Part One the Roots: by The Ever Joyful Education Major
Welcome to our blog! We are a couple of enthusiastic education majors at Nyack College. We are seeking to understand the relationship between faith and learning. When faith and learning are combined, this is called integration. Integration is a powerful force. The goal of integration is to achieve intrinsic intuition of correlations and connections between faith and academic pursuits.
We have chosen a tree to illustrate the integration of faith and learning. Each week we will explore a different part of the tree and how it applies to integration. Additionally, we will explore the lives of historical and contemporary integrative teachers. Integration is a way of life and so we will share stories of Christian educators and how they interact with students both in and out of the classroom. We are excited to be beginning this project and we thank you for reading along. We welcome any comments, ideas or personal testimonies. Thanks!
The Roots of Integration
According to the University of Florida, tree roots take up about three times the area of the branches. In other words, if the branches of a tree spread out to create a diameter of eight feet, there is action beneath the soil in a twenty four root diameter! What happens beneath the surface is important. Roots store and extract nutrients. They offer support so that the tree doesn’t just fall over. Healthy roots make a healthy tree. Conversely, if there is trouble in the roots, that can spell death to the whole tree. Roots are an integral source of life. If the tree is cut down but the root ball is unharmed, many times tree can regenerate itself. Thus we have the phrase “get to the root of the problem.” The only way to truly get rid of a tree is to get rid of its roots. This is true of many plants, from dandelions to fungi and mushrooms. What we can see above ground is only an indication of what is happening beneath the surface.
The roots represent our identity in Christ, where we have come from, and our heritage. Roots possess the essence of who we are. While the essence of who we are is beneath the surface, this should not be confused with privatizing or hiding who we truly are. Roots do not hide, they infuse. We draw upon the living water of Christ, gathering nutrients from the good soil we have cultivated in our hearts. As we constantly take in these nutrients, we slowly grow up in Christ and become mature, until we produce fruit. This fruit itself will propagate into more trees.
References: Where Are Tree Roots?1." EDIS New Publications RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb.
Part One the Roots: by The Ever Curious Education Major
Who we are as Christians affects all of our life, and as teachers it determines who we are in and out of the classroom. Who we are grows out of how Christ has filled us. As Christ fills us with Himself we can pour what we have been filled with onto our students. For instance if Christ gives us peace we can draw upon that peace in the classroom, creating a safe and nonthreatening atmosphere for our students. Christ offers us that peace, but in order to be an educator of peace we must have a source of peace. That peace comes from those roots, that constant, seeking, ever changing growth in Christ. If we forget those roots we will become useless as Christian educators. We might still be amazing educators, but as Christian educators we will become shriveled scraps of who we had been, losing rest for our hearts and perhaps losing our way. We will not be able to pour into our students lives like we would have if we had been drawing our strength from Christ. He exists as the Root of all our life. Jesus calls us into this, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you.” (John 15:4 New International Version Study Bible)
Holding onto our roots in Christ allows us to be better educators inside the classroom, but also to impact the community surrounding our school. Those roots allow us to be in tune with the Holy Spirit, to be able to sense the needs surrounding the school and the community and give us the discernment to be able to respond to those needs. Whether it is patience at the chalkboard, or patience in the grocery line, our roots in Christ develop who we are as people and Christian educators. We must daily hold on to those roots, never, never letting them slip from our hands.
New International Version Study Bible. 2011 ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011. Print.
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| Here are some lovely pictures of roots. |
