catapult magazine

I’m working on a *cino-related project with people who are interested in the possibility of designing a school or institute for Christians in the arts. As we’ve been talking with other artists in New York, The Northwest and here in Chicago, we’re starting to realize that our project involves some new or uncommon ideas about pedagogy. It would seem logical to give Christian artists more classes on what it means to be a Christian artist in the history of art. But what Christian artists need is not more theory about Christian art, but practice in Christian art-making.

But maybe artists are not the only ones who need this. Maybe we wouldn’t have such a gap between “artists” and other people if our education system included more of the types of learning and discovery that artists rely on for their craft. As I’m thinking about my own education and why school was both exciting and frustrating, I think it might have to do with the fact that our education system deals too much in theory and not enough in gymnasium type learning. Even the practices that are supposed to evaluate our learning (writing papers, taking tests) are theory-based in our school system. So then you get people coming out of college who don’t know how to balance a budget or start their own business or live out their Christian theories outside of a Christian college. I understand that some of these things just have to be learned after college, but I wonder if schools are actually preparing people to learn these things properly. Most schools tend to move people toward a certain well-defined professional field but do not have enough focus on teaching the stamina and faith that is necessary for pursuing a dream (which sometimes has no precedent in the current economic system) past its ten failures all the way to ultimate success. This process of going after something invisible is something artists have learned to do, but I would think it’s important for others to learn this process already in schools too. What are some projects or characteristics of our current school system that do teach people this “artistic” way of living?

As an English teacher in a high school I see a big difference between subjectivity and objectivity. It is much easier to grade a research paper than a creative writing assignment. To be depressingly honest, it is much easier to adhere to status quo education—lecture, essay. I’ve been trying hard in the past two years to give my students more thought assignments and more creative projects to assess learning and to teach them creativity even through the assessment process, but it’s slow going for both myself and my students who are not used to this method of instruction.
They do enjoy it though.

i just want to give a hearty “amen” to grant’s second paragraph; i have nothing more substantive to add at this time.

I saw a guy on tv several months ago who claims to “teach passion”. What a great way to while away one’s days on earth! From a layperson’s standpoint, the guy is teaching body movement to high school students but when he was interviewed he said he’s really teaching the students how to be passionate about what they do, no matter what it is. He said this is probably the most important lesson they can learn because it is central to many of the things we do in life. Unfortunately the piece was too short to get into HOW this guy does it and I didn’t catch his name or organization. But the possibility of teaching passion (and most of the students attested to the success of his teaching) is real—Praise the Lord!

O.K., so how do you try to teach passion in the classroom? Teachers? What are some practical ways to fight apathy? Because it’s becoming more clear to me that this is what Christian colleges don’t always do so well, though they certainly try. Is it too late by the time you get to college? Maybe the fact that students are in a classroom is the first and greatest obstacle to learning passion.

I didn’t understand passion until I got to college. I was too busy in high school to relax and think and understand the concept of passion. I don’t think it’s too late to learn passion by the time students get to college. I don’t think most high schoolers are mature enough to understand the concept apart from lust. For four years I taught the two concepts of Passion and Sensuality the first day of school in all my classes. Tests were referenced back to them. Discussions were hinged on them, but I wasn’t seeing a true understanding in my students whether freshmen or seniors. There were a few exceptions, but not enough to warrant continuing given my frustration and the misunderstanding by some students and parents.
Oh well. I’ve stopped teaching the concept of Passion directly and now try to go at it more sneakily. I think that’s working better. Oh the things to learn being a Christian teaching in the public school system (even though it is just Cedar Grove—a lesser Holland, MI or Sioux Center, IA),

grant,
I taught 7th grade math for about a year and was frustrated that my students didn’t get as excited as I did about the topics I was presenting. Part of that may have been that I was really more passionate about Shakespeare than Pythagorus and part of it may have been that my students were 7th graders who can only really be expected to get passionate about Sponge Bob and Justin Timberlake (although I’m not sure the difference).

