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Resources mentioned in this episode

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Be sure to listen to the full episode! You can also use these time stamps to jump to a specific section of the conversation.

(These timestamps are from the podcast episode above and vary slightly from the video below)

• We are one race and one people with one Savior. (05:23)
• We always need to look at culture through the lens of Scripture. (08:01)
• Because of the reconciliation available from our hearts to God through Christ, we are now brought into the family of God. We are reconciled together as brothers and sisters. (08:57)
• The separation and division present in culture should not be present in the church. (13:00)
• The book of Ruth gives us a familial principle telling us how we should treat one another. (16:30)
• Our definition of justice should come from Scripture, not culture. (19:15)
• Conversations around inequitable outcomes do not always value the dignity and worth of a human person. (22:24)
• Fear, suspicion, media, and definitions in culture are obstacles to racial unity. (23:41)
• We are all created with equal dignity, value, and worth as image bearers. (27:46)
• Ask the Lord to search your heart and uncover unconscious bias. (30:42)
• The early church had to stay and work unity out; they couldn’t switch to the church across the street if they didn’t like something. (35:40)
• Christian school teachers can help their students pursue Biblical unity by helping them understand their identity in Christ, emphasizing human worth as image bearers, treating the classroom as a community of brothers and sisters, and helping them understand objective truth. (40:50)
• In the public school classroom, we can teach our students to treat each other equally because we are all human. We teach forgiveness, grace, and patience, which help build unity. (46:34) 
• There will come a time when teachers will have to take a stand on whether or not to teach things that are antithetical to Scripture. The church needs to rally around these teachers as a faith community. (50:40)

resources mentioned:

How to Pursue Racial Unity (The Gospel v. Critical Race Theory)

Rise Up Christian Educators Summit

Interested in more?

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the love learning together system

We start with classroom management because it is really the foundation. Without it, things fall apart, teachers get frustrated, and students can’t learn. You can’t tackle student engagement or other classroom problems if you haven’t first established order in your classroom. If your class is chaotic, every other aspect of teaching is way more difficult. But once you solve classroom management, you solve a lot of other problems and lay a foundation that allows you to work on the next thing. 

Classroom management can be tough to learn on your own using lots of trial and error. The mentorship program (The Mentorship has been replaced by Teach 4 the Heart+. Check it out here!) gives you the tools you need quickly to flatten that learning curve. Two keys to classroom management are:

1. Having clear expectations and
2. Holding students to them

This is simple (only 2 steps!), but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Classroom management is really nuanced and sometimes you can be doing a lot of things right, but just one missing element can really frustrate your best efforts and throw everything off. 

find balance

Once your classroom management is on a good path, it’s time to focus on balance for yourself. If you’re continually overwhelmed, stressed, and working too many hours, you’re going to burn out fast. You’re also not bringing your best self to your students. You’re going to have low energy and be irritable. Your key roles outside of the classroom will suffer (roles such as church member, spouse, parent, etc.).

Finding balance isn’t saying, “I’ll only work these certain hours;” it’s about devoting time to the right things. You need to spend your time on the things that actually matter and really help your students. 

We need a rhythm other than constant exhaustion. There are some years, like your first year teaching or teaching during a pandemic, that require extra time, but that’s short-term. Long-term, you have to find a pace that is sustainable and 100% do-able. The keys to this are:

1. Intentionality and
2. Creativity

Intentionality means setting our schedule by prioritizing the most important things in school and home. Creativity means thinking, "How can I accomplish this goal without it taking so much time?”

engaging our students

This is the step where you start looking at your actual teaching. Are the students involved, active, and learning what I’m teaching? If not, what can I do to pull them in and keep them motivated, engaged, and wanting to learn?

Our goal is to create a class that students enjoy and want to be a part of. That doesn’t mean that you sacrifice academics for fun. The goal is learning, not fun, but you want to set the class up in such a way that most students enjoy the class. Think back to when you were a student in the classes you enjoyed- sometimes they were classes with the most work, but the class was well-done and you were learning and doing things that felt interesting and relevant.

You want a class that students look back on in 5 years and think, “Wow, that was a good class.” The immediate response of students can be hit or miss and lacking immaturity, so it's better to think of them in 5 years than currently. 

How do you create a class that is engaging? We go back to that first step of classroom management. Students don’t like a class that is out of control. It doesn’t foster learning, it creates stress, and it erodes respect for the teacher. That’s why classroom management is the first step.

The second question is, “How do I make sure this material is understandable?” A lot of problems arise when students are confused about what they’re learning. We need to teach the material in a way that they “get it,” otherwise, it’s very disengaging and leads to students goofing off instead. At least 75-80% of students should be tracking with you while you teach. If not, you need to go back and re-teach that material. No other engagement strategies will work if your students don’t understand what they’re learning.

Staying strong as a teacher

We best serve our students when we prioritize our own physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness rather than running ourselves ragged.

If you’re a Christian teacher, your spiritual walk is perhaps your most overlooked asset as a teacher. We need God and we need to work in partnership with Him. Your relationship with Christ is key to everything in this system.

We also need to learn how to process our anxieties and frustrations so that they don’t overwhelm us. We have to learn to trust God and surrender to Him. This allows us to work from a place of joy, rather than a place of stress.

Our physical wellbeing is important, too, because it affects our energy level, which is really necessary in teaching. Sometimes small changes can make a big difference, like drinking enough water, taking supplements, getting enough sleep, exercising, and good nutrition.

reaching their hearts

This is the whole point, right? The whole reason we became teachers was to make a difference and true lasting change happens on a heart level. When we create a classroom environment that is controlled, when we have balance in our own lives and are spending our time on what matters most, when our students are engaged and learning, when we have prioritized our physical and emotional wellness, we are going to make a powerful difference.

We need to realize as Christians that our lives aren’t split. Spiritual life and work life are not separate. Everything we do is tied together and everything in this system is tied together as well. Every area that we work on allows us to make a bigger difference in what is most important to us- reaching our students. 

resources mentioned:

Free On-Demand Training: How to Reduce Disruptions without Yelling, Begging, or Bribing

Teach 4 the Heart Mentorship Program (The Mentorship has been replaced by Teach 4 the Heart+. Check it out here!)

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a common question about diversity in the classroom

1. Many biases result from misunderstanding- Sadly, racism and bias still happen. Many people still look down on others based on their race, nationality, or culture. The world sees color, even if you individually don’t. If this weren’t the case, maybe we could simply ignore race. But since racism IS happening, we need to be active in opposing it.

Biases often result from misunderstanding someone else. Not every student lives in a diverse area and interacts with others who are different than them, so we need to be proactive in providing diverse content. By diversifying our books, stories, etc., we can help our students better understand and appreciate each other rather than stereotyping or judging. 

2. We should celebrate God’s beautiful diversity- God has given us beautifully different cultures and experiences, and our lives and education are enriched for seeing and understanding them. Acknowledging someone’s differences (and different doesn’t mean bad!) helps validate their experience. Stories also often show us that, though we are different, we experience the same emotions. They help us celebrate both our differences AND our shared similarities.  
3. Diversity rarely happens without intentionality- It may feel strange at first to intentionally seek out books or pictures that portray POC (people of color), but ask yourself, “Does my library naturally reflect diverse cultures without my being intentional about it?” If so, then great! But chances are, it doesn’t. Chances are, if you look at it, it’s NOT diverse. There’s a variety of reasons for this, but the point is that if it’s not happening naturally, then we have to infuse intentionality to make it happen. All your students need to see that people who look like them write books and have done amazing things. On the flip side, they also need to know that people who don't look like them write books and do amazing things. Don’t assume your students already know this.  

If you want to explore this question further, Neil Shenvi quite helpfully examines all angles in his articles here and here.

The point is, within the classroom, it's probably not helpful to completely ignore our cultural and ethnic differences but to instead embrace and celebrate them. Here are 7 ways to do this:

7 ways to embrace diversity in the classroom

1. Diversify classroom libraries and signage

Be sure that you intentionally incorporate a variety of perspectives and authors in your classroom libraries, including abilities (people with disabilities are not always represented). When choosing cultural texts, ensure that there is more than one perspective. For example, if there is a book about slavery, make sure there are also people and accomplishments mentioned from that era (Phyllis Wheatley or Congo Square for example). Traditional African books, the Harlem Renaissance, and biographies about leaders and inventors of color are all ways to diversify the narrative. Make sure your books don’t just focus on the hardships of a certain race or culture, but also their accomplishments. Need ideas? Start with our book list at the bottom of this article. 

