Teaching Redemptively: Bringing Grace and Truth into Your Classroom

by Donovan Graham

As God's image bearers, Christian teachers are called to reflect the character of our creative, redemptive God. TEACHING REDEMPTIVELY challenges teachers to incorporate biblical principles into all areas of education, reflecting God's character in both process and content.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Christian, Nonfiction, Professional Development

327 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Leah Kiers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. It reminded me of why I became a teacher, the ideal practices we have for the education of our students, and the foundation of redemption that should affect how we teach and live in all areas of life. And all this while holding our fallenness as an important consideration in how we approach our teaching. I am more and more convinced that the grace of God is not just a help to us as we teach, but more a necessary component of teaching well.

[Lee Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 3/4 stars. Mixed feelings about this one, but mostly positive. Definitely personally convicting and worth mulling over, but at the end it still feels too abstract and unworkable in the systemic way that Graham advocates.

Some thoughts (adapted from my 4-page book review for class):
Teaching Redemptively by Donovan L. Graham is a book that could easily cause tears of joy or tears of frustration, or even a response that entails hurling the book across the room. In this friendly, easy-to-read volume, with its conversational tone and relentless logic, Dr. Graham is advocating nothing less than a complete de-secularization of schooling and a re-thinking of how Christians ought to engage in education. More than just giving thoughtful assignments or expressing patience towards students, he wants a complete reorienting of school into a lively, applied, cooperative, and grace-infused endeavor. And to top it all off, he makes his points using the twin engines of biblical exegesis and secular research. (Good luck trying to squirm out of that.)

Written primarily for elementary and secondary teachers in Christian schools, Graham would like to reshape not just the practice of individual teachers, but the whole philosophy that governs the way Christians educate children. Essentially, by building our schools on rote memorization, testing, and performance-driven awards, Graham argues, we have completely adopted a secular approach to learning, one that does not fit cohesively into a Christian view of the world. His argument starts out by building a biblical understanding of human identity, then expanding through a quick survey of the ways God teaches his people in the Old and New Testaments. Only after all that is accomplished does he then develop a sample framework of what this looks like in the school and the classroom.

The first half of the book deals with the underlying framework of Biblical wisdom that must be understood to lay out a vision for Christian education. As someone who has been trained in worldview analysis from a reformed tradition, a lot of this book felt obvious, so much so that it was tempting to skim or get distracted. But the reader is rewarded (or challenged) for sticking with it, because when his insights hit an area of blindness, the effects are illuminating.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Assigned reading for a course... Would have been an excellent article, but as a book felt drawn out and repetitive. Loved the thinking behind it, but did not need to be an entire book.

[Eric Wildermuth · Rating 5 out of 5]

While geared toward private Christian education Graham's book is essential reading for any Christian teacher--public or private. Perhaps the way that we are teaching our students does not comport with our stated beliefs? This book helps teachers examine their practice to ensure that their worldview teaching isn't simply a matter of information conveyance but that the methods carry the message as well. Of particular importance is understanding the contours of the image of God in students to teach them well. The various capacities that are innate to humanity should be nurtured through the entire educational process. Not only that, Christian education needs to teach students how to live inline with the structure of God's creation.

[Carolyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Truly one of the hardest books I have ever had to get through for a required reading. It simply made no sense half the time and was overly wordy and confusing. I honestly zoned out for 90% of the book. The nuggets of truth and helpful information was overshadowed by excessive and confusing text that made this nearly impossible to follow. I also really struggled to see the connection between this book and teaching and it greatly lacked any real-world connection or application in today’s school system.

[Jerri Snyder · Rating 1 out of 5]

This text started off with some great points. However, I could hardly stand to read the rest of it. I hate to be overly critical. It often made no sense whatsoever. He talked in circles for most of the book. It was as if he had a word count quota he had to meet. The best part was that there were summaries at the end of most chapters. I stuck to reading those to get the basics of the text. Some people can really dive into certain styles of writing. This was just not for me.

[Jacob Cavett · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Teaching Redemptively well covers the foundation for grace and truth in God’s character, its application to the classroom is lackluster. Half the time, I forgot this book was even about teaching. Graham still made some great points, even if they were repetitive or nothing new. The essentiality of grace and truth in teaching is a worthy topic—I just wish this book gave a more concrete idea of what to do with it.

[Kevin Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed the end. The problem I had with this book was its poor writing. It was full of grammatical errors and unhelpful syntax. It was also overly repetitive. It has some good ideas about how to teach and well and how to treat students as humans—things I forgot in my second year of teaching. I’m grateful for the good things of this book, though I think there are better books to convey the same things out there.

[Ronald J. Pauleus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so good. My heart was challenged and my love for teaching little humans have grown more. I want to teach with grace.

“We are asked to give our students a human taste of the divine reality.”

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the concept of Graham’s ideas, I wish the presentation was more engaging and concise. This book was definitely written as a text book, and for most chapters the summary page was more helpful to me than the chapter itself.

[Austin Hoffman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Would have been much better at half the size (or shorter!). Very repetitive.

[Gigi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Excellent! Great insight! This is a definite read again down the road.

[Madison Carver · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book offered lots of different outlooks and details, but I found it hard to follow sometimes on what stance the author was taking.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a tough read. Read out of order per instructions.

[Matthew Bauman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of interesting ideas that I am excited to include in my classroom. I wish that it had more concrete examples that were easier to implement though. It had a lot of things throughout the book that are going to be helpful to improve my classroom culture.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful book with insight of what it means to instruct the whole child academically , physically , mentally and socially . As intentional teachers in partner with The Holy Spirit we instruct in such a way it brings out each students God given talents and spiritual gifts and nurtures them to be used for His glory and his kingdom work here on earth .

[Iain Roush · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could imagine this book at one point being groundbreaking. But it frankly comes off as extremely repetitive. I frequently thought I was rereading a chapter because of it's similarity to other's in the book. If it were about a third as long I would give it 4 stars.

[Grace Widodo]

A must-read book for Christian teachers!

[Maggie Gathuku · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bringing grace and truth into your classroom is a practical guide, mind-boggling and Gospel-centered read that unsettles long-held beliefs that we have come to see as normal but unbiblical in the light of scripture.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

*2.5 Stars*