It may be the world’s biggest cliché, but I learn a lot from teaching. I worry about empowering my shy students and, recently, I’ve come across a truly Machiavellian way of encouraging them. The answer it to force *everyone* to sit on the edge of their chair.
No discrimination kiddos, you’re all going to make fools of yourselves in my class, even the confident ones. Then, after I’ve let the confident ones trip over a couple of times and the world does not fall apart, I invite the shy ones to give it a go. And if they trip over, big deal! After a few sessions like that, I’ve got all of them in the learning zone.
This incidentally, is why I sometimes dislike churches that “reach out” to vulnerable populations. These are full of confident types that never really trip over. Rather, they do the “reaching out”. Picture this: what would it do to my class if I told my confident student: “you’re really really good, why don’t you go help my weak student?”. I don’t know about you, but just the thought of doing this drives me nuts. No! no! NO!
So there, I don’t often like touchy-feely churches as there can be much undercurrent condescension in them. My approach would rather be to take everyone to high church. Because high church is the home of every baptised Christian and we don’t need cheapo “relevant” versions for the riffraff. High church is so reverential that we’re all sitting on the edge of our chair. High church enables the poor and vulnerable to construe the middle class folks as a fairly useless bunch of Christians, because they don’t have to be on the receiving end of their awful condescension.
This said, I’m actually a bit ambivalent about stating this. To be honest I don’t really know what I think, this is just my gut feeling. There is a saying in German that I really like: “Die kochen alle nur mit Wasser”. It translates roughly as “Everybody boils [pasta] with water”. The Germans say this when someone idealises someone else, or wonders what someone else has that they haven’t got. The answer is nothing. They tag along like everybody else; it’s all in your head. I wish we made it clear, with sackcloth and ashes, that we’re just tagging along. If it weren’t for the grace and mercy of God, no human being would ever stand a chance.
No discrimination kiddos, you’re all going to make fools of yourselves in my class, even the confident ones. Then, after I’ve let the confident ones trip over a couple of times and the world does not fall apart, I invite the shy ones to give it a go. And if they trip over, big deal! After a few sessions like that, I’ve got all of them in the learning zone.
This incidentally, is why I sometimes dislike churches that “reach out” to vulnerable populations. These are full of confident types that never really trip over. Rather, they do the “reaching out”. Picture this: what would it do to my class if I told my confident student: “you’re really really good, why don’t you go help my weak student?”. I don’t know about you, but just the thought of doing this drives me nuts. No! no! NO!
So there, I don’t often like touchy-feely churches as there can be much undercurrent condescension in them. My approach would rather be to take everyone to high church. Because high church is the home of every baptised Christian and we don’t need cheapo “relevant” versions for the riffraff. High church is so reverential that we’re all sitting on the edge of our chair. High church enables the poor and vulnerable to construe the middle class folks as a fairly useless bunch of Christians, because they don’t have to be on the receiving end of their awful condescension.
This said, I’m actually a bit ambivalent about stating this. To be honest I don’t really know what I think, this is just my gut feeling. There is a saying in German that I really like: “Die kochen alle nur mit Wasser”. It translates roughly as “Everybody boils [pasta] with water”. The Germans say this when someone idealises someone else, or wonders what someone else has that they haven’t got. The answer is nothing. They tag along like everybody else; it’s all in your head. I wish we made it clear, with sackcloth and ashes, that we’re just tagging along. If it weren’t for the grace and mercy of God, no human being would ever stand a chance.
1 comment:
We should try "adbusting" the condescending Christians by deconstructing their views. I can't stand top-down charity, the "cool" Christian types who broadcast their sensitivity and pride themselves for a week because they bought a burger for a homeless person.
This said, your comment is so ironic that I just have to love it!!! It's always fun to see two Chritians from radically different ends of the spectrum try to get along. It's like locking a cat and a dog in the same room for the first time! You're pretty affectionate when you talk about her and it just keeps cracking me up.
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