When students are looking around, staring off in the distance even, what do they see? Are they looking at a diverse set of faces that reflect American society or do all the faces represent one group? If you don’t have images, do you have quotes that are representative people of various perspectives and backgrounds?

2. Choose diverse books for read-alouds and assigned readings

It’s important that engagement and recognition of all voices is not simply a passive approach. You don't need to make an announcement about  "honoring all voices this year” (unless of course you choose), but it should be observable. Your actions are what students believe to be more authentic than just your words. Books we choose to read as educators or assign students to read on their own should be intentionally diversified on our part until it is a part of the norm and will no longer require much thought.

An example of this is when Kipp Charter schools had a unit on artists as part of their 3rd grade ELA curriculum. In that unit, the students studied the books Emma’s Rug (about a young Chinese girl finding artistic inspiration), When Marian Sang (about singer Marian Anderson who sang in pre-Civil Rights America), A River of Words (about poet William Carlos Williams) and Action Jackson (about Jackson Pollock). Not only were the types of art diversified, but so were the artists themselves. Marian Anderson was discriminated against, which came up during the study, in addition to the other artists’ experiences. All of their lives and experiences were explored within the context of the reading.

For older kids there are a variety of books as well, The House on Mango Street (about a Chicana girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago), The Bluest Eye (about an African-American girl in 1941), and The Scarlet Letter (themes of discrimination) are all popular choices. 

Click here to view our full list of book recommendations.

3. Celebrate heritage months

If it’s not already weaved into the curriculum (we will talk more about that later), Heritage Months are a great way to celebrate diversity in the classroom and place a variety of cultures in a positive light. We will also learn more ourselves as we research. If we’re not used to doing this, it can be easily forgotten, so it’s best to plan over the summer or during the overall unit planning.

Recognizing Heritage Months can be as simple or as elaborate as you like. You can:

• Welcome guest speakers or performers to share their experience first-hand.
• If you or a staff member are used to creating performances and assemblies, have the students perform work written by someone from the culture being represented. This could be music, poetry, speeches, research spoken in the form of living museums, etc. If you have older kids, encourage them to show their talents by writing or choreographing their own work based on a topic or representation from the culture and put it together as a review.
• Be sure to include books and assign homework readings, projects or bell ringers for a brief discussion that focus on a new figure or key point throughout the month.
• Highlight one key figure a day over the PA (Public Announcement) system in a 2-3 minute announcement. You can choose reliable students, fellow teachers, or get your class covered to get the announcement done. It’s best to plan all key figures for the month at one time so as not to run out of time or people to announce.
• Decorate a bulletin board or your door to highlight something from the culture being represented. This is a great time to get adult family members and/or students involved. You can provide the supplies and give them creative freedom as you continue to teach or tackle other tasks. If your school is willing, you can have a door decorating contest and the winning class can win a treat or special privilege.

The key to this is to dive deeper than usual into the cultures, and not just focus on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or even Black History Month. Celebrate Women’s History Month where you can most definitely include white women and underrepresented cultures. If you try to incorporate them all (even if you first start with one and build each year), you are then showing that all contributions are valuable.

The current Heritage Months include:

September 15th-October 15th Hispanic Heritage Month
October- Italian American Heritage Month                                                                November- Native American Heritage Month
February- Black History Month
March- Women’s History Month
May- Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month

Celebrating other cultures changes the narratives that one culture or group is more valuable than another. We can’t take for granted that students know more than what they see on the news or even hear from certain family members. If students are only seeing white males as leaders, authority figures or people to be respected, how will non-white male students perceive their own opportunities? How do we really know that students are seeing everyone as equally valuable and great contributors to the American fabric? We as teachers know that students’ thoughts taking shape today can have an impact on their lives tomorrow.

4. reflect diversity during performances

Beyond Heritage Months, if you are a music teacher, theater teacher or you study plays and art in your classes, try ensuring that you include work from a variety of artists if you haven’t already.

For example, you can pick a theme and explore it across genres and cultures throughout the year. For example, with the theme “love and hate,” your class can explore Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, and Once on this Island. In this, students can see the differences between Italian, Hispanic, White American, and Haitian cultures, but also the sameness of the human experience. After this, students can write their own pieces based on the theme to validate their own creativity and lived experiences. Hearing from students (not in a way to single them out) validates their experiences and we all learn from each other as well.

If you are using scripted plays and choose not to blind cast (but stick with the races represented in the play), it’s really important to diversify the plays. If there is not enough representation in your student body, please don’t be afraid to blind cast. Taren once played Hamlet in High School even though she’s an African-American female. Other students assumed that one of her white male peers would land the role but luckily the casting directors looked past race and gender. This is one time when being what the world calls "colorblind" can be positive- to make sure we are providing the same opportunities to all students. Remember, however, to be aware of avoiding cultural appropriation with certain songs or plays. 

5. Encourage classroom community

We all know that our classroom community is important. You can help build positive relationships among classmates with these ideas. 

• It’s important for students to feel included even with uniqueness. If they are being excluded or singled out by peers, let students know it’s inappropriate and leave it as that. Do not use that as a time to go on and on about inclusion. Perhaps it will be something to come back to at another time in a way that the student doesn’t feel singled out. 
• Have a class ritual where there are times when you’ll ask about their weekend, break or what they had for dinner, something common about their lives that may have uniqueness within. You will be surprised at what you begin to discover and can keep in mind as you continue to share the space together. 
• Talk about current news topics and listen to their perspective. If you hear anything problematic, encourage them to see the other perspective or to think objectively.
• Encourage students to build relationships with each other. Everyone has good and bad traits. If someone does something inappropriate or makes someone else uncomfortable, teach them not to fall into the habit of relying on an authority figure to intervene but to look out for each other, assume the best (maybe the intention wasn’t the way it seemed), and to tell the other person what they need to have happen in order to move forward. For example, “I felt frustrated when you took my pencil during group work” or “You know that was my pencil right? Next time can you ask first, even if you were just planning to use it for a second?” We’ve seen in recent events situations escalating because people don’t know how to talk to each other and advocate for themselves in a peaceful way. We can teach students to work with each other, rather than build up walls. 
• Learn to properly pronounce students’ names. Dismissing it as too hard is dismissing a part of them and can be disrespectful. Also, ask yourself, is it really that hard? If it really is, respectfully ask if they go by a nickname. If not, remember we ask them to challenge themselves daily. This would be a good time for us to do the same.
• Use students’ names during word problems or examples you create during math and other subjects where names are typically generic or not representative of different cultures.
• Think about changing exclusive language. For example, change language from “Mom and Dad” to “Family.” You could say, “Remember to invite your families’ or ‘…the adults at home to the awards ceremony.’

6. Evaluate Dress code

If you are responsible for enforcing or maintaining a dress code, be sure that the parameters are meaningful and purposeful and not based on cultural preferences or an unconscious preference for assimilation. For example, most African-American hair grows in a manner similar to an afro in its natural or ‘wash and go’ state. The best way to “manage” it is typically not a pony tail.

Cultural techniques have included relaxers to make the hair appear straight and to easily manage, but techniques also include braids, twists and dreadlocks to name a few. These things don’t necessarily relate to education but it’s important to be aware that such differences exist and may not always be what society has deemed as “professional.” However, some dress codes surrounding hair style preferences may very well be exclusive. The same is true for cultures or religions (even represented in Christian schools) that require head covering.

7. expand the Curriculum

It’s not uncommon to hear in the adult world, “I didn’t learn that in school” across racial backgrounds. In some areas, we think it’s the parents’ jobs and in turn, the parents leave it up to the schools. This includes children growing up without a typical family structure. In the end, whose job is it to teach race and inclusion? Do we really live in a society where adults grow up and dismiss one’s humanity, especially when they are different? For some of us, we inadvertently benefit from such a society where we can carry on without a care. However, as teachers, we are at a great vantage point to truly see the humanity in all people and encourage our students to do the same, so that they learn that anything less is unacceptable. 

