by Dr. Scott Carroll

I took a test to evaluate my style of learning and teaching.  The results were extremely unusual.  For those who know me; that’s no surprise. For those who don’t; let me explain.

There’s an expression, “Those who can, do.  Those who can’t, teach.”  For me teaching is not a lazy cop-out.  I love what I do and you couldn’t pay me more to do anything different.  I hope you might be blessed to find a career-path as rewarding as this has been for me.  I have taught at a various universities for over 25 years; ten at Cornerstone.  I especially like teaching undergraduates and I feel called to work with select students to prepare them to teach. I presently have 25 students who’ve earned Ph.D.s and have positions teaching on the darkest mission field in the world—academia.  Many more have earned advanced degrees only to find other rewarding careers. I believe mentoring young scholars for academic careers has the capability of impacting a generation of students.

I’m supposed to teach history but in actuality, I’m a storyteller, embroidering into my tale personal experiences from my fieldwork, from teaching overseas and from my ongoing research.  I always bring priceless artifacts to class to give students opportunity to touch the past.  It’s not uncommon for me to pass around tablets from Ur from the days of Abraham, or manuscripts and scrolls over a millennium old.  I’m energized by my work and I think my class is too.  Each day is like learning a new secret!  I feel comfortable navigating terra incognita.  I comfortable with the vulnerability of not knowing and I love the thrill of discovery. I invite students to join my Odyssey and to work with items that no one in the world knows exists!  This entails teaching students the languages necessary to study these documents.   Older students mentor younger ones.  Many of these students present their research at scholarly conferences and go on to graduate school.

I’m most comfortable teaching outside the confines of the classroom.  I’ve taken students to Greece over the past 25 years on an adventure!  I love hands-on learning.  This semester I’ll have students following monastic rules and copying a 1000-year old manuscript, eyeglasses off, by candlelight!  Many more will attend my Reel-to-Real-Meal where they will be exposed to a wide variety of rarely scene classics and will be asked soul-searching questions about the films.  You’ll see others standing on the rock defending ideas they DON’T BELIEVE!  If you see them waxing eloquently, stop and challenge them to defend their new-found faith!  Aristotle said a sign of an educated person is the ability to argue the viewpoints of their opponent.  I            agree!

I see the tremendous benefits of technology.  Years back, I created a program that transported students, live, to the world of my excavation in the Sahara.  The program received international acclaim and is on permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian as an innovative use of technology in education.  I want to transform the learning process.  My students get over 35 GB of materials that I have painstakingly created and constantly update to enhance their experience and to give them tools for lifetime learning.

I take a saying from the ancient synagogue and make it my mantra, “Study is worship.”  Worship with me one day in class, on an excavation, toiling over an unknown manuscript or on a cliffside in Greece!