This cluster of questions focuses on ways that past experiences shape learning.

There are so many ways in which history shapes learning, that it’s hard for me to know where to begin. Particularly in a course as short as this, I’ll have to rely in large measure on the knowledge you bring into the “room.” But think even in basic terms about what history is: the series of past events that lead up to the one you’re currently in the middle of.

Your own experience of this class, for instance, was likely shaped by your previous experiences with religious education. Maybe you were a kid who LOVED Sunday school. If so, you probably come to this class eager for ideas about how to help other kids have similarly engaging experiences. Or perhaps you’re someone who learns best through memorization. The past memory work you’ve done will shape what you can take from this class.

If we had the time, I would have invited you to read Mary Boys’ book Educating in Faith: Maps and Visions, or the Van Engen edited collection of social history around religious education. These are wonderful texts which tell some of the stories of religious education over the years. Such history shapes current learning for good – and ill.

The questions your group needs to ask as you engage this week’s focus situation stem from digging into the history of the situation. What can you glean about prior events, practices, meanings that have shaped what is occurring in the situation?

1. First you need to ask: what are the stories of the individuals present? What are the stories of the church or churches? Do these stories conflict in any way? What other history seems to be connected or informative in this context? (thinking about race in church, for instance, inevitably involves thinking about race in larger US settings, too)
2. Next you should ask what learning emerges from this history. Is it helpful for religious identity, or are there some elements of that learning that an educational leader would want to challenge and shape in a different direction?
3. Next, take Mary Boys’ grid and see if you can figure out some basic answers to her questions, using the focus situation as the raw data.
4. Next, search out at least five resources that offer useful materials that relate in some way to the learning challenges of this focus situation. You can find such materials in the assigned books for this class. You can look for additional resources online. You can ask your trusted colleagues and church mentors for ideas. You can go to a resource center for ideas. The point is to find and share with your colleagues additional resources that would assist in leading learning around this focus situation.
5. Perhaps the recent history of the situation suggests a lot of previous conflict. There are multiple resources available online for leading through conflict. Or perhaps the challenge is how to help people gain an identity as Lutheran (or Presbyterian, or Baptist, etc.). There are lots of resources available for sharing stories of Lutherans (Presbyterians, Baptists, etc.) from various centuries, and helping people to “imagine themselves” into such identity from hearing other people’s stories.
6. As the “next to last” question, consider how history practices emerge in relation to this week’s “Greek learning” term. In other words, in relation to either koinonia, didache, kerygma, leiturgia, and diakonia. (You can find these words explained more fully in the Maria Harris text which is required for this class.)
7. Finally, compose a summary of your deliberation and post it to the course blog for this week’s focus situation.

Possible resource sites include your denominational sites, the Christian educators of the 20th century history database, and the Congregational resources database