If God Is So Big

Every once in a while I like to ask children to jot down their questions about God. I have come to believe strongly, from evidence such as this, of children's capacity.  They are not empty vessels waiting for us to fill them.  They are active brains consistently making theories about what goes on in the world.  Their capacity to analyze, synthesize  and think critically does not begin at age 12 as Piaget postulated in his lockstep theory of cognitive development but rather from a very young age, perhaps as early as twelve months, they are conceptualizing what they see, hear, taste, touch and smell into logical theories. Lerner theorized that development is a unique, integrative process drawing from spiraling experiences and relationships.  

It helps to listen to their questions not only to catch where their miscalculations might be but also to know where awe and wonder will grasp their attention and motivate them to listen, experience and learn! We did it just this past Sunday.  Here are some questions from one small group of fourth grade girls:  

Questions about Physical How

How would it be like when you destroy the earth to make a new one?  

How did Jesus come to like again? 

How did you make food and live? 

How did you appear?

Why did God make dinosaurs? 

Theological Questions from Biblical Word

Who made God? 

Why did you create us?  Why did God make humans? 

Why did Jesus come back to life? 

Why is Sunday special and church? 

Deeply Social-Spiritual Analytical Questions

Why did God make us different? 

Why did my baby cousin have to leave the world? Why did my grandpa have to leave the world when my mom gave birth to me? 

 Why are people mean? 

Why do good people have bad luck? 

Why do bad people have good luck? 

How come if you know what is going to happen (bad things), why don't you stop it from happening? 

I find it humorous to contemplate why God made humans -- I sense He questions that decision rather frequently!  I know I would if I were Him -- but He is so much more loving and tolerant than I! 

I find it intriguing that the one girl asked not only why bad things happen to good people -- something we often try to address with kids --- but also why good things happen to bad people!  This is complex thinking!  

Our first tendency as adults, I have found, is to immediately try to answer their questions.  I propose we must take a different approach.  First ask the children, "Why do you think that happens?"  Then let other chime in with their theories.  We can always encourage them to think about what the Bible might say in this respect.  Only as a last resort should be "give the answer."  I say this partly because until we hear their theory, we only know half of what they are contemplating --- children generally have a theory before they ask a question but want to hear the adult response before they go out on a limb and risk  saying a wrong answer out loud.  Also, because until we hear their theory, we may not know the depth of their understanding and share too simplistic an answer.  Also, in their theory, it is often more obvious what "error" they might have in their analysis.  For example, the great question, "Why did God make us different?" could get us into the Tower of Babel and ya-di-ya-di-ya.  Their theory might be more in line with the question about "Why are people mean?" or 

I sense it also helps children for us not to give definite answers.  We could certainly launch into a discussion of free will with the question about why don't you stop bad things from happening.  I think help children more by having them think about where they could get an answer to their question.  Reading the Bible, contemplating, asking others, not just one person but several, discerning people who know the Bible well for example, will all be tools they can use with future difficult questions.  

Great thinkers, and I would suggest, great believers, ask great questions.  Let's build great thinking and believing within the children we serve.  Child discipleship is not simple, it IS rocket science!  

 Jesus Taught with Humility

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. - Matthew 11:29-30 NIV

Jesus, Immanuel, came to earth not on chariots or strands of gold as a heavenly King but as a humble baby (Mt. 1:22; 2:1).  His time on earth concludes with the other bookend of humility, the scene in the garden where Jesus asks God to remove the burden of death on a cross but if it cannot be so, then may God’s will be done (Mt 26:39-42).   Throughout His life with us, one consistent tenet was that of teaching with humility, with a humble heart.  

