The Resurgence of Christian Anti-Intellectualism

Note:  This blog is usually about education, but this post is only tangential to that.  This is just something I have been mulling in recent weeks.

In the 80s, the American church went through a period of anti-intellectual elitism.  I was blessed enough to not know this until the mid-90s because it was not happening in my church.  I was spoiled by a smart pastor who preached intelligent, well-written sermons, some of which I can still remember today.  It wasn't until I was in a Christian college that I found out that most 80s kids were raised without any knowledge of how to think about Scripture.  They had never been taught how to tell what a verse meant, only how they felt about it.  Their pastors routinely said something along the lines of "Well, you may have a Ph.D., but I believe in WWJD."  I don't know if this was a backlash to evolution in science education or something else, but it made me sad to think that God had gifted people with charisma and communication skills only to have them use those talents to denigrate the intellectual gifts God gave to others.  Instead of exhorting them to use those powerful gifts as Daniel did, to glorify God and influence culture, these ministers mocked the gifts that God meant for them to use.  This led to a generation of therapeutic moralists, people who believed God wanted them to be happy and that being good would make them happy.  They didn't think about theological doctrines or context or meaning because that might interfere with how a verse made them feel about themselves (which was clearly the only thing God cared about).

Then, it seemed there was a time of change.  At least in my circles, pastors used sermons to appeal to doctors, lawyers, and academics to meet their world where it was and use their minds and credentials to bring light into dark places.  Leaders like Tim Keller and Christian colleges like Kings College in New York trained educated people to go into a variety of fields because their voices were needed there.  As I wrote last week, the vision of my Christian school is to help our students achieve academic excellence and develop their gifts while being grounded in God's word so that they can carry out the plan God has for them and to "impact their world for Christ" as our mission statement says.  The shift was to mock celebrities (which I am also not okay with because, again, these are people who could be very influential in the use of their gifts), but I hadn't heard an outright mockery of scientists and other academics for a while.  

I hadn't heard it, that is, until the pandemic.

It seems there is nothing that we won't make political.  Taking precautions against getting a virus shouldn't be political, but there are people who thrive on chaos and, thus, foment division about things we should all be united about.  In order to make it an "us vs. them" situation, there were some who insisted on painting epidemiologists as stupid and/or self-serving.  Men and women who have learned and forgotten more science than I have ever learned are being called stupid by high school dropouts and self-serving by megachurch pastors.  Then, it stopped being directed at the one man who had the audacity to publically question a questionable statement and became directed at all scientists.  Nurses are being told to change out of their scrubs before leaving the hospital and are being escorted by security to their cars because of dangerous protesters.  Doctors who are destroying their own health for the sake of ours are being accused of diagnosing patients out of greed.  There is a church in California whose pastor has screamed at the top of his voice that anyone entering his church with a mask will be turned away.  (As Jesus would?  Wait, that doesn't sound right.)

As a science teacher and a Christian, this resurgence of anti-education among American church leaders is heartbreaking.  At a time when we most need these people and their work, influential leaders of the church should not be looking down on them.   I'm not saying everyone has to agree.  Even among scientists, there will be differences in interpretation.  I'm not saying science isn't sometimes flawed.  It is a field of study being carried out by fallen human beings, so of course, there are errors.  I'm not trying to place the highly educated above anyone else, but it is crazy that anyone would put them under others in the name of faith.  

Christian school teachers, it is our responsibility to fight this.  When a student believes their Google search is more credible than the words of an expert, it is our job to push back.  When we teach students to analyze literature for meaning, we must make sure they understand how to do the same thing with God's word.  When we teach math and science, we must not say faith and science are different things that don't influence each other because that's just hiding from the hard work of grappling with difficult issues.  We must teach them that it is both academically important and God-honoring to dig into those issues and that they may spend years working on them.  When a student answers a question with the lazy answer "because God made it that way," it is critically important that we push through that and say, "Sure, but how did He make it that way?"  All Christian teachers, it is important that our students see our example as Christians who live by faith, but it is equally important that we model thirst for the knowledge God has given humankind.  We should never teach them to ignore God's gifts.  

Vision for Students

Over the years, I've spent a lot of space on this blog writing about my school's mission statement.  I don't know if I have ever brought up the vision statement, which is weird, because I actually find it more applicable to my daily classroom practice.  It states:  "GRACE students will be grounded in God's Word and challenged to achieve academic excellence as they prepare to use their gifts and abilities effectively to follow God's plan for their lives."

