Christian Educators Explore New Techniques
Diocesan Press Service. March 5, 1968 [63-4]
Approximately 150 Christian education leaders from the United States and Canada, including parish and diocesan directors of Christian Education, program directors, Executive Council staff members, and diocesan youth advisors, gathered at the Baker Hotel in Dallas on Feb. 9-11 to participate in the Episcopal Church's annual CHRISTIAN EDUCATION WEEKEND.
The theme of the conference was "Variation in Parish Educational Programs". The purpose of the conference was to explore several contemporary, readily available methods of teaching subject matter and to identify the educational principles underlying methods so that, as appropriate, educators may use these principles in their teaching.
Leaders included: Mr. Ralph Grubb, a research psychologist for International Business Machines Corporation, who introduced participants to computer assisted instruction and demonstrated how the principles of computer instruction may be used in non-computer situations such as a parish; Mrs. Audrey Suhr, Field Director of the Carnegie Project at Johns Hopkins University, led participants through a Life Career Game and thus demonstrated how simulation games can give students a practical understanding of life decisions; Dr. Sidney Simon, from the college of education at Temple University, presented two demonstrations of Value Systems Analysis using six high school students from the Dallas area and several volunteers from the participants. Following each presentation, a panel, which consisted of the three leaders and Mrs. David R. Hunter, and the Rev. John Peatling of the Executive Council's Department of Christian Education, answered questions raised by participants and made contributions from their respective backgrounds.
New programs of children, youth, and adult education were explained and discussed in small group sessions with members of the Executive Council's staff. The program this year was planned by a national staff committee headed by the Rev, Dr. Stanley Plattenburg in close cooperation with the Department of Christian Education of the Diocese of Dallas, in particular its director, the Rev. Canon William Cool and its chairman, the Rev. Eugene Malcolm. The Bishop of Dallas, the Rt. Rev. C. Avery Mason, greeted the participants at the conference's opening session.
The annual meeting of the National Council of Churches' Division of Christian Education followed during the week of Feb. 12. The theme of this meeting was "New Frontiers of Mission. " Except for special events the work of this meeting was conducted in sections in several Dallas hotels.