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What is Transformational Education? 

Back in 2013, a group of teachers and others at MECS began to dream of turning some good ideas around Christian education into an accessible book for educators across Christian schools. Lead capably by Martin Hanscamp and guided by his good friend and fellow educator, Harry Burggraaf, this crew managed to create a framework for Christian teaching that has stood the test of time. 

At the heart of this framework, is the desire to help teachers to understand how teaching from a Christian perspective can radically impact our students. It’s not only the words that we teach that have the power to transform, but it’s how we help our students to respond to what they have captured. Response could be in a written essay, a lab experiment, a challenging game, a cross country run, serving each other in community or many other formational tasks. We call this, responsive discipleship. 

Martin and Harry have both been gone from this earth for years now, but the impact of this project has had incredible impact across the world. Our little 'green book' as it is warmly called, pops up in many contexts. In my previous job, I attended a conference in Ottawa, Canada to find that the visiting leaders from developing countries had been gifted our Transformational Education Book. You might be interested to know that our book has also been translated into Spanish and French. 

Christian education needs to be transformative, otherwise, what’s the point? As Martin Hanscamp captures in the foreword of Transformational Education “Paul challenges us in Romans 12 to take our everyday, ordinary life – our eating, sleeping, going to work and walking around life – and place it before God as an offering… not being so well adjusted to our culture that we might fit into it without thinking. Paul challenges us to fix our attention on God so we will be changed from the inside out, transformed by the renewing of our minds so that God can develop well-formed maturity in us (adapted from The Message). This Scripture remains a foundation stone for Christian education. 

If you are interested in a copy of Transformational Education, they are available from the office for purchase. However, the first 10 people to ask for one at the office can grab one for free! 

Michelle Dempsey

MECS Principal