We must educate ourselves to expand the curriculum. Let’s not glaze over parts of American History that consists of one page mentioning minority cultures. Let’s really consider the questions: “What were other cultures doing at each point in history?” and “What contributions did they make?” Let’s weave that into our lessons. If you find that to be challenging with time constraints, homework and bell ringers are reliable ways until you can incorporate more. 

If we don’t see diversity in the classroom as important, we must ask ourselves, “Why?” It’s not enough to “not see color.” The truth is, the world does and by saying you don’t see it, you are denying the richness of the diversity and the unique challenges it also brings growing up in our society. It doesn’t teach children that all people have contributed to society, some that look like them and some that do not. Seeing color shows that we recognize each other’s cultures and don’t have to be the same color to value each other, live, study, and work together. It shows that difference isn’t bad. It’s good as it brings fresh perspectives and ideas. 

List of diverse books for the classroom

A great place to start when diversifying your classroom library is by looking at race-based awards for book ideas such as the Coretta Scott King Book Award, Pura Belpre Award, Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the American Indian Youth Literature Award. The books below have been recommended by fellow teachers. 

Disclaimer: We have not vetted all of these book choices. Please use your discretion and district guidelines when selecting books.

Elementary

A Bad Case of the Stripes 

A Bike Like Sergio’s

Ada Twist: Scientist

All the Colors We Are (Also in Spanish)

Addy: Finding Freedom (and sequel A Heart Full of Hope)

Kaya: The Journey Begins (and sequel Smoke in the Wind)

Josefina: Sunlight and Shadows (and sequel Second Chances)

Nanea: The Spirit of Aloha (and sequel Hula for the Home Front)

Bud, Not Buddy

Cece Loves Science

Libby Loves Science

Dumpling Soup

Each Kindness

Erandi’s Braids

Follow the Drinking Gourd

Hair Like Mine (and sequel Skin Like Mine)

Hair Love

Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Henry’s Freedom Box

How Many Days to America?: A Thanksgiving Story

I Am Enough

I Got the Rhythm

Jabari Jumps (and sequel Jabari Tries)

Kitchen Dance

Mary Had a Little Glam

Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters

My Mommy is a Nurse

My Mommy is a Teacher

Something from Nothing

The Color of Us

The King of Kindergarten

The New Kid on the Block

The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family

The Princess and the Warrior: A Tale of Two Volcanoes

Those Shoes

Wonder

Meet Yasmin! (There are more than 12 books in this series!)

middle school

Jefferson’s Sons: A Founding Father’s Secret Children (extramarital relations implied)

A Good Kind of Trouble

A Long Walk to Water

Blended

Genesis Begins Again

Ghosts

Ghost Boys

I Am Malala

I Never Saw Another Butterfly

My Life as an Ice cream Sandwich

Number the Stars

One Crazy Summer

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

The Stars Beneath Our Feet

The Turtle of Oman

Tight

high school

Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance

Black Boy (sexual content)

Brown Girl Dreaming

Bud, Not Buddy

Clap When You Land

Dear Martin (explicit language)

Erased

Leah on the Offbeat

Long Way Down

Night

The Hate You Give (explicit language)

The House on Mango Street

With Fire on High

christian

Clubhouse Jr. (Christian Magazine)

Different Like Me

He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands

Good News! God Made me! 

One Big Heart: A Celebration of Being More Alike than Different

Children of God Storybook Bible

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name

When God Made the World

When God Made Me

When I Pray for You

I Am, God’s Affirmations for Little Girls

I Am, God’s Affirmations for Little Boys

When Daddy Prays

God’s Dream

The Watcher

Beautiful Moon

The World is Awake

When God Made Light

Maybe I Can Love My Neighbor, Too

Early Sunday Morning

Who Will I Be, Lord?

The Creation

God’s Very Good Idea

A Very Noisy Christmas

A Very Happy Easter

The Tiny Truths Illustrated Bible

A Saint in the City: Stories of Champions from the Barrio

The Prince Warriors (series)

for more book ideas...

• Any books by the authors Jacqueline Woodson, Kwame Alexander, and Saadia Faruqi
• 30 page (paid) booklist from The Tutu Teacher
• Booklist from Social Justice Books

If you want to learn more about racial unity, check out the articles How to Pursue Racial Unity (The Gospel vs. Critical Race Theory) and How to Cross the Street on Race & Take a Restorative Approach to Discipline. 

If you want to learn more about racial unity, check out the articles How to Pursue Racial Unity (The Gospel vs. Critical Race Theory) and How to Cross the Street on Race & Take a Restorative Approach to Discipline. 

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This article may contain affiliate links. This means that if you purchase a resource after clicking the link, Teach 4 the Heart may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for helping support Teach 4 the Heart in this way.

*We are excited to partner with Providential Living, who sponsored this podcast episode. At their website, you can find detailed lesson plans to accompany the book The Guy's Guide to God, Girls and the Phone in Your Pocket.*

The Woke movement vs. biblical truths:

two perspectives on race, justice & unity

If you've paid much attention to the Woke movement, you're probably learning a lot! But much of this movement is underpinned by a philosophy called Critical Race Theory. Here's how it compares to the Gospel in different areas:

an overview of both worldviews

Let's start with a basic overview of Critical Race Theory and then look at the basic overview of the Gospel. 

what is Critical race theory?

what is the gospel?

The gospel is good news—the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ.

The Bible depicts human beings, all human beings everywhere, as in revolt against God, and therefore under his judgment. But although God stands over us in judgment because of our sin, quite amazingly he stands over us in love, because he is that kind of God—and the gospel is the good news of what God, in love, has done in Jesus Christ, especially in Jesus’s cross and resurrection, to deal with our sin and to reconcile us to himself.

Christ bore our sin on the cross. He bore the penalty, turned aside God’s judgment, God’s wrath, from us, and cancelled sin. The brokenness of our lives he restores; the shattered relationships he rebuilds in the context of the church; the new life that we human beings find in Christ is granted out of the sheer grace of God. It is received by faith as we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus. We confess him as Lord, and bow to him joyfully.

One day he will make all things new. The good news culminates in a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness, where neither sin nor any of its effects can survive, and where we enjoy the presence of God forever in the context of resurrection existence.

(Quoted from The Gospel Coalition)

application

These two view clearly look at the world from vastly different perspectives. As Christians, we must look through the lens of Gospel to determine how we should be handling things today. This is how we bring scripture to the culture rather than the culture to the scripture.

The practicalities of this, though, become extremely nuanced. Take, for example, the Black Lives Matter movement. As Christians we should certainly agree that black lives do matter and care about and pursue needed reforms. However, at the same time, we would reject significant portions of the platform of the official Black Lives Matter organization which is, in many cases, inconsistent with Biblical teaching.

The fundamental problem of racism

Let's compare what each viewpoint considers to be the core problem in regards to racism.

critical race theory

The fundamental problem according to CRT is “whiteness,” the system that continues to oppress people of color. 

The gospel

application

Many Christians who consider themselves social justice warriors may not even know about Critical Race Theory. They simply see injustices happening and agree it’s wrong and something needs to be done. They want to fight back against racism and inequality. 

However, looking at the Gospel, we see that changing hearts is what changes systems, and there can be no true lasting reform without heart change.

Many people have a heart for injustice and want to fight it, but that can lead to joining a movement without considering all aspects of it. If we don’t have clarity on these matters and the true fundamental problem, we run the risk of bringing something toxic into the church and sabotaging our hope for unity. If it’s not God’s way, it might make a little bit of change, but it won't ultimately solve the problems and produce the lasting harmony we all desire.

the solution to racism

Let's see where each viewpoint looks for the solution:

critical race theory

CRT says the answer is to become woke, to understand oppression, divest yourself of whiteness, become anti-racist, and do the work of actively dismantle racism and racist structures.

the gospel

The answer according to Scripture is Jesus - understanding my own sin, repenting of my sin, getting into a relationship with Jesus, following the laws of Christianity, and allowing the Holy Spirit to change my heart.

application

The starting point has to be Jesus. Culture does not have the answer to bring us to unity, but the Gospel does. Solving the problem of racism isn't completed when we accept Jesus, but it starts when we accept Jesus. The Holy Spirit then changes our hearts, shows us how we need to change personally and where we should be involved in broader social change.

