Ego-centrism and Teaching

Ruined by Knowledge--How ego-centrism affects teaching.

Future Self

The Psychology of Your Future Self: Dan Gilbert

Fascinating talk on how our projection about how much we will change is very very wrong. Great video to use in guidance.

Authentic Humility

"[A]uthentic humility is simply an attempt to see ourselves as we really are. Applied to our thinking, this means an uncompromisingly honest appraisal of the capacities and limitations of our minds against the standard of an all-knowing, infinitely intelligent and always true God. This reality check can be simultaneously heartening and sobering.

According to the Bible, we are created in God's image. This means that we are born as rational and creative beings with capacity to find and apply truth. This should be a source of immense encouragement to us. However, Scripture and reality both teach that our minds are also finite and tainted by the effects of sin, giving us good reason to approach both out own reasoning and the knowledge of others with a healthy degree of skepticism."

Philip E. Dow, Virtuous Minds: Intellectual Character Development

Use of Talents

The Parable of the Talents
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that placethere will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Something new struck me about this parable today. The master gives out the talents, giving more to those who have the ability to use them, and expects them to use them. However, what suddenly came into my mind, was that the master doesn't tell the servants what to do with their talents. Yes, he expects the servants to use them, develop them in some way, and show a profit at the end, but he doesn't tell them how. There's a wide open door here, which really opens up a lot of possibilities for how we view our students and their gifts.

Using your gifts and talents is not necessarily only about sharing them with others, for example, having a gift for things musical. Just because you have a lot of talent for piano or singing or violin or. . . doesn't mean that this must be the focus of your life. You may have other talents that also need development, and your music may be one of the ways you learn the various skills that will benefit you in these other areas as well. Just because you have a lot of talent in one area or another, doesn't mean you must spend your life on it. That might mean stunting the growth of other talent areas in your life.

The unworthy servant doesn't do anything with his--doesn't even put it in the bank so it collects interest (develop it in a minor way--taking piano lessons, for example) and this is why he is cast out. It's the fact that he didn't do anything with it at all that is the problem. Not using what you have been given, but squandering it or hiding it in the ground is the sin here. Our talents are gifts from God--His property, loaned to us until His return--and it is our responsibility to steward and develop them for His glory. He has given us the talent, but how we develop it is primarily left up to us--as long as we are developing them in God-honouring and glorifying ways, we are doing His will.

Personal Qualities Not Measured by Tests

Just a reminder for myself that I need to be making this clear to my students. The marks we give are not a mark for who they are, but for what they've done. Marks do not define the person.
This is also part of Daring Greatly--developing the above qualities--this what it is to be human.

Are we fostering some of the above qualities? Perhaps, but perhaps not for the right reasons. Students might develop self-discipline out of fear of failure. They might be reliable because they are afraid if they aren't, they won't be loved.

I struggle a lot with the feeling that schools are too much like factories. We don't allow the students to develop and learn in a natural way, but we push them through the system. You have to complete the curriculum, do the tests, report on their progress, do the exams, and pass them on to the next tier.

It doesn't feel like there is room  in high school for pursuing personal interests and going deep into topics that the students engage with. I wish there was a course that could just be individually-focused and -directed. Like a full year ISU, but the students would be self-directed and able to explore pathways of interest as they come up. They could write journals/blogs and do presentations and write essays and make videos, etc. and these would be used to assess them. It would be like grad school, I guess, where they would defend their "thesis" --the body of work they create-- at the end.
Maybe it wouldn't work for everyone, maybe there would be too much leeway and some people would be lost without guidelines. That, I guess, would be where their mentor/teacher would come in--to provide structure if necessary.
Maybe this is just an INTP dream. . .

Just some things running through my brain at present.