Honoring the gifts of God

The truth is that there is nothing, and I really do mean nothing, that I can do in my life to fully honor God for all He has done; it's just too much. Were I to spend every instant of the rest of my life proclaiming His glory it would fall short. What I can do is remember the words of Brother Lawrence "The most excellent method of going to God is that of doing our common business without any view of pleasing people but purely for the love of God." In essence: The way to honor the gifts God has given unto me, not the smallest of which would be the sacrifice of His holy son, is to do that which he has lain before me; namely to teach and teach well and teach for His glory and not my own for if I am indeed teaching well it is not a reflection of my skill or my ability to reach students but if I am teaching well; if I am, by the sheer power of my instruction, creating better citizens, better thinkers, better people then it is of His ability that this is occurring and it is to His glory not my own. The students are, after all, His children.

The Creation of Relational Trust in an Educational Setting

The answer to "How can we create relational trust in an educational setting" short and simple; it is in fact one word: Consistency. Teachers do not, will not, and cannot know the entirety of their students' backgrounds; nor can teachers be aware of every student's daily activities; whether that person just broke up with their insignificant other, whether they had breakfast that day, whether they were out drinking the night before (I know, shocker; High School Students Drink) or any of the myriad of other things that can and will be affecting how different students are functioning in the teacher's class. What teachers can and must do is to create and environment where students feel safe and know what to expect; a student should be able to know how you will react to them forgetting homework, to being tardy, to cursing, as well as how you will react to positive things. They learn this by seeing you react to these stimuli; whether or not you are consistent is the difference between being trustworthy and being just another liar who changes their actions with the breeze. Remember to "let your yes be yes and your no be no" or as Horton the Elephant would say: "Be sure you said what you meant and meant what you said and always be faithful one-hundred percent."

Teenagers have enough tumult in their young lives as it is; the classroom, in the ideal, should be a place of safety by consistency; and THAT is how we earn their trust.

The question posed this week was: How can we use our undivided self to reform education so that all are honored?

Just to get the topicality issues out of the way (yay post-modernism); I'm going to assert that "our undivided self" refers to the notion discussed and alluded to in the first blog I posted for this class; I am also going to assert that a student being honored means either A) Being recognized for their own individuality and worth and/or B) Being praised; a slight distinction but an important one. Now that the pre-writing issues are done and we all know what the words we're using mean, let's get to the actual blog.

The undivided self is, put simply, the self that realizes that all our focuses must be God-Centered; yes the world is distracting...ooh shiny!...but the fact is that no endeavor may be undertaken and be successful for Good unless it is God centered; teaching is no different. To that end it can be inferred that to honor all students we as instructors must focus on God. "But wait Josh," you say, "what about the kids who hate God or believe in a different one?" Good question. Simple answer: God is bigger than that. Less simple answer: If a teacher's focus is on God then His Love will inherently shine through in their lives, and since God is Good and God is Love even for those who despise Him you, by nature of allowing Him to shine through you, will show love to your students and your actions will thus be unable to do anything but honor them. Still not enough? Okay Complicated Answer: From an ontological standpoint in the Judeo-Christian worldview the real is metaphysical; all things perceived, including and especially that which causes division among mankind are all fallout from original sin; by allowing one's focus to remain on that which by its very nature is beyond the physical realm while simultaneously being fully present in every event of that realm (namely God) one is able to transcend the bonds of cognitive dissonance that may prevent one from loving or honoring one for whom they do not naturally identify due to altered backgrounds, prejudices or mere ignorance; in short, Faith solves, Love solves, God solves.

It is important to note that this is merely the how and not the why; our students need to know that we love them through our honoring of them, but we as educators need to do so because first they are children and children deserve love and second, more importantly, because we are commanded to do so by God. If to honor our mother and father is to live up and even surpass that which was laid as an example before us then surely the way in which to honor our students is to be focused on God so that He will empower us to truly, fully impact our students' lives in the most meaningful ways possible.

The Loom of Weak Metaphors...

This week we were asked to consider the phrases "Good teachers possess a 'capacity for connectedness.’ They 'weave' the connections between themselves, their subjects, and their students on ‘the loom of the heart,'" and asked how these spoke to us and how we have held the tensions of these things in our hearts.

In answer to the first, it kind of makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. It is bad writing. And not bad writing like Stephanie Meyer who cannot string together a sentence using proper grammar, it is bad writing that poses as good writing. "Oh how beautiful" we are meant to say, thinking of a loom and thread and the nostalgia that the modern world inherently ties to the old ways, the more tactile and human ways, of production but the truth is that it is a weak piece of writing and what is worse is that it does not need to be; God already did the writing! If one is looking for a metaphor with spiritual ramifications, how about one that has appeared in literally every single major world religion; that of the clay and the potter (Isaiah 64:8); this archetypal image still carries the meanings that are inscribed upon the loom image but due to its cross-cultural, nigh-pre-cogniscient meaning (owing to society's familiarity with it) it carries that meaning in a more effective and more poetic manner.