Without Jesus we aren't able to produce the change that the world desperately needs. Secular humanism says we must try harder, choose to be good. But that will never be enough. Our human efforts will never accomplish for us the heart change that only the blood of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit can produce.

the ultimate goal

What is each viewpoint trying to accomplish? What is their ultimate goal for society?

critical race theory

The ultimate goal is Utopia, where everything is equal among all races, where everyone has the same results.

the gospel

The ultimate goal in Christianity is to come into fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

application

The dream of Utopia is in all of our hearts because God has placed it here, and we will one day experience it when King Jesus reigns. But it's tragically ironic that while our society desperately wants that Utopia, they reject God's rule, which is the only way to ever accomplish it. 

That’s why the church can and should be a shining picture of the unity we can have when God is on the throne.

Once we fully accept Jesus and have the fruit of the Spirit, He leads us to want to love and help. If we think about the Good Samaritan story in the Bible that Jesus told, we are given an example of how we should live our lives, looking out for the interest of others, despite their race, ethnicity, or nationality.  We should love equally, just as God loves us equally.

what about justice and  oppressive systems?

Scripture affirms the importance of justice and denounces partiality. In this, the belief that people should be treated with love and respect, CRT and the Scripture overlap. But how we pursue that is very different. We must always lead with & be guided by God's Word before we lead with passion, even when it's a good passion. 

Part of this is remembering that true, lasting change must take place on a heart level.

When we look at systemic practices, like red lining and certain education practices, laws have changed and racist practices have been erased "on paper." But the law cannot govern a man's heart. For example, take a bank manager who knows that certain clients only want to work with white bankers. He may develop an unofficial system to make sure this happens, but it's not on paper, so it's hard to eliminate it. However, when a person's heart is changed by God, individuals such as the bank manager, begin to stand up to say, "No, this isn't right. We are willing to lose clients in order to be equal and fair." 

Looking at systems, we also need to ask, "How is everyone being impacted?" There are not only systems that impact black people, but also ones that impact white people. CRT divides us into categories: black v. white, oppressed v. oppressor. It discourages people of color from looking at how systems impact whites (both official and unofficial systems). On the other hand, as Christians, we are one race. We should look at how all people are impacted by inequality. 

In all things, the truth of Scripture should reign over how we engage with people and advocate for change. We have to examine everything we’re doing and think, "Are we absorbing what we learn from culture or taking it back to Scripture?"

We should always obey the commands of Scripture over culture. For example, right now we see culture demanding things, such as, "White silence is violence." However, James 1 cautions, "Be slow to speak."

After looking at Scripture, we must help where we can. Look at the spheres of influence God has given you and, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, stand up and be salt and light to those around you, impacting systems, too, as you are able.

identity

How does each perspective define people and their identity?

critical race theory

CRT defines people as either oppressed and oppressors based on the color of their skin.  

the gospel

Christianity says that, for those of us who are in Christ, we are brothers and sisters in Him. In John, Jesus prayed for our unity. There’s no hierarchy because we stand on equal ground at the foot of the cross.

Furthermore, Scripture teachers we are God's creation,  created in His image and so loved that He gave his Son to die for us. In so doing, He has conferred on each of us inherent worth and value.

application

It’s hard to be unified when we are looking at people as different groups, or when we're viewing each other as our oppressors. The path to unity starts when we remember we are all made in the image of God. And it's fulfilled when we unite our hearts in Jesus and pursue Him and His truth as our common goal.

When we have differences of beliefs with someone who is not a believer, we can honor their dignity, value and worth, while also holding to the truths of Scripture. Both are vital.

truth and morality

Who gets to decide what is true? How do we know what is right or wrong?

critical race theory

CRT champions the idea of the truth of the oppressed person. That is, the truth (or perspective) of the person who perceives themself as a victim of racism should not be questioned. And if a minority says that a statement or action is racist or wrong, then that assertion is to be accepted without question.

For example, when it comes to micro aggressions, the victim is automatically telling the truth and the alleged perpetrator's perspective doesn't need to be heard. The motive of the perpetrator is assumed to be racist and if they say that they are not being racist that simply shows their white fragility.

the gospel

In Christianity,  the ultimate truth is found in the Word of God. God and God alone gets to decide what is right and wrong, and He reveals that to us in His Word. Every belief, assertion, or truth claim must be examined in the light of Scripture and brought under submission to its ultimate truth.

When it comes to disputes between individuals,  Scripture teaches us to seek out two or three witness to establish the truth of the matter. We must also realize that we cannot know what is in a person's heart, so we should be careful to assume and judge someone's motives.

application

We need to be quick to listen and slow to speak. We need to hear people’s stories and care to truly understand them. But everything we hear and everything that is told to us must be examined in the light of Scripture.

what is racism? who can be racist?

Defining terms is vital, as often two people can be using the same term to mean two different things. Let's look at how each viewpoint defines racism.

critical race theory

CRT defines racism as racial prejudice plus institutional power. Therefore, people of color cannot, by definition, be racist because, as a group, they lack institutional power.

the gospel

Scripture calls out the sin of partiality, which is often manifested as racial prejudice. Because partiality (racism) is a sin, it can arise in any of our hearts, and its sinfulness does not depend on the racial characteristics of the person who commits it. (Quoted, in part, from this helpful explanation of the term racism.)

APPLICATION

It is helpful to recognize the magnified affects, and thus magnified responsibilities, that arise from positions of power. That is, if an individual or group has more power, any racism within them will have more harmful effects on others.

However, although the partiality/racism that arises out of the heart of a white person may produce more harm than the partiality/racism that arises out of the heart of a person of color, neither is more inherently sinful. Sin is sin, and we must all examine our own hearts and yield to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in us.

the path to unity

Critical Race Theory, with its focus on dividing people into groups, offers no real path to unity. The Gospel, on the other hand, is all about uniting us with God and, in the process, with each other. (John 17:20-21) The Gospel and its outworking have the power to accomplish true racial reconciliation. But what does this look like?

It starts in our own hearts. It begins with each of us examining our own thoughts and motives. And then it works out from there. 

Here's a few places to start:

When we are clear on who we are in Christ, we get clear on what we should be doing. Jesus compels us to participate. If our neighbor is experiencing partiality, regardless of the color of their skin, we will use our voice. As we're given opportunity, we will speak truth. We will listen to and care for others and seek ways to meet both their physical and spiritual needs.

And as we live out the Gospel each day in our lives, we see just a bit more of God's Kingdom and anticipate the day when we will experience it in its fullness and all partiality will be extinguished forever.

more resources

If you're looking for more actionable ideas on being intentional about racial unity in your classroom and school community, check out the article How to Cross the Street on Race and take a Restorative Approach to Discipline. 

I also highly recommend Neil Shenvi's Antiracism Glossary, which quite helpfull explains and examines various terms we didn't have time to get into here such as antiracism, colorblind, whiteness, white privilege, and more. 

And be sure to follow Monique at The Center for Biblical Unity.

About chantal Monique DUSON

About Taren Mangual

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[Dave] Sure. Linda. I'm a husband and father of four children. We live in a small town in West Michigan where I also teach. I teach ninth grade world history, this year, to about 120 students. I've been doing that for 15 years or so.

[Linda] And you have a website as well. Can you share that with us?

[Dave] Yeah. I've been writing for teachers at DaveStuartJr.com since 2012. So there's more than half a thousand blog posts there that I've written, trying to make use of the work that we all do and the research and the internal struggle of teaching all the good stuff.

[Linda] Yeah. So definitely you have to check that out. We'll talk more about that later, but check it out at DaveStuartJr.com. The reason, though, that I'm having Dave on is that I followed his work for a while. You’ve got so many great things, but you wrote an article recently about thinking of this time that we're going through with this remote learning in phases. You called them phase one and phase two, which I know in our society right now, the word phases is used a lot. We're phasing things in, phasing things out. But what do you mean when you talk about phase one and phase two in relationship to school and teaching?

[Dave] Well, with the initial rollout, this was such an emergency kind of situation that I think we all were wrestling with all the uncertainty. There was a big sense, at least in my own spirit, that I've got to sit and scramble and fix, fix, fix, fix, fix my emergency remote teaching. They helped me to zoom out and gain some perspective and realize that basically now until the end of the school year- let's think of this as phase one. This is indeed sort of an emergency, figure out as-you-go remote teaching and learning that teachers are in all over around the world. There's some version of that going on, but eventually we will come back, into a more settled thing.