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” -C.S.Lewis in Mere Christianity

The most powerful presentation of the principle of Christian humility is when Jesus places the little child in the midst of the disciples (Mt. 18:1-5, 19:13-15; Mark 9:33-37, 10:13-16; Luke 9:46-48,  18:15-17).   Judith Gundry-Volf, in her outstanding article about Jesus’ view of children and the Kingdom of God teaches us that this is not only about the “first shall be last” but that children demonstrate “Entering the reign of God “as a child” thus seems to involve both a certain status-actual dependence on God - and a corresponding quality-trust-that are both “childlike.”   (Emphasis is my own.) 1

As I awoke for my first class in Ethiopia this July, I began a checklist of how ready and prepared I was for the class.  Underlying all of that busyness was, “Will they like me?  Will  I be good enough?”  God’s answer came loudly and clearly, “Wendy, this course is not about you. I needed no more reprimand.  I shifted my focus to sharing and bringing glory to God who revealed Himself through the Bible with students He called to come.  

How Did Jesus demonstrate humility in teaching?  We will all be able to gather our favorite stories of this.  Here are just a  couple of mine:

-Jesus drew His curriculum (His yoke) from their life experiences, from their daily lives;  He had to know their lives, He had to know them in order to do that; 

-Jesus used teachable moments that arose during His time with them (Samaritan woman in John 4:4-42;  Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s in Mark 12:17)

-Jesus let or used others to teach - as in the little child with the loaves and fishes (John 6), sending the 12 disciples out on a mission to reach others (Luke 9)

-Jesus asked open-ended questions that invited the disciples to analyze, synthesize, compare,  their own lives, teachings to the good news Jesus brought;  (Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? (Matt 12:48); But who do you say that I am? (Matt 16:15); What’s a good image for God’s kingdom? What parable can I use to explain it? (Mark 4:30); Salt is good, but what if salt becomes flat? (Mark 9:50); Does the law allow healing on the Sabbath or not? (Luke 14:3); Where can we buy enough food for them to eat? (John 6:5). Will you really lay down your life for me? (John13:38)

 C.S. Lewis suggests we are all prideful and conceited.  We want to be well-liked, well-respected, to prove we are knowledgeable, godly!  We even compete with other teachers to be the students’ favorite.  How instead, particularly in cross-cultural teaching do we identify strategies of teaching with humility and then allow the space within our curricula for those strategies to occur? 

1.  Gundry-Volf, Judith.   “To such as these belongs the Reign of God:  Jesus and Children,”  Theology Today.  56 (4). p. 474. January, 2000. 

What You Are Thinking...

Your Thinking Makes You What Your Are

A young Nursery teacher (children ages 4-5) told me yesterday that what makes a great teacher is to be crazy about what you are doing--TEACHING!  It is not just a profession, using my words, it must be your passion!  To explicate, she said, "Your thinking makes you what you are!" something she learned in the early childhood education program at Luteete Teacher's College here in Kampala.  

If you love to teach, you become a good teacher.  Let me delve into that further:  if you love to teach, you are happy when you are around children, they sense it and are their happiest ---and best behavior.  You have begun relationship building.  

The concept of emotional thought, an understanding of the brain's processing, speaks to this phenomenon.  If we are happy, rested, at ease, full of joy, we are more likely to be attentive to others, acutely sensorily aware, creative, responsive to others, problem-solvers--- all things that make us pleasant to be around. 

On the other hand, if we are filled with fear, anger, stress, our frontal cortex shuts down and we risk being disengaged, unthinking, inattentive, disorganized and unresponsive.  

If you love to teach, you prepare so that children's time is well-spent.  If you love to teach, you want to know what each child needs and you work hard until you can facilitate their learning through discovery.  

If you love to teach, you continuously teach and reflect, teach and reflect to learn what is working, what methods are not, and how to improve in your teaching practice--- and not just once, when you begin your career, but everyday, lifelong.  

From a personal slant, as she said those words, I was struck by the many emotions I have experienced since I arrived in Uganda:  joy, anticipation, awe and wonder, fear, frustration, annoyance, disappointment.  I think that when I step into a teaching/observing/learning mode, I regulate my emotion and give to the children or students, but inside, I know this is false reflection.  I want to only share joy with the teachers and children I meet.  The only way I can overcome the negative feelings is by building a stronger faith in God's love for me.  That is a lifelong task:  with every new experience, a new understanding can occur if we let it.  