I remember sitting in a staff meeting when we were trying to write the school mission and vision statements.  We spent twenty minutes during the mission statement discussion deciding what the connotation of the word equip was and whether it was too mediocre a word.  As a result, we added the word challenge and inspire, but essentially the final draft was the same as the first.  The vision statement was different.  The draft first presented to us spoke only of developing leaders.  A general murmur went up amongst the teachers in the room; I turned to the person next to me and said, "I think I've been doing my job wrong."  A fifth-grade teacher raised her hand and said, "They aren't all supposed to be leaders, are they?  If they are all leading, who are they leading?"  We talked a lot about what we strive to develop in our students, and we ultimately came to the statement as it is seen above.  I thought a lot about why the first draft was so different from the final one, and I finally came to the conclusion that the first draft was written by our board members, most of whom own a business and all of whom are leaders.  Thus, that was a quality they valued highly.  It was probably a quality they hoped to develop in their own children.  Teachers, however, spent their days with all the students, seeing that some were leaders and other had different qualities that had nothing to do with leadership.  We can all become hyper-focused on one characteristic, especially those we possess, and forget that God has different plans for different people.

We want all of our students to be grounded in God's Word.  No matter what their future holds, a knowledge of the Bible and the ability to interpret it as well as apply it to their lives will matter.  We want them to achieve academic excellence, not because grades are so important, but because having a wide breadth of knowledge and the ability to analyze, synthesize, and innovate are necessary to adult life.  

God has gifted each of us for the plan He has for us and not someone else.  I do not have an ear for foreign languages.  I took two years of high school German, and what I retained makes me fully qualified to communicate with a two-year-old German child.  I can say, "Hello. My name is Beth. How old are you? What color is this?"  When I have tried to learn a few phrases in other languages as an adult, someone will tell me what the phrase is, and I will repeat it.  Two minutes later, I can't say it anymore.  While I believe in growth mindset and know I could get better at it with time, I also know that we start with some natural abilities, and foreign language just isn't in my natural skill set.  You know why?  God didn't call me to a life where the ability to pick up language would be needed.  I have students, however, that God will call to the mission field or who will serve as interpreters at the UN; so God did give them the ability to absorb pronunciation and understand other syntax in a way He did not gift me.  

As we help our students develop their skills, it is important to remember that they won't all be equally good at everything.  That's not what academic excellence means.  I know that not all of my students will be scientists, and they shouldn't all be scientists.  It is important that they have the ability to think scientifically because we live in a world that increasingly relies on the results of science but doesn't understand it.  We've seen that a lot during this pandemic, and it has revealed a severe lack of scientific thinking in a large portion of the public.  Every student doesn't have to do science professionally, but they will need to make decisions that require at least a little scientific knowledge and analytical ability.  Learning science develops a part of the brain that can be used in a variety of fields.  When I am teaching science, I keep in mind what it takes to develop those skills and brain processes, not just the content I am teaching.  

While we should help students grow in every area, it is important that we think about God's plan for them, not ours.  When a student struggles with a subject, we should support them in their growth.  When a student shows a natural aptitude for a skill, we should encourage them to develop it even more because God has obviously gifted them in that thing for a reason.  Five years ago, I was in a meeting with the mom of one of my 8th graders.  She was an incredibly detail-oriented perfectionist with a lot of anxiety.  I said to her mom, "Clearly, whatever God has planned for her will require this level of attention to detail.  It's just hard to get through middle school with it."  We came up with some ways to help her with her anxiety, but we were careful not to tell her that wanting to do things right was the wrong way to think.  We gave her some coping strategies that I think have been helpful to her, but we did not try to take out of her something that God put in her.  When she's working for the CIA or pursuing a career in a lab or whatever detail-driven career God is going to place her in, she will need the gift He gave her.  

As we get to know our students over the next few weeks, it's important that we look beyond their grades or our priorities and look for ways to develop in them those things that will allow them to "use their gifts and abilities effectively to follow God's plan for their lives."

Dear Teacher (2021)

Pardon the cliché phrase, but this will be a return to school like no other year.  Whether you are returning in person for the first time since March 2020 or coming back from hybrid to not or mask-required to mask-optional, this year will be different from last year.  While Covid is not behind us, this year does have a more hopeful feel about it than last year did.  Vaccines are a medical miracle, and I thank God for the lives it has saved and is saving and for the increased freedom they are allowing us to have.  As a teacher entering my 23rd year, I thought I'd put in my two cents for teachers at many stages.

