The Sunday School bulletin board quietly announces “Joseph: A Life of Changes” but down the hall there is nothing quiet about what the elementary children are doing!
In the Drama Room, three kindergarteners are dressed like Egyptian royalty while others, dressed like nomads, stand waiting for their bags to be filled with grain (or is that sand?). In the Art Room, excited first graders stare intently as oil-based paint, in a variety of colors, is swirled by a teacher who is telling the story of Joseph and how, like the paint, Joseph’s life was constantly changing — all under the direction of God’s hand! Occasionally the teacher pauses to invite a child to lay a piece of paper on the paint and lift it gently so that everyone can marvel at the unique artwork with “oohs and ahhs.” In the Theater Room, third graders settle into their seats, popcorn in hand, to view a popular video that follows the life of Joseph. In the Game Room, a group of eager fourth graders are wildly ringing their buzzers as they “chime in” with their answers in a rousing game of “Jeopardy” where the questions (in the form of answers of course) all come from the biblical account of Joseph’s life. In another corner of the room stands a “Wheel of Fortune” board with this unit’s memory verse waiting to be revealed. In the Kitchen, creative fifth grade “cooks” are stirring together their “Twelve Tribe Trail Mix” as they begin to learn about Joseph’s family tree and the lineage it would foster. And in the Computer Room, sixth graders are navigating their way to Egypt using a computer game designed by one of the youth of the church.
Sound like a typical Sunday morning? This is certainly not your grandmother’s Sunday School, but for more than 8,000 churches in the U.S. and Canada, this is a “new generation” educational model that has brought excitement and energy back into their ministry with children! So when and where did this “new education model” begin and is it really “new”?
For much of the twentieth century, psychologists believed that intelligence could be objectively measured and expressed by a single number, or “IQ” score. In 1983, Howard Gardner, a Harvard psychologist, challenged us to think differently in his book, Frames of Mind, when he proposed the existence of at least seven basic intelligences. Offering a functional concept for educators, Gardner provided a means of mapping the broad range of abilities that humans possess by grouping their capabilities into comprehensive categories or “intelligences.”
Initially Gardner identified seven “intelligences”: Verbal-Linguistic (the capacity to use words effectively), Logical-Mathematical (the capacity to use numbers and to reason well), Visual-Spatial (the ability to perceive the world in 3-D and perform transformations based on those perceptions), Bodily-Kinesthetic (the expertise in using one’s whole body to express ideas and feelings), Musical-Rhythmic (the capacity to perceive and express musical forms), Interpersonal (the ability to understand others) and Intrapersonal (the ability to understand oneself). Later, Gardner added an eighth intelligence, Naturalist (the ability to be attuned to the natural world) and even discussed a ninth intelligence, Spiritual-Existential (the ability to see the “big picture and explore ones purpose and place in the world).
What Gardner’s revelations about how we receive and assimilate information did for the field of education (both secular and religious) was groundbreaking! With a broader understanding of how children learn, we could develop new strategies and explore a new world of possibilities in experiential learning.
In a time when Sunday School attendance was declining and churches were re-evaluating their educational ministry, many church educators found Gardner’s theory to be the catalyst for a much-needed change. In 1990, Neil MacQueen and Melissa Armstrong-Hansche, staff members at the Barrington Church in Illinois, created what became known as the Workshop Rotation Modelâ„¢ for Sunday School that ushered in a wave of creativity that has since swept across denominational and geographical lines. In a rotational learning setting, the same Bible story or theme is taught for several weeks. Each week, children rotate to a different “workshop” and experience the story through a different medium — drama, art, games, etc. The story stays the same, but the learning experiences vary to provide activities that touch each of the “intelligences” described by Gardner’s theory. Educators have always known that repetition is a key component for childhood learning, but this model of learning offers repetition in new and exciting ways.
Is this educational model new? Not exactly. Our mothers taught with “learning centers” and our grandmothers called it “experiential learning.” But what is new is the fresh approach to how we have designed our educational space and how we utilize the gifts of our volunteers. No longer do classrooms look like classrooms and teachers look like teachers. Today’s churches are transforming their traditional classrooms into computer labs, art rooms and theaters with stages, large screen TV’s and popcorn machines! Today’s workshop leaders (who teach the same lesson each week to a new group of students) are artists, dramatists, computer geeks, carpenters, and more who offer their gifts and abilities to children in new and exciting ways as they explore together the wonder-filled stories from God’s word.
Curriculum publishers have been slow to catch on with this new model and until recently, educators have relied on their own writing skills and those of design teams and networking to create the actual lesson plans. In 2005, PC(USA) announced a new curriculum, We Believe Workshop, as an offering for churches using rotational learning. We Believe Workshop, written by Presbyterian educators, offers Biblical Background, Theological Connections and Educational Emphases in each of the seven workshop lesson plans (drama/storytelling, art, computer, games/puzzles, audio-visual, music/ worship and a bonus workshop that varies with each unit).
No, the Sunday School classes for today’s children look nothing like your grandmother’s! They are full of excitement for learning proving once again that Presbyterian educators continue to be reformed and always reforming!
Krista Lovell is a Certified Christian Educator at Bellevue Church in Nashville, Tenn. She was a writer for the We Believe Workshop and is moderator of the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee.
