This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism and review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without the express permission of the publisher.
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.
National Library of Australia
ISBN 978-1-922000-76-7
Author—Vicky Jelliffe
Managing editor—Natasha Percy
Theological editor—Belinda Pollard
Pedagogical editor—Belinda Elliott
Cover design—Chrisy Savvides, Neo1 Design
Internal design—Bethany Abbottsmith
Vox pop videos—Tim Andrews
Based on You: An Introduction by Michael Jensen, published by Matthias Media, 2008. Excerpts used with permission.
Using this Teacher’s manual
This material is based on the book You: An Introduction. Therefore your starting point is to get a copy and read through it before you begin to plan your lessons. This material has been prepared to get you and your students talking about ‘Who are You?’ and ‘What are You here for?’
Aim
The aim is the outcome you want to achieve in your lesson. If you know your aim, this will direct which things you include and leave out as you prepare for your class. It will also help you to reflect on and evaluate your lesson.
Big idea
The big idea is closely related to the aim, but is the central idea of the lesson you aim to teach.
Teacher preparation
Each lesson comes with notes for teacher preparation which include the following sections:
• questions for you
• connecting with your students
• key points
• You and the gospel.
The following outlines what each chapter provides to accompany the book. The lessons incorporate students’ reading of You: An Introduction, Student handbook activities, and extra lesson activities in these lesson outlines, so that you can choose what will be most suitable for your class. I have run these lessons in both a 30-minute and 65-minute lesson with the major difference in preparation being a second or third activity to help students to think about and engage with the topic.
Teacher preparation
This section introduces you to the topic and helps you to prepare for the lesson through introductory information and personal reflection.
QUESTIONS FOR YOU
The purpose of this section is to help you as the teacher to engage and reflect for yourself on the big issues raised in the chapter, especially how you see yourself. As the teacher your role will be to direct and lead the students in their discovery of themselves in relation to God—but you are also sharing this journey with them. When you spend time thinking and reflecting on what the material means for you personally, you will be better prepared to teach your students with authenticity.
CONNECTING WITH YOUR STUDENTS
This section offers a brief introduction to the lives of your students. A better understanding of the experiences of the teenagers you teach will enable
you to be better equipped to share God’s truth with them. It is my prayer that by opening your eyes more to the students in your class, you will be moved more and more to pray for them, and about the struggles they face. Let us follow the example of Jesus and have great compassion for those who need to know him (Matthew 9:35–38).
KEY POINTS
This section begins with a clear summary of the chapter. This follows a progression of ideas designed to help you think through the issues raised in the chapter for yourself. Having gone through this process already yourself, you will be better equipped to guide your class through the material.
YOU AND THE GOSPEL
This section has been written to help you piece together a clear understanding of how the particular issue in a chapter should be seen and understood in light of the gospel.
MY REFLECTIONS
This is a space for you to write down your personal reflections, and topics or questions that come to mind that might be worth raising or looking out for.
THOUGHTS
This section includes reflections from the author’s own experience teaching the curriculum. These brief personal insights are designed to give encouragement, and help you reflect as you prepare to teach the lesson.
Lesson plan
The lesson plans offer a variety of activities, conversation starters and follow-up questions that give you flexibility to plan for the specific needs of your class. For example, you might want to spread the content across two lessons if you only have a short amount of time.
Each school conducts Scripture or Christian Studies differently and each class is unique. These lesson
plans have been designed so that you can kick off with a fun activity, followed by a conversation between the students and yourself that, along with activities in the Student handbook, will explore the topic further and raise questions, issues and frustrations. By spending time exploring the topic through conversation, you will give students a good foundation for continuing the conversation about what God says about You.
STUDENT HANDBOOK
This icon shows where the Student handbook will be needed during the lesson. There may be activities in the Student handbook that don’t feature in this manual—students can work on these where time permits.
