Radical Hospitality
Generous hospitality has always been part of a visit to HDCH. One only needs to attend a membership meeting, sports tournament, or Orientation Day, to experience the ways that we welcome members of the community through extending hospitality. Full plates of squares, coffee, and tea…all with joyful fellowship...is the HD way. Radical hospitality takes that idea deeply into relationships.
HDCH Vice Principal and Art Teacher, Jonathan DeVries, tells an interesting story about how David Smith’s work became the focus of staff professional development sessions in 2022-23. A few years ago, Jonathan received a copy of David Smith’s book, On Christian Teaching, as a gift and he admits he just put the book on his shelf.
Fast forward to 2022. Colleagues attended an Edvance conference session led by Smith and they were really excited about what they heard!
Jonathan took the cue, and started to read his copy of the book. He found it loaded with good, practical ways that he and all HD educators could add radical hospitality to their practice. He also saw that it connected perfectly with the school’s mission: Cultivating character through learning for a life of service to God.
HD educators are exploring the many ways that this book speaks to going beyond the hospitality status quo. Radical hospitality is about making space for a situation that isn’t welcome, such as when a student’s behavior might cause a strain on a loving relationship.
Radical hospitality can start in a classroom setting with a student who struggles to be in that space. Radical hospitality calls educators to help these students feel heard, accepted, and seen as an integral part of the classroom community.
One of the goals of radical hospitality is to move students beyond themselves. HD’s educators guide students to
SPRING 2023 Vol. 16 Issue 2 A HAMILTON DISTRICT CHRISTIAN HIGH PUBLICATION
PHOTO : HANK RINTJEMA
Academic excellence is important and something we do well at HDCH. What we are most concerned about, and what we think about from Grade Nine Day through to Graduation, is building each student’s character.
Jonathan DeVries, Vice Principal hhh
extend beyond an individual who is at school for academic achievement, to being a crucial member of a community of learners, with a responsibility to everyone in the classroom.
This approach is useful as students move onwards in their post-secondary lives, whether their pathway is college, university, apprenticeship, missions, or the workplace.
A scripture passage that Jonathan links to radical hospitality is Matthew 22 1-14, the parable of the wedding banquet. Like the wedding in the text, we invite students into our classrooms and expect certain behavior from them. However, we don’t usually get what we expect or even want. That’s why it’s important to see each student as a guest, or a gift, complete just the way they are, and also in need of guided change. That’s the parable of teaching, and that’s why we need radical hospitality. When students feel accepted and welcomed as a guest, for who they are, they can grow into their purpose (logos) as modeled by the original Logos.
A practical application of radical hospitality is forming classroom learning groups. Learning group members support one another in their work. For example, if a student is absent, they can connect with their learning group about missed work and assignments. With the help of clear group expectations, members support one another through the semester, building trust relationships and belonging.
Larger group community-building practices, like Restorative Justice circles, dovetail nicely with learning groups. These circles help to move students from simply being present in the classroom, to being an active and needed member of the group.
HD staff focus on knowing each and every student. When students feel known, they can be vulnerable in the classroom, share important things, and ask questions without fear of ridicule.
For Jonathan, a way to judge the connectedness of a class group is to witness guarded behaviours fade over time. It’s relatively common for students to be reluctant to share prayer requests at the beginning of the semester. If the class can be vulnerable together at devotions at semester end, this is a litmus test of radical hospitality at work.
hhh
Now go to the main streets and invite to the feast as many people as you find. So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, good and bad alike; and the wedding hall was filled with people.
MATTHEW 22:9-10 GNV
Cultivating character through learning for a life of service to God starts here at HD, yet it doesn’t end here. Our alumni are equipped with tools and skills that they use to build community long after they leave HD. These are skills that they carry into their careers, personal and business practices, and relationships.
Jonathan hopes that if David Smith were to pay a visit to HD, he would see meaningful examples of radical hospitality in classrooms where every member is valued and feels a responsibility to the group. h
