A New Pedagogical Paradigm

I am starting into Bruce Wilkinson's series, "The Seven Laws of the Learner," listening to his talks on cassette tape while I drive to school. I got through the first law yesterday, the Law of the Learner. The premise of this first talk is to introduce a new pedagogical paradigm. A lot of the teachers that I have had over the years have been primarily focused on presenting course content but have been relatively unconcerned with whether or not the students actually pick up the information. Wilkinson asserts that learning is the responsibility of the teacher. A lot of teachers seem to think that they are only responsible to present material and it is the student's responsibility to learn it; if the student doesn't pay attention or participate, such a teacher would not feel responsible. By taking responsibility for the student's learning, the teacher becomes infinitely more effective. What good, after all, is it to teach and produce no knew knowledge in your pupils?

If you do any kind of teaching or leading I would encourage you to check out this series by Bruce Wilkinson, it contains some revolutionary ideas about the role of the teacher and I can only wait with bated breath to find out what else is in store in the next six Laws of the Learner.

Habitually

It's been almost a week since my last post. I seem to be losing my motivation to do this everyday. They say if you do something regularly for 6 weeks it becomes habit, I don't know how true that is and I don't know if I have to start over again now that I've broken my routine. But how long does it take to break a habit? Does it just take6 weeks of not doing it (chemical addictions aside)? I think I'll Google it really quick.

Well it turns out that the 6 week thing is for making or breaking a habit and sources vary between 30 days to 6 weeks on average. One source, however, went a little deeper into it. This guy suggested looking beyond just the fact that you do something or don't do something habitually and try to figure out why you do or don't do it. I think this is an important point. We can't treat just the symptoms of a sickness, you've got to find what causes the symptoms and eradicate that. We need to figure out what our motivations are and what causes us to continue in our habits or what keeps us from forming new ones. I think if I had a good idea as to why I was doing something, I'd be a lot more likely to do it.

This, of course, would require some more work on my part, but I guess I've got to ask myself, "Is it worth the extra work?" Have you got any tips for making or breaking habits? have you had victories that you'd like to share? Let's be more than conquerors together.

And All These Things

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

- Matthew 6:33

First, let's get some context, what are "these things?" At this point, Jesus is talking to His disciples about worrying. Do you ever worry? I sure do. I'm even worried about how this post is gong to turn out, worried about who will even read. I tend to be quite the worrywart. Jesus is talking specifically at this point about clothing and food, telling His disciples that He will take care of it, but I think this idea extends beyond just that.

What things do you worry about? I worry about what people think about me, I worry about where I am going to college, I worry about what my job is going to be, I worry about who my wife will be. I spend a lot of time worrying about these things. This presents a major problem. It has been said that all that Satan needs to succeed is for good men to do nothing. Let me tell you, when you spend a lot of time worrying, it's unlikely that you'll be doing anything worthwhile. Worrying takes up precious time that we could (should) be spending with our Saviour. It denies us indispensable opportunities to share Christ's love with other people, it disallows us to carry out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20).

When things are uncertain, when life crops up unanswered questions, our first instinct is to worry about it and try to figure out how to fix it ourselves. Jesus says this approach is flawed. Seek first the His kingdom then these things will be added to you. Jesus wants us to trust in Him, to do His work and to focus on Him. He can take care of the little things (though they might seem big to us) in our lives. He wants to use us for greater things than figuring out how to fix ourselves. Fixing is His specialty and He could probably do a better job of it if we stopped ripping apart His work and patching it with our own roll of duct tape.

Are there worries in your life that have taken your focus off of your Saviour? Write them down, ask God to take them, give them up. Pray about as often as you worry about it, ask a friend to pray for you too. Step into the fullness of what God can do with you when you aren't wasting time worrying.

Are You A Man?

"A man chooses, a slave obeys." - Andrew Ryan

So much can be said for these few words, but I'll keep it short. We were born into sin and begin life as slaves to our sinful nature, obeying our selfish lusts and fleshly desires. It's as if we have no choice when presented with the option to gratify ourselves. But God says differently. He says we are men. He says we have a choice. Christ's death and resurrection defeated sin and death and by the name of our Saviour we have freedom from sin. We can make the choice to say no to the sinful nature and yes to the Spirit. Paul even goes so far as to call himself a slave to Christ, leaving him no room to disobey. Imagine living understanding that you have no right to disobey Christ, he paid our debt and for that we are bond-servants, and yet somehow we still wander off and do our own thing. Next time you're thinking about betraying Christ, remind yourself of your position, your freedom, and your choice. Let's honor the one who bought us from slavery.