[Dave] I think that is phase two. What is sure to be true of that settled situation after the emergency remote part is done, is that we're going to have students at an even wider spectrum of readiness for learning and mental health. The gaps are going to be even bigger when we eventually do come back in the fall, whatever coming back looks like. So I've argued that I think right now, in phase one, we need to just satisfy, do okay at phase one, do okay by students, okay by us, okay by our families. And make sure that we're protecting some time to do the kind of research and thinking that will prepare us for phase two, because phase two is most likely going to be uniquely challenging for us and uniquely important.

handling the uncertainty 

[Linda] Yeah. It is so challenging just thinking about what the fall is going to look like. I know that the picture of what the fall might look like is changing by the week and honestly, even between the time that we're recording this episode and the time that it airs, it's probably going to change five more times. It is rapidly changing so much. So we're really not sure what the fall's going to look like. Do you have any advice on handling that uncertainty? How much time do you think we as teachers should be investing in all the what-if  possibilities?

[Dave] I think the best way that I've seen of handling the what-if possibilities is to think about what practices are likely to be good practices. Good from a standpoint of serving the students and from a standpoint of not sacrificing our teacher lives on the altar of success. What practices are likely to be good, no matter what the scenario is in the fall? So it takes a lot of reflection and thinking. I think serving our students and talking with people in our communities about, "Hey, what has worked well?" I think folks at the district level can be doing questioning like that, too. I hate to just throw the word data in there, but we do need some feedback from students and parents about, “Hey, what worked best during this emergency remote teaching phase and how can we take what worked best and streamline it?”

[Dave] So that whatever we're facing in the fall whether in-person, hybrid, or fully remote, we can bring insight into those things. Because like you said, Linda, the picture is changing so much that I think we need to plan on maybe not knowing for sure until the weeks right before school. That might be how it is. Kind of what I'm planning on is not knowing. So therefore, I need to plan on and think about what work is going to be best in all of the scenarios.

[Linda] Yeah, and as I think about it, too, it's just, we teachers love to plan. We love to know exactly what it's going to look like. So this does present such a unique challenge, but I do think there are a lot of things that we can focus on. What's going to matter, no matter what? What can I spend my time on this summer that is going to translate no matter where I do it or that I can easily adapt to all three scenarios? Spending our time on that and focusing on what's best for students, regardless. Rather than racking our minds, trying to come up with three complete plans, which I think is probably going to waste all our mental energy and leave nothing left when we do need to figure it out. Yeah, I think that's awesome advice.

[Linda] This time has been incredibly challenging. It's been horrible on so many levels. But one of the things that I think is so amazing about this time that we've had is that it's forced everybody to innovate, to try things they'd never tried before, to dive into technologies and techniques that they've never explored before. As we think towards the fall, I think so much of our tendency is going to be to focus on the specifics of, “Well, if I have to do remote, what do I do? If I have to do this, what do I do?” One of the things that I personally would really love to see come out of this is an opportunity to almost step back, like you said, and reinvent what learning should look like.

what to consider in phase two of reopening schools

[Linda] What should school look like? How do we better serve students? Asking those bigger picture questions, taking the lessons that we've learned and saying, "Man, I never tried this before. How could I incorporate this back into what ‘normal’ looks like or my routine?" So I'd love to hear from you; you've been living this every day. What are some of the insights or ideas that you've considered, or that you're even still considering and thinking about, that you hope come into phase two? Because, like you said, this was an emergency, this was just survival, but we can't do that forever. We've got to get back to serving our students in the fall.

[Dave] Right? Michael Fullan has a book, The Devil is in the Details, and he's talking about changing systems. I'm not recommending the book necessarily, but an interesting study he points out is from Heather Malin. (I think that’s her name.) She has done research on young people and their experience of purpose in school. She has some statistics that only about a quarter of teens and adolescents find school to be meaningful- find there to be a deep connection between their sense of purpose and school. There's something deeply troubling about that because human beings are wired for meaning and purpose. Requiring them by law to attend for six hours a day an experience that they find to be meaningless and purposeless is a lot of human suffering.

[Dave] So I think what this has invited me to reflect on is how, in some ways, this remote teaching is more humane in a lot of ways. I think that many students are experiencing stressors outside of their schooling and their education, no doubt. But for many of them, school is now more than ever a source of respite or rejuvenation. Learning is regaining its place as a fundamentally good beautiful human pursuit.

[Dave] I think that that's happening. I sense that that is how more of my students are experiencing school right now. So the question is, “How do we bring that into phase two?” Part of that added humanity of our education right now is that there's less of an emphasis on grades as carrots and sticks, right? There's more of a tendency toward pass-fail. And again, this exists on a huge spectrum across schools and levels. But we're, in general, prizing the learning and learning about these interesting subjects as best we can in these unique circumstances. Let's de-emphasize the grading aspect, the credit aspect, the, “you have to do this” aspect. I'm curious about how we can bring that type of a thrust into the fall into phase two.

[Linda] Right. There was almost less pressure, right? Anything we did was good. So we were able to kind of enjoy it a little bit for what it was and what it could be. Almost like a sports team that's not expected to win and they can just go out and have fun and just do the best they can.

[Dave] Yeah. Right. Focus on the game. We need to re-examine as a profession, “How do you produce optimal pressure?” Because human beings need some pressure, right?

[Linda] Right, it's not sustainable.

[Dave] Yeah. If you don't ever tell your audience that you're going to release a podcast, if you don't have a consistent publishing schedule or whatever, you're not going to produce as many podcasts. If you don't set goals for yourself, as someone producing a podcast for listeners, trying to serve teachers through this podcast, you're probably not going to produce as good of a show. You need a little bit of pressure to produce your best work. Our students do, too. But almost every single child and teacher experiences above optimal pressure when we do regular school. I think about my high school students. They wake up at 6:00 in the morning, they arrive at school by 7:30, they begin school. They sit in six hours of instruction. You've got some brief breaks and lunch periods scrambled in there.

[Dave] They do that 180 days out of the year and they often attach extracurriculars and sports and homework and home responsibilities and jobs on top of that. We're training our young people to live these really frenetic and frantic lives. I'm hoping and praying that parents and students and educators and policy makers are thinking and really examining right now, “What are we trying to do with education?” Of course we, as individual teachers, can flavor the things that we provide for students in our classroom. We can have an influence on the system just from a classroom level. But I do also hope there's some momentum for some more humane changes to education and phase two.

[Linda] Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about what an individual teacher could do. I'm sure there are some policymakers out here and I hope that they're considering these things. But as an individual teacher, sometimes you feel a little bit helpless to control policy, but I would think that everyone's trying to figure this out right now. So this might be actually an opportunity where teachers can speak up and share some of their experience and give feedback to their principals. Is that something that you might recommend- teachers actually reaching out and sharing some of their thoughts in this regard?

[Dave] Yeah, of course. I think speaking truth to power is really important. I think it needs to be done with humility, respect, and acknowledgement of the fact that teachers aren't the ones ultimately responsible for producing or enforcing policy. So there's a little bit of “honor the authorities'' thing, when we report that these are some things I'm noticing that I really think we ought to think about asking the administration. How could I help with exploring how our students in our building experience school? Do they find it to be purposeful, meaningful? What did they discover during phase one? How might we as a school, listen to our students' discoveries? I had a great student tell me the other day, "I hate the social part, not seeing my friends and being with everybody. I hate that. But one thing I like is, I'm kind of given what I need at the start of each week and I'm allowed to build my own schedule and do what I need to do to get that done."

[Dave] I don't know, Linda, the exact way that we as individual teachers can implement that beyond talking with administrators. But I think we can start having these conversations with our students and, those of us who teach younger kids, with our students' parents. Because another important part of this is that parents are more involved in their child's education now than they probably ever have been. So this is the time for conversing with all the stakeholders about “What do we want education to be?”

[Linda] I think that's such great advice because as you're bringing this up, my mind is immediately going to, "How could I do this? Or how could I do that?" I think that stepping back and gathering feedback is really, really important and it's important too, because everyone's experience is so different during this time. Some people are thriving in some areas, some people are just hanging on. Some people are missing people. Some people are overwhelmed by all the people in their family. Some people have tons of time. Some people have no time. It's crazy how different it has been. But different things resonate with different students and it’s important to hear their thoughts and parents' thoughts, like you said. And then once we listen, we can step back and ask, "How could I do this?"

