Christopher shares a report from his church's VBS.
In it, he shares some observations:
I began a reply (not only to Christopher, but to the commenters in reply) there at his site, but since it included content that would be interesting to some of our own folks, I moved the reply over here...
Really, if you don't like the theme of a given year...well, it is what it is and that's not much one can do about that. I suppose you just hope for a better theme the following year. I thought this year's theme (sports) was a good one because it appeals to both boys and girls and it is active.
I suppose in the name of transparency, I need to acknowledge that I am married to a Lifeway curriculum writer. She is a freelance writer, hired to write curriculum (as compared to being on staff). She has written Sunday school curriculum, VBS curriculum, conferences and Bible studies for Lifeway.
Rather than this revealing a bias, these details allow me to provide insight into the process of curriculum development. I would submit to you that Lifeway goes to extraordinary lengths to first address that the biblical foundations are taught in age-appropriate ways. Then, they strive to make the material appealing. While I am no official spokesperson (or even unofficial), I can give the anecdotal evidence of that these twin emphases are continually honored. We have eaten more than one meal in the living room because every table in our home is covered with open Bibles, curriculum maps, planning charts, and learning center activity prototypes.
Lifeway also goes the further degree of creating curriculum that appeals to every learning style, reinforcing each lesson through its multiple learning centers. I cannot vouch that Lifeway is the only child's curriculum to offer this, but I can affirm that they do all they can to make sure your child learns the truth of God's word, whether he is an auditory learner, or she is a kinesthetic learner.
There are two typical complaints of all curriculum (regardless of designer, or of intended audience).
The first complaint is that it is too simple. The idea is that every student in your class is a superdeep theologian and requires a study that would challenge a gathering of Spurgeon, Calvin, John the Revelator, and that guy in your class who studied Greek on line for three weeks last autumn. To those who feel this way...you're missing the point of Sunday school. The reason Sunday school is offered is for anyone to come in at anytime and hear a lesson that will connect their needs with God's solutions.
For teachers of children who think the kids' curriculum is too simple (or lame, or whatever...these are all different stripes of the same gripes). The reality is that many of the ideas are excellent, but are only limited by the preparation and devotion of the teacher. Sure, there are some duds (and I think most good curriculum designers are honest enough to confess when an idea doesn't translate as well as it looked on paper)...but that's why each week offers a cafeteria of options. The bottom line, though, is that kids are more graceful than adults. If you show up each week and love them and smile and tell them God loves them, you can have fun and make a game out of some pretty mundane activities, and the kids will bend mom & dad's ear all the way home about how they want to throw milk cap rings into an empty egg carton because they did it in Sunday school and learned about the ten commandments.
The second gripe is that the curriculum is too complex (or hard). Just remember that the only curriculum you can use that you cannot complain about is curriculum that you design yourself (and be ready for the unflattering gripes of your people when that happens...and now you, with no one to blame it on!). The idea behind any curriculum is that it is a skeleton, for you to pack meat on. Or maybe more gracefully said, curriculum is a framework, but you get to choose how to accessorize. When a curriculum gives you more than you can use, prepare for as much as you can, and use only where the Spirit leads when you present it. It is better to be have twenty minutes of unused content than twenty minutes of unused Sunday school.
The same axiom applies as before...a lesson is only as good as the teacher. And with this, remember that the real curriculum you use is the Bible. Whether it is Lifeway, or David C Cook, or Navigators, or Smith & Helwys, or whatever, published curriculum is intended to augment the Bible, not the other way around. Also put into employ a varied set of commentaries, a Bible dictionary, a concordance, and multiple translations of the Scriptures. More than anything, though, put in humility, prayer, passion for God, and a love for the people you are teaching...
...If you do this, you'll find that curriculum problems are not nearly as big of a deal as most would make them out to be.
August 5, 2007 10:03 AM | TrackBack