Dani Johnson was great

Wow! Listen to the Dani Johnson interview.
You know what, she does what she teaches. She was great to work with. Yeah, we are on a mission : change the world by persuading one child at a time that doing good will be their path to doing well.

Dani Johnson's New Book : Grooming the Next Generation for Success

Dani Johnson's Grooming the Next Generation for Success is the best parenting book I have ever read.

When I was young, I was appalled at how parents spoke to their children. Today I am appalled at how children speak to their parents. I am shocked at how my college students comport themselves. I can't say much for my colleagues, either! Oh dear! Our society is in deep trouble.

Dani Johnson has a lot of help. The part I like best is the verbatim conversations, how she talks to her children In general, they go something like the following:

“You want to succeed, don't you?”

“Yes, mom.”

“Want to try that again?”

“Sure, mom.”

“You understand why this family does things like the 2 %, right?”

“Yes, mom, only 2% succeed and so we don't follow the crowd.”

“Right! Good job!”

Of course, she does tell us what to do when the response is not as is desired.

I was delighted with her distinction between protection and control. I was impressed at the discipline required even in an affluent home. I was amazed at how she and her husband set up a procedure to test and socialize her teenage daughter's potential date/mate into their system of honoring one another. Given the overall foundation, it is believable that their daughter sits through the initial conversation setting up the rules with a suitor, knowing she is a protected princess, not a controlled piece of disrespected chattel.

If you care nothing about Scripture, nevertheless, you will see the efficacy and sense in what she says. If you are a Bible believing Christian, you will see immediately how Johnson's way of parenting connects with Biblical principles and you will marvel that we haven't lived this way before.

It is high time to improve our parenting. Now is the time to step up to the challenges of the modern world, a world where our children are innundated with sexploitation, laziness and poor thinking. Johnson gives principles and realistic examples from her own family to help us take our parenting to a new level.

This is not a collection of trainers' platitudes. This is a book for the times. I am giving this book away for Christmas. My daughter gets the first such present. If you have anything to do with kids -- or are even are a grandparent like me -- you want to read it before you do the next item on your “To Do” list. Bravo! Hallelujah!

Sharon Sarles, Mont.Dip., M.Div., M.A. (Sociology)

www.greatshalom.org

How about a responsible response to the recent classroom sexual assault?

So Lord, right now I admit that I don't really know the situation. I only know the news report, but Lord, I know you know. Holy Spirit, I ask you to pour into this situation. Comfort those that need comforting. Convict those that need conviction. Protect and educate all those who are open to it.

I speak Shalom and healing for these young people. I am not the judge of culpability, Lord, I do know that this is not the kind of behavior and outcomes you want for these children. You want them to be healthy, happy, holy, and to succeed. So we claim your shalom over these children. May they all receive a touch from you.

In the Name of Jesus, I speak healing, to you, darling girl. May Holy Spirit wrap you with warm comfort. May Jesus teach you safer paths. May all the holy angels protect you.

Heavenly Father, I know it is not your will that any should perish, but that all repent and receive eternal life. So I pray that these boys would repent, turn toward you, receive by faith your forgiveness AND your cleansing, your making them righteous. That they one day, may be representatives of your holiness, your goodness, your love.

We know that you are not willing that any should perish, so I pray that harvest come across the paths of these young people, to speak the right word at the right time, that they all be turned to you, and soon walking in your good ways.

Holy Spirit, we invite you in, into our hearts, into our institutions, our clubs, our schools, into our city. I thank you that your wisdom is ever available and I ask you to help the teacher and administrator to see what to do. Change our schools, our city, our nation into what you would have them be. Turn over our filthiness to you cleanliness. Turn over our apathy and stagnation, into the might river of your Spirit. Turn us, O Lord. And rescue our city, save it from the dark kingdom, and transfer it to the kingdom of your Dear Son. Give us a revelation, a revelation of our authority, our responsibility, our power. And we thank you for giving us so much. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Comment on Recent Classroom Sexual Assault in Austin

Folks, if you hear the news, you know that there was a very very sad incident recently in an Austin classroom. Two 13 year old boys are reported to have raped a 14 year old girl while the lights were off for an in-class video. I was told that other students eventually cried out to alert the teacher. The news media reports that the teacher is on administrative leave pending investigation and the boys are charged with a felony.

Someone helping in this ministry alerted me to this incident and suggested that Great Shalom might comment. I feel that indeed, maybe I should. How about you, what do you say?

We can tell what the world is saying.  "Oh, look the teacher is at fault."  "Oh, no, the parents are at fault." In fact everyone is at fault. Everyone who has let this society slide down to this low level. Everyone who allows children to be exposed to soft porn -- like at the grocery store line. Everyone who encourages their girls to dress like hookers. (I have no information about the victim; I just know the sorry state of affairs of fashion.)
Everyone who fails to teach their boys how to behave -- and that manly behavior includes honoring women.

