Making it real for middle schoolers
Subject: Making it real for middle schoolers
"Before you dive, get the big picture."
Fellow Buzzards,
The past few weeks I've had five opportunities to address middle schoolers on the topic of worldviews.
What?!, you may ask. Are you nuts? What makes you think you can get middle schoolers to even listen to that kind of esoteric, intellectual stuff, let alone get them excited about the material?
I, too, have had my own misgivings about whether I could translate the concept of worldviews into a junior high context. (A note on terminology: I waffle between saying middle school and junior high, so please hang with me despite the inconsistency.)
I mean, these kids are in major transition. They can be very squirrely. They have short attention spans. And all the other reasons people write off middle schoolers.
But they're also undergoing major intellectual growth, awareness of the world around them and they have questions just like you and I do that should be respected.
Besides, with the world "getting smaller" through trade and technology, with our culture's increasing globalization and with the internet --not to mention TV, entertainment and public schools, which day in and day out are aggressively proselytizing for their own worldviews -- we MUST wise up and teach junior high kids how to think about all this diversity around them, all the competing ideas in the public square, all the voices saying that Christians are stupid, or dangerous, or violent, or anti-scientific, or hypocritical, or whatever the attack is.
As a matter of fact, I'm beginning to think it's almost too late to try to teach worldviews in high school or college (although it's desperately needed there). The place this worldview approach -- comparing and contrasting God's truth versus the alternative "truths" out there -- may be MOST needed is with our middle school students.
Judging from the responses to my presentations in the past five sessions with middle schoolers, I think I've found a way to get through to them.
When I address middle schoolers, in content I stick to the early chapters of Blah, Blah, Blah, specifically chapters 1 through 6. These chapters are the basis for the rest of the book, but for the most part they're accessible to the middle school mind.
These chapters employ illustrations that are familiar to kids: children's books, films, movies and popular culture. I'm not blowing them out of the water with all the jargon of comparative religions. I'm just breaking it down and making it so simple that with minimal effort just about anyone can undertand it.
I also try to have a lot of interaction and fun with the audience. It shows that you care for people when there's back and forth between you and them, rather than all of it being one-way communication.
It's critical for the Church to make a concerted effort to teach the biblical worldview to middle schoolers by means of acquainting them with the major alternative worldviews and how the biblical does a better job of answering the biggest questions we have as human beings. I hope you agree and will join me in helping reach junior high/middle school kids with this message.
"Before you dive, get the big picture."
Fellow Buzzards,
The past few weeks I've had five opportunities to address middle schoolers on the topic of worldviews.
What?!, you may ask. Are you nuts? What makes you think you can get middle schoolers to even listen to that kind of esoteric, intellectual stuff, let alone get them excited about the material?
I, too, have had my own misgivings about whether I could translate the concept of worldviews into a junior high context. (A note on terminology: I waffle between saying middle school and junior high, so please hang with me despite the inconsistency.)
I mean, these kids are in major transition. They can be very squirrely. They have short attention spans. And all the other reasons people write off middle schoolers.
But they're also undergoing major intellectual growth, awareness of the world around them and they have questions just like you and I do that should be respected.
Besides, with the world "getting smaller" through trade and technology, with our culture's increasing globalization and with the internet --not to mention TV, entertainment and public schools, which day in and day out are aggressively proselytizing for their own worldviews -- we MUST wise up and teach junior high kids how to think about all this diversity around them, all the competing ideas in the public square, all the voices saying that Christians are stupid, or dangerous, or violent, or anti-scientific, or hypocritical, or whatever the attack is.
As a matter of fact, I'm beginning to think it's almost too late to try to teach worldviews in high school or college (although it's desperately needed there). The place this worldview approach -- comparing and contrasting God's truth versus the alternative "truths" out there -- may be MOST needed is with our middle school students.
Judging from the responses to my presentations in the past five sessions with middle schoolers, I think I've found a way to get through to them.
When I address middle schoolers, in content I stick to the early chapters of Blah, Blah, Blah, specifically chapters 1 through 6. These chapters are the basis for the rest of the book, but for the most part they're accessible to the middle school mind.
These chapters employ illustrations that are familiar to kids: children's books, films, movies and popular culture. I'm not blowing them out of the water with all the jargon of comparative religions. I'm just breaking it down and making it so simple that with minimal effort just about anyone can undertand it.
I also try to have a lot of interaction and fun with the audience. It shows that you care for people when there's back and forth between you and them, rather than all of it being one-way communication.
It's critical for the Church to make a concerted effort to teach the biblical worldview to middle schoolers by means of acquainting them with the major alternative worldviews and how the biblical does a better job of answering the biggest questions we have as human beings. I hope you agree and will join me in helping reach junior high/middle school kids with this message.
posted by fangorn at 9:15 PM