Moving on from my critique of the writing (which really was not the intent of the question anyway): I would agree that good teachers have a capacity for connectedness and that it is our goal to inscribe our lessons upon the hearts and minds of our students; I do think it is a bit too wishy-washy for my taste when it references the "loom of the heart"; I just cannot connect to such a blatantly emotional appeal; I like the idea of education being a spiritual endeavor but it is, in the end of the status quo an intellectual endeavor before any other kind and lines like this just do not match that real-world I find myself living in.

In answer to the second query: I do my best to keep my students' interests in mind; I've found that many appreciate some of the same television shows and/or music I do and using that I can connect to students in a very effective manner and that allows for instruction to be more effective in and of itself.

A Capacity of Connections

The article written by Robert Harris entitled, “Defining the Integration of Faith and Learning” seems to suggest that the idea of schema or, of creating relationships or connections between new knowledge and old is key to learning. I whole-heartedly agree; this is precisely why meta-cognition is so important for true education; teachers can have students memorize by rote, pass a test, score high for their school, but unless those students are forming connections between their realms of knowledge and the world around them then it is all moot.

I begin to take issue with Mr. Harris when he begins to discuss the nature of God's Truth. He says and I quote: "Christian knowledge should not be considered a separate realm or reality but as a vital and clarifying part of it; Christian knowledge must be a part of the whole integrative database." While this sounds fine and dandy there is, in my opinion a rub; namely the word "part" and the implications of its use. In his work Ethics Dietrich Bonhoeffer, on the first page no less, details how the true goal of Christian Ethics is not to descern what is good and what is evil for even that is separation from God (remember the very knowledge of Good & Evil was the first sin). Bonhoeffer states, and I agree that the true goal of the Christian Ethicist is not to discern Good or Evil but to see that which is Godly and ignore all else; in the same way Christian Knowledge cannot be a "part" of knowledge it IS knowledge all else is lie, deceit and corruption. The saddest part of this corruption is that it wears the wool of a lamb as it approaches and we regard it as pure and good but knowledge is not, Biblically Speaking, pure and good, and we need to remember that God is ALL; we must remember to Be Still not just physically but mentally and Know that He is God, and conversely know that we are NOT God and remember what that means.

The Greatness of Man

In The Courage to Teach Palmer writes, "We cannot know the great things of the universe until we know ourselves to be great things." While I will not dispute that Palmer is indeed an intellectual human, I must humbly disagree with his sentiment. When looked at in the light of Scripture man must learn that he is not great before he can become anything. The many metaphors scripture holds for God's work with man, the artist and the clay, the blacksmith and the metal, the sheep and the shepherd all point to mankind being dirty, hard, stupid and in need of someone outside of us to give us any kind of worthwhile existence.

However, this is not to say that mankind is worthless, God does want us after all. In relation to Romans 12:1-3 it is obvious that God wants, more than anything, all of our dirty, hard and stupid selves. I love The Message translation of this scripture where it talks of your working, walking-about, sleeping lives being what God wants. But it is important to look at how God wants that life; He does not want it glorified, He wants it sacrificed; laid out before Him to be burned, destroyed or used for His benefit and according to His whim; put it another way: Man only has greatness as he is willing to adhere to the greatness of God.

Now I Become Myself

This poem is all about living in the moment. When one looks at the work holistically this becomes fairly evident; in the introduction Sarton writes "Now I become myself..." the very use of the word now implies immediacy of the moment. Later she remarks "Now to stand still, to be here / Feel my own weight and density! The black shadow on the paper..." This is the second reference of "Now" but more significantly with this section is the use of the color black; from a physics standpoint black is the color black because it absorbs all colors into itself it is, in essence a singularity of moment, a pinpoint of action. Still further she states, "Now there is time and Time is young / O, in this single hour I life / All of myself and do not move. / I, the pursued, who madly ran, / Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!" Again this starts with the word "Now" which creates an archetypal union of the word thus emphasizing its relevance to the overall theme. Moreover in this section lies the key allusion of the work "...stop the sun!" an obvious biblical reference to the book of Joshua where God literally stops the sun from moving so that the foes of Israel may be delivered into their hands. What teachers can take from such thoughts is to be in the moment with students; do not let their past misdeeds guide your actions, do not let the past day or night and its difficulties mar your complexion, instead BE with your students and serve them as best you can for in that moment in that hour you are alive, and for all you know in the next you shall no longer be thus.

An Identity of Integrity

My father says there are two kinds of men: Men who keep their word, and men who don't. When i was younger I thought that was an oddly black-and-white saying from a man who has always taught me to see every side of a discussion but as I grow older I see the wisdom in those words. Integrity is the true measure of a man; whether or not you can trust him is more important than whether you agree on politics or if you like the same kind of Chinese food. In the post-modern age we tend to be obsessed with meta-labels whilst screaming against the validity of the very language we use to label people however the fact is that the words of Plato ring true: "You'll learn more of a man in an hour of play than a lifetime of conversation." Does the man cheat? Does he lose well? Win well? Is he overly competitive or rude? How he shows himself as his heart pounds in his chest will tell you how the man acts when his blood rushes and that, that will tell you if he has integrity and that will tell you his identity more than any label ever could.