I was reminded of the biblical guidance of Paul:  "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything is worthy of praise, dwell on these things.  These things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.  Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you (Phil. 4: 8-9).

I forget who wrote that the West can learn from Africa how to live with religious diversity.  I am amazed not at the conflict here, but the peace, if not mutual respect.   It tickled me that this same Muslim woman sang with the children --- and taught me-- a new song:

J is for Jesus

and O is for others

And Y Y Y is for 

U U U

And the word is JOY! 

LOVING Children?

That same wise, young headmaster told me, "A great teacher is one loves children!" I thought to myself, "Ho hum, here is the indiscriminate line we tell students never to use in a job interview."  But, aha!  He did just what we encourage students to do:  He went on to put that concept in concrete terms. 

He delineated:  "A great teacher is effective in observing and matching children's needs to her teaching methods because she truly wants to know each child and how she might best help them!  She is the one who feels with them, plays with them, eats with them!"

When I introduce the concepts of teaching, I share with students that my nearly 40 years has led me to perceive teaching is four essential components:    Knowledge, 

Skill

Art and 

Passion.

What this headmaster helped me see is that what has impressed me with the good teachers over the past week and what has disappointed me in the less than good is the presence or absence of passion---deep commitment to children and teaching/learning.  

The young teacher in her second year in the field whom I observed the second day was filled with passion to transform lives--- and the children felt it, believed in through her positive affect--- her smile, her expressive voice, her laughter, the way she engaged the children's experiences in her teaching, the way she sang and danced and played with them!  She asked them questions that challenged them to think creatively.  

I have only seen one or two teachers who used physical punishment with the children:  slapping their head over a mistake.  I try to put this in a cultural context:  many teachers learned this humiliation from their own childhood experiences---perhaps some even learned it from mission schools of the past century!  

But the tentative hypothesis I am at today---after a mere 7 days in the country---is that the good teachers, perhaps the great teachers, did not NEED to resort to physical punishment!  They had built relationships with the children which EXUDED respect and they offered experiences that were interesting and developmentally appropriate to the child!  

I invite my student teachers to ask themselves how much they enjoy being with children?  My observations so far have lent support for my theory:  if teachers are passionate about inspiring children to great things, the children will sense it and will respond wi attentiveness, their own explosion of joy:  my favorite sound continues to be the laughter of children within a school classroom!

Teaching or Inspiring?

A wise primary school headmaster I met yesterday told me, "Teaching is about touching children's lives. If you are a great teacher, you may transform their lives and inspire them to do greater things!" Conversely, he warned, "If we do badly, we help to create a bad society."
I visited the Uganda School for the Deaf* yesterday where about 219 children with hearing impairments are taught with 193 of them staying overnight in the dormitories. Most of the children have been referred by doctors, while some by teachers, neighbors but the children come from as far away as Kenya, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. One of the teachers took me on a tour and I remain unused to the stark conditions: no electricity in the classrooms, many children, the 3-5 year old classroom without toys but just wooden tables, benches and chalkboard. I met a young man from Germany who volunteered for the past year, through a German government grant program, to help in the classroom and with games after school---he is returning home tomorrow and will continue his instruction in deaf education.
Otherwise, there were outdoor toys. I was impressed to see an active knitting, weaving and crocheting program for deaf/blind children and fabric dying and a bakery. The headmaster, of sixteen years, has seen many children grow through the program, pass their entrance exams and then graduate from secondary school. However, he offered that few had been able to obtain a job.
As I walked towards the exit of the grounds, I asked my teacher-guide what drew him to work at the school? He responded: "But I must help!" Noblese oblige: those who can, give. I wonder whom or what inspired this young man to build a better world citizenry? I wonder whom each of us is inspiring or has inspired to build a compassionate society? How do we do that? Well, aha! Those are some of the things I had fun learning about while conducting the research for my dissertation!!!
* Of course, it is distressing to see children pulled out of their peer groups for education. I have seen a couple of examples of children with special needs included in the classroom. Hopefully, these young learners will grow into teachers who have the capacity to teach well in an inclusive setting.

