H resource ighlight
RBp Curriculum Revision F o u r Ye a r R e v i s i o n P r o j e c t D r a w s t o a C l o s e
“We were standing around waiting for the Rapture!” says Linda Piepenbrink, editor of the Middler curriculum, as the final pages are finished. The final quarter for the third and fourth grade students teaches the book of Revelation. Doug Jennings (left), graphic artist, and Seth Olson, production artist, were also part of the Middler team.
The revision project began with several thinktank meetings in 2006. Ministry experts from churches around the country met with RBP staff to plan for the new curriculum. Loren Olson, production director for Regular Baptist Press, sends the last proofs back to the vendor as the project is complete.
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may/june 2010
he project was audacious and ambitious: Revise the entire children’s Sunday School curriculum and create a new line of products for the Middler age group. Perhaps “revision” isn’t even the best word to use. It’s more accurate to say the editors and graphic designers started from scratch. Steve Kerr, graphic arts director for Regular Baptist Press, led a team that designed new teacher books, student books, and take-home papers. They also commissioned new artwork for all of the Bible stories, designed new logos, and created all-new flannelgraph figures. Flannelgraph? Yes, marketing surveys showed us that teachers love to use flannelgraph as long as the artwork is up-to-date, so an all-new series was created. And, for teachers who prefer to tell Bible stories using a projection screen, the flannelgraph art was then converted into hypermodern PowerPoint stories. One thing has not changed: RBP’s commitment to solid doctrine-based and gospel-centered teaching, Bible exposition, creative teaching methods, and carefully designed sequential learning. It has been this way since the fall of 1952, when the first Sunday School books were released for “junior” students in grades four through six. The editorial team was guided by Alex Bauman, who became editorial director of curriculum when Valerie Wilson retired in 2008. Just as the final quarter was going to press in March, John Greening announced Alex’s appointment as the new director of Regular Baptist Press. Valerie’s “retirement” was anything but that. Jan Salzman was working as editorial manager for the project when she broke her leg. “I called Val from the emergency room, just after they gave me the morphine,” Jan says. “My leg is broken, I’m going into surgery, my deadline is in two weeks. You are the only one who knows how to finish the quarter for me.” So Val unretired for a season, and the project continued. “She has really been my encourager,” Jan says of Valerie. The editorial staff and graphics staff remained close friends throughout the long revision, foxhole buddies who enjoyed many early mornings and late nights until the project was finished. On the last day, one of the editors brought in a few bottles for a victory toast. Nonalcoholic, of course. This is Regular Baptist Press.