YRE Lesson Plans for April and May

YRE Lesson Plans for April and May

On Education and Language

From my Honors Colloquium II mid-term exam:

“The teacher’s thinking is authenticated only by the authenticity of the students’ thinking. The teacher cannot think for her students, nor can she impose her thoughts on them.”

–Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed: The Banking Concept of Education

Trinity

In the early 1800’s, Ralph Waldo Emerson visited the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France and found himself entranced by what he saw there. Where his fellow patrons observed nature, Emerson perceived Nature. Where we notice only a majuscule letter, Emerson glimpsed God. This visit inspired his seminal essay Nature, in which Emerson expresses his thoughts on the relationship between Nature, Mankind, and God. Within this essay, Emerson famously pronounced, “The whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind” (17). In this, you can see Emerson beginning to define Nature in relation to Man, as an expansion to the standard definition. The standard definition of Nature, as viewed by both the common man and the Oxford English Dictionary, was anything in the physical world, including the “landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations” (Murray). That distinction, Nature as opposed to Man, is the essence of Emerson’s thoughts on Nature.

YRE Recap: "Inherent Worth"

Today's lesson concerned inherent worth and dignity. We had to unpack what those words meant, which led to a very interesting discussion regarding who has worth, what it means/is, human rights, animal rights, Hitler, and value via a vis cost.

At one point, the children insisted that value was equal to fiscal cost. I responded by asking them how much to sell me their mothers. One child said $300, which they obviously thought was a great deal of money. Another child said $3,000,000... A DAY! Exactly like that. The rest of the children declined to sell me their mothers at any price, thus neatly elucidating my point. ;)

During this discussion, one of the children posited the idea that inherent worth is akin to a soul. This was really an astounding leap, and is one of those moments that makes me feel very lucky and grateful to be allowed to teach these kiddos. (Or for them to teach me. One or the other. Or maybe both? :P )

We also discussed the story of King Midas, played a game to illustrate the story, and closed by reading a letter from Reverend Tom Owen-Towle, a UU minister, that details exactly how lucky we are to be here. (700,000,000,000,000 to 1, to be precise.)

YRE Recap: "Asking Questions"

Today's lesson centered around the 4th UU Principle, which is the idea that every person is free to search for what is true and right in life. We discussed the terms 'free', 'responsible', 'truth', and 'meaning' to arrive at a better understanding of this principle, and played Twenty Questions to exemplify the idea of those searches. We learned about fellow Unitarian Maria Mitchell, who was the first female astronomer, and her unusual education and training that allowed and encouraged her to ask questions. At the end of our lesson, each student wrote down two questions on index cards, ranging from 'What is Grammy's middle name?' to 'Why does the moon glow?', and will receive a prize if they bring their cards back with answers. :)

On Interdependence

From my weekly comments for Honors Colloquium:

“The first [interpretation] is "this arises because that is," which comes down to saying that things do exist in some way, but nothing exists on its own. The second is "this, having been produced, produces that," which means that nothing can be its own cause. Or we could say that everything is in some way interdependent with the world..” –Matthieu Ricard, The Quantum and the Lotus

The postulate of interdependence in Universe in a Grain of Sand strikes me as sort of the ultimate religious syllogism; if a then b. It is, then, a logical idea; and one of words and language. It is also a religious idea, present in Christianity, in Buddhism, in Unitarian Universalism, and others. It is an economic idea and a scientific one, because all of our actions affect the world, as a butterfly might cause a hurricane vis-à-vis chaos theory. The idea of interdependence, then, is interdependent. I find this idea delightful.

The Darndest Things

After a lesson on New Years customs around the world (with a focus on Rosh Hashanah), my Sunday school kiddos resolved to clean their rooms, be kind, stand up to bullies, win video games... and write a book. These kids, yo. They're awesome. ♥

Photo of the Day

 

"You are loved... And so are they."

Isaiah's 'truth' picture from Old Turtle and

the Broken Truth. We love Sunday school!

Photo of the Day

 Isaiah was very proud of his pyramid, and he very
politely insisted that I take a photo and send it to everyone.

Ike and Angel, playing with magnets before big church. :)

The door to my Sunday school classroom,
showing our inherent worth self-portraits. :)

New job!

Just got hired as the new Youth Religious Education teacher at the UU Church of Lawton. Yay! I'll be teaching elementary-aged children ethical thought and comparative religion, which is basically how to think and what other people think, as food for thought. :)