Students

Posted by anointedplace on April 6, 2010 · 1 Comment 

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Freshman high school math is were we meet two students.  Both of them have similar backgrounds as well as strengths and weaknesses.  Anthony, our first student does difference slightly as he is a bit on the aggressive side.   Joshua on the other hand while he can get frustrated, doesn’t let his emotions get the best of him.  We find our two students in algebra class trying to understand, learn and perform the mathematical problems set before them.  The teacher simply starts by presenting the basics of math for all of the students.  The teacher understands also that not all students learn at the same pace, so the teacher tries to gauge everyone’s experience level by testing.  The test the teacher gives also can tell him, how much effort the students are welling to put out.  How they handle the test will tell him if they have learned anything from their other experiences.  Even if they completely fail the test, how they perform and if they develop a desire to fix their errors which honestly is what the teacher desires most to happen.  After a first couple of months the students as a whole progress pretty well and seemed to be enjoying learning.  The teacher uses real world situations to bring algebra to life and it has proven to really help the students understand concepts.  Our two students Anthony and Joshua have really taken to algebra and have applied what they have learned in their daily life.  Anthony, for instance has used his knowledge to help his dad with his construction job estimates.  It has really impressed his father and now there is talk of Anthony going into the family business.  As of now Anthony is happy with what he knows and is starting to be content to just going into the family business.  The immediate profit for his knowledge has slowed down his desire to learn more but he continues to do well in class.  Joshua is just the opposite, he seem to be very welling  to learn.  But as the semester goes on the lessons become harder and harder.  As the lessons become harder to complete we find both of our students starting to run out of steam.  It is now mid terms and the teacher gives an assignment that is worth almost have the semester grade.  Anthony’s success with the family business has caused him to put off the assign and Joshua tries to complete it but couldn’t.  The teacher shows them a little mercy but requires that they stay after school to make up the work.  Here we find the teacher in a one on one setting with our students.  As the teacher watches the boys work through the problems and use the techniques taught to them, he notices some mistakes.

It is at this point things start to unravel.  When the teacher attempts to correct  Anthony he gets very defensive and lashes out at the instructor.  The teacher explains to he: “Anthony, if I don’t tell you were you are making the mistakes how will you learn?”  Anthony: “why do you have to act as if I don’t know what I’m doing?  You don’t know what I go through! I don’t have time to do all this studying cause I have to work”  Teacher: “Maybe I don’t but how will you graduate if you don’t pass this class?  The opportunity for bigger things don’t mean anything to you?  I understand that you have helped your family a lot with what you have learned so far right?”  Anthony: “yes, I have”  Teacher: “well do you have any idea how far you could take the company if you learned more?  See in the work that you do you can’t separate math from it, the more you grow in math, the more the company grows”

The teacher continues to try and correct Anthony but he still is on the defense and almost refusing to see that the teacher is trying to help.  As Anthony writes, the teacher watches and Anthony clearly sees that he is in error his attitude grows.  He can tell that the teacher sees his error but the teacher stays silent waiting to see is Anthony’s experience will help him correct himself.  Of course it doesn’t so when the teacher gets harder on him, Anthony’s attitude gets worse and he pushes further away.  Finally, he can’t take anymore and storms out of the class and tells the teacher that he will get transferred to another school.  In Joshua’s case,  his attitude was some what different but not by much.  At first he resisted the correction by the teacher as well but understood that the teacher was focused on the end goal  that being graduation.  As the teacher was now able to correct Joshua, he was now able to further explain things to him.  As Joshua started to understand that things had to be done a certain way and that he couldn’t just do things the way he saw fit, his error was revealed.  Joshua now saw how far he was from the teaching and instruction thus he was able to adjust.  Now the learning curve wasn’t that far and understanding didn’t seem that out of reach to him.  That realization ignited a joy of learning in him again.  He no longer hated correction and didn’t see it as judgment on him personally but now knew it was a correction on his understanding.  Once the teacher was able to re establish the principles the application became natural to Joshua.  Unlike Anthony, who didnt understand that the teacher was trying to re establish the foundation or reset the course not judge his abilities to navigate.

