English 212

2002 Third Paper

On Serendip

My praxis fieldsite is a church. It has been established 125 years ago. The Church aims to worship God, perform missions (local, national and international) by helping the less fortunate, and educate individuals about their spiritual growth and relationship with God. Membership is necessary in order to be part of this ministry. The "Come and Consider" classes guide individuals through a series of informative lectures regarding the faith. During these classes, an in-depth orientation about the ministry are discussed and it also gives individuals an opportunity to acquaint themselves with the pastors and other members of the ministry. Session members will interview prospective members and formally welcome them into the faith at the end of the second class. The Church is open to serve any individual who wants to be part of this community regardless of race, gender, age and social status.

Last Sunday was my first fieldsite workday. The program in which I am participating in is called "Sunday Morning Live". This program offers Sunday classes to Middle Schoolers from 6th-8th grade. Each of the perspective grades have their own classes. I am working with the 6th grade Middle School class. The goal of the Youth counselors is to make learning about their religion fun and informative. I will be observing children from the ages of 10-12 years old. These children are mostly Caucasian from within the Philadelphia area. Singing spiritual songs with the 7th and 8th graders was an ice breaker to officially start Sunday classes. This was a way for the children to get settled down and relax before an hour class. The youth counselor started off the class by reviewing some of the material they studied the Sunday before. Even though I was a new face to the crowd, the children were not shy around me and were enthusiastically answering the questions the counselor asked. The children used very informal and general language. Even though they were talking about world issues today that are related to the scriptures, sex was nonexistent in their language.Sex being a silent issue in this class has led me to think of a way to make a curriculum where I can relate sex to an important issue in today's society while also using the scriptures.

Since SEX was not an issue discussed in Sunday class, it is a challenge for me to think of an innovative way to start a conversation on sex going and how I could possibly associate this with a 6th grade religious class. Even though they are the wild typical 6th grade bunch, they wanted to learn more about the scriptures and the bible. For their sexual education curriculum I plan to research on sexual education courses that were designed for 6th graders, 7th graders and 8th graders. This is a good starting point because it will give me a picture of how I should go about the project. After researching on this, I plan to go through some Bible scriptures and see which ones relate to sex so I can incorporate the sexual education information into these scriptures.

The children used very informal and general language.When one of the children would get the correct answer in the discussion, the Youth counselor would reward them with candy. Candy acted as an incentive for the children to answer the questions. Most of the children responded with the War on Iraq while others were busy away chatting with their classmates. A whole new discussion on the war in Iraq and the Palestine and Israel conflict began. From this moment, I realized that putting sex into language in this class was possible. If children are able to bring up topics that are related to violence and are relevant to issues that we see in everyday life, I do not see why sex cannot be brought up.
Even though they were talking about world issues today that is related to the scriptures, sex was nonexistent in their language. Since SEX was not an issue discussed in Sunday class, it is a challenge for me to think of an innovative way to start a conversation on sex going and how I could possibly associate this with a 6th grade religious class. Even though they are the wild typical 6th grade bunch, they wanted to learn more about the scriptures and the bible. For their sexual education curriculum I plan to research on sexual education courses that were designed for 6th graders, 7th graders and 8th graders. This is a good starting point because it will give me a picture of how I should go about the project. After researching on this, I plan to go through some Bible scriptures and see which ones relate to sex so I can incorporate the sexual education information into these scriptures. I also plan to contact the pastor to advise me in choosing some scriptures.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Anderson, Neil. Purity under Pressure: Friendships, Dating, Relationships that Last. Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 1995.
Burns, Jim. The Word on Sex, Drugs & Rock 'N' Roll. Illinois: Zondervan Publishing House, 1973.
Dickie, Steve. Creative Programming Ideas for Junior High Ministry. Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992.
Irvine, Janice. Sexual Cultures and the Construction of Adolescent Identities. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994. pg. 287.
Jimmy, Hestor. Christian Sex Education. Tennessee: Family Touch Press, 1993.
Lynn, David. Teaching the Truth About Sex. Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1990.
Oestreicher, Mark. Help! I'm a Junior High Youth Worker! Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996.
Pearson, Darrell. God's Word for a Junior High World: Pulse Prayer. Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House,1999.
Sexuality. Youthworker. CCM Communications, November/December 2001.
Yaconelli, Michael. Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith. Colorado: NavPress Publishing Group, 1998.


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