Barnabas File

This week I put on my adjunct faculty hat to teach a Doctor of Ministry seminar for Central Baptist Theological Seminary, so I have thinking about the entire process of learning.  In a recent blog , Maryellen Weimer wrote about four student misconceptions about learning and prompted me to reflect on the learning process as I observe and experience it. The first misconception that Weimer suggests is that learning is fast.  In order to understand a subject, a student must have a good foundation and a perceptual framework.  This does not happen overnight.  A good student spends time developing the tools, perception, and information that will allow real learning.  (See more about “discipline” below.) Second, knowledge is composed of isolated facts.  We do not live our lives in silos.  Although academia would have us think that disciplines can be neatly divided into recognizable categories, life is messy, interconnected, and surprising.  ...

Like you, I sometimes don’t know when to say “No.”  As a result my calendar for September has been pretty packed.  All of the scheduled activities have been good things, but they have required a lot of my time and attention. The thing that has suffered most is my regular posting of blogs. There some things that can be done in small blocks of time that become available in one’s daily schedule.  For me, blogging is not one of those.  Whether it appears so or not, blogging is a creative exercise for me and I like the time I spend writing to be as open-ended and unstructured as possible.  I have lacked some of those big blocks of time recently, so my blogging this month has been erratic. I have learned several things from this “dry spell.” First, I not only enjoy writing but it is almost a spiritual discipline like contemplative prayer.  To practice both one must be intentional, open, and unhurried.  Both provide a sense of refreshment and b...