 Every Christian who has failed to be active in the social sphere. Every Christian who once active, failed to correctly represent Jesus.  Every one who threw stones instead of extending grace. Everyone who fell into the trap of being an abusive dictator so that the world thinks Christian parenting is the worst of all. "Which is worse," they say, "taking the risk that children will misbehave or having the parents beat the kids."

Folks? What would Jesus do?

Thanksgiving - or turning up the heat in the kitchen

I have a good guess what educators are thinking right now -- because I am too. "How can I get this grading done and still be ready for Thanksgiving. Oh my, and then there is the rush to end of term and Christmas." Public school educators are thinking "Okay, here goes again, the kids will be restless."  College instructors like me are thinking, "Well, after Christmas, my students will wake up and start turning things in; then I will really have work to do."  Home educators are thinking, "Right, now how will I keep assignments on track AND start decorating this house."  Did I guess right?

Around here, at Great Shalom, it is no different. I am so busy that my eyeballs are... but I am so grateful.  Furthermore, I am trying to remember that the curse is reversed, and I am in blessings. Therefore I should be in rest and not hard labor.  Still seeking the Lord about that one.

So it is probably a good time to pray.  And give thanks. So first let me take the opportunity to thank you all for listening, for praying, and for supporting the broadcast. Thanks especially to all those who contributed their labor, whether in prayer, advertising, or participation of any kind. We want to bless children, spread God's Word, and be obedient. We appreciate what you can do to help us.

THANKSGIVING PRAYER

Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank you so very much for so many things.

We thank you for all your blessings to us this year. Thank you for all your comfort in our hard times.

Thank you that you love us so much. Thank you for all that you have done for us.

Help us shine with that love as we celebrate the holidays with our families. Help us see opportunities to bless, to comfort, and to give. First in our own families, and then in with those around us, and finally to the far ends of the earth.

Help us love them, just as we would want the favored people of the world to think of us if we were in the less favored position. Help us be the hand that helps the orphan, the calms the widow's fear, and that plants for a good harvest in all things.

Lord, I ask for blessing upon these my friends and supporters. Bless them as they bless others. Give them blessings of prosperity, of feeling loved, and having someone to love. Blessings of joy, peace, and a boldness that is kind. Healing to your body, mind, and emotions. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

We thank you for all you do for us.

Sharon Sarles

The Great Shalom Broadcast Ministry, Inc. 50a(c)3

P.O. Box 971

Cedar Park, Texas USA 78630

www.greatshalom.org info@greatshalom.org

prayer of blessing, especially for those who work with students who having learning problems

On The Great Shalom Broadcast (Saturday 7:30 am CT on www.klgo.net) I always pray blessings over my listeners and sometimes my guest, but this morning what the guest had to say was SO interesting that we didn't have time for it. We can't do without it, though, so here it is.

Heavenly Father,
Please bless Dr. Salzman, all his family and staff and all those who diligently work to alleviate the suffering of so many people. We call for a revolution in our society that we get a revelation of how to do things right so we have more healthy children, so we get a revelation of how important it is do educate well, so we get a revolution in character training, so we get a great advance in kingdom principles in all areas of our society, but especially around the upbringing, training, and education of our children.

Lord, I know how many hurting people are listening to us today. Parents and children are hurting. Teachers are hurting. Hurting in all kinds of way. Right now, Father, to all who would receive, we ask for your healing flow


Healing flow in power to heal bodies

to heal minds


to heal hearts
 
to heal brains

to heal lives.

Help us all be that channel of healing, wholeness, and blessing. In Jesus Name.

Believe and receive God's love for you. Speak it out, say, Lord, I receive You, I receive your gifts. Thank you for healing me now. I choose to walk in healing. 

I pronounce Blessing on all my listeners and on their families. In the Name of Jesus.

I speak healing, health, wholeness, peace, total salvation/shalom. Amen. Receive it today.

Spring Awakening, the Broadcway Play, reviewed by Faith Family Learning

I went to see Spring Awakening. Thank you, Helen so very much. It wasn't what she or I was expecting.


At intermission I was thinking, even saying, “Why was such great talent wasted on such tired themes?” One just can not have all sex is all good and all restraint is all bad – not in today's world. Are 15 year olds today discovering sex? No, I said, they are entering puberty at 7 in a society awash in sex and are jaded by 15. This play is set in and is fighting the battles of 100 years ago. Helen did not agree.

I suspected that she was right. That the play was not about society today, but was allowing older veiwers to replay their own exploration. Exploring the body and its beauty. Recalling the battles fought in the sixties. But, still, the world is not that stick-figurish, Helen.

In the play, adults are only German commandants, sexual repression is bad, all discipline is pictured as abuse, and exploration into sado-masichism is normal.

But then there was the second half. The audience erupted in applause for the “you're fucked” scene and song. Ilse is fucked by the artist colony. Moritz commits suicide. One youth recruits another into homosexual behavior. Melchior is sent to reform school where he is raped. Vindala is dead at the hands of an abortionist. Okay. This is the world I know. It is a world of the consequences of the philosophy espoused in the first half of the play!

