The Global Schoolhouse: Cultivating Inquiry Across the Curriculum

​May 24, 2008

Guest Article by David Balik

The voices of religious minority groups in America are getting louder. The needs of impoverished and war-torn people in many countries are increasing, not decreasing. Pressing in as well are the moral dimensions of conducting business globally, the ethics of medical research and eradication of disease, and the need for relevance in effective communication across cultures. Worldwide, and in our own communities, as some boundaries and walls come down, others go up.

How do we prepare our students to understand and engage people, cultures, and contexts? How do we address the diverse voices of the interfaith world? What do we mean when we tell our students that Christianity is unique and true? To teach and learn authentically as Christians in today’s world, we must not fear the hard questions that lead to critical inquiry but persistently ask them and seek answers.

With these convictions in mind, I attended Lexington Christian Academy’s third biennial “Global Schoolhouse Conference: Cultivating Inquiry Across the Curriculum” on April 10 and 11, 2008.

I found this forum immensely interesting and challenging at the same time. Like a good workout, there was an intensity in the presentations and subsequent discussions that stretched my own thinking: How do we prepare our students for the world they will live in?

In his keynote address on Friday morning, Michael Evans (Assistant Director of Urban School Services at ACSI) spoke on “Equipping Leaders.” His fascinating and engaging lecture focused on the importance of the following conviction:

Christian schools must become more than safe havens in which children learn and relate to one another. They must become places of preparation to launch leaders into the world, prepared to advance the Kingdom of God in multiple arenas.

In other words, Evans contends that someone will be the next Oprah Winfrey twenty years from now, and someone will be the next President forty years from now. The larger question is: Who will lead in the future, and with what agenda?

In order that our students stand a fighting chance in an ever-darkening world, Evans suggests four key areas where serious questions must be asked and answered.

1. Academic Questions

Are we training the minds of our students (and teachers, for that matter) to think deeply, widely, openly, and with great strength? Thinking is not for the faint of heart. My own children will complain from time to time that the teaching they are exposed to is designed to “program” them rather than challenge their minds. How revealing. Are our students mere passive recipients of a dearth of content and information that we ask them to recite back to us, or are we engaging them in such a way that creates a genuine environment of analysis, careful evaluation, systematic verification, and critical thought?

When Paul wrote, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27), he had to have in mind growth and development that went far beyond the “mile wide and an inch deep” approach so many Christian schools are guilty of today.

2. Biblical Questions

As we train the mind to think deeply, widely, openly, and with great strength, are we creating an environment in our schools where truly hard questions can be asked? Are we cultivating spiritual inquiry that leads our students to ask: “God, what is your heart? What is your plan for your heart to be realized in our world?”

That we as Christian school educators would emphasize more the fact that our Lord is looking for a life of faith and faithfulness, not just facts and figures. What does the Lord require of us? To act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with him (Micah 6:8).

In his lecture entitled “Science and Faith,” Dr. Gordon Hugenberger (Ph.D., College of St. Paul and St. Mary and the Oxford Centre for Post-Graduate Hebrew Study) focused our attention on seven common misunderstandings that have caused unnecessary conflicts with science. A few examples: the Bible does not require a small universe or a young earth. In addition, Hugenberger went into considerable detail in support of his belief that the Bible does not prohibit plant or animal death before the Fall, and that it is likely the seven-day framework of creation does not refer to a literal earthly week composed of seven twenty-four-hour solar days but refers instead to a heavenly week.

The fact that there are nine major views of creation held by evangelicals today raises the question: Are we truly engaging our students to consider other thoughtful and largely respected views as they relate to faith and learning?

3. Cultural Questions

As we look to instill in our students a sense of other-centeredness, how do we do so in a way that produces authentic compassion and mercy rather than pity or an “I feel good because I did something” response? This call to consider God’s perspective on social justice and his world should cause our students to ask: What do I really know about the world around me? What are God’s concerns as they relate to “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40)? What opportunities has he created, and how can I play a meaningful role in them? We must recognize and hold a Christian worldview that promotes active engagement in our culture, not isolationism. May we celebrate the diversity as well as the interconnectedness that we share in this world, while at the same time encouraging and modeling for our students compassion and thoughtful action that leads to long-term, life-changing impact.

4. Leadership Questions

Rather than majoring in “pre-wealth” like many young people heading to college these days, how can we challenge our students to understand what they will need to value once they go off to university? What will they need to be prepared to defend? To explain? Will we truly and adequately have prepared them to lead in positions of influence where godly leadership is most needed? To do so requires a Christian education that produces intelligent young people with a moral compass who are strategic and intentional in their Kingdom activities. Can we do it? Of course. But it will require breaking away from the traditional sage-on-the-stage, I-talk-you-listen-and-take-notes model that characterizes so many of our classrooms today.

In conclusion, I find it somewhat ironic that I left Boston last week with more questions than when I arrived. Perhaps that was the point. However, as I continue to study and consider what it means to teach and think Christianly, I am thankful for the privilege of being part of the conversation as we as Christian leaders move our schools toward greater depths of inquiry and, as a result, meaningful change to the glory of God.