[Linda] “Could I give my students the week's work at the beginning of the week and give them more freedom with that?” Sometimes even small accommodations like that- “Why can't I tell them at the beginning of the week what's due by the end of the week?” I could do that. That's no problem. Sometimes they're bigger, more involved things. But sometimes really small tweaks can make a really big difference too.

[Dave] Yeah. I love the idea of small tweaks because those are often more sustainable for us as teachers. I'm a big advocate for teachers doing fewer things, but at a higher degree of quality, the things that matter the most.

[Linda] Yeah, absolutely. Has anything else kind of come out in your conversations with students and parents that you're excited to explore more or try out next year?

[Dave] I would say another aspect of this has been interesting to me. I write a lot about human motivation from the perspective of five key beliefs. One of the beliefs that tends to indicate that a person is going to do the work given to them in an educational setting is when they sense that they belong. That their identity matches with that specific work. So if I've given my students a writing lesson and I've given them a task to practice that skill,  if my students think of themselves as writers, they're more likely to be motivated to do the work. That's the idea behind the belonging belief. Well, I've spoken with teachers over Zoom from Cambodia to California, to the town that I live in. Everyone is noticing that there are a percentage of students who are exhibiting more motivation than ever right now.

[Dave] It's kind of like what you said- there's this huge diversity of responses to the situation. So obviously some students who were doing really well in school prior to the closures are now floundering. In some hard cases, they've sort of dropped off the map and we're on the phone trying to figure out what's going on. But there are others, and this seems to be a consistent pattern, who were really struggling with motivation during regular school pre-closure. And now all of a sudden they're really engaged and they're asking questions and participating in producing really good work. I think what's probably happening is that for many students, regardless of what type of school a teacher teaches in, school is kind of a scary place, specifically the social context, even if we as teachers do a really good job of creating a safe space.

[Dave] I think this is opening my eyes to the fact that there are some students who don't feel at home. They feel a sense of threat from the school environment. Maybe they're just so worried about being embarrassed or they're so worried about not knowing an answer and what people will think. This is taking that away and allowing these students to  focus on the learning. How can I have students who have just experienced this emergency remote teaching reflect on themselves? What was better for them as learners during the closures and why? What was better for them before the closures and why? And to take that knowledge and basically discuss and write about how this knowledge of ourselves can equip us no matter what learning in 2020- 2021 looks like. No matter what it looks like, how can we use this knowledge of ourselves to do the work a bit more wisely?

[Dave] Because we want our socially anxious students to know how to deal with social situations. I want that for all of my students, but I also want them to understand, "Okay, it's not necessarily that I'm a bad learner, that I'm stupid. Social situations make me nervous and anxious. This is a part of me. I want to explore that this year and wrestle with that and figure out how I can improve in that area. But also capitalize on my strengths. The fact that digitally I'm really comfortable participating more in class." So that's another area that I'm curious about exploring because I'm just getting more and more passionate about this idea that the education system has some deep problems with the way we currently do it. As somebody who really values the image of God in each one of my students, I often struggle with the pain that the system places on my students.

The Biblical Perspective

[Linda] Talk a little more about that.

[Dave] Well, I mean this is a Christian podcast. That's right?

[Linda] Yes. Not everyone who listens is a Christian, but we definitely go there. 

[Dave] Okay. Well, that's awesome. I love that because it's a type of knowledge that I think offers unique insights into the world. I've reflected a lot during the past couple of weeks, about Jesus of Nazareth. Christians believe he was the wisest person to ever live, like God personified. He was perfect. And yet He almost never tries to change systems. He's not railing against the Roman government or saying we really need to switch from this to that. He's so focused on the individual humans in front of him and trying to teach them in a way that they'll hear which results in a variety of teaching approaches.

[Dave] I've wondered, "Why is that?" Because the longer I teach, the more I see that  the system that I teach within is really contrary in some ways to the things that I most believe. Like I said, the individual worth of a child is really important to me. I think sometimes school communicates the exact opposite thing. It says, “You don't care about school. You don't like school.” The implicit message a lot of times is there's something wrong with you; you need to get with the program because this is how the world is and you need to adjust. I don't believe in giving students a total pass on being demotivated. I want them to understand why they're demotivated and learn how to manage their own motivation.

[Dave] But I also don't like the idea of them getting a message to either get with the program or go away because we don't value you. So I think that what Jesus is teaching me lately is, it's possible to live and work within systems that are broken and still try to do really good work or this affirming of individual value. Work that is loving, at its core. I'm just kind of wrestling around with that and thinking about that during this pause in regular teaching, because, I guess, it puts the issue a little more front and center for me every day.

[Linda] Yeah, you're so right. I don't know if this is exactly what you're referring to, but I've wrestled with that question, too, of “When do you rise up and try to change a system?” The Bible talks a lot about submitting to authority and submitting yourself to injustice and all these things. And then it also talks about seeking justice. Where is which one? I don't know. This is not an answer, but one of the things I've discovered is that the Bible talks over and over about seeking justice for others and submitting to injustice for ourselves. Meaning anytime that we are in a position to offer justice, mercy, kindness, to create a system for others, for those in our care, we are called to do that.

[Linda] I'm not saying to be a doormat, I'm not saying to suffer abuse. I think you need to be careful with that. But the Bible talks a lot about suffering, about when we suffer wrongfully to rejoice in that, to count it all joy when you suffer. It says it over and over. As teachers, I think when God gives us the opportunity and the platform, especially in our own classroom with our students, like you said, we are to love them. We are to seek what is just and right and good for them where we have the authority to do so. But like you said, there are some places where that's out of our control and sometimes we want to resist that control, right?

[Linda] We want to be like, "No, I want to be in control of this." But that's where we need to submit. If God gives us an opportunity to speak into that, then we need to be bold and take that opportunity. But when He hasn't given us that spot, then we need to recognize God's sovereignty and that He has put us here and He can change their mind. We can pray and we can seek justice and love and opportunities where we are. I think you're right. I think there are so many opportunities right in front of us. And sometimes we miss those because we're too busy worrying about the things that aren't in our hands.

[Linda] Like you said, there's so much that a teacher can do, with your own students in your own class. I love that thought of helping students reflect and learn for themselves. “What helped me? What hurt me? How can I mitigate those things that are harming me? How can I maximize the things that helped?” I think all of that is just wonderful.

[Dave] Yeah. I mean, it's interesting that Jesus chose as His strategy for loving the world to teach a small group of students. You know what I mean? That's the fundamental pattern of what He did during those three years and I think it was a really smart strategy. It wasn't just, “Well, I guess I'll go with this.” I think it was intentionally selected. If I just teach a group of people, a group of learners really well, teach them what life is, what it looks like to be alive, then that'll end up producing a lot of good.

[Linda] Yeah. He poured into those disciples more than anyone else. And then they changed the world.

[Dave] Right. Yeah. So I take a lot of solace in that, knowing that there's going to be things to bring us back and in phase two,  I suspect there will be things we wish would have changed that won't. That's just a safe assumption. And when we have to come to grips with those, I think you've given some good guidelines about where we advocate and raise our voices and where we just focus on our "little classroom" with our little group of kids compared to the tens of millions in the country and just do good work.

take time to think!

[Linda] Yeah. Wow. Thank you so much. We could go on and on here, but I think it's kind of funny. We almost raised more questions than answers, but I think that's part of it, right? You have to start by asking the right questions. So I hope you teachers, as you're listening to this, that you'll walk away with maybe planning some time in your summer to just stop and just think, to let your mind wander, and to just absorb and relax.

[Dave] That will be really good. Yeah.

[Linda] And see where it takes. Try to focus less on worrying about what form learning will take and focus more on how you can inspire learning no matter what. So those are good words. Anything else you want to share with us before we wrap up, any final thoughts?

[Dave] I think that you've really nailed it. There's a tragic under-emphasis on the productive teacher act of just thinking. We're constantly doing. The internet is just another place that spawns all these things that you have to do as a teacher. This is where a lot of our mental problems come from, our struggles, our deep existential pains, come from this thought that good teaching looks like doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing. I love what you said, maybe take some time this summer to literally just take a walk and think.

