On April 20, Redeemer University made an announcement with two parts: first, that students are now able to enroll in a new Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree. And, secondly, that its French and theatre arts departments would be discontinued due to low enrollment. The business degree is being accompanied by the creation of new…
Many people are wondering about the effects of pandemic-induced school closures. Here in Ontario’s third wave of the pandemic, schools are closed again (with some exceptions for special needs students). It’s possible the year will finish online. While the closures are necessary from a medical standpoint, what effect do they have on our children? Recently,…
I have been sitting too much these days. Other than grocery runs, I hardly get out of the house. I miss walking around schools during my regular visits. I miss playing in my annual volleyball league. Many of us in the world of education feel like we’ve been sitting for too long. Like our public…
I studied engineering at a large, respected provincial university, an education made up almost entirely of specialized engineering courses. At the time I was told I was getting the best education available, but I have since realized that something was missing. In contrast to many large public universities, a Christian liberal arts education includes a…
For families with school-aged children and for those involved in education, the terms school closure, remote learning, Google Classroom and Zoom likely increase your blood pressure and accelerate your heart rate. In the 62-year history of the school where I work, 2020 marked the first time when students were not permitted to come to school:…
To students May you know that the effort you make in classes and your community are like stones thrown into a pond that ripple and have effects you won’t see at first. May you know that you have lived through things that can help you. May you remember what you know about love, yourself and…
Here in the U.S., we have, just now, the oddest relationship with the word “normal.” In the spring, we’d type promises to each other, to have dinner or a beer “when things are back to normal.” At some point everyone started adding scare quotes to “normal.” Now we say things like, “I’d love to see…
The student who sat in front of me was having difficulty looking me in the eyes as he shuffled his hands. He gradually began to speak. He was a second year engineering student having second thoughts about his chosen field of study. He knew he liked being creative, but he was becoming increasingly convinced that…
As I write this column, Calvin University is in the first week of classes. After rapidly pivoting to online instruction with the outbreak of COVID-19 last spring, the university worked on a plan for returning to in-person classes for the fall of 2020. These efforts stem from the fact that a Christian, undergraduate, liberal arts…
Innovation in theological education has always been an essential part of equipping leaders for Christ’s church in the world. Many of our theological colleges across North America have stories of hard-scrabble beginnings, quick pivots, and adaptive responses to the context through various twists and turns along the way, before becoming the more established institutions we…
“Mom, do we have any clean masks? Soph and I are headed out.” The times they are a-changin’. We are now required to wear a mask to go to the bank, and a grocery store’s recent radio ad boasts a delivery service that features food picked from a warehouse and packed by robots.
Life is unpredictable. Your situation can change quickly. Has the COVID-19 disruption got you thinking about what your legacy might be? Has it made you rethink whether your financial arrangements effectively reflect your faith commitment? Might it be at “such a time as this” that you want to step forward to put things in place that will strengthen a robust Kingdom vision?
Uploaded Failed |  |
In uncertain times, we need hope-filled news!
