My Worldview

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Joel Swagman

Education 304

Joldersma

April 28, 1999

Assignment 3

My worldview is very important to the way I teach my classes.  One of the most important elements in my worldview is the idea that God is in control.  God has ultimate control over everyone’s destinies.  Since I also believe in a benevolent God, I believe he is working towards the good of people.  Furthermore, I believe that Freedom is important for human beings.  God created us as free creatures, and we should create institutions that allow for as much freedom as possible.

I believe in my teaching that I should give students as much freedom as possible.  I should try and encourage independent thought as much as possible, and try and create situations where students are free to make their own decisions.  I would also not try and enforce my religious views on students, but try and create a possible role model for them, so that they might be curious about what makes me tick, and possibly decide to emulate me.

As a Christian, I believe that God has worked through history, and can be revealed through history.  I realize that many areas of history are embarrassing for Christians, because history does not always reveal what we like it too.  I also realize that history can be problematic for Christians, as we must explore questions such as: Why did God allow the holocaust to happen?  I believe these connections do not always have to be made directly for the student, but that the student will see both how God is revealed in history, and the problems of history for a Christian, by him or her self.  However, I can facilitate these by perhaps focusing on events that will cause the student to do this reflecting.  Students will individually come up with different explanations as to why historical events occurred, and what was the driving force behind them.  This can be brought out more hopefully by class discussion.  The students can then see how others explained these events, and make their own decisions.