[Linda] Yeah. I hope you guys will. I hope you'll come back and share with us what you come up with. Before we go, Dave, can you share a little bit about where teachers can best connect with you and your resources?  Anything else in particular they should check out on your website?

[Dave] Sure, you'll see the blog there and you can subscribe to my newsletter. I also have a book called These Six Things: How to Focus Your Teaching on What Matters Most. It gets at what I believe are six key areas that are just as relevant during phase one, as they are to phase two and as they were to teaching before the closure. So that book might be helpful.

[Linda] Well, thank you so much, Dave. I really appreciate it.

Next steps

If you want to read more on reimagining schools next year, Angela Watson's Cornerstone for Teachers has a great article titled "Schools are closed. This is our chance to reimagine them."

Are you struggling to balance work, school, and your life? You might be thinking, "If I'm asked to do all these new things next year, how am I ever going to have time for my family?" Angela Watson's 40 Hour Teacher Workweek club is the answer! Angela will help you become an amazing teacher for your students all while having time to keep yourself healthy and to care for your family as well. 

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discussing difficult issues

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This will be helpful for anyone, regardless of where you teach. We're going to get into all that. But first, Eric, can you share just a little bit about your background?

[Eric] Yes, absolutely. I got my initial multiple subject teaching credential for teaching elementary school. I'm from a Christian college, but the Christian college's main focus was getting Christian educators into public schools. It really taught us how to live out our faith working in the public school. I started in elementary school. I also hold an authorization to teach middle school and high school English. So I did make a move into the middle school, and then ultimately found myself teaching high school English at a Christian school in China, of all places.

[Linda] That's awesome. I've loved following your journey, and you talk about China in your book. Your book is all about how to teach students to think from a biblical worldview. How did this book and this method of teaching come about?

[Eric] Yes, that's a great question. Like I said, I found myself suddenly in China and in a Christian School which I hadn't been in before, and it led to a lot of frustration initially. There were some things that were totally familiar, like we were in the middle of a WASC Accreditation. We really focused on making everything measurable. That dovetailed perfectly with what we did in public schooling, with standards and things like that.

Then they threw this thing called Expected Schoolwide Learning Results, ESLRs, into the mix. We're supposed to make those measurable. One of our ESLRs was that our students would become lovers of truth. How do you measure if a student is a lover of truth? I didn't know and I still can't really answer that one, but it led to a lot of frustrating times. As my book is Rooftop Perspectives, I found myself up on the rooftop of our apartment building in China with our small dog for him to do his nightly business. I would argue this stuff out with God, going, "You put me here, you want me to figure this out. It's not possible." I finally got to the point where I just threw up my hands with him one night. So that's it, I'm done. I'm just teaching, I'm not figuring this out. I'm just going to teach what I know.

I went downstairs and went to bed feeling really good about myself when I told Him. I'm laying there, and I hear this little voice that says, "Get up." "No." "Get up, write." I know if you argue with God, sometimes, bad things can happen. I've read Jonah. So I got up, I sat down on my dining room table and put a leaf fresh legal pad in front of me, and said, "Okay, you want me to write, what am I going to write?" I just started scribbling, and I started off. The first thing that ended up on the page was those ESLRs. What do we want our students to become? I had to really think about that? What do I want my students to become?

It's like, "I want them to be authentic learners. I really wanted them to have a love of wisdom, not just knowledge." Teaching at the school we taught, it was really interesting. We had very, very motivated, dedicated students. They would pop back anything that you teach them. They can quote scripture better than I ever could. Most of them weren't believers, so that's not what I want. I want it to be internalized. I started working on the ESLRs thing. It came to me, what is it that I want my students to be? It ultimately came down to this- I wanted every student's life to be redeemed, so every student is a believer.

Good. Great. That's awesome, but how do we do that? I really didn't know, how do you define that? One of the phrases you'll find in my book, and one of my characters says, "You know fishes. They act like a fish, they look like a fish, and they smell like a fish. Okay, so what makes a Christian? What makes a believer different than a non-believer?" What really came to my mind is that God changes the way you look at the world, your whole worldview changes, everything changes. I thought, "Okay, let's start there. Is there a way that we can focus our teaching to specifically teach people to look at the world through a Christian worldview?" That's really good. “How” was the really big question, that's what the rest of it developed from.

[Linda] I love that. Sometimes we don't start from that overall picture, like this is our goal, and this is how to get there, so that's wonderful, that framework. Just so you guys know, his book Rooftop Perspectives is fantastic. I highly recommend it. It starts with a story, and moves into the practical, so it's a really enjoyable read and super helpful as well. You mentioned a Biblical worldview. Can you help us define that? What exactly is a Biblical worldview? What does that look like?

[Eric] That was the next part that hit me as I was sitting there on the table. What is a Biblical worldview? Because a worldview is huge, it's everything that you look at through the world. I'm like, "If I want this to be something manageable, I can't do an entire Christian worldview. Some of the things that people have in their Christian worldview are controversial. Not every Christian believes the exact same thing." I wanted to break it down into what the absolute basics were of a Christian worldview. And I broke it down into five specific areas.

I'm like, "Okay, this is doable. All Christians should be able to agree that these things are key, and we can build off of this." The first thing I focus on is truth. I break down all of these things a little further in the book, and take more time than we can here. The truth of creation, the fall, the redemption, and then the purpose of man. With those five things, I figured we can break those down, that's something that we can go with. Then the question of, "Can you actually teach worldview?" hits me.

I didn't want puppets. Sure, I can get up and say, "This is what a Christian should believe about truth," and my students would have puppeted it back perfectly. They never would have internalized it. You can teach people how to understand worldview, but it's not going to change their worldview. How do I do it in such a way that they're going to internalize and develop their own worldview?

[Linda] What did you come up with?

[Eric] That's a good question, and that question is kind of the answer. Worldview is developed by really thinking things through an experience. The easiest way to do that is by asking powerful questions, open-ended questions that really make you think. Yes, questions.

[Linda] It was so simple when you talked about that in your book. It's such a simple concept, but it's a little bit different than what we're used to. We're often used to teaching the answers, right?

[Eric] Yes.

[Linda] Now, we are actively teaching, but this is stepping back and asking the right questions. That is so powerful. Before we get into what questions we're asking, how should we be asking these questions? Are there things that we can do to make them more powerful and obvious to our students? 

[Eric] Yes, that's really good. That's a key part of it. Because I really wanted something that isn’t just for one teacher to do, but something that's so powerful that you can focus an entire school on teaching worldview. The first thing with the questions is to write them down so that students see them all the time. In the Understanding by Design method of teaching, you're putting the essential question on the board so that the kids know what the objective of the lesson is. It's the same thing with these.

You want the questions to be seen and you don't give them the answers directly. You never give them the question at the end of the day and have them fill out the answer. You want them to think about what you're studying to answer that question throughout the day. You don't answer it directly.

[Linda] Let's walk this through with an example. Can you give me an example of what one of these questions might be?

[Eric] Yes, absolutely. We've got the five different worldview areas that I talked about. With those, the first part of the model is something we call focus questions. Focus questions are a series of grade-level appropriate questions that we can answer with subject matter content in order to help guide the learner to develop their worldview. They're really big questions, and they build on each other. For truth, I break it down into a question for elementary, one for middle school, and one for high school, and they spiral. They get progressively harder.

The elementary question is “Where does truth come from?” Pretty basic. Middle school is “How do we know it's true?” Middle schoolers always want to argue about what's true or not true, and that's really where they are, so just a little deeper. High school is “What is the nature of truth and how is it revealed to us?” Then it just keeps building a little bit more in each one. It’s a focus all the way through the school. If all the teachers are trying to make their curriculum help answer those questions, the students are getting it across all grade levels and across all subjects.

[Linda] This is a model you could use just in your individual classroom, but it becomes more powerful if it's used in conjunction with other teachers, or the whole school in general, right? Is that correct?

[Eric] Right. Absolutely.

[Linda] The focus question is on your board. Do you bring it up, and have any discussions about it? Or is it just always in the background?

