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.