INTRODUCING YOUR LESSON
I have found it very useful each week to start my lesson reminding the students that I don’t assume that they have an interest in God or Jesus or what the Bible says. I know that most of them have been coming to Scripture or Christian Studies for at least ten years, and they have probably heard a lot of the same Bible stories. The assumption that I do make is that they care about themselves and that they are seeking to figure out who they are and where they fit in. I explain that this is what we’re here to explore, and on the way, we’re going to check out what God has to say. This allows me to engage them initially and to invite them to think, explore, argue, rethink and apply. Starting your lessons along these lines also helps you to have a smooth transition from My You to Kicking it off activities.
MY YOU
My You aims to tie the beginning and end of the lesson together. This is designed to be a fun activity that the students can use each week to build a picture of who they are and to assist them in comparing and contrasting their view with God’s view. The aim is to have them process and articulate who they are in relation to God. This will give them something to look back over in the coming weeks to refresh their memory and progressively build a bigger picture of who they are.
The beginning starts with their ideas and the questions you raise and address, and concludes with what God says in the Bible. As you return to My You each week, spend time reminding students that God is God and that ultimately his opinion and plan count more than ours.
The My You section is designed to be flexible, so it could work in several different ways in your classroom.
Below are a few possibilities.
• The class could work together to create their My You using an interactive whiteboard with the teacher saving their work each week.
• Students could complete a My You worksheet individually. Use the black line masters on page 8 or 9, or create your own My You template.
• The class could work together to create their My You on the board with a poster or something similar.
• An alternative and more low-key option is to hand students a piece of paper each week and have them jot down their thoughts and reflections at the beginning and at the end of the lesson. You could collate their responses in different folders so that they can refer back to them throughout the lessons.
These alternatives are offered to help you to design your lessons around the needs and learning styles of your students, and the technology available.
KICKING IT OFF
The first section in the lesson plan offers a variety of activities related to the topic. The goal is to ease the students into the topic for discussion and help them to understand the relevance of the topic to their life.
VOX POPS
These are videos a couple of minutes long which feature vox pops of teens giving their opinions about the issues that will be considered in each chapter. These are designed to be mind grabbers, which get students thinking, and perhaps pondering, ‘How would I answer that question?’ These quick grabs are designed to be used at the beginning of your lesson, but feel free to use them at any stage.
STARTING A CONVERSATION
It is easy to get into the routine of presenting a lesson that is entirely made up of the teacher talking. This won’t create many opportunities to engage with the students’ ideas and to hear what they think. This section is designed to help you start a conversation with the students that involves exchanging ideas and opinions, and asking questions. You will find at times that you or the students raise too many questions to answer. You may also find that students become easily frustrated by questions that don’t have simple answers. This frustration reflects the state of our world, which is often characterised by selfishness and dissatisfaction. Your aim is to get students to the point of wanting a clear perspective on life and their identity. This, then, is the opportune time to introduce them to God’s perspective.
GOD SAYS YOU ARE …
This section addresses the issues raised in each chapter by helping students to understand what God says about them. This will be your opportunity to reveal the character and works of God and point to Jesus as King and Saviour. It is a chance to help students see how their life and God could fit together. So take this opportunity to stun them. Amaze them. Shock them. Enthral them. Open their eyes to our wonderfully generous and loving God who invites them to know him. Show them that God has not only created them but that he has also shaped and fashioned them to be the unique people that they are. Remember, you’re not giving them your opinion on who they are—you are sharing with them what God says about them. That in itself is powerful and life-changing stuff.
PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER
The final section of the lesson is designed for students to reflect on what they have learned and been challenged by. I have found that the best lessons are ones that can be summed up easily. Keep the Big idea in mind as you bring the different pieces of your lesson together. What is key is to get the students to see the difference between what they think and what God says, and to decide for themselves which is better.
It is at this point that you would complete the second half of My You. You can decide whether you want your students to copy the ‘God says you are’ statement or to write one for themselves.
Overall you will find some students (and even some classes as a whole) love time to reflect, while others struggle and are easily distracted. Encourage them to write something down so that they have a foundation on which they can build.