But I did do student teaching with first graders and those kids were passionate about learning. I don’t know exactly why because I was only with them for a few weeks, but I do know that the education system and teachers and the world must do something to them between 1st and 7th grade to have such a dislike and distrust in school. Or may be it’s just part of getting older and certainly it’s not all of them who are so dissaffected, but it certainly seemed like the majority.

I like your thought about the classroom itself stifling passion. I think there are people who love having discussions and learn best discussing things and the classroom is one place where we learn to do that. I am one of those people, but I would much rather be having the discussion over a cup of coffee than in a classroom as long as there is the same diversity of views as in the classroom. But I also think that there are many people who would rather be doing in their learning than theorizing or philosophisizing. And sometimes the classroom does not provide the avenues for doing as an open field or an art studio or whatever.

What evokes passion? That is a question that has individual answers. I remember learning in my classes about learner-centric learning, which allows the individual to find their own way to the information/application and the teacher acts as a guide. Which sounds great, but the trouble came for me when I had 167 individuals and I had no idea how I could guide all of them at the same time. But it would probably work better with fewer students who are at least showing up to class because at some level they want to (ie college).

Certainly more application of theory reinforces the theory and is more interesting and more likely to encourage passion. And art lends itself nicely to application. But allowing students to practice “Christian art-making” begs the question, what is “Christian art-making?” Wouldn’t Francis Schaeffer say that all art reflects the divine because we are His creation, created in His image?

David

What’s passion?

I ask because everyone here seems to agree that passion is good, but I’m not sure what you mean by passion.

I’d like to hear what you all mean by passion as well.

With respect to the original question, I’m currently living in the tension between theory and practice. I’m about to graduate seminary and will go into the wild world of gospel ministry, Lord willing. Now I’m wondering…was it all theory?

It wasn’t supposed to be. The seminary I attend requires 750 hours of pastoral internship hours across ten areas of practical experience. Yet, the “theory” part of my education seemed disjointed to the practical part. A solution to this problem is hard to imagine. My dad is a pastor and he recommends a postgrad two year internship. Aspiring doctors have to have an internship to learn the art of medicine; why not require an internship for soul physicians? An internship is one way I’ve experienced theory and practice combined, but it wasn’t under the same educational body. Does it need to be?

One class offered another solution that I really appreciated. It was my Psalms and Wisdom class. Whether it was because of the subject or the conscientious intent of my professor, I don’t know. He really tried to train us up in faith and in wisdom. He aimed to shape our character as well as our minds. He would lecture and then ask, “Now if this is true, does it mean…?” He wouldn’t answer the question. He’d move on, while we were struggling. In conversations he says his intent is not to give a fish but to teach to fish, so to speak. He wouldn’t tell us the answer, but guide us along well enough that we could develop the significance (for faith and life) on our own. It was really effective!

Now if only I had time to think through all those questions, for now, I translate Hebrew!

Good point about needing to know what passion is. But I think it is something that cannot be grasped intellectually. It is very much in the realm of experience and emotion. I think passion is something that grows when you’re on the way to some goal and is therefore hard to nail down definitively unless you’ve experienced that on-the-way feeling. One of its old meanings, I believe, is “suffering” and we normally don’t consider suffering to be a good thing in our society. But in the case of Christ’s passion, it is a good suffering. So maybe that’s what passion is, good suffering.

When I think of passion, though, I’m thinking of ambition, of feeling very strongly about what one is doing, of wanting something very badly, of desire. Philosophy, which in many ways is the basis of our education system, is a desire for wisdom. In the early days of philosophy, the desires of the flesh (which included music) were called passions and were not considered as good as the philosopher’s desires. The philosopher was the one who modeled the good life. He was the one who could keep his desires in check and had the utmost self control (Socrates in The Symposium). I wonder now if something in our school system teaches children to keep their desires out of the classroom and this might have something to do with the apathy we see.