I’m teaching an “Intro to College” class at Small Christian College in the Conservative Midwest. Thus far, I’ve played all of my teaching cards straight down the middle. But I saw a Ted Talk a couple of weeks ago post-election that I thought was very interesting, and I decided to stir the pot a bit. I can only go so long without rousing the rebels.
Our subject two Monday’s ago involved how our values system develops during the college years. This involves becoming self-aware of our current value systems, as well as how we came to hold those values. At the same time we forge ahead creating a values matrix that will mostly likely stick with us through life.
I promise, the reason for showing that clip in class wasn’t just to mess with people. I mean, I do like to mess with people, but I try to only do so if it makes them think. This particular exercise was to get students pondering a few questions:
- What contributes to my personal and in-group political ideological lens?
- How can we (as Christians) have thoughtful conversations with scholars who hold to a secular-humanist paradigm when their scholarship is good, but they are antagonistic/negative/condescending toward Christianity?
- If there is a viable “third way” to the political matrix, how would the five value systems outlined in the talk be weighted?
- Does this matrix work when we talk about how we should live out our Christian faith in the world? If so, how would/could/should the value systems be weighted?
Unfortunately, the discussion wasn’t as spirited as I’d hoped. I think Haidt’s presentation was a bit to fast-paced for the class to follow easily, and I also don’t think the classmates had really thought through their political ideologies ahead of time. But this was the first time most of them were eligible to vote, so perhaps they would be more engaged in the discussion if we had it in a year or two.
Renew and Restore
