Boy did I have a depressing day at work today! I decided that this year, in most of my classes, I would try to spark discussion about the Easter holiday by asking a fairly nebulous question: "What is the importance of Easter to you?" So, with my 11th grade bilinguals, (all 7 of them), and one of my four 10th grade special English classes (13 of them), I began the class by having them spend 4 minutes writing their responses to the above question. Then I had each student read out what he/she had written, and wrote some key words on the board. To give you a taste of what they said: "holiday from school"; "eating ham and hard-boiled eggs and horseradish" (traditional Hungarian Easter foods); "spending time with family"; "painting eggs"; "'sprinkling' the girls and getting chocolate or money in return"(another tradition taken from pagan celebrations).
Not ONE student, I repeat, not ONE student even mentioned the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whoops, I take that back; ONE student said, "For religious people, it's a celebration of Jesus' resurrection, but I'm not religious."
So we discussed all the "traditions" they mentioned and why these things are important to them. Then I asked if any of them thought that Easter was about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here are some responses: "To religious people, yes"; "Now that we are modern, we don't believe in that anymore"; "Well, we know more now, and we know that it's not really true, so it's not important."
Then, with my 10th graders, I asked them why they think that young people, or people in general have little or no interest in God? I told them that even though I am a believer, they could say anything without offending me. One bold young lady raised her hand and said, "Because church is boring!!!" Another student said, "Religion and faith are irrelevant and no longer needed because we have all that we need now."
Church is boring. Church is boring. Church is boring. I keep hearing this over and over and over again. I took a bold step and told them that when I read the Gospels, and I look at the person of Jesus Christ, I see that many people were RUNNING to Him, FLOCKING to Him, WANTING to be around Him. "How many of you have seen THAT picture of Jesus in church or lived out in someone's life?" No response. Then I told them that I go to a church where people dance, and wave flags, and sing "happy/upbeat" songs....their eyes widened in disbelief.
20 students; not ONE even hinted that God or faith had anything to do with their Easter celebration. Here's an entire generation, whose parents grew up under communism, that considers belief in God irrelevant and unnecessary.
Can you say I'm feeling a bit down today?
2 comments:
G'day
I'm not a believer of your faith.
I have been a student of teaching.
These students all expressed interest in easter. They could all describe positive experiences of the holiday.
Belief and faith in christ are not necessarily that important to those kids right now, if they were, then they most likely would have the understanding you were looking for.
The christian religion is filled with many enjoyable traditions, so at some point when they are ready to look at the religion from another point of view, or try to understand where the traditions and customs come from, lo and behold they will discover it all. It's not hard to find out about.
So i think cheering up is in order, they know about easter and enjoy it. If the belief and reason for Easter is important to them they will be able to find out about it. At the very least they take enjoyment from this festival, which is likely to then keep their interest till later on when they express an interest in why it exists.
Thanks Sigmund! I understand and can appreciate your perspective. Yet my Lord's passionate love for these kids and desire to have a personal relationship with them, which quite possibly they have never even heard about...a personal relationship with the God of the universe????....and that God loves people endlessly, passionately, sacrificially, unconditionally...and me knowing and experiencing that kind of love for 26 years now is part of the reason for my sadness for them, as I know, from experience, that they all long for a love that will NEVER leave them. I do have hope that, as you say, someday, they too will find the freedom that Jesus won for every single person who wants to receive His free gift which he paid for on that cross! Thanks for dialoging!
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