[Eric] With the big focus questions, you can have a discussion, but they're so big. Like, “Where does truth come from?” That's not something you're going to answer in one lesson ever. Adults are working on those questions. The questions are on posters and things like that, always drawing people back into them. But to really be able to build out your lessons and answer these questions, I get more questions. To answer the focus questions, I use what are called focused essential questions.

[Linda] That's right. I remember these from your book. What do these look like? Can you give some examples of these?

[Eric] Yes, absolutely. This goes back to the Understanding by Design type of thing. Essential questions are smaller questions that help answer, “Where does truth come from?” You break the question down all the way into elementary, and into this specific lesson that you're teaching. If we're doing truth again, where does truth come from for elementary language arts? It could be as simple of a question, like, “Is this story true, or make believe?”

How do you know that the author is telling you facts or opinions? Things like that will lead them to start answering where truth comes from in their mind. It's easily things that you can answer through your lessons.

[Linda] As you're developing lessons, you're asking yourself, “How does this relate to this big question?” “What are some questions we can discuss as a class, or have students write about, or incorporate another way?” You're just coming up with these questions to relate in. Am I understanding that right?

[Eric] Yes, exactly. You're using these small questions that you'll answer with your curriculum that day. Those will help answer the big focus questions.

[Linda] Because these are still big questions, but they're not so big. They're small enough that you can tackle and answer them. You're just gradually building this worldview because you can't build a worldview in a day. You're just creating blocks.

[Eric] Exactly. We don't want to build a worldview in a day. That wouldn't be a very deep or wide worldview. It takes time, but the focused attention to it is what's going to make it powerful over the years.

[Linda] In a minute, I want to go through a start to finish example. But before we do that, how long do you recommend staying on one of the big focus questions? For example, what is true? How long would you stay on one of those? Do you change that every week, every month, every school year?

[Eric] The big focus questions? They are there forever.

[Linda] Do you have five of them in your room throughout the year?

[Eric] Yes. If you break it down into the five different worldview areas, there's one for each. And then the way I get the model broken down, it breaks it down by elementary, middle school, or high school. If you wanted to, you can break that down even further. I don't have all of the answers to the questions. I just really want to start the conversation with people to do this, and they can add all the questions that they want to have.

[Linda] It's not necessarily, “Okay, this month I have to talk about truth. This month, I'm talking about creation.” These are the five areas. However this lesson, I can look at it and say, “Which one does it tie into best?” and “What question can I ask to tie into one of these?” Is that more the idea?

[Eric] Absolutely. I have seen schools do it differently. I've seen schools that say, “Yes, this month, we're focusing on truth,” and they put up posters of it. Then they cycle through. Or just to whichever fits the particular lesson that you're doing. 

[Linda] You have the flexibility to do whatever makes sense and experiment, right? We don't have to get it perfect the first time around. This is something you just start out with, and you'll grow with your students, and I would imagine.

[Eric] Yes, absolutely. That's how it has to happen. There's this grace involved in education, right? Or there should be.

[Linda] Absolutely. Let's walk through an example. Can you give an example of what this would look like from start to finish in, say, a middle school history class? Where would they start from? How could they plan a question? What might the conversations look like? Let's just walk through an example.

[Eric] Sure. Middle school history. Something like the Age of Exploration with Columbus. You're planning your normal curriculum like you normally would. You've got to cover the material. But what questions can you ask them to focus on worldview? If you look at middle school truth, the focus question is “How do we know what is true?” Then, you can do a focused essential question that will be answered with the lesson. For example, “How does one's perspective change their view of events?” Because for some, the Age of Exploration was fantastic. For others, not so much. 

Which side of the story is true? You can have big conversations with that, and figure out what the nature of truth is. How do we know what is true? Another example, to go away from truth for a bit, is the fall. The focus question for middle school for the fall is “What does it mean to be human?” If that's the focus question, you can ask things like, “What motivated the explorers? Why did they do what they did?” Fairly basic, but it gets them thinking along those lines, and what it means to be human. We can take it a step further. Another worldview area is purpose. The middle school focus question is, “How does God want you to carry on his work?”

Did the explorers expand the true kingdom of God? Again, that could tie back in with the perspective; it depends on who you're asking. All of those questions go back to build their worldview through those. I think those are easily answerable with that curriculum.

[Linda] It's simultaneously promoting better discussion and working more with your subject matter. You're not even taking time away from your subject matter to answer these questions, right? You're just doing it all at once. It's not even any competition really. That's awesome.

[Eric] You should gain a better understanding of the subject matter and build the worldview at the same time. Gaining wisdom, not knowledge.

[Linda] Awesome. Let's think through what this would look like in a Christian school versus the public schools. So I'm thinking in a Christian school, when we're answering these questions, we're encouraging students to use Biblical answers. We're encouraging students to use the Bible. We're bringing in a Biblical perspective. Is that right?

[Eric] Yes, absolutely. Public school- not so much.

[Linda] What do you think this would look like more in a public school? The question, “What does God want you to do?” We couldn't ask that, but we can still ask some of these focused essential questions. They're still really good questions that would get people thinking. Is that still the goal?

[Eric] It was for me when I taught public school. It was for most of the Christians I knew in public schools. We still want to influence lives. We still want to build the worldview that we want students to have, and to lead them along the path. In a public school, I probably wouldn't be posting up the exact same focus questions. In my own lesson planning and building out the focused essential questions, absolutely. 

[Linda] Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's benefit in a public school. Even if you can't necessarily draw out the Biblical answer in all of these questions, there is benefit in asking the question. Even if students don't walk away with the same perspective that you wish they would, you're getting them thinking, and as students start on that path of seeking these answers, that opens up doors for the truth. Am I thinking correctly about this?

[Eric] Absolutely. It’s providing a question that just sticks with them forever. Five years down the line, the question pops back into their head like a song you can't get out, and just keeps them searching. If you're on a search for truth, you're eventually going to come to God. No matter what you're teaching, if you're focusing on making your students to be lovers of truth and guiding them along that path. it will stick.

[Linda] I love that. Implanting things like the value of truth and purpose. The answer is found in God and in Christ. When they search for that, they're headed in the right direction. That's great. On a very practical note, where's the best place for people to find your list of focus questions? They know there are five questions for each grade level. Is your book the best place to find those?

[Eric] I would say my book is the best place. I would, of course, like people to pick up a copy of the book. Like you said, it's not your typical teacher manual for how to do something. I don't like reading them. I couldn't handle writing one. It's told from a very different point of view, and I think walks people through some of the thoughts I would like them to have in a creative way. Otherwise, I've got my website, www.rooftopperspectives.com. A lot of the information is there also, but the books are a really good place to start.

[Linda] I highly recommend them as well. As we finish up, what other advice or encouragement would you like to share for educators that are wanting to be more intentional with integrating a Biblical worldview thinking?

[Eric] It doesn't have to be as hard as we sometimes make it out to be. That is a big piece of it. I always like to focus on what I want out of my students. I actually want to spend eternity with my students. That's where my focus comes from. What are the things we need to do to work along those lines? And then ultimately realize, all we're doing is planting seeds. The rest of this is in God's hands. Commit your ways to Him, follow down the path, and have faith that He's got a plan for each of them, and you can only do your part.

[Linda] That's such an important encouragement to end with, because we are called to do what we can, but sometimes we take on the burden of the results, too, and those aren't ours. Those are up to God. That's great. I also loved your encouragement that it doesn't have to be as hard as we think. Maybe if I'm thinking about this and thinking this sounds great, but it feels a little overwhelming, I can start small, right? I could pick one subject, or maybe write something on my desk, and just think about it periodically and grow from there. Do you have a recommendation of a place to start if I'm nervous about jumping in with both feet?

[Eric] Start asking questions. I don't think there's anything that nervous about it. You don't have to adopt everything. It's a very simple thing to start integrating some of these questions and ask open-ended questions and don't answer them directly.

[Linda] I love that. It's simple. Ask questions that you don't answer. I love it.

[Eric] That's what Jesus did.

[Linda] Yes, that's true. Very true. Thank you so much. This has been so helpful. If people want to connect with you further, are your book and your website the best places or is there anywhere else to connect with you?

[Eric] Book, website- I am happy to dialogue with anybody. Also, I'll come out and do trainings and things like that on-site if people want to take this deeper in their school.

[Linda] That's fantastic. Thank you so much.

[Eric] My pleasure.

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