*1,440 teenage girls become mothers
*1,106 teenage girls get abortions
* 4,216 teens contact a sexual transmitted disease
*500 adolescents begin using drugs
*1,000 begin drinking alcohol
* 135,000 children bring guns or other weapons to school
* 180 children are arrested for violent crimes
* 3,610 teens are assaulted
* 80 teenagers are raped
* 6 teens commit suicide
Teenagers are experiencing so much hurt and pain in their life, it is unbelievable. Those statistics are crazy, but they are true, and I know that because I see it every day at school. Teenagers have experienced so much crap in their life. It absolutely breaks my heart. And as teachers, what are we doing about this…??
Well, here is the Iowa Based Learner Profile that we are basing our curriculum around..
Students will be:
-communicators
-risk-takers
-reflective
-knowledgeable
-thinkers
-inquirers
-open-minded
-principled
-balanced
-caring
-risk-takers
-reflective
-knowledgeable
-thinkers
-inquirers
-open-minded
-principled
-balanced
-caring
Okay, so let’s say that we achieve this goal, that these become the characteristics of our students in their behavior. Well, what are we going to do about all the pain and the hurt? How about all the brokenness and the sin that these students have been grown up in?
The only thing that can heal them of their hurt, the only thing that can actually help them is being forced out of the schools. These students need Jesus Christ.
Encouraging Story:
So we started Youth for Christ at Merrill last Thursday. It was great! We had well over 50 students there, and a lot of students that I didn’t expect to be there. Anyway, there is this girl, who has been on my heart since the very beginning of school. She is in my first period class. I very rarely see her smile; she just looks so sad and hurt all the time. During our team meetings, the teachers have discussed what we can do to motivate her because she never turns in any assignments, participates, or cares about anything. I’ve tried to make it a point to talk with her and ask her how she’s doing, but I never get much of a response. Well, the Lord brought her to YFC on Thursday, and I knew that when we split up into small groups that God would put her in mine and sure enough, he did. I had about ten of my students in my group and I got the opportunity to clearly go through the gospel with them. It was awesome to see the students actually get it and ask lots of great questions, including Mishayla, who usually doesn’t say anything.
So the next day, as I’m greeting my students, she comes up to me, taps me on the shoulder and smiles!! I couldn’t believe it. And then, I went back to sit at my desk, and she comes up and turns in a few of her assignments that she has never turned in, and says that she completed them for me, and that she wants to be on my team for Upwards Basketball, and gave me a high five. It was crazy to see how much different she was. Even in class, we had a work day and she was really working on her assignment and asking questions, which usually she just has her head down. I was so encouraged by her. And it got me thinking how these students need Jesus, they need to know they are loved and cared for, and how much of an impact a teacher can have in a students life if they really cared about them as a person instead of a test-taker.
The only thing that can heal them of their hurt, the only thing that can actually help them is being forced out of the schools. These students need Jesus Christ.
Encouraging Story:
So we started Youth for Christ at Merrill last Thursday. It was great! We had well over 50 students there, and a lot of students that I didn’t expect to be there. Anyway, there is this girl, who has been on my heart since the very beginning of school. She is in my first period class. I very rarely see her smile; she just looks so sad and hurt all the time. During our team meetings, the teachers have discussed what we can do to motivate her because she never turns in any assignments, participates, or cares about anything. I’ve tried to make it a point to talk with her and ask her how she’s doing, but I never get much of a response. Well, the Lord brought her to YFC on Thursday, and I knew that when we split up into small groups that God would put her in mine and sure enough, he did. I had about ten of my students in my group and I got the opportunity to clearly go through the gospel with them. It was awesome to see the students actually get it and ask lots of great questions, including Mishayla, who usually doesn’t say anything.
So the next day, as I’m greeting my students, she comes up to me, taps me on the shoulder and smiles!! I couldn’t believe it. And then, I went back to sit at my desk, and she comes up and turns in a few of her assignments that she has never turned in, and says that she completed them for me, and that she wants to be on my team for Upwards Basketball, and gave me a high five. It was crazy to see how much different she was. Even in class, we had a work day and she was really working on her assignment and asking questions, which usually she just has her head down. I was so encouraged by her. And it got me thinking how these students need Jesus, they need to know they are loved and cared for, and how much of an impact a teacher can have in a students life if they really cared about them as a person instead of a test-taker.
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