Before coming to Concordia in 1992, she taught in Grades K-12 in Lutheran schools in Arkansas, Florida, and Wisconsin. She received a BS in Elementary Education in 1973 and an MS in Education in 1989 from Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska. Dr. Hilgendorf often serves as a speaker for various church organizations and faculty inservices. While spiritual truths do not change, the temporal, secular world does change. Teachers must be life-long learners, who can adapt to rapid, societal change.
All children can learn.
However, just as they can learn good things, they can learn bad things. It is the teacher's job to model and guide children toward the good. Cooperative learning and the use of technology must be included in all classrooms. Teachers are no longer preparing students for work in an industrial economy, and we must re-examine outdated factory methods of teaching. Just as one cannot force a child to eat, one cannot force a child to learn.