The Dock School Leader Podcast

Each person is hard-wired by their Creator to be creative. Creativity will look different in different people. Schools do not do so well with growing creativity. Mr. Brubaker gives suggestions for creating conditions that nurture creativity in school and minimizing the things that kill it.

"And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." But then Adam ate of the forbidden tree. Now man is depraved, the ground cursed, and sweat and toil the order of the day. Can excellence even be achieved? Is striving for it always a good thing?

The why of achievement tests: We maintain what we value, and we value what we understand. Let's see if we can better understand so we perceive the value of what we would like to maintain.

Sacrifice: This word sounds like deprivation, joyless asceticism, even like suffering. Certainly it does not sound like joy. But could it be that our instincts are wrong on this matter, that in a right-sideup world, joy and sacrifice are not mutually exclusive, but are actually blood brothers?

There is no doubt that teachers and schools have great potential for shaping students. But Gerald reminds us that the most powerful influence comes from the home. In this message, he examines several ways parents can shape their children, particularly their children's relationship with the school.

A school's culture accounts for much of the shaping power of education. Anthony Hurst discusses the board's attitude and responsibilities for the school's culture.

What is the difference between the ability to find information and the ability to recall what you have learned? More than rote memory, Linford recommends that schools work for mastery.

This moving recording was created by the Mennonite Central Committee Canada in 1996. Jonathan Erb received permission from MCC Canada to distribute it on the Dock. However, please note that the recording is still under copyright by MCC Canada.

From the description on the CommonWord website:

This performance, scripted and produced by Jack Dueck, comprises five main elements in interrelated dramatic function. Like a cantata - although it does not consist exclusively of song and music - the form is a setting for story to be told and sung but not acted.

* The reader represents the voice of Scripture and includes words, like those by Menno Simons, inspired by the biblical passages.

* The letters From Russia with Tears express the agony of suffering and of faith's testing toward a new spiritual formation - finding 'soul' even while all seems lost.

The songs and music provide a poetic and sound screen against which the letters, stories and scripture are played. The songs with their celebration of a comforting faith create painful irony, a horrific sense of total loss and heart cries for answers.

* The stories give a felt experience of a people caught in the Russian Communist Revolution's juggernaut of community destruction: the wrenching doubts, the cry for answers, the horror of experiencing a seeming silent God, the collapse of their material and immaterial world, are all played within, and even against, the other voices.

Download the album insert with lyrics and credits.

Inspiring teachers spark a response that initiates action. Listen to learn seven attitudes and actions that teachers should have and do to spark action in their students.

In the third of four sessions on the Anabaptist view of knowledge, Kyle points out the difference between what is called "knowledge" in the information age and the knowledge the Bible recommends. Real knowledge comes through real-life experiences.