JUDGING YOUR SUCCESS
Whether you have been teaching Scripture or Christian Studies for months or years, you will probably know that ‘I don’t think I taught that well’ feeling. I know and experience this feeling. My advice to you is to always prayerfully prepare your lesson and to remember that God asks us to be faithful, not successful. It is a great comfort to know that the results are not up to us, but God.
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 1 Corinthians 3:5–7
I try to remember that I can’t make my students believe and put their faith in Jesus, but I consider it a success when they understand something new about God and when they engage with God’s word and his character and they rethink their ideas and assumptions. I repeatedly tell my students that all I expect from them is to listen, have and share their opinion, and to rethink and re-evaluate their beliefs in the classroom and as they move forward in life. I consider it a success to have got them thinking.
DISCUSSION STRATEGIES
Class discussion will be a key part of student learning throughout this unit. Below are some strategies which you may find helpful as you lead and facilitate discussion.
• Pair shares: students turn to the person next to them and answer questions, being ready afterwards to share their ideas with the class.
• Hot seat: students take on the role of a character. The rest of the class ‘interrogate’ them, for example Peter after denying Jesus.
• Fishbowl discussion: the room is set up so six to eight chairs are placed in a circle in the middle. The rest of the class sit around the outside of the room, as observers. Students in the centre discuss or answer a series of questions. Students on the outside are observers but need to listen carefully to the discussion. After some time, observers are allowed to ask questions or seek clarification from those in the middle. The teacher may decide to allow students to tap out and in, so observers can take the place of students in the middle. To wrap up, a general question should be asked of everyone, such as ‘What is one thing you have learned from this experience?’
• PMI brainstorming: Students are given a topic and they must think of three things: a Plus (positive consequence), a Minus (negative consequence) and something Interesting about the topic (or possible outcomes).
• DeBono’s Hats: The six thinking hats: white— information known or essential to know; red— feelings, hunches, intuition; black—judgement, playing devil’s advocate on why it may not work; yellow—optimism; green—creativity, possibilities, alternatives or new ideas; blue— management of the thinking process.
• Class debate: the class is divided in half—one group is working for the affirmative, the other for the negative. Students are given a chance to brainstorm ideas and then commence the debate. Any student in the group can put forward an idea or rebuttal.
Chapter:
GOD’S VIEW
Chapter:
MY VIEW
MY YOU
Chapter: Name:
Introduction
Why You? That’s a very good question. Let me answer that question with another that is vital to how you live your life, how you view your life, and the decisions you make: who are You?
Whether we’re 18 or 80 we are all trying to figure out the answer to this difficult but extremely important question. It’s not an easy question to answer at any age and particularly for teenagers as they begin navigating life, trying to figure out who they are and making decisions about who they want to be. It’s a scary task, especially with the onslaught of messages from TV, internet, movies, music, computer games and advertising. Everywhere they turn, everywhere they go, teenagers are exposed to more and more competing ideas and are looking to the media and popular culture to find their answer to the question ‘Who are you?’
We make a statement about who we are by what we wear, what we buy, how we speak, and by what we decide to put on Facebook. The human identity has become a construction zone, but now that there are so many different types of material and no concrete foundation, we’re left unsteady and slightly tilted. How can we answer the question ‘Who are You?’ without a firm foundation? This great desire, search and longing for answers provides us with an open door to help teenagers figure out ‘Who are You?’ and ‘What are You here for?’ Christian studies teachers have the amazing and exciting privilege of explaining to students the You factor in relation to God. Michael Jensen’s book You: An Introduction does exactly that by helping readers to see that their identity is always found in their relationship with
God. We find what it means for you and me to be human in God.
