Podcast appearances and mentions of David I Smith

This week's guest will be well known to many of you if you've been thinking about christian education for a while. At CEN's ITEC conference last month I got to sit down with one of our keynote speakers, David I Smith. David is a Professor of Education at Calvin University; Director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning, and is an internationally recognised voice on Christian education as an author and speaker. He's probably best known for his 2018 book, “On Christian Teaching.”He's known for his intentionally practical approach, so in this discussion I really wanted to look under the hood, to hear what theology drives his thinking and approach in general, which was fun! We talk through his main theological sources, we discuss power and how we might understand hospitality theologically, a key theme of his writing.

In this episode we begin with a check-in about our favorite fashion choices from our high school days that we kind of wish would come around again. (You might be surprised…or maybe not at all!) From that silliness, we take a hard turn into a very serious topic–power in the classroom. Dave set the stage by sharing a quote from a book that got him thinking about the nature of power, how teachers use their power, and the way students respond. We think through our own growth as teachers and how we needed to assert power at some points in our teaching experiences. This got us talking about the way we grow as teachers throughout our careers, the difference between “power” and “authority,” and even how teachers can share power with students without diminishing their authority. We hope this episode will help you reflect on the power held by teachers, and ways to use your authority appropriately in light of your office as Christian educator. Dave brought up the book On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom by David I. Smith. We urge you to read this book if you haven't already: https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Teaching-Practicing-Faith-Classroom/dp/080287360X/  Abby brought up the book Hacking School Discipline by Nathan Maynard and Brad Weinstein. You can learn more here: https://www.amazon.com/Hacking-School-Discipline-Responsibility-Restorative/dp/1948212137  Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/

Perry Glanzer and David I. Smith discuss what excellence means for Christian schools.

Why might someone who's not religious want to send their kids to a faith-based school? --- “Teachers are one of the few groups of people in society who can tell other people what to do in their discretionary time and – by and large – they obey.”  Education is among our core activities as a society – so it's unsurprising that it can be a battleground for all sorts of ideas.  David I. Smith is Professor of Education at Calvin University, and he has spent decades thinking about how education really forms people. He says that there's no such thing as a “vanilla” or “neutral” education – and that even a maths or a French textbook will imply a whole way of seeing the world and other people.  “We spent a lot of time learning how to say in French and German, ‘This is my name. This is my favourite food. I like this music. I don't like biology. This is what I did last weekend. I would like two train tickets to Hamburg. I would like the steak and fries. I would like a hotel room for two nights.' So the implicit message of the textbooks was that the reason why we learn other people's languages is so that we can obtain the goods and services that we deserve and so that we can tell people about ourselves … It's not really imagining us as people who listen to other people's stories or as people who care about the members of the culture we're visiting who don't work in hotels, or as people who might want to talk about the meaning of life and not just the price of a hamburger.” Given that about a third of Australian schools are religious, and that faith-based education is the subject of nervousness on both the left and right of politics these days, it's worth asking: why do parents who aren't religious want to send their kids to Christian schools? What's the content of a “Christian” education? And what happens when religious schools get it wrong?

David I. Smith discusses the Civic Hospitality Project (civichospitality.com) with Micah Watson, executive director for the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin University.

This week, Dave brought a quote from David Smith's book, On Christian Teaching and closed with the question, “What really matters when we are teaching?” We spend some time thinking through the wide range of things that happen simultaneously when we are teaching, and how we can focus on the things that really matter amidst all of the complexity in what happens in the classroom. As Matt says it, “How can we make sure that we are actually on about the things we say we are on about?” We highly recommend you read David I. Smith's  book On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom - Amazon link

This episode is part two of two segments of a podcast co-published with Cultivating [ spaces ] (Lexington Christian Academy, https://lca.edu/cultivating/). Jean Noh (Lexington Christian Academy), Dorothy Vaandering (Memorial University of Newfoundland), and David I. Smith (Calvin University) discuss their own paths to Christian education, the changing circumstances and practices of education, and what it means to "do well in school."

This episode is part one of two segments of a podcast co-published with Cultivating [ spaces ] (Lexington Christian Academy, https://lca.edu/cultivating/). Jean Noh (Lexington Christian Academy), Dorothy Vaandering (Memorial University of Newfoundland), and David I. Smith (Calvin University) discuss their own paths to Christian education, the changing circumstances and practices of education, and what it means to "do well in school." Part two will be available in late September.

Signe Sandsmark (Worldview-Neutral Education: Is it Possible or Desirable?) and David I. Smith discuss the concept of worldview neutral education and he recent research on why parents choose Christian schools for their children in the Norwegian context.

David I. Smith and John Witvliet discuss a faculty development workshop in which they explored what John Calvin's commentary on Psalm 19 contributes to modern pedagogy.

David I. Smith talks with Albert Cheng (University of Arkansas) on whether and how schools can assess faith formation in their students.

(Note: Recorded in 2019) David I. Smith talks with Natasha Moore of the Centre for Public Christianity (https://www.publicchristianity.org/) about engaging with perceptions and misperceptions of Christians and Christianity.

David I. Smith interviews Marj Terpstra, Professor of Education at Calvin University, about the new book Digital Life Together (Eerdmans).

Why might someone who’s not religious want to send their kids to a faith-based school?  --- “Teachers are one of the few groups of people in society who can tell other people what to do in their discretionary time and - by and large - they obey.”  Education is among our core activities as a society - so it’s unsurprising that it can be a battleground for all sorts of ideas.  David I. Smith is Professor of Education at Calvin University, and he has spent decades thinking about how education really forms people. He says that there’s no such thing as a “vanilla” or “neutral” education - and that even a maths or a French textbook will imply a whole way of seeing the world and other people.  “We spent a lot of time learning how to say in French and German, ‘This is my name. This is my favourite food. I like this music. I don’t like biology. This is what I did last weekend. I would like two train tickets to Hamburg. I would like the steak and fries. I would like a hotel room for two nights.’ So the implicit message of the textbooks was that the reason why we learn other people’s languages is so that we can obtain the goods and services that we deserve and so that we can tell people about ourselves … It’s not really imagining us as people who listen to other people’s stories or as people who care about the members of the culture we’re visiting who don’t work in hotels, or as people who might want to talk about the meaning of life and not just the price of a hamburger.”  Given that about a third of Australian schools are religious, and that faith-based education is the subject of nervousness on both the left and right of politics these days, it’s worth asking: why do parents who aren’t religious want to send their kids to Christian schools? What’s the content of a “Christian” education? And what happens when religious schools get it wrong?  --- SUBSCRIBE to Life & Faith on Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/cpxpodcast OR on Spotify: http://cpx.video/spotify FIND US on Facebook: www.facebook.com/publicchristianity FOLLOW US on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cpx_tweet VISIT our website: www.publicchristianity.org    

'Not Many of You Should Become Teachers,' is a podcast that explores the world of K-12 education as it intersects with Christian faith. In this episode, we introduce ourselves and explain our reasons for engaging this conversation. We chat about David I. Smith, Neil Postman, and how we learn to teach in a Christian educational culture. Music by Josh Woodward (www.joshwoodward.com)

Professor ved Calvin College, David I. Smith, har jobbet forsket på det å formidle sin kristne tro i arbeid som lærer. Her taler han på møte i Salem Ung lørdag 5. november 2011.