The year 3,000 (maybe)

Sex Ed and spirituality

Apparently some students expected that our class was going to be the sex education class. While sex and spirituality start with the same letter they are very different classes. We try and make it clear that the goal of our classes is to encourage open discussion about spiritual issues.

Past experiences

Nearly all the students had negative memories of RE when they were in primary school. Their experience was one of mystery and boredom. Mystery in the sense that they didn’t understand a word that was being spoken and boredom because well it was boring. This usually means they did not see how RE was relevant to their lives. Hopefully they will get more out of these discussions.

Simpson’s documentary on the Soul

Today we watched the Simpson’s Episode where Bart sells his soul for five bucks. Bart finds he loses his sense of humour, automatic doors don’t work, the dog and cat are scared of him, he has nightmares of not getting to heaven. All of this is an exploration of what the soul is and what it does.

Tom’s demonstration and the question Who am I?

Tom was volunteered to get up the front and help me demonstrate that we are more than just a biological body. I asked Tom clap his hands together which he did. Then I asked the class what would happen if we chopped Tom’s hands off (apart from going to jail). I asked Tom who he would be and he answered Tom. You see our body is not who we are, we own it and use it. The soul is the driver of the body. So you are more than your body. Whether you lose your hands or not you are still the same person in yourself, you retain your sense of identity.

Speed Pictionary

Drawing values like; honesty and courage is not easy. Here are some drawing of; God, Love and friends. The drawing of God is interesting because it reminds me of Christ on the cross. God dying on a cross is fairly unusual compared to other world religions. Normally gods are invincible and powerful; it’s not the done thing to die for the very people who are killing you.

We don’t often think about what matters most to us. Family and Friends are easily taken for granted. Students really struggle to answer how they came to hold values like love, family, and friends. Mostly they respond by saying that they just have these values, they make them happy. Friends are there for you in tough times.

Rev's complilation of student doodles

The Titanic struggle

Each student was given an identity and told that one must be voted off the life boat. We had a Single dad, Mum of 5 kids, High school teacher, Unemployed 18 year old, Recovering drug addict, 6 year old child, school athletics champion. It was a toss up between the unemployed 18 year old and the recovering drug addict. The consensus was that since the drug addict was stupid enough to take drugs in the first place they deserved to get chucked off the life boat. I asked whether any of us have made some stupid mistakes that we regret but it did not change the decision.

What we value

This game reveals what we value. Other groups kicked off a wealthy business owner, High school teacher, and the recovering drug addict x2. We make judgements about people based on what we value. Our values affect the decisions we make, the friends we have, the people we don’t like and how we treat them are all governed by our values.