First-year teachers -  Well, first of all, thank you.  Thank you for entering the profession at this time when people are more aware than ever of how difficult this profession is.  You are needed and valued.  Second, welcome to the greatest profession in the world (No offense intended to those working in other professions.  All honest work is valuable and God-honoring.  It's just that the fulfillment and rewards of education are hard to find elsewhere.).  In spite of its difficulty, you have chosen the most rewarding work a person can do, and you will find great joy in watching your students grow into the purpose God has for them.  The best advice I can give you is to seek out one or two positive teachers friends.  The closer their room is to yours, the better; but what really matters is that they are positive, enjoy their students, and are willing to share their wisdom.  You can usually recognize them by the way they laugh when they share stories about former students.  Seek them out, and learn as much as you can from them.  Warning: there are also probably some toxic teachers in your school, people who have burned out but do not yet know it.  They are the ones who never have a good word to say about their former students, whose time in the teachers' lounge is usually spent complaining, and who roll their eyes through your entire faculty meeting.  When they start making you feel bad about your students, yourself, or your job, it is a good idea to politely exit the conversation as quickly as possible.  Everyone has bad days or weeks, but if a person is consistently negative, they have nothing to teach you.  Your relationship with your students will be different from theirs, even if they had the same students.   There are going to be teachers (many of them on Twitter) who advise you not to put in a lot of work this year.  I understand why they say that, but I would advise you to view this year as an investment in the rest of your career.  If you put in the time now, you will be glad you did when you need those lessons again next year.  That doesn't mean you should work yourself to death; you have to sleep.  It does mean that the first year is hard, but the more you put into it, the easier your second year will be.

Second and third-year teachers - There's no doubt about it.  You had the strangest first two years any educator has ever had.  If you began teaching at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, you were three-fourths of the way through your first year when everything you had learned was seemingly irrelevant (I promise it wasn't, but it certainly did feel that way).  If you began in 2020, I'd like to thank you for entering the profession during that crazy year.  You knew it would be nuts, and you did it anyway.  In some ways, the rest of your career will seem easy, but if you went from virtual last year to in person this year, you might feel like you are starting your first year all over again, especially when it comes to classroom management.  It'll be the first time you have had to deal with students disrupting your class because they don't have a mute button in person.  It's going to feel weird, but you can do it.  Ask the teachers around you about their classroom management plans.  Read Harry Wong's book The First Days of School and Dave Stuart, Jr's These Six Things.  Communicate to your students that you enjoy them AND that you are the authority in the room. While you can and should learn from other teachers, you will ultimately cobble that into the method that works best for you.  Some of the teachers I respect the most manage their classrooms in completely different ways that I am comfortable with, so I combined elements of what other people do into my own classroom.  In the past, I've always told teachers that the third year of their career is when they will really feel confident, but given the past two years, it might be your fourth year before you do.  

Veteran teachers - Last year was draining in every way, but you made it.  You taught your students differently than you ever had before.  You fought your own fatigue while experiencing the whiplash of public support and love turning into vitriol.  You encouraged your students as well as other teachers.  You modeled living through difficult times for your students.  It may have aged you a decade, but you did it.  Read that again.  You. Did. It.  And, you came back.  My advice to you is this.  Take whatever wisdom you gained from last year, and try to put the hard parts in the rearview mirror.  All of those hard things took a toll, but they also made you a stronger teacher than you were before.  Take the tools you HAD to use last year, and use them in ways you WANT to use them this year.  I'm looking forward to using GoFormative for its intended purpose rather than using it for all of my assessments.  I'm looking forward to using FlipGrid in fun ways rather than test essay questions.  I'm looking forward to seeing my students' faces and being able to hear their laughter clearly.  If ever there has been a time to let your students know how happy you are to see them, it is now.  I can't wait to make silly faces at them again (I mean, I was doing it last year, but they couldn't see it behind my mask; and it took a lot longer to convince them I was funny as a result).  All of these opportunities should be helpful in restoring your energy, so take advantage of them.  Enjoy your students and your colleagues.  We took so many things for granted prior to 2020, and now we can appreciate them again.  Oh, and please be the positive source of wisdom for the new teachers that I talked about before.  You know they need you, so be there for them.  

Whether you are a new teacher or a veteran, have a great year!

Nobody Knows - Everybody Comments

Warning:  This is a long post because it took a lot of setup to get to the point.  If you just want the point, feel free to scroll down to the last couple of paragraphs.

Every four years, I am reminded of sports I forgot even existed, like Dressage and Water Polo (or Curling if it is winter).  When the Olympics are airing, I have my television tuned to it all day long, no matter what the event and even if I am doing other things.  There's something amazing about watching passionate people who are the best in the world at what they do.  This year has an extra layer of drama.  As though being an Olympic-level athlete isn't enough of a challenge, these men and women have the pandemic to deal with as well.  We see story after story of people who have overcome challenges to do something amazing, from the known name gold-medal favorites to the sole representative from a country to the one for whom just being there is already a victory, even if they come in last.

The word unprecedented has gotten a little cliché in the past year, but there are two things that have happened this year that I've never seen before.  The first is Simone Biles dropping out of the competition during the competition.  The second is female athletes changing their own uniforms from the accepted standards.   

