Author: Jon Bennett

Jon is in his 9th year of teaching. He has taught in Belize, in the city of Chicago, and now, at a wonderful Christian school in Southern California. His wife Nicole is way more talented, intelligent, and attractive than he is, and his two-year old daughter Charlotte is way cooler. At least he is potty-trained though. His debut novel, Reading Blue Devils, came out in February, so you know, check-it out or whatever....I mean...no pressure...it's just his heart, poured out onto the pages for your enjoyment. But you don't have to read it.
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The Homeboys and Homegirls that point us home.

Embarrassing confessions.

The first CD I bought was Biggie Smalls’ Life After Death. I sent in for one of those 12 CD’s for 1 cent scams, not knowing I had to buy a membership. When the box came, I thought the only error I made was ordering two copies of the same CD. My parents, however, explained the $39.99/mo mistake I actually made: a valuable lesson in reading the fine print.

I don’t remember having a talk about the content of my musical interests, though I’m sure they said something about listening to music free from drug references and unhealthy sexuality–you know, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and 80’s Hair Metal.

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Leaving the 1 for the 99

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, spirit-wrecking truth that we aren’t God.  

Wouldn’t it be great to be omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient?  For many of our students, we imagine small changes we could give them to improve their lives: a better grasp of the English language, a more thorough understanding of the effects of American isolationism in the 1920s, proficiency in systems of equations, a steady hand with the scalpel, time management, a better digestive system on Taco Tuesday.

But then we have those class-clowning, persistent detention-getting, constantly rebelling, quietly suffering students.  For sociological purposes, we call them “at-risk.” For many of us, we call them our most painful memories of teaching.  What we wouldn’t give to dramatically change their lives. And yet, we often give very little, if anything.

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Teaching International (ELL) Students

As I’ve written previously, our international students (ELL for the sake of brevity), predominately from China, come with needs and challenges and strengths that we are blessed with a chance to address. It truly is global missions brought to America.

As I promised in the previous article and failed to deliver until months later, here are some tips for teaching this population.

  1. Check your biases and prejudices

Though my intention in my first article was to chisel away at these things that exist in all of us, it bears a reminder for teaching this population.  I have seen many wonderful Christians carry anger and hostility for our international students for merely being who they are: teenagers living thousands of miles away in a totally different culture, immersed in a school that is not using their primary language, all without daily parental contact.

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Bringing 耶稣 (Yēsū) (Jesus) to China in America

 

Part 1:  Understanding where our Chinese students are at

God has called me to go on two mission trips.  One to Istanbul (Merhaba arkadaşlar) and another to Guatemala (Hola, amigos).  Those of us who have gone on trips know the cross-cultural beauty of these experiences: the depth of human connectedness, the tragedy of spiritual darkness, the hope in the Gospel, the power of the name of Jesus / Isa / Jesús / יֵשׁוּ הַנוֹצרִי / యేసు.

Sorry, I got a little Chris Tomlin-y on that last part.

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Is the Bible Myth? Depends who asks.

 

  1. If it is a fellow teacher, or someone with an advanced degree in the Humanities, I say, “With a capital ‘M,’ yes. Lowercase ‘m’, it is not.”
  2. If it is a parent of one of my students, I say, “No, of course not.”
  3. If it is a student questioning his or her faith, I say, “What do you define as ‘myth’?” Then I hope they give an answer I can easily address.
  4. If it is a student assured of his or her faith, I say, “We know the Bible to be inerrant.” Then I defer to their Bible teacher.
  5. If it is a class full of students, I collapse on the ground, curl up in a ball, and sing “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.” After I did that, I would probably do number 4, not because I don’t know the answer.  I just don’t know how the students would take my answer.

Here’s what I actually think: the Bible is Myth.  It is not a myth.

Therefore, this post is probably self-defeating since I am, in essence, confessing what I’ve censored myself from saying. It is something I have not said aloud, even when I had the opportunity to teach this concept since our first unit in World Literature was Greek Mythology.

 

Here’s what I could have said to my students:

Continue reading “Is the Bible Myth? Depends who asks.”