The Bible and Benjamin Bloom

            Benjamin Bloom was an educational psychologist who led a team that classified a hierarchy of thinking skills that is referred to as Bloom’s Taxonomy.  This “ladder” of thinking skills is drilled into teachers during their basic training courses. 

            The taxonomy of skills really does make sense.  The lowest level is knowledge; can you remember the facts?  The next level is comprehension; do you understand what the facts mean?  The third level up is application; can you apply what you know and understand?  There are three more levels that deal with analyzing, evaluating and creating.  Teachers are always encouraged to present lessons that push students into the higher levels of thinking.  A lesson that merely asks students to regurgitate a set of facts has not pushed kids into higher levels of thinking.

            When my children were very little, our church was just beginning the Awana program.  Awana is a children’s program that demands huge amounts of Bible memorization from the kids.  I can remember several parents in the church questioning the value of having kids memorize so much scripture that the kids themselves did not even understand.  Anyone listening to the kids say their verses each week knew the kids were just rattling back a lot of rote memorization.

            I knew there was value to having the kids memorize the verses, even if they did not always understand them; but it wasn’t until I began formally teaching that I could get my head around what was going on.

            In church today, the message was from II Timothy 3.  Within that passage Paul tells Timothy, “. . .from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation” (II Timothy 3:15).  I was struck again by the description of Timothy being taught scripture by his mother and grandmother that he probably didn’t fully understand, but that later gave him wisdom and led him to salvation.  There it is!  Bloom’s taxonomy – knowledge > understanding >application.

            Many skills start with basic rote memorization.  The greatest mathematician might have first learned his numbers as his mother counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 on her toes.  Before any of us learned to read, we were probably saying or singing the alphabet (remember the elameno pea?).  Even a great chemist was probably once shown a simple drawing of one proton, one neutron, a circling electron, and was told to memorize it because that was a Hydrogen atom. 

            So the next time you hear someone bashing rote memorization, remember - everything has to start somewhere.  And a lot of things start with just memorizing the facts in front of you.    

The Gift of Work

John 3:27 – A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from Heaven.

            I’m in the full swing of the school year now.  One way I know things are chugging along is that the first mid-9 weeks progress reports were due last week already.  One-eighth of the school year is over!  Another way I know things are moving along is that I can already clearly see the challenges that are in front of me for the year.

            If I’m tired or taking the “glass half empty” approach, I begin to think about Clarice who has done no homework and has already been absent four days.  Or I’m wondering about Roberto and how he’s lying to his parents about his work, and will only look back at you with a dark, glum smolder if you try to talk to him about it.  Naomi failed her first test even though it was modified and she was given a study guide for it that had every single item on it.  These are not new or unique problems.  They’re the typical challenges I face every year.  Every. Single. Year.  And sometimes around this time I’ll have a day when it all seems so wearisome.  Nothing new.  Just the same challenges again and again.

            Why can’t I have a year with some miracles?  On TV and in the movies, there is always a dramatic turnaround.  The teacher gets through to the student.  They see the light.  Two years later they are taking AP classes and the teacher is writing a book or teaching seminars on how it’s done.  But it doesn’t happen that way for most teachers.  It’s a day to day working of what they know is right.  Coaxing, cajoling, encouraging, scolding, praising, and reminding.  Sure five years later you see a difference.  But day to day it sometimes feel like laying the same rails and driving the same spikes over and over again.

            But I was reminded in church today that whatever we have is a gift from God.  My family, my job, my home, my health, my ability to quickly notice problems, that (pesky) ability to project many possible consequences, my experience to know which solutions will probably work best – these are all gifts from God.  Even the way my mind works – gift from God.  Work, and the weariness that it sometimes brings is a gift from God.  It gives me an opportunity to see God’s lovingkindness in the morning when I know He’ll be with me going into the day.  It’s a gift because it helps me see His faithfulness when I lay my head down at night after a long day.

            Maybe it was after a long week of work the psalmist wrote:

            It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High; to declare Thy lovingkindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness by night – Psalm 92:1-2

            So this coming week, my thanks go to Annie Johnson Flint for reminding me that when it comes to God’s grace,

                        He giveth,

                                                And giveth,

                                                                        And giveth again.

           

The Word

            My Sunday School class is starting a study in the book of John.  The Gospel of John begins by describing Christ as “the Word.”  It’s fascinating how a scripture that I’ve known since I was 5 years old can suddenly have new meaning for me after so many years.

            As a child I remember memorizing the different names for Christ, and “the Word” was one more name.  Why would John emphasize Christ as “the Word?” 

            When I first began teaching students with special needs I secretly thought that if they couldn’t produce the words for an essay test, it was most likely they didn’t study for it.  The students would swear up and down that they had studied and they knew what the teacher was talking about – they just couldn’t remember the words.  I would smile and tell them we would work harder with the study guide next time.  Inside I could not fathom someone knowing something and not having the words to describe it.  If you knew it, you knew the words.

            Then middle age hit!  Suddenly I’d be talking with someone, describing something very important to me, and suddenly I couldn’t pull up a word I wanted.  Sometimes I even know the letter it starts with, but can’t think of the word.  This malady started with people’s names, but has now spread out to any word.  Everyone I know my age is fighting this new ailment.  We have the thoughts.  I can even picture them in my head.  But for the life of me, sometimes I can’t remember the word I want. 

            The condition is called aphasia, and it doesn’t just happen to old people.  The daughter of a dear friend of mine developed AVI - arteriovenous malformation.  In a nutshell it’s when blood vessels in your brain go crazy and grow all sorts of extra clusters between veins and arteries.  Doctors must first “glue off” the extra vessels and then remove them in surgery.  During the treatment for Katherine, the “glue” got loose and cut off a part of the brain it wasn’t supposed to.  It left her with aphasia – an inability to call up words for communication.  Katherine is still there.  She has all the thoughts and feelings we have, and she works hard to communicate them – but without words.

            So what?  Katherine’s husband and parents know what she is communicating.  My students insist they know the material.  What does it matter if we can’t pull the words up? 

            It does matter if we are going to clearly communicate to someone else.  Katherine can communicate, but she would be the first to tell you how hard it is, and how much people who are not close to her are missing.  Words are what we have.  We can’t be Mr. Spock and place our hands on someone else’s head and telecommunicate the idea to them.  Words are the way we communicate.

            I am still amazed when I teach early reading, how complex the human brain is and how we truly must be “wired” for words.  Kids learn to read so quickly.  Because I work with students who often have learning disabilities, I must break down the process of teaching reading into all its smaller parts to figure out what part of “reading” is not clicking for a student.   As you are reading this entry, your brain is carrying out a process where it is simultaneously doing an astonishing number of things.  And that brain process is something a 4 or 5 year old’s brain can figure out sometimes with no formal training.  These children put the process together sitting in their mom’s lap, watching and listening to an ABC book being read.  Our brains really are wired for words.

            Why did John, Jesus’ closest friend on earth, refer to Christ as the Word?  Christ communicates to us who God is in a way we can understand.  Jesus is God’s word to us about everything God wants us to know of Him.

            “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  John 1:14