On Thursday I met briefly with Dr. Dave Smith, the head of the Religion department. He is completely on board with the idea of having something like a basic theology and doctrine class added as a general requirement. He asked me to send him an email answering two questions. 1. what is lacking in general education now, 2. what should be included. I sent him a response suggesting the inclusion of something like a basic theology and doctrine class with possible some spiritual disciplines studied in there too. He's going to forward my email on to the general education committee and get back to me on what else I can do to assist in the process. It will probably be more research on how other schools do integration of faith and learning or something along those lines. Something interesting he told me was that IWU is currently last on the amount of bible classes that we require among Christian colleges (I don't know who all is on the list).
My greatest joy this week was finding out that world changers is already moving in the direction that I was hoping it would go and that Dr. Smith was completely on board with my idea and it's something that has already been talked a little about. My biggest challenge was finding things to do. I should have more to do next week.
What I've learned about leadership this week is that sometimes you have to make things to do. I emailed Dr. Garner a week ago Monday and when I went in last Monday he told be he got my email and had been intending to respond. I don't know how much longer I would have had to wait for a response from him, but I was able to talk to him that day and he was the one who directed me to Dr. Smith. I just had to give the ball a little push to get it rolling.
Question: What would you guys think about a basic theology and doctrine class as a gen. ed.
I really like the idea of a basic theology and doctrine gen. ed. class. A class like that would have helped me out a lot during college when trying to describe my beliefs in faith intergration papers as well as finding what I believed. I think if you can you should run with that idea. I think many freshman would benifit from a class like that.
ReplyDeleteI think that as students we would gain a great amount of knowledge out of that type of class. My roomate is a CM major, and has told me that's an amazing class. You really take a lot out of it. For me personally that would be a class i'd gain a lot out of, but I wouldn't take it on my own. I would have to be forced to taking it. I think that it would be good for me to take it so making it a gen. ed. would be a positive idea.
ReplyDeleteAs a ministry major, I actually did learn a lot in my theology class and think its a very good idea to make this a gen. ed. class. Basic christian doctrine (which is essentially the same thing) was very beneficial for me to help me learn and process what I actually believed. I think it is a good foundation that everyone going into any field should have. You had a very good presentation and looked like you did some good research on it also..keep it up I'm sure you will find a lot of useful things on this subject.
ReplyDeleteAaron,
ReplyDeleteI think a class like this would be very beneficial. I remember talking about this subject in world changers but I can’t recall anything from the discussions. If the world changers class is moving towards a different area of focus, maybe a general education class is the answer. How would you overcome the problem of students being apathetic towards this class, like many of us are towards other general education classes?
I think its great, but who would teach it? Chris Bounds does most of the theology classes and is already loaded. I don't think we would appreciate it as freshman. I know that I could have learned way more from the faith integration we had in world changers but I didn't care as much then. I'm also not sure adding another class is a good solution. We already have alot to take before we graduate. Maybe focus more on how the professors can integrate faith more in the classes we already have.
ReplyDeleteI like what Becky said because I really do not think it would help out people double majoring, minoring or even in general some people do not have time in their major for another class. However I think it is important going to a Christian university to be taught about theology and doctrine as often many of us do not know how to explain our own. A class like this would benefit us as a Christian going off into the world and making disciples of all nations. I think it might be possible for professors to integrate faith in their classes as the business division does this pretty good already but maybe it would be good to add that into world changers. I think having good doctrine and theology to stand on from the start and to learn about it early on in college would benefit all students.
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