Paradigm Shift

One of the more compelling ideas we discussed in class today was a discussion of shifting our teaching paradigm. The question I kept asking was How far am I and How much work will I invest in helping more people move truth into reali life? There is a significant difference between telling facts, as a teacher, and guiding meaning. A telling style presupposes that if people have the right information they'll make the right decisions. A lot of experience in my ife confirms that this is inaccurate. Hendrick's asked this same question, how can we as the Church have the words of life in the Bible and yet so often people seem more drab than the world outside. I believe it is chiefly because we have not made this shift.

The committment that this shift requires is arduous and I think that is perhaps one of the reasons we are so lax in approaching it. If we, as teachers, never really think ourselves but simply digest facts and then regurgitate them than all we must do to prepare is input knowledge. However being a guid and not a teller, means we are not speaking into people's lives from above but rather we have experienced the very things we are advocating and we tell and point to them, as we walk along side. Sometimes I wonder if the reason we maintain a consistent behavior of telling instead of guiding is a bit of pride. I think we enjoy being the information gatekeepers sometimes more than walking side by side with people. It is a refreshign thing to consider. I know that my teaching too often reflects telling info, more than guiding meaning. I've got a lot to learn.