a bit. Issues of personal morality, not international politics, would lay the foundations for the campaign for Christian America that we know as the rise of the religious right. The phenomenon of divorce in the 1960s and the Roe decision in 1973 were critical, and Jimmy Carter's born-again faith brought evangelical Christianity to the mainstream in 1976.

Growing up in Atlanta in the '60s and '70s, Joe Scarborough, the commentator and former Republican congressman, felt the fears of his evangelical parents and their friends—fears that helped build support for the politically conservative Christian America movement. "The great anxiety in Middle America was that we were under siege—my parents would see kids walking down the street who were Boy Scouts three years earlier suddenly looking like hippies, and they were scared," Scarborough says. "Culturally, it was October 2001 for a decade. For a decade. And once our parents realized we weren't going to disappear into dope and radicalism, the pressure came off. That's the world we're in now—parents of boomers who would not drink a glass of wine 30 years ago are now kicking back with vodka. In a way, they've been liberated."

And they have learned that politics does not hold all the answers—a lesson that, along with a certain relief from the anxieties of the cultural upheavals of the '60s and '70s, has tended to curb religiously inspired political zeal. "The worst fault of evangelicals in terms of politics over the last 30 years has been an incredible naiveté about politics and politicians and parties," says Mohler. "They invested far too much hope in a political solution to what are transpolitical issues and problems. If we were in a situation that were more European, where the parties differed mostly on traditional political issues rather than moral ones, or if there were more parties, then we would probably have a very different picture. But when abortion and a moral understanding of the human good became associated with one party, Christians had few options politically."

When that party failed to deliver—and it did fail—some in the movement responded by retreating into radicalism, convinced of the wickedness and venality of the political universe that dealt them defeat after defeat. (The same thing happened to many liberals after 1968: infuriated by the conservative mood of the country, the left reacted angrily and moved ever leftward.)

The columnist Cal Thomas was an early figure in the Moral Majority who came to see the Christian American movement as fatally flawed in theological terms. "No country can be truly 'Christian'," Thomas says. "Only people can. God is above all nations, and, in fact, Isaiah says that 'All nations are to him a drop in the bucket and less than nothing'." Thinking back across the decades, Thomas recalls the hope—and the failure. "We were going through organizing like-minded people to 'return' America to a time of greater morality. Of course, this was to be done through politicians who had a difficult time imposing morality on themselves!"

Experience shows that religious authorities can themselves be corrupted by proximity to political power. A quarter century ago, three scholars who are also evangelical Christians—Mark A. Noll, Nathan O. Hatch and George M. Marsden—published an important but too-little-known book, "The Search for Christian America." In it they argued that Christianity's claims transcend any political order. Christians, they wrote, "should not have illusions about the nature of human governments. Ultimately they belong to what Augustine calls 'the city of the world,' in which self-interest rules … all governments can be brutal killers."

Their view tracks with that of the Psalmist, who said, "Put not thy trust in princes," and there is much New Testament evidence to support a vision of faith and politics in which the church is truest to its core mission when it is the farthest from the entanglements of power. The Jesus of the Gospels resolutely refuses to use the means of this world—either the clash of arms or the passions of politics—to further his ends. After the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the dazzled throng thought they had found their earthly messiah. "When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone." When one of his followers slices off the ear of one of the arresting party in Gethsemane, Jesus says, "Put up thy sword." Later, before Pilate, he says, "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight." The preponderance of lessons from the Gospels and from the rest of the New Testament suggests that earthly power is transitory and corrupting, and that the followers of Jesus should be more attentive to matters spiritual than political.

As always with the Bible, however, there are passages that complicate the picture. The author of Hebrews says believers are "strangers and exiles on the earth" and that "For here we have no lasting city, but seek the city which is to come." In Romans the apostle Paul advises: "Do not be conformed to this world." The Second Vatican Council cited these words of Pius XII: the Catholic Church's "divine Founder, Jesus Christ, has not given it any mandate or fixed any end of the cultural order. The goal which Christ assigns to it is strictly religious … The Church can never lose sight of the strictly religious, supernatural goal."

As an archbishop of Canterbury once said, though, it is a mistake to think that God is chiefly or even largely concerned with religion. "I hate the sound of your solemn assemblies," the Lord says in Amos. Religion is not only about worshipping your God but about doing godly things, and a central message of the Gospels is the duty of the Christian to transform, as best one can, reality through works of love. "Being in the world and not of it remains our charge," says Mohler. "The church is an eternal presence in a fallen, temporal world—but we are to have influence. The Sermon on the Mount is about what we are to do—but it does not come with a political handbook."

How to balance concern for the garden of the church with the moral imperatives to make gentle the life of the world is one of the most perplexing questions facing the church. "We have important obligations to do whatever we can, including through the use of political means, to help our neighbors—promoting just laws, good order, peace, education and opportunity," wrote Noll, Hatch and Marsden. "Nonetheless we should recognize that as we work for the relatively better in 'the city of the world,' our successes will be just that—relative. In the last analysis the church declares that the solutions offered by the nations of the world are always transitory solutions, themselves in need of reform."

Back in Louisville, preparing for Easter, Al Mohler keeps vigil over the culture. Last week he posted a column titled "Does Your Pastor Believe in God?," one on abortion and assisted suicide and another on the coming wave of pastors. "Jesus Christ promised that the very gates of Hell would not prevail against his church," Mohler wrote. "This new generation of young pastors intends to push back against hell in bold and visionary ministry. Expect to see the sparks fly." On the telephone with me, he added: "What we are seeing now is the evidence of a pattern that began a very long time ago of intellectual and cultural and political changes in thought and mind. The conditions have changed. Hard to pinpoint where, but whatever came after the Enlightenment was going to be very different than what came before." And what comes next here, with the ranks of professing Christians in decline, is going to be different, too.

Read more about NEWSWEEK's poll on religion in America here .

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