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Only Connect!

A teacher of literature, a parent of three, a lover of questions, a disciple of connections, Katie Hanson turns to an English novelist for her mantra on learning. “Only connect!” At the beginning of Howards End, E.M. Forster placed these two words, a succinct expression of the theme that was to follow.

If Katie were to write a similar epigraph for her frenetic life as college teacher, parent, lifelong learner, and coordinator of St. Paul’s Alpha course, it might be:

Make connections. Ask questions.

In Katie’s family, “you’re not allowed to be bored.” She tells her three kids with conviction, “You have a mind and if it’s an active mind, you should be able to find something interesting in any situation any time.”

The family often turns to literature to make connections in heart and mind. It seems each family member always has a book going. Katie and husband Dave Crowe, both educators at Augustana College, bone up on monthly selections for Faithful Readers. That’s the group where they connect with St. Paul literature-lovers. Dave, a professor of English, re-reads every novel he teaches. And when these two educators aren’t reading books, they’re reading classroom assignments.

“I like to read college papers. To see what students are thinking is a revelation,” says Katie, who witnesses blossoming curiosity and emerging connections that ignite a love for learning.

In Augustana’s education department, Katie teaches writing and literature in a number of different configurations, handing important tools to students for classroom success and vocational life. But more than that, this mentor builds trusting relationships that connect students to a life of learning.

“If you don’t connect with your students, in mutual respect and with relevance, you can forget about it.” Encouraging students “to formulate good questions is one of the most important skills they’ll need for going out into the world.”

Make connections. Ask questions. St. Paul’s Alpha course is fueled too by this outlook. “Alpha is all about connections and questions,” says Katie. “Asking questions is how we connect best with other people. Groups come to know and trust each other. They get that chemistry going within the group, allowing people to question openly and explore the basic tenets of faith together.”

The Lutheran tradition, says Katie, “allows me to ask questions, to have questions. If I have questions, that doesn’t mean I have lesser or weaker faith. Questions can help me arrive at a stronger faith.”

So Katie Hanson poses some thoughtful questions: “Why did God give us this brain? Why do we have this heart?” Faith asks this parent, teacher, and learner to actively live the questions that “connect heart and head.”

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"To pray does not mean to listen to oneself speaking. Prayer involves becoming silent, and being silent, and waiting until God is heard." ~Søren Kierkegaard