The big question is ‘How do we communicate this?’ How do we help our students to understand that they are so much more than their stuff, body, school marks, successes and failures? How do we introduce them to the God who is their designer, creator and redeemer? How do we open their eyes to Jesus and help them to comprehend his incredible love? As we explore these questions we must recognise that we can no longer assume that teenagers have any understanding of who or what we are talking about when we talk about God, Jesus, the Bible and the Church. It presents a problem when our students have probably spent more time looking in their fridge for something to eat than reading the Bible. As teenagers ask the big questions we can point them to God’s answers. By knowing their questions and their desire to know ‘Who are You?’ we can take them on a journey of self-discovery that leads to the lordship of Christ. Instead of running in with gospel guns blazing, we can step back and spend time engaging with the teenagers in our class about their lives and the questions they’re trying to find answers to. The idea is not to assume that there is an interest, but to attempt to raise an interest, and even frustration! We can start a conversation about the big questions in life and join with them in finding answers. The topics covered in Michael Jensen’s book—and this accompanying curriculum— are a good starting point for a conversation about You and God. In many ways you won’t be telling your students anything they don’t already know, but drawing out some of the frustrations of being human in a fallen world, and the implications of being You in relation to God.
Bridging the gap
Have you ever asked yourself just who these kids are? Sometimes it might feel like you, or they, are from a different planet. Different words like Gen Y and iGen are thrown about without helping much. If we are going to be effective in communicating the gospel, then we need to be introduced to our students. If only there was an idiot’s guide to Gen Y. It would come in handy for me—and I’m Gen Y!
Here is a paraphrase of an introduction for Christian Studies teachers I heard once which outlined the characteristics of Gen Y:
Your students are driven by experience. We can stress about learning, but they like to experience and know things for themselves.
Your students want to see how what they are learning is relevant to them.
Your students desire authenticity. Students in your class have access to the most advanced technologies, but in the end, they’re not concerned with slick presentations or rehearsed speeches. They value spontaneity and high levels of interaction.
Your students are relational. Your communication with them needs to convey openness, vulnerability, genuine interest, understanding and respect. We must be consciously making efforts to promote the gospel through the way we speak and act towards them. You need to be a model for Christ who not only knows the way to him, but also goes along the way by following him and showing the way to your students.
As I think back to my days in high school Christian Studies I seriously can’t remember a single lesson taught to me (this is not meant to be depressing). What I do remember and what does stand out to me from those days is the character of my Scripture teachers and the way they talked to us, the life that they lived and the way they opened their lives to us. I remember the cranky teacher (unfortunately I was in the front row) who made me too afraid to talk in her class, let alone ask a question. I had another teacher whose kindness and warmth in her words
and her attitude to our class made me feel accepted and comfortable and never afraid to ask a question. You’d be surprised by what teenagers pick up from you. What I remember most from one teacher was not any of his lessons, but his well-loved Bible as he carefully turned its worn and, in some places, ripped pages. I was absolutely fascinated by his Bible and it was clear to me that he loved it, but more importantly, that he loved what was in it.
Chapter 1 What, anxious? Me?
Are there any examples you can think of that would be appropriate to share with your class?
Aim
To discuss frustrations about the competing ideas and difficulties of being human and being You.
Big idea
Your identity and purpose must be understood in relation to God.
TEACHER PREPARATION
Read Chapter 1 of You: An Introduction.
If you weren’t already feeling that way before reading this chapter, you have probably picked up on some of the anxieties, tensions, confusions and downright frustrations of being human.
Now let me arrest your fears. As a teacher, and as a human being, you don’t need to have all the answers. You, just like your students, are on a journey towards figuring out who You are. That probably sounds very philosophical. But it does mean that we don’t have to have it all figured out and that when we recognise this truth, we suddenly feel a sense of relief. Spend some time thinking about how the tensions of being human play out in your life.
Questions for you
• What does it mean to be human?
• What do you think society presents as the human identity and purpose?
• I am …
• If you were to nominate someone alive today to be the model human, who would you pick and for what reasons?
Connecting with your students
Being human and being specifically a teenager is never easy. Yet it is important to understand the difficulties that teenagers face today. Adolescence is now commonly associated with depression, anxiety, bullying, sexual activity, suicide, alcohol and drug abuse. The world in which students live is driven by success, beauty and the conflicting desires to fit in while also standing out. There is the pressure to look the right way and act the right way. When we begin to get a grasp of the issues teenagers are facing today in light of the anxieties we all face, it’s not hard to have compassion for them as they face this struggle.
