Saw this bookshelf in our local 'Oxfam' charity store recently.. a big gap when it came to books on 'religion'!
Unfortunately, there is a big gap for religion / faith / spirituality in many people's hearts and souls, and it is at the root of lots of problems in Britain. Of course, a lot of people are religious, but has it transformed their life, or is it helping them become more loving, caring and tolerant? Some expressions of faith are directed towards a seeming intolerance of others, and this is why many other things may sometimes hide under a religious mask. We cannot point the finger at any one faith, and indeed, I have met many an intolerant Christian. However, I make no excuse for being a committed Christian myself - for the values that Jesus Christ modeled are those of love, faith, acceptance and caring for others - the values that I seek to emulate, however poorly, in my own life and in my teaching practice.
It is less about 'preaching' and more about 'living', and for this very reason, (since we are considering ways to improve teaching practice) I refuse to make this blog a 'secular' thing. The spiritual is easily divided from the whole person, and the idea of excluding 'godly' values and virtues from our educational system is hogwash. However unpopular the notion may be, there is an objective 'right' and 'wrong' out there, and the Ten Commandments are a good place to start... provided we remember that it is only those of us 'without sin' who have the entitlement to 'cast the first stone'. I don't know where you stand, but it means that while I learn to hate every manifestation of sin (teenage knife crime, for example?) as a follower of Christ, I am free to love the sinner.
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2 comments:
Brother John A prayer b4 starting the discussion is like taming or neutralizing the different "off-beat" emotions of the students! It is such a silence lesson, and this has good effect on every child... I have done an "experiment" to prove the effects of 'teaching with a prayer' and 'teaching without prayer'. And with all due respect i must say the result was that the latter failed the teaching-learning process! Most of the pupils were restless and they seemed they cant catch up with the lesson they hardly can answer even a simple question ... So to conclude this, its still best to seek God's presence & guidance to do a service that will please people and God most of all!
This is brilliant.. Thank you so much for your comments!
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