See, sometimes we learn something new and apply it to our lives and thing that we have mastered it.  We soon think that we are the masters over it; when in fact we are not.  The principles or foundation that Jesus Christ has laid down can not be altered no matter what.  How we live our life is not a alteration of principles  but an application of how we see those principles.  No one can understand the principles on their own.  That’s one reason fellowship, community, having a pastor and being active in a church is important.  If you misuse the principles you will quickly go off course and stop learning and growing.  Next you will be trying to separate the principles and application or mathematics from addition; all because you want to add things your way because you are a master (in Satan’s terms “god“).  So we run from correction by calling it judgment then point to scripture to support it like.(Matthew 7 ¹“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ²For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.)

Commentary on Matthew 7 exert:

Many people have ripped this passage out of context, however. Jesus warns us not to assume God‘s prerogative to condemn the guilty; he is not warning us not to discern truth from error (see 7:15-23). Further, Jesus does not oppose offering correction, but only offering correction in the wrong spirit (v. 5; compare 18:15-17; Gal 6:1-5).

Having right beliefs about judging is not enough. Although Jesus regards scribal and Pharisaic righteousness as inadequate (Mt 5:20), it is not because scribes and Pharisees professed the wrong doctrine on this issue. Most of the sages would have probably agreed with his basic perspective here (compare, for example, Sirach 28:1-3; m. ‘Abot 2:5), and even the particular image of measuring back what one measures out (Mt 7:2-as in “what goes around comes around”) was proverbial wisdom. Jesus’ contemporaries often affirmed his principle and even used the same illustration, but Jesus demands more than agreement from disciples: he demands obedience (vv. 24-27).

We Blind Ourselves When We Rationalize Away Our Guilt (7:3-5)

We rationalize away our guilt but not that of others, and our double standard itself renders our own behavior inexcusable (compare 6:22-23; Rom 2:1-3). A splinter or wood chip in a neighbor’s eye might render that person blind, but a plank embedded in one’s own eye would certainly render one blind. The image is graphic hyperbole: imagine a zealous Christian walking around with a log protruding from his eye (as if one end of it would even fit!), totally ignorant of his impossibly grotesque state. Just as we would not want a blind guide leading us into a pit (Mt 15:14; 23:16), we would not want a blind surgeon operating on our eyes; only one who sees well is competent to heal others’ blindness (compare 9:27-31; 20:29-34).

Proverbs 6

²² When you walk, they will guide you;
when you sleep, they will watch over you;
when you awake, they will speak to you.

²³ For these commands are a lamp,
this teaching is a light,
and the corrections of discipline
are the way to life,

Proverbs 12

¹ Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
but he who hates correction is stupid.

Proverbs 15

¹⁰ Stern discipline awaits him who leaves the path;
he who hates correction will die.

¹¹ Death and Destruction ^[a] lie open before the LORD—
how much more the hearts of men!

¹² A mocker resents correction;
he will not consult the wise.

Jeremiah 2:29-33

²⁹ “Why do you bring charges against me?
You have all rebelled against me,”
declares the LORD.

³⁰ “In vain I punished your people;
they did not respond to correction.
Your sword has devoured your prophets
like a ravening lion.

³¹ “You of this generation, consider the word of the LORD :
“Have I been a desert to Israel
or a land of great darkness?
Why do my people say, ‘We are free to roam;
we will come to you no more’?

³² Does a maiden forget her jewelry,
a bride her wedding ornaments?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
days without number.

³³ How skilled you are at pursuing love!
Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.

2 Timothy 3

Godlessness in the Last Days

¹But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ²People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

⁶They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, ⁷always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. ⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. ⁹But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

Paul’s Charge to Timothy

¹⁰You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, ¹¹persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. ¹²In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Discipline and Punishment?

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