Teaching_in_Today_World

If we live in the spirit, let us walk in the spirit - Galatians 5:22 A question that has pledged Christian teachers for years is “Can you work in a public school and lead a Christian Classroom'” Is there a way to work around the legal requirements in public schools' As a teacher who has taught in both public and Christian’s schools there is a way. Today, society has become so complex few schools want to have the label of a”Christian school”. Many school do not want to limit the enrollment by saying they are a Christian school. I can use a personal experience to illustrate my point. Last year, while working at my school (which happens to be a catholic school), our administration decided to drop the Catholic title from the name, so instead of “Our Lady of Victory Catholic School”, they chose “Our Lady of Victory.” The reason why is they were losing too many students and teachers who were not Catholic. The leaders wanted to open the doors to everyone in the community by creating a culture of acceptance while raising revenue. Unlike religious schools, public schools are made to serve everyone in the community because of the law. By law, public schools must not favor anyone group or religion; so in a class you have students of all difference beliefs and backgrounds. As teachers, in Christian classrooms, we must be sensitive to students’ right to religion, sexual orientation, race, creed, gender, and anything else that may toe the line of being discriminatory. A teacher’s religious beliefs need to be sheltered in a way that they do not jeopardize discrimination. In fact, some school systems may even have laws that prevent teachers from talking about their own religion. Considering this, how do teachers promote their Christian values' I believe the best way is through modeling positive Christian behavior. We are taught to do more showing than telling in the classroom, so we must do that with our personal lives. A teacher that teacher in a public should be more like a steward. The biblical parable of talents (Matthew 25:14-30) state how a teacher should serve as a Steward. It “portrays stewards as people who assigned responsibility for the growth and development of someone else assets (1995,179).As a Christian we need to work with a calling of Christ in our heart . At Our lady of Victory, we are able to pray with all our class, but this is not a state or public school. Teachers are able to quote from the Bible because this is not a public school. At our school student, encounter the Bible for a deeper understanding of the world’s problems. The peers in our classroom help students understand God’s intent for this world. However, in order to encourage Christians in our classrooms, the school system administrators must proclaim Christ in the schools. References: Brummelem .H.V (2009) walking with God in the Classroom: Christian Approaches to Teaching and learning (3rd Ed.) Colorado Springs, Co: Purposeful Designs Publications Anderson, R. 2004. Religion and spirituality in public school curriculum. New York: Peter Lang.