Parish: The Thought       Ministry in the classroom?       Oh, there’s so much more!       Long ago, educators called to minister in Lutheran schools needed a “parish perspective” if they were to be a highly valued part of their congregation. It was good to be parish -minded—good for the congregation and good for the school. […]

Editor’s Note: This article is taken from in the Spring issue of Shaping the Future. It is reprinted by permission and with its original formatting. Because the original article contained several footnotes that extended the information of the article itself, LEJ has retained those footnotes as endnotes here. Music – A Gift of God       […]

Introduction The Hebrew root word for justice means “straightness.” Biblical justice is the moral and ethical standard by which God measures human conduct (Harnish, 1991). This standard is entrenched in the culture of faith-based education but does it make a difference in our behavior? Research has verified that ethics can be learned (Cloninger & Selvarajan, […]

You have a Ph.D. in literacy, so what are you doing at the zoo? Teaching the animals to read?” This was a recurring quip I encountered from friends, colleagues, and others when they learned that I worked in an education department in a zoo. After many years teaching developmental reading classes, literacy methods for pre-service and veteran teachers, and using literacy as a catalyst for whole-school change in Chicago’s public schools, I found an offer one day that I could not refuse.

Values and Social-Emotional Development Abraham Maslow contended that after facing issues of survival and safety, humans address additional value and social-emotional needs. These include love and acceptance, leading toward self-actualization. He included acceptance, affection, confidence, self-expression, and creativity as human needs. For many children, these needs may be difficult to fulfill. While, some youth are […]

Growth is a hot topic these days. People talk about growth as and intellectual. Growth as a Christian. Growth in interpersonal skills. Growth in business skills. Sometimes growth and grit are spoken of together. I think the idea is that growth requires grit. It requires persistence. It sometimes requires single-mindedness toward a goal. In the […]

Editor’s Note: In 2014, Mimi Larson successfully defended her dissertation in early childhood education. Her empirical research was done in a preschool classroom of the Concordia Early Childhood Education Center. Her research has been presented at two national conferences: the National Association for the Education of Young Children in November 2015, and the Children’s Spirituality […]

Editor’s Note: As Lutherans in America, it is quite possible to think that we alone have benefitted from the Lutheran/Protestant Reformation which began in 1517 with the nailing of the 95 Theses on the Wittenberg church door. In reality, we clearly are beneficiaries of that “Lutheran” and educational legacy, but Protestant schools on every continent […]

As students, staff and communities who are part of Lutheran schools around the world spent the 500th anniversary year of the Reformation learning the significance of Martin Luther nailing 95 thesis to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517, they may not have realized how big the celebration has been. Most Lutherans […]

Editor’s Note: Throughout October 2017, Concordia hosted on campus a historic display of Reformation-era rare books. Over 2,500 visitors viewed in person 40 original items which told the Reformation story beginning with a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible (c. 1454) and culminating in J. S. Bach’s personal, annotated “Calov” Bible (1681). The exhibit was a […]