“Educators Take on Challenges of Youth Ministry”

Report by the Center for Education Steering Committee

The thirst for professional development brought together a broad spectrum of educators to the 2008 Educators Conference from October 3-5 at Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown, New York. Bringing together a hundred participants from across America and two from Israel, the gathering featured the theme “Strengthening Educational Communities of Practice.” The grass-roots based presenters, including keynoter Thomas Lickona, the Winings-Sabourin 4-session certification program, and numerous breakout speakers, paid shared a concern for issues surrounding youth and young adult ministry, and generated balanced and in-depth coverage of this important educational ministry.

Pre-Conference Workshops

The conference began with four Pre-Conference Workshops. These in-depth full-day or half-day workshops equipped participants with tools necessary either to develop an effective program or strengthen an existing one. They included “Relationship Intelligence Training,” with Dr. Richard Panzer and Mrs. L Haft. Participants learned of the need for Relationship Intelligence education, its utilization of multimedia and research on its effectiveness, its use with 100,000 students in New York and New Jersey schools and the field experience of a Relationship Intelligence educator in the Jersey City Public Schools. They learned the relationship intelligence (RI) method to engage teens in an exploration of the meaning of love and commitment, male responsibility and parent-child relationships, case-based learning activities contained in the RI workbook activities, how to engage teens in an exploration of stages of intimacy and research on marriage, cohabitation, and divorce, and much more.

Alan Saunders, Poppy Richie and Sally Sayre presented a pre-workshop on “Creating A Culture of Heart, Love and Service through Implementing Character Education in the Home, School and Community.” They guided participants through this fascinating and effective Marriage Education Program, looking at the key concepts and goals so as to begin to understand how they can teach the program in their own communities. Participants looked at some of the typical gender differences in communication in marriage and investigated the various strategies used to overcome these differences. Also, participants looked at how learning some of the key negotiation strategies can help couples solve differences of opinion. Participants did a self-evaluation of their ‘partnering skills’ and developed a plan to support their personal growth.

Heather Thalheimer offered a valuable half-day workshop on “Creating Communities of Practice” for the express purpose of training those individuals who were considering becoming facilitators of diverse communities of practice.

Mark Callahan, chief powerpoint designer at the FFWPU American national office, offered a pre-conference on “The Principles of (PowerPoint) Creation,” an opportunity for anyone who believes in the magic of PowerPoint to change peoples’ lives. He taught how to set up Raster Images, Vector Images, ColorImpact software and Special Effects. He covered how to decide which kind of PowerPoint is best for your needs, how to coordinate the main work panels, how to align text and graphic objects, capitalization, color, word choices, punctuation, the value of space, how to avoid clutter and see from the audience’s viewpoint, the value of a child’s perspective and much more.

General Sessions

Each of the General Sessions was a focused and dynamic multi-media event blending praise and worship, spiritual inspiration, educational content, practical wisdom and vision setting. This year’s general sessions featured Chris Alan Duerflinger and his band together with the UTS worship band and choir, along with graphics and musical accompaniment programmed by Rev. Brian Sabourin.

The concept of a “community of practice,” introduced at the 2007 Conference, was developed further in this year’s program. In his opening remarks during the first plenary session, Dr. Tony Devine set the tone by reminding participants that a community of practice engages a diverse group of individuals that are focused and committed to addressing a common goal, outcome or issue so as to gain from the group’s collective wisdom. He then introduced the Educators Conference steering committee and the summer camp collective as examples of communities of practice.

After Dr. Devine’s orientation, Dr. Richard Panzer served as the keynote speaker for the General Session on Friday night. He delivered a powerful talk on the challenges our contemporary culture presents to teens and couples attempting to maintain integrity and purity. It was a sobering view of the toxicity our young people encounter on a daily basis.

The second General Session, “Ethical Learning Communities,” featured Keynote Speaker Dr. Thomas Lickona, author of Educating for Character. Dr. Lickona directs the Center for the Fourth and Fifth Rs (Respect and Responsibility), and is well known for his pioneering work in character education and the moral development of young people. His keynote address focused on Ethical Learning Communities as a foundation for the development of excellence and ethics. Dr. Lickona outlined the six operating principles by which an ethical learning community is created, sustained, and continuously improved. While his research was school based, the relevancy to Strengthening Educational Communities of Practice was readily apparent.

1. Develop shared purpose and identity. Make excellence and ethics the cornerstone of the school’s mission, identity, and sense of community.