• How difficult do you think it is for students today as they’re bombarded from a very early age with different images and expectations of who they should be?
• What words can you think of to describe how they might feel?
As we search for the answer to the question of ‘Who are You?’ we encounter many difficulties, anxieties and frustrations about being human. Although they’re important, it is crucial that we look past them to see You in relation to God, in whom we should be building our identity.
Thoughts
Comparison is a driving force among the rising generation. This leads to discontent, whether it is based on looks, possession, personality or school results. One of the biggest lessons I learned at high school was how insecure and uncertain all those around me felt. Everybody is trying to figure out who they are, which leads to great opportunities to speak God’s truth into this search.
Key points
• Who are we? What are we supposed to be like? What or whose purposes do we serve?
• We struggle to define ourselves because we don’t want to be defined! Gender, class, race, occupation and family are no longer our markers for identity.
• There are many points of anxiety for modern human beings.
BIOLOGICAL VS UNIQUE
Further thoughts: What view do you think our society holds? Check out the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and consider whether you think we treat people just as biological entities, or as individuals who are uniquely made. On what basis can we argue that all individuals deserve these rights? How as a society can we claim to respect human rights when we fail to protect unborn babies or the poor?
SELF-LOVING VS SELF-HATING
Further thoughts: Comparison, wanting and desire is the experience of teenagers today.
They struggle to love themselves, with low selfesteem leading to self-loathing, self-harm and mutilation. There is often unhappiness and a desire for what they don’t have.
SELF-OBSESSED?
Further thoughts: Self-help philosophy is influencing our society and even our teenagers. They are encouraged to believe that they can achieve their dreams if only they can believe in themselves. How helpful are self-help philosophies? Is the empowerment that it teaches true?
Is there one thing you would change about yourself if given the opportunity? It is so easy these days to present and even construct our identity away from our body. You can be online and present yourself as a 15-year-old boy and in reality be a 60-year-old woman. It raises the question of how important the body is in communication and also in the formation of identity.
ThoughtsI remember as a teenager what the self-help seminars were like at school. I think I was more discouraged than encouraged! I thought my life was a mess and no matter how many resolutions I planned, I couldn’t fix it. My school years were a slow process of learning through faith in Christ that sin was the cause of the mess, but also that he had come to tidy it up. As I become who I am already in Christ Jesus, I can be assured that God is working for his glory through my messy life.
FREEDOM AT WHAT COST?
In a time when we have never before been so connected to each other, why is there less friendship? Why is depression and anxiety climbing
when friends and family are only a phone call, text or email away?
CONSUMING OR CONSUMED?
Further thoughts: How do your patterns of consumption define you? Think even of simple things like whether you drink instant coffee or ‘real coffee’.
In this age of convenience and the immediate, have we lost the patience and ability to stop and do nothing for a while?
FREEDOM TO EXPRESS
Further thoughts: We live in a world where we value control over ourselves. Adolescence is a battle period as teenagers negotiate control with their parents, school, teachers and even friends. They take control in any way that they can through what they eat, drink, wear, buy, and even what they do to their body. There has to be a limit to our freedoms as our choices can affect others.
Is it possible to express the authentic You without a limit, or without relying on material possessions or other people?
Thoughts
Many of my friends refuse to join Facebook because they don’t want to be boxed in or labelled. The ironic thing is that even not being a part of these things still labels you. Both our action and inaction defines us.
DESIRE FOR CHANGE VS DESIRE FOR CONSTANCY
Further thoughts: Would you be satisfied if everything stayed the way that it is at the moment for the rest of your life? A desire for change, growth and newness demonstrates that as humans we were designed for a purpose. Perhaps if we figured out the purpose we would be more satisfied.
• It is amazing to be a human being. To be alive. Think. Breathe. Touch. Taste. Smell. Hear. Love. Speak. But being human comes with its confusion. Pain. Suffering. Injustice. Greed. War. Selfishness. Disease. Destruction. Death.