81, 74, 60, 75, 67, 47,  50:   The numbers of children in each grade in the Police Barracks Children's Government School kindergarten through Grade 6 in Kampala.  Yes, there is only one teacher per classroom and no, they have no teaching materials.  This alone defines why so many parents, about half, struggle to pay school fees for their child to attend a private school.

The preschool program is in  one room about 10'x 12' and has no play materials, only wooden benches with half tables and 40 children ages 3-4 years.  Chalkboards, exercise books and pencils are the teachers' only tools. 

Police officers at recruited throughout the country and many come to Kampala for the academy and then work.  Their children come to e school adjacent to the barracks and often stay there through their primary school years.  The nice piece was that they could go home, right next door, during their recess break and check in with their family!

Yet again, I found teachers with an inner strength and passion for their work.  I found them to display positive affect with the children even though the guidance method of humiliation is infrequently used in the classroom as children guess wrong answers.  

I saw another couple  of great examples of teaching "in relationship" with the children.  In one class during their English lesson, the teacher was teaching the concept of "both" and "and".  Theology friends, you'll understand I was expecting a great discussion about the complexity of God's ways, but, no, this was a grammar lesson!

Without a textbook, the teacher used the children's family to make story exercises---she asked them for a sibling's name and what he or she liked to play.  She then created the example:  "Christine is singing.  Davis is singing.  Both Christine and Davis are signing."  The children were so eager to talk about their family and so attentive to the lesson!

In another class, the 7th graders were preparing for their secondary school entrance exams.  The teacher was going over sample exam questions many students had missed.  She introduced the reasons for flying the Ugandan flag at half-mast, a national day of mourning.  She told them Uganda flew the flag at half mast after September 11, 2011.  She then asked me to talk bout what it was like for me to experience the falling of the twin towers.  This was Antonio D'amasio's "emotional thought" in action:  with an emotionally laden story, they learned a new concept.  Beautifully, the teacher later rehearsed the ideas when talking about the need for countries to work in unity and cooperation for peace, not war.  We need to be friends and care when each other faces injustice or horror.  

I had so much fun in her class!  I also learned that the River Nile was named through cultural disconnect--- a frequent occurrence in world history!  Europeans came to Uganda in the first place seeking the source of the River.  Once found,  they asked the native people for the name of the river.  The natives replied, "Ni-le, Ni-le" which means, "I don't know, I don't know" in the Baganda language!  

I made it to Uganda!  After 28 hours of travel time I arrived in Kampala last night and into my room by midnight.  This morning I was fortunate to visit the Peace Nursery and Primary School in the Makarere neighborhood--you may have heard of Makarere University which we drove through this afternoon--established in 1922 with over 60,000 students today.

It is a primary school with 14 teachers from preschool through grade 4 and is funded partly by tuition and donations.  the classrooms had few supplies--- pencils had to be sharpened by the teacher  with a razor blade and each child had their name on a pencil.  All the posters were hand made by the  teachers. I saw no paint, paper, art materials, building blocks, dramatic play.

However, the children were delightful to be with--- they talked with me during their recess and I learned they mostly had at least two siblings, love to play soccer, volleyball and baseball in their free time and have aspirations to be doctors, lawyers, pilots and a rock star!

One teacher I observed reminded me of how important it is to establish meaningful relationships and offer challenging experiences.  The kids clearly knew she enjoyed being with them and put passion into her teaching of them.  She helped them believe learning is important.  She was talking with them about road transport.  Her questions included:  Name at least four methods of road transport.  Which ones are common in our community?  What causes road accidents?  How can you help prevent road accidents?  She went beyond the knowledge and comprehension questions to levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation!  I was impressed!

Obviously, I am struck by the contrast in classroom materials from ours in the US to here in Uganda. How much of what we have do we truly need AND how can teachers teach through relationships and experiences when they have no tools?


I'm not successful trying to load my photos from today.  I'll have to add them through Facebook!