2. Align practices with desired outcomes and relevant research. Ask, How does a given practice contribute to the integration of excellence and ethics—performance character and moral character? What is the evidence of its effectiveness?

3. Have a voice, take a stand. Create a democratic community that maximizes participation in the quest for excellence and ethics; challenge staff, students, and parents to use their voices with integrity and courage.

4. Take personal responsibility for continuous self-development. See yourself as a work in progress; pursue your personal best.

5. Practice collective responsibility. Care enough to expect the best from others; commit to the norm of “carefrontation” in relationships.

6. Grapple with the tough issues—the elephants in the living room. Address the often neglected issues—in school and outside school—that affect excellence and ethics.

The third General Session was entitled, “Dream a Little Dream: Strengthening My Community of Practice,” Dr. Kathy Winings had participants in the audience share, anonymously, the expression of their personal vision and dreams, prior to her message encouraging us all to dream. These heartfelt visions, plus stirring music and Dr. Winings’s message, created a moving experience to conclude the conference.

Breakout Sessions

The breakout sessions, as always, provided the conference meat and potatoes. This year, we incorporated a Youth Ministry Certification and Training Program as a special Youth Ministry Track during the breakout sessions. Dr. Kathy Winings and Rev. Brian Sabourin developed 4 separate breakouts for this Track. Youth Ministers who attended all 4 sessions received a Certificate of Completion. The topics were, “Getting to Know Who Teens Are and Learning the Basics of Counseling Teens,” “How to Effectively Organize Your Youth Ministry for Maximum Effect,” “Planning Lessons that Grab Your Kids” and “Teaching Strategies that Motivate and Engage the Learner.”

Along the same lines, Joe Leonard shared the insights he has gained with the young adult worship service in New Jersey, to make young adult worship exciting, engaging, emotionally fulfilling, educational and inspiring to the point of action toward multiplication. He asked his audience, “would you want to go to church if it stunk?” Getting a “no” answer, he stated that neither do young adults, and shared strategies to sweeten up young adult worship.

Rev. Hiroshi Higashino discussed how the Heart of God is hidden behind the seemingly dry Divine Principle terminologies, and how to convey this heart to our youth. In his session, entitled “Changing Our Youth and Communities Through Jr. STF,” Kimikami Miyake shared live testimonies of youth and communities affected by the Jr. STF program. He discussed how to implement such a program in one’s own community. Bruce Clarke then rounded out the Youth Ministry offerings with his session, “Applying a Purpose-Driven Model to YM,” where he looked at how the youth ministry of the Family Church of Connecticut has been applying the purpose-driven model from a Unificationist perspective and how the components of the model can be applied to any existing ministry.

The Conference was most fortunate this year to have a special breakout session offered by two professional educators from Israel. In “A Model of Educational Intervention in School Violence: The Case of ‘Netivim’ School,” professors Dr. Yaffa bar-Ziv and Dr. Shefi Pnina, from the Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology, and the Arts, discussed how school violence is reported daily in the media and has become a global challenge. Their research documented the change that the “Netivim” school has gone through. This school absorbs students, ages 6-16, who are intelligent but have behavioral disturbances.

Two breakout sessions focused on experiential learning and service learning programs, which are highly important in youth and young adult education. Coming fresh from a summer project in Peru, Paul Byrne introduced “Discover True Friendship Service Tour: The Value and Purpose of Experiential Learning Programs.” Paul presented how he has brought young men and women together to overcome the boundaries of nationality, ethnicity, religion and even language by working and spending time with the residents of diverse communities in need. In a related breakout, the panel of Robert Sayre, Cresentia Hinkle and Julia McKenna led a session on “Case Studies from Service and Teaching Abroad.” They discussed how you can create an education program that, with a little advanced planning and a few dedicated local staff members, can be replicated anywhere in the world, one that can also be particularly helpful in urban settings among at-risk youth.

Two other breakouts looked at the value of technology when it comes to teaching. Mark Callahan followed up on his pre-conference workshop with a session to help the powerpoint user generate excitement and anticipation as each new slide unfolds, rather than put people to sleep. He outlined some of the do’s and don’ts in PowerPoint that professional lecturers teach to businesses and educators. Then Jonathan Gullery outlined simple techniques that an educator can use to tighten up material, streamline presentations and reach and maintain the interest of the intended audience in his session entitled, “How to Package and Present Your Message to Target Your Audience.”

