Conferences: Part 2

One of the most important reasons for the conferences in India is to help teachers understand what integration of faith and learning is and how that integration can and should be shown in many ways in the classroom.

What do we mean by “integration of faith and learning”? Many teachers think of the role of faith in the Christian school as being that important time when we pray together, have worship times together, and also when we study the Bible. Prayer, worship, and Bible study are important in the Christian school but that is not what we mean by integration of faith and learning.

Integrating faith and learning is more a matter of thinking through how, in a particular subject area and at different times of life, the perspectives of Christian belief help us to understand which things are true about the selected area of study and which things really matter. That integration helps us to understand how the calling to live a Christian life in the church and the world interact and influence each other.

In a very real sense a teacher does not have to “integrate” faith and learning because in God’s divine plan that integration has already taken place. It is the teacher’s task, however, to show students the ways in which biblical principles have already been integrated into every subject area and every area of life.

Showing this integration is done differently at each grade level and for each subject area. For that reason it is impossible for just one teachers’ conference to demonstrate how to do that sufficiently well. For example, we often use the Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration model to help students understand integration. But that model is used differently, depending on the age of the students. For younger students we demonstrate this integration by describing it to students. We expect and encourage older students to study the subject matter and to search the Bible to help them come to understand the integration for themselves and we walk beside them while they do so. Helping teachers understand what tasks are involved in walking beside students while they study this integration is an important part of the conferences.