You and the gospel
The Bible is a story of which we are a part. As all people, young and old, search for the answer to the questions ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Why am I here?’ they look for answers in themselves, in other people, in their stuff, and in their successes and failures.
God answers these questions. In him we discover that we are passionately and extravagantly loved and pursued. We have been carefully crafted in God’s image and are intimately known by God. Our purpose is to bring glory to God through offering our words, bodies, minds, stuff and freedom to him. We have been brought from death to life through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. When we’re tempted to question God’s love and faithfulness we need only to look to the cross and find there that we’re loved more than we can comprehend and that we have a purpose—to follow him.
My reflections
Lesson plan
INTRODUCE YOURSELF
Spend some time talking with your students about your life. Explain to them why you are a Christian. Try and keep your answer brief, as you have an entire year to expand on this with them! Think about phrasing your answer along the lines of ‘I am a Christian because …’
KICKING IT OFF
VOX POPS
Play the Vox pops clip for Chapter 1, which features the following questions:
1. What makes people anxious?
2. What makes you anxious?
3. Do these things happen a lot?
4. Do you think the Bible has any relevance for you in these times?
Feel free to use these to get students thinking, or perhaps ask students how they think they would answer these questions at this stage.
COLLAGE
This is a good activity to help you get to know a little bit about your students and their likes and dislikes. Bring in old magazines and newspapers and hand them out to your students. Encourage them to think of themselves in terms of lots of different categories, that is, the chapters in You: An Introduction. Cover such categories as body, touch, boy/girl, dreams, life, and so on. Have students make a collage of pictures or words to describe them. An alternative if there are computers available in the classroom is to encourage students to create their collages on the computer using images from the internet. The aim of this activity is to have students think about the things
that define them. If your lesson time is not very long you could run this activity as a good introductory lesson.
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE
This game is an easy way of getting to know the class and getting them to think about who they are, and who they are not. Students write down three statements about themselves, two which are true and one which is false. The teacher then reads them out and the class has to guess who each set of statements describes, and which statement is false.
CHOICES
This game is a good way to get to know your students, specifically what they like and don’t like. It also illustrates that they can be defined by their choices. But is this what it means to be human? For example, is the ability to choose essential to our humanity and to being You?
How to play: Have the class stand. Calling out to the students two options and directing them with your arms, let the students move to different sides of the room to indicate their choice. Alternatively you could have them make a specific pose to indicate their choice.
Examples could include: Beach or Snow, Mint Slice or TimTam, coffee or tea, Twilight or no Twilight, PC or Mac, high heels or thongs. Get creative with your options.
I AM …
Hand each student a slip of paper with the words ‘I am …’ on it and ask them to fill it out. They will probably complain that they don’t know what to say or that they are confused. That’s the point. They’re meant to struggle to know what to write. A lot of them will probably write silly things, while others will struggle to fit everything they want to write on their slip of paper.
If time permits, you can have the students stick these on the board or read them out if the class is comfortable with one another. Make sure you share your own.
STARTING A CONVERSATION
Think of some of the ways you were engaged in this chapter as you read it.
Introduce to the class the topic that you will be exploring together this term.
We’re going to look this term/s at You and who You are? When you think about it that’s a pretty big question. Maybe you haven’t really thought all that much about what it means to be human. But you are human, and so am I, so it’s a good idea to have a sound understanding of what being human means.
DEFINING YOU
Jensen says, ‘It isn’t as easy as it used to be to answer the question of You’. Read pages 7 and 8 of You: An Introduction. What reason does Jensen give as to why it’s more difficult to define who we are today?
As students consider this question they should find that Jensen says it’s harder to put ourselves in boxes such as race, gender, class and occupation today than it was in years past.
Refer students to the You box in their Student handbooks on page 4 to get them thinking more about this question.
SEVEN POINTS OF ANXIETY
Now read on and write a description of each of the seven points of anxiety that Jensen outlines.