Addressing the practical needs of young people entering the job market and family life, Phillip G. Soaivan, a financial advisor, presented a common sense approach with simple, self-directed exercises loaded with inspirational teen success stories. The goal is to teach teens how to avoid credit card traps, reduce debt, escape common mistake relayed to financial needless charges, get a job, invest wisely, tap into the power of entrepreneurship and turn a hobby into cash.

In his breakouts, Dr. Thomas Lickona addressed the issues that educational communities have limited impact unless both students and adults take personal responsibility for their own character development and view their growth in character as a lifelong project. He answered the question, how we can help students develop the kind of ethical thinking that prepares them to act ethically in real situations. He drew upon his nationally acclaimed “Smart & Good Schools” definition of ethical thinking to include: (1) moral discernment (knowing right from wrong); (2) a well-formed conscience, including a sense of obligation to do the right thing; (3) a strong moral identity, such that doing what’s right defines “who I am”; and (4) moral “know-how” that enables us to translate discernment, conscience, and moral identity into effective moral action.

Two different breakouts were grounded in character education. Kristina Seher, Poppy Richie, Sally Sayre, and Alan Saunders presented highlights of the Discovering the Real Me storybooks and teacher’s manuals, which are suitable for use in homes, schools, and community venues. They demonstrated the “Train the Trainer” workshops, which are available with helpful materials, colorful and interesting PowerPoint presentations, and lots of tips on the importance of character education and how to bring it to your community. Using live animals for her presentation, Lesa Ellanson discussed the value of our animals to help educate principled morals to children and youth can be developed in your homes, churches, schools and community groups in her session on: “Animals and Blessed Families: The Era After the Coming of Heaven,”

Focusing on the field of Marriage and Family, presenter Debby Gullery demonstrated how to make the central theme of ideal marriages and families “do-able” by offering practical tools to enable couples to take spiritual responsibility for themselves and their most important relationships. Her title, “Reaching and Teaching Instead of Preaching – Using Marriage Education as an Effective Witnessing Tool,” said it all.

Rev. Gavin Hamnett led participants to a deeper understanding of the spiritual nature of addiction and the role of emotion. We gained an understanding of how proper meditation can assist in the dissolution of the roots of addiction.

Glenn Strait, editor of The World & I, shared a “new mindset,” that the doable first step of learning Korean is learning to read Unification scripture in Korean. The new methodology is “reading immersion” as embodied in “Reading True Parents’ Word” (RTP Word), which provides customized tools and workbook lessons.

As the only Children’s Ministry breakout, Dr. Kathy Winings discussed current research in neuroscience focusing on the brain and its impact on education and parenting. She covered such cutting-edge issues as brain development, how we learn, gender differences in the physical brain, how to organize our classrooms based on these ideas, and how to unlearn bad habits.

Unique Aspects

The new revised Center for Education website was unveiled: www.centerforeduction.net. The web site is designed to facilitate Communities of Practice, whereby educators can connect in relevant groups, upload resources that are rated and reviewed by users, and discuss educational issues and practices.

As always, the conference was enriched with supplemental meetings including the Special Camp Coordinator Lunch Meeting and Blessed Family Association Reception that included time for socializing and sharing about what we have been doing over the past year and what is on line for the coming years. Noah Ross demonstrated the new and impressive BFA web site, featuring “matchbook” and the “college registry.”

Participants also networked in the Exhibit Hall that featured resources, books, materials, programs and ideas. The Barrytown campus of UTS offered full wireless Internet access, the quiet library and new Information Commons, and the tranquil grounds, where many walked Father’s Trail and the Labyrinth.

The Center for Education at UTS

We are grateful for the support of Rev. Michael Jenkins, the Education Department at national headquarters, district offices, past attendees, and the investment made by our presenters, our planning committee and conference staff. We give a special thanks to our Operations Director, Shin Young Chang, who did so much work to build the quality of everyone’s experience at the conference, and to Charko Patterson who led the redesign of the CFE website.

The Center for Education at UTS Steering Committee consists of Ms. Shin Young Chang, Dr. Tony Devine, Dr. Tyler Hendricks, Mr. Charko Patterson, Mr. Noah Ross, Rev. Brian Sabourin, Mr. Naokimi Ushiroda and Dr. Kathy Winings. As a program of professional development, the mission of the Center for Education at UTS is to bring people together to facilitate educational growth through networking and the conference and to inspire the creation and sharing of vital educational resources.

Conference recordings are available at the CFE web site www.centerforeducation.net