The Christian EducatorA publication of North Valley Baptist Schools

My Credo of Education

By Jim Carey

I believe that I am to be a living example of my Heavenly Father. I am to act, teach, and love the way the Father does, and share as much as I can of what the Father has taught me. I am to be a shepherd to guide my flock to their own personal knowledge of God, and I am responsible to do everything I can to insure that every student is saved, baptized, and encouraged to develop his own personal walk with God.

I believe that I should teach, not just tell. I am teaching life skills and information that is of critical importance for the present and future well-being of my students; therefore, I will use visuals, voice inflection, humor, intrigue, and any other method, not directly prohibited by God, to command my student’s attention and increase their retention.

I believe in apprenticeship teaching. I believe the most effective method of teaching is by a master teacher carefully transferring his knowledge to his students. While I believe that students should ultimately develop evaluation level skills, I believe they are harmed by encouraging those skills before they have the background to make those decisions. From before the days that students sat at the feet of Socrates, they were encouraged to mimic the actions and curriculum of their master. From the apprenticeship roots of the Middle Ages to the modern union movement, students have learned knowledge and methods at the hands of a Master Artisan. Students were not allowed to alter methods or material until they, too, had passed the mastership tests. Christian education should continue to follow this method, as it is most like the method that God teaches us. The emphasis on questioning, prevalent today, leans away from authoritative truth and toward subjective learning where there is truly no one “right” answer.

I believe in speed teaching. I will constantly analyze and evaluate every facet and phrase of my teaching to maximize its impact on the majority of my students. I want to know where my students are likely to get stumped, and the quickest way to help them get out of their intellectual mire.

I believe in success motivation. I believe that it is my duty to find some area that every one of my students can excel, and then fan that flame to a pitch where it is contagious, spilling over into other areas of his life.

I believe in peer-to-peer teaching. I will enlist my over-achieving students to help my under-achievers. I believe that this practice trains a team mentality and that a successful team will achieve more as a group than the sum of the achievements of the individuals that make up that team.

I believe my students can fly. I believe I am teaching some of the future Christian leadership of my nation. I will instill this attitude: “With God, I can.” I am to train my next generation of champions to soar well beyond anywhere I have been.

I do not believe in failure. Because I am dealing with human beings, I will do everything in my power to see that every student achieves at least minimum proficiency in each of my classes. To any degree that my student fails, it is my fault. When they get an F, I get an F; when they get an A, I get an A.

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