Introduce students to the difficulty of understanding what being human is and isn’t today. Ask students to read pages 7–12 of You: An Introduction and raise some of the tensions and difficulties involved in being human. If you don’t have much time, select a few of the anxieties listed on pages 8–12 of You: An Introduction and discuss them with the students while they write these in their Student
handbooks. Prepare some cards with the different anxieties written on them so you can stick them on the board. Alternatively, you could feature them on a PowerPoint slide.
Answers you will be looking for as students complete their workbooks are:
1. Human beings are a biological ‘thing’, yet they have a higher value than other creatures, ‘endowed with reason and conscience’.
2. We are obsessed with our bodies and look up to unreachable role models.
3. We are obsessed with ourselves and have many opportunities to analyse our personalities. But we also ‘lose’ ourselves through ‘the faceless interface of the internet’.
4. We want the freedom of being able to do what we want when we want—this could be why many people choose to live alone. Yet in doing this we lose the ‘joy’ of living in relationship with other people.
5. We express our identity by what we consume, the brands we buy, etc., but this increases the pressure put on us to work. Our work could be the primary way we define ourselves nowadays.
6. We want sexual freedom to do what we want with whomever we want, but we don’t want everyone to have this freedom (rapists and pedophiles, for example).
7. We want more choice and more change, but this makes us feel out of control, and therefore makes us anxious.
To get discussion going on these points, below are some sample questions you might like to explore with your students. To do this, place sheets of paper with the numbers -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3 around the classroom. Tell the students that you will read out a statement and ask them to choose the number that best describes how strongly they agree or disagree with the statement, and then stand at that number. This will give students an opportunity to express their opinion and a chance for ‘safe’ discussion rather than expecting students to answer questions. Discourage the students from standing at 0, and warn them that you may ask them why they have chosen that position. Below are the suggested statements:
Biological vs unique
• Being human is more about biology than unique qualities and rights.
• Our society thinks that being human is more about biology than unique qualities and rights. (Discuss how in many respects our society holds conflicting views. We have high rates of abortion when at the same time we say we value life. We have extreme levels of poverty across the globe, but in Australia we live in comparative luxury.)
• My answer to the above influences my choices and ideas about life, death, the care of those with disabilities and the poor.
Narcissistic vs loving
• We aspire to be more like narcissistic people than loving people. (To get students thinking, ask them to think of the people they most admire, whether celebrities or people they know, and then to think about whether these people possess more narcissistic or loving qualities.)
• People can and should be able to say ‘I love myself’ without any reservation.
• People who don’t like themselves don’t have good enough reasons for this view. Perhaps you could then explore with students what dangers there are in liking yourself too much, and what dangers there are in not liking yourself enough.
Self-obsessed?
• It’s not right that we often want to change ourselves—we should be happy with what we’ve got. A possible follow-up question could be ‘What is one thing you would change about yourself if you could? Would you be able to stop at changing just one thing?’ or ‘Do you think your body limits your ability to connect with others?’
Freedom at what cost?
• The key to happiness is in being able to make choices about our life and future. Possible follow-up questions include: ‘If you were no longer able to make choices about your life and future, how would you feel?’
• Our freedom of choice should end at:
» murdering someone
» insulting others
» committing adultery.
• An alternative discussion question could be ‘Who do you think are the loneliest people in our society?’
Consuming or consumed?
• The things we consume are a big part of our identity (e.g. food types, brands, clothing and technology).
• How we perform at school makes up a big part of who we are.
• I am content to sit and do nothing.
Freedom to express
• Freedom should not be given to:
» a murderer
» a pedophile
» a racist.
• A discussion question could be: ‘How do people your age try and express the “authentic me”?’
Desire for change vs Desire for constancy
• It is a good thing that life changes so much.
• It is a good thing when life is constant.
• High school students prefer a life with lots of change.
Think about the seven points you wrote on page 4. Do you see these anxieties in your own life or those of your peers? Give two examples from the news, or from your own life, where you see one (or more) of the seven anxieties played out.
Alternatively, encourage students to think of examples that illustrate these anxieties as instructed on page 5 of their Student handbooks.