Simon Bile is indisputably the best gymnast ever to step up to a mat.  I grew up in the age of Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton, but I've never seen the like of Simone Biles.  While those women experienced the pressure of public attention, the 80s weren't a time when the entire world expressed their opinions of you directly to you from their phone 24 hours a day.  The internet has changed everything for these athletes.  In the social media world, everyone feels they have the right (and it seems, the obligation) to weigh in on any decision they have made, even if they are ignorant of the situation.  I can't even begin to imagine the pressure that would have put on me at the age of 24.  I was in my second year of teaching at 24, and I cannot fathom how badly I would have done my job if it were being broadcast on international television with people telling me my work was important to everyone in the country and commenting on every minor error I made.

We also live in a time where we expect perfection from those whom we have placed on a pedestal.  I remember having a conversation with a friend when Michael Phelps was caught smoking pot several years ago.  I told her that I wasn't condoning what he did, and it was disappointing, but I didn't think either she or I could imagine the pressure he had experienced.  "If he had returned from China with seven gold medals," I said, "he would have been considered a failure because we were so hyped of for eight.  This was his bad decision, but it's at least a little on us."  She thought I was crazy, but a few years later, when he started doing ads for Talkspace and revealed his mental health challenges, I wondered if she realized that he had been self-medicating.  (I'm not condoning his drug use, by the way.  I'm just saying we should understand the context.)

I keep reading comments from Twitter and Facebook people saying, "We all have pressure on our jobs, and we're still expected to do them."  First of all, unless you happen to be the world's leading brain surgeon, I don't think you get to compare your job pressures to hers.  I felt a lot of pressure teaching during the pandemic, but my mistakes weren't being dissected by billions of people who tagged me in their comments to make sure I got them.  Second, if you make a mistake on your job, it's unlikely to result in a potentially career-ending or even life-threatening injury.  I'd rather read the headline that Simone Biles dropped out of the competition for her mental health than read the headline that Simone Biles was permanently paralyzed because she broke her neck after losing her place while 18 feet in the air.  It's easy to make comments from a phone while sitting on a sofa eating Pringles, but let's all stop pretending we understand the situation.

At least two teams of women have decided that it is time to take a stand against women being forced to show their everything to the world.  The Norwegian Beach Handball team  (I didn't even know beach handball was a sport, I kept thinking they meant volleyball) was fined 1500 Euros for "improper attire" because they came out in spandex shorts rather than tiny bikini bottoms.  I put a picture here for reference because I keep reading that they aren't as aerodynamic in shorts (as though handball is a game that requires aerodynamics).  They simply don't want to flash the world while diving for a point.    

Apparently, no one expects the men to by aerodynamically sound because here's what the men's team from the same country is expected to wear for the same sport.  

The German women's gymnastics team has also decided enough is enough.  After decades of women performing in bikini-cut, wedgie-inducing leotards while men perform in shorts or stirrup pants, they performed in ankle-length unitards.  This, of course, sparked a lot of comments as well.  I saw a lot of "the Olympics is no place for politics" comments.  Anyone who believes that hasn't paid attention to the Olympics since the 1930s.  From boycotts to protests, it's always been used for political statements.  That aside, how is not wanting to show your butt cheeks to the world or wanting to avoid the potential of flashing your privates while on the balance beam a political statement?  

Let's stop pretending that this is about anything other than getting some ratings from some of the gross men who only watch to see half-naked women jumping around.  That's not me editorializing; it is direct quotes I have read comments from multiple men saying, "What's the problem?  That's the only reason I watch it." while not realizing that they answered their own question.

But none of this is the point.  The point is that those of us making comments have absolutely no idea what we are talking about.  Even the ones that start with, "I was a gymnast and . . ." like the two years of gymnastics they took in middle school qualify them to disagree with what elite athletes choose to wear.  Nobody knows the pressures that another person experiences in their life or on their job.  We all have different responsibilities and experiences and pasts and psychological constitution and support systems.  I have no idea what a nurse goes through, and a nurse has no idea what I go through.  I was a teenager at one point in my life, but that doesn't mean I know what it is like to be a teenager now.  Even within the same profession, elementary school teachers and upper school teachers don't want each other's jobs and don't understand what the other has to deal with from day to day.  I'm going to assume this is probably true of cardiologists vs. proctologists as well.  

I always try to connect things to education since that is the point of this blog, so here goes.  Teachers, our students are growing up in a time when they are expected to have an instantly formed opinion based on a headline (because we don't typically read the articles we forward) that we stick to and never change.  We MUST teach them a better way.  We have the opportunity when they ask what our opinion is about something to say, "I'm not sure.  I need more information."  We have the responsibility to base our opinions on valid data from good sources and not just say, "I read somewhere" like that's a credible reference.  We have the responsibility to model an openness to change our opinion when new data becomes available.  If we lead them to think before they post, we can change the toxic culture of social media in the future, but we can only do it if WE think before we post and if we say, "I'm not going to judge her decision because I don't know what her job is like."