By: Laura Bennett
What happens when I die? Who’s God? Both questions your child may ask, but more often than not kids want answers on handling tricky situations, and navigating life’s everyday complexities. In their language it might come down to what makes a good friend? And, can I say what I think?
Part of the job of an SRE teacher is helping kids find their own answers to these questions. In the case of Christian SRE that includes seeing what the Bible’s response would be.
Murray Norman, spokesperson for Christian SRE says, “The thing that we’re looking at with these [types of] questions, is not to come up with the exact right answer. We don’t want teachers to say, ‘this is a good friend, when you find them in the playground this is what they’ll look like’… we want [teachers] to help [kids] process the [Bible’s] suggestion of what [a good friend] might be.”
He continues, “We look at what sort of values does a ‘good friend’ actually have? How do they care for me? …For instance when we look at [the parable of] The Good Samaritan, we see someone who wouldn’t normally get on with another person getting in there and caring for them in their time of need.”
“…In the playground that might look like seeing someone else needing help – they might be being bullied, or not fitting in – and going out of your way to care for that person,” Murrays says.
When we wonder if we can always say what we think, Murray adds, “We want to teach [students] to be honest, we want them to be truthful, but we also want [them] look at how [their] words affect people… [without] avoiding the truth.”
Murrays says, “In the Bible there are times where Jesus is talking to crowds of people, and he’s… looking at what their needs are. When Jesus is talking to the Pharisees (who were the religious leaders of the day), He gives a very different response than when he’s talking to the people.”
In other words, Jesus knew His audience, and how to communicate what they needed to hear. A trait it pays to highlight, and one more helpful to kids than a direct prescription about when to bite your tongue.
For more information on how SRE handles your child’s questions head to: http://www.faithlifevalues.com.au/
Article supplied with thanks to Laura Bennett.
About the Author: Laura Bennett is a media professional, broadcaster and writer from Sydney, Australia.