Scenarios will be determined by students’ experience, or what they have seen in local or international news. Jensen’s point about consuming (the clothes we wear, the food we eat) will probably come up. Also, be on the lookout for issues surrounding body image, and concerns surrounding identity and anxiety in general.
The ‘Anxiety today’ drawing/list exercise could also be a helpful way of firming up these ideas in students’ minds.
Conclusion about You …
Recap with the students that it’s difficult to figure out who we are. We search for answers in all sorts of different places. We look to our friends, family, boy/girlfriends, media, etc. Challenge them to think about whether the answers they’re receiving are satisfying, constant and authoritative or dependent on opinion and changing according to what’s in and out, and what their friends are doing.
A good thing to question here is what they have based their ideas on.
GOD SAYS
YOU ARE …
THE BIBLE AND YOU
Read ‘A great play’ in Chapter 1 of You: An Introduction and draw a mind map outlining what Jensen says about the Bible.
Use the Bible mind map exercise in the Student handbook to help students understand what Jensen says about the Bible. The Bible mind map should feature the following points:
• Explains how things are, in compelling and convincing ways, especially concerning the confusion about who You is.
• Is a very old (and sometimes odd) book.
• Has a lot to say about You.
• Speaks with a remarkable freshness and clarity about our confusion.
• Is not a set of rules.
• Is not a New Age self-help book.
• Tells a great tale about the You who made everything, including us.
• Is a love story about how God loves his people, even when they spurn him.
• Climaxes at Jesus’ entry into the world—where God ‘was winning us back’.
• Has part of this climax in the defeat of evil which came through Jesus’ death.
• Claims that Jesus will return to rule the world.
• Tells us You have a part to play in this story!
Reflect or discuss: Are any of Jensen’s points about the Bible new to you? Which points do you agree with? Which points do you disagree with?
As you encourage students to consider which parts are new to them, perhaps they could circle the points on their mind map in different colours to indicate the things they know and agree with, the things they have questions about, and the things they don’t agree with.
What reasons does Jensen give as to why the Bible is the best place to find the answer to the question, ‘Who are You?’
What do you think about the Bible? You may tick more than one of the following:
These questions will tease out the students’ thinking about the Bible’s authority, as they should be thinking about why the Bible should inform our answer to the question of You. This will give students the opportunity to reflect on what they think about the Bible itself.
This section ends by questioning the students about how the Bible and Jesus does or should impact their life.
Alternatively, walk the students through the storyline of the Bible and explain how it is about You in relation to God.
Look to page 13 of You: An Introduction for a general outline, or say something similar to the wording below.
You probably have seen the Bible before in Scripture classes and may have been very confused. Is it a set of rules? Is it a self-help book? What is it all about? Well the Bible tells a true story and at the very centre of that story is God. God made everything including You and me, and this story is our story too. But even though this is a good story, there is a problem, and that problem is sin. Instead of pursuing God, we pursue ourselves. Instead of giving God the glory he is due as God, we try to make ourselves God.
Sin confuses and distorts our humanity. But the story doesn’t end there. God acts in love and goes to extraordinary lengths to restore humanity.
The climax of the story and the person at the centre of the action is Jesus of Nazareth. He came into the world and lived a life full of wisdom, compassion, humility and love. But this Jesus had a mission to restore our true humanity by restoring You to God. Jesus’ death makes possible the restoration of our true humanity.
How do You fit in? You have been created. You have been shaped and fashioned by God. You have rejected God, but you have the opportunity to be restored to God through faith in Jesus Christ. The question is ‘How are you going to respond?’
PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER
God says You are ‘You’ in relation to other Yous. Especially the One who made You in the first place.
MY YOU
Hand out My You, in whichever format you have chosen. Introduce the concept of My You to the students—that they will be comparing and contrasting the You they think they are and the You God says they are. This is designed to be a fun activity that allows students to express what they think about a topic. Make sure you allow them to have fun with it, but also continually challenge them to make sure they’re really addressing the bigger question of who they are and who God is.
