Lives to Offer: Accompanying Youth on Their Vocational Quests Book

An interesting book and one I think I will have to re-read to really have a chance at understanding. It isn't that Lichtmann's ideas are hard, but this is a book which should be read meditatively. That is fitting, of course, because Lichtmann bases her suggestions about teaching on the four stages of lectio divina- reading, reflection, meditation and contemplation. The results take the reader deeper into their own heart in order to open up that hospitable place where good teaching occurs. This makes this book counter-culture in the educational culture of North America. It doesn't follow the social science based approach which is so dominant in discussions about pedagogy and I tend to count that a good thing. While social science approaches can be a good thing, they do have the unfortunate impact of rendering the human being into a subject. Lichtmann's book forces us to encounter the person underneath our students and to seek out how to nurture them.