Getting Students to Think-For Their Own Good!
by Julie Walton, Ph.D./Calvin College
Part of being whole and well involves tending to our intellectual health. This entails keeping an intentional eye on what we think, read, and say. What are the things to think deeply about, and why should we think on these things? The command is to love things that are pure and lovely, and of good repute. This is what we are to think on. But, the work of thinking stops us from setting aside times for thought. The centerboard on a sailboat keeps the craft from being blown sideways in a broadside wind, allowing the sail to capture the wind and propel the boat forward. But, whenever I intend to just sit and think, my mind is quickly blown off course by the telephone, a child, the sudden realization that the mortgage payment didn’t go out on Monday, or the sight of a cobweb up in the corner; my mind rarely gets out of the shallows into the deep water of contemplative thought or prayer because I fail, time and again, to become centered.
How does the shallowness of life manifest itself? There are ten ways I can think of which daily threaten to blow my thinking off course (click on READ MORE).
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