Dentally

Today I went to the dentist and, as usual, the hygienist said I had great brushing skills but needed to do better with my flossing. She then proceeded to provide some really good evidence supporting the importance of flossing and told me that the only dental issue I need to worry about as I get older is gum disease, which is preventable by flossing. Every time I go to the dentist the conversation is the same, and every time I go home, convinced that I'm going t floss every day. Then I do it regularly for a week or two, then I start doing it every few days when I think about it, and eventually it becomes a rare occurrence.

I think going to the dentist is a lot like going to church. I go there on Sunday and I hear something that I know I should do and I decide that I'm going to start doing it. Whether it's praying more, or witnessing, or whatever, it usually plays out dentally. Monday morning rolls around and I'm tired, back to life, and then I remember that I was gong to make some change, so I do whatever it was, and then as the days go by it sort of trails off until I'm back to doing things the same old way.

So, how do we make ourselves actually do it? I think part of it is on us, but I also think that there may be a lack of application in the teaching. I know I need to floss, but shouldn't the dentist give me some tips about how I can make it happen? The same goes for church, perhaps I do need to read my Bible more, but if that's all you tell me, it's unlikely that I'll do it. The next time you find yourself in a teachable position, be sure to send your pupils off with a clear knowledge of what they, personally, can do to implement their new found knowledge in their own lives.

Disagree Agreeably

How do you disagree with another Christian? That's what I asked myself yesterday after thinking back on some church brainstorming groups I've been a part of. There is always a bad idea that comes up that the person who came up with it really believes in and really thinks is awesome. How do you tell them it's not without causing dissension, factions and all those other obvious acts of the sinful nature (Galatians 5:20ish)? I honestly don't know. This might seem like a light hearted example to some, but this idea extends beyond this instance. Have you ever found another Christian doing something that rubs you the wrong way? Whether it's intentional or a character flaw, it's a problem that's hard to approach. How do you tell someone that they're wrong? We need to keep in mind that we should speak the truth in grace (Ephesians 4:15), but we do need to speak the truth. One of my earliest posts on here was about flattery and I noted that not telling someone the truth about how you feel can have devastating effects, for them and others. The same goes here. If we aren't willing to step up to the plate and let people in on how we feel we can't make any progress towards helping them stop. Now that's assuming that there's actually a problem.

Often times we simply need to work it out in our own life first. Perhaps the fact that you're annoyed by someone is testament to your own selfishness. Certainly each situation is going to have different causes and different symptoms, but we need to be sure to search our own eyes for logs before we try telling other people that they have wood in their eye.

Do you know someone who doesn't know what you really think about them? Maybe it's time to let them know, to get the situation out in the light where it can be worked on together. If you keep your feelings inside it can easily turn into jealousy, anger, and other unhealthy emotions. The idea isn't that you get to vent and yell and finally tell someone off, but rather that you approach them as a concerned friend, seeking to help them. I am still trying to figure out how to do that, but one idea is using "I phrases" like, "When you say things like that, I feel like you are saying you're better than I am." Instead of, "You think you're better than I am!"

Let me know what you think about the way we hide our true feelings about others, do you think it should be made known? In what instances? Let's help build unity together!

Resolute

It's now that day of the year when people across the world, or at least America, will make their New Year's Resolutions, a promise to do something to better themselves. The first three commercials after the ball dropped in Times Square all used this as a selling point, the first being Weight Watchers, of course. This is good, I suppose, it's at least one time when people stop think about the state their life is in, but as with celebrating Christ's birth, I think it's something that shouldn't happen just once a year. From what I've seen these "New Year's Resolutions" don't last much beyond January, if that. If you really want to change you need to commit yourself to it daily. Find someone who will keep on your back about it and go to whatever lengths to eliminate temptation (for example, if you're gong to lose weight, don't buy potato chips). I would love nothing more than to see people be come better this year because of their resolutions, but if we aren't willing to be resolute about them, nothing is going to happen. So, take a look at your life, decide what needs to change and then make it happen. You can do it.