Assuming students are lazy, disinterested, and rebellious are among the easiest assumptions teachers can make. Where we would excuse our own behavior because of a lack of sleep, food, or other comforts, we do not for our students. If the Good Life is to live up to our fullest human potential, how much of that is found in our honoring the Imago Dei in others, in our students? What does it mean to treat students as humans, and don’t we just automatically do that already? In many cases, no. The way we educate can be seen through six dimensions: environment, community, governance, pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment. Each of these are dimensions in which, seen rightly, can help teachers, administrators, and schools honor the humanity of their leaders, their teachers, their faculty, and, most importantly, their students.
Matt Bianco
Ma Bianco is the Director of The Lost Tools of Writing for the CiRCE Institute, where he also serves as a mentor in the CiRCE apprenticeship program. A homeschooling father of three, he graduated his oldest two sons, the eldest of which is a ending St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD. His second child is a ending Belmont Abbey College in Charlo e, NC, and his youngest (and only daughter) is a high school junior. He is married to his altogether lovely, high school sweetheart, Patty. He is the author of Letters to My Sons: A Humane Vision for Human Relationships.