In the end Melchoir resolves to remember the dead, be loyal to friends, and to prepare for children. The casts sings a cheerful song of purple summer. Ambiguous, but good enough for me to read that that hope triumphs over the mess through resolve.

Good, I thought. In a day when even very young people find that their sexuality is exploited in the extreme and they are left holding the bag, the old saw that any discipline is necessarily abuse is way tired.

Helen was disappointed. She wanted more of an exploration of sex. We had masturbation, young exploration, incest, two bare bottom intercourse scenes, as well as the art colony and abortion and homosexuality, so I figured I had enough broad exploration of sex.

I was annoyed by the continuous negative mention of the clergy. In the end I was glad I had not seen yet another Caspar Milk Toast. Ever notice how EVERY clergyman is always a wus? But then it dawned on me. We had seen a clergyman preaching just as the intercourse scene was winding up and right before the “you are in trouble” scene and the “you’r fucked” song. He was the voice of conscience. Wow! There is a departing from the stereotype!

Helen was disappointed with the Romeo and Juliet in the graveyard form.

We agreed that the lighting was the best we had ever seen and that set design was intriguing and creative.

Helen wanted some change, some maturation of the characters. Melchior and Vindala didn't have to continue singing their same notes. Why, even the adults might change. There might be an ally – like the priest in Romeo and Juliet.

Thought provoking. In a world where to be for any restraint, any discipline is to be considered inappropriate if not abuse; in a world where children are so awash with sex that freedom itself is a block to having much hope of a family life in which the raising of children is the focus; in a world where innocent exploration is a mean joke – in THAT sort of world, perhaps this play is then read as a revolution against the revolution. We once worried that bureaucracy would become the iron cage of the human spirit. Today instead, we have found that having no restraint is itself the largest bondage. The youth of today, having too little in the way of railings, can not but fly off the rails. Are they really complaining against a parentocracy of fascist dictates – or are they asking where parental responsibility went to – replete with stock in trade German characters – clearly itself politically correct.

Maybe we need a new Spring in the culture. Far be it from me to say we need a return to traditional values. I am FAR too educated for that. Maybe a change in character or a maturation? How about then, a forward move to embracing the beauty of love and of lovemaking in the context of family and caring for children. How about a move forward to the hearts of parents and children being bent toward one another? How about a move forward to lives lived in the context of both birth and death, supported therefore, with the voice of -- conscience. Has ever such a thought dawned in the arts before?

There was no more poignant line in the play that Ilse saying to Moritz, “Don't you see, by the time you wake up, I'll be on the trash heap.” Here is a wake-up call.

Haunted House or Wholesome Home

Notice how dark our culture is? Even the word “dark” is considered good. Like “dark humor” is considered sophisticated. Dark clothing is considered desireable. Music groups advertising their wares, dress shabbily and look gloweringly at you – and this is good?

“Light” is considered to be the opposity of heavy or weighty, and therefore unimportant. Is this because synthetic light is so abundant? Before electricity, light was highly valued. Once the sun went down, we had to use candles or kerosene – neither one very good for studying by, let alone much else.

The outside culture is certainly in our homes. But is that what we want?

Do we want a home of dark humor or light comedy?
Do we want a home that is a fortress or a palace?
Do we want a house that is darkly impressive, or full of light?
Do we want a conversation that is critical or one that is full of the Light of the Ages?
Do we want a family that is at war with one another, or one that is forgiving and hopeful?
Do we want a home that is “spiritual” or one that is “godly”?
Do we want a home that is suspicious or one that “hopes the best.”
Do we want a family that is ever striving? Or one that is “at rest?”
Do we choose to decorate our hearts with words that make them caves of doom, or temples for Jesus?
Do we fight for our license? Or do we delight in discipline?
Do we train ourselves to be realists? Or do we cultivate faith?
Do we celebrate corruption with the world? Or do we hope in the resurrection?

What holidays will you celebrate with your children? What legacy do they pass down? Why follow the culture's path of dark, when light is available?

Do we need two blogs?

This blog was originally intended to go with http://www.faithfamilylearning.org/, primarily for homeschoolers.
I now have http://www.greatshalom.org/ which is very much about faith for learning, but includes students and teachers of all kinds as well.  I feel we need a blog for teachers. Can we all use this site?  Or do we need to break out? 

For now, let's use just one, and rethink this question when we have more traffic.

Thanks, Sharon Sarles

Encouraging teachers

Good teachers are hard to find. They are harder to keep. The system beats them down.
How can we encourage better teaching?

At my campus, I partnered with the campus manager to have a welcome/hospitality time. Since we have many adjuncts, we decided to do this for two days as a hospitality time in the faculty lunchroom.

People came in, smiled to see the goodies and introduced themselves to me and one another. A small step in blessing.

What could be done at your campus?