Sorry about that.
Well, now it's time for another blog post. And this time, we'll be talking about alternative education. There are colleges, like Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where the team-taught classes integrate two fields of learning (such as sociology and biology). In their art program, what they call visual literacy, the students are asked from the get-go what they want to convey through their art-- "why they're doing what they're doing, what they want to say, how it fits into the world" (Susan Aurand, artist & faculty member). Thus, not only are the students learning the technical skills of being an artist, but they're taking responsibility for the content of their work, and are more prepared to present it for business reasons. The visual literacy program also helps students to think more critically about visual media, and to see it more clearly.
This program is an example of Evergreen's desire to integrate all disciplines and give students a broad understanding of the world. Most of the courses seem to be influenced by "new age" philosophy, with meditation and "consciousness" practices scattered throughout. This is definitely different than John Brown's "Christ Over All" approach, and i wouldn't say it's better. There are some things that this college does that JBU could consider, like integrating disciplines--that just sounds fun and educational. I've heard that it shows good learning when you can connect two subjects in your mind, i.e. defining a word in english whose root is in a different language. I believe that i would find the teaching style beneficial, but i don't think i'd like the main message of what they teach. For now, I want to grow somewhere that glorifies God as its center, and JBU works towards that.
It's not that I don't want anything to do with a secular system. God can work through that, too. I just want to develop into who He's called me to be in an environment that encourages me to be His first. And i've said this a lot recently, but there's still a lot of room for ministry on a Christian campus... we're nowhere near perfect :]
