Christian Apologetics
Engaging young minds to think about worldviews
Some notes on teaching to young children
The urgency to teach children can't be overstated. Everyone has a worldview and every child is formulating one day-by-day as he or she grows up. The question is this: are the children learning it consciously or unconsciously? Are we intentionally teaching them to think coherently? Because if we don't, we are basically leaving them to pick up whatever they can from their socio-cultural environment as they grow up. And this is hardly a good way to learn because what they will inevitably end up learning is a worldview that may not be coherent.
In recent years, I have taught Christian apologetics to a group of children who were about 12 to 15 years old. Keep in mind that the best time to engage someone to think about the Christian faith is when they are still very young. Here are some pointers for anyone aspiring to teach Christian apologetics to young children:
1. Use plenty of visual aids.
Translating abstract concepts found in literature into visual representations that can be easily grasped by young children may be a time-consuming effort. But thankfully, there are video clips on apologetics on the internet. For me, I find using Power Point slides with animations and images work pretty well as I narrate the points to the class.
2. Expect children to have short attention span and some may even fidget.
In general, young children tend to have shorter attention span in a classroom than adults (and it is perhaps for this reason most Christian apologetics resources seem to target a more mature audience). However, there is good news: my experience tells me that children who fidget in class doesn't necessarily imply they are not paying attention to the lesson. They are actually quite capable of listening even while they swing their legs or twitch their fingers. So, minor fidgeting is fine as long as others in the class are not distracted from learning due to such fidgeting. Its your call to set the appropriate boundaries.
3. Be prepared to engage and interact with the children.
Children normally can't stay focus for extended period of time if the teacher does all or most of the talking. Hence, the lesson should not be a one-way communication from the teacher to the children. A teacher should punctuate the lesson repeatedly with relevant questions, allowing the children the opportunity to think, to answer and to ask questions. This is a skill every teacher of young children should take time to master.
4. Commitment of the parents is paramount.
Some parents think that Christianity is good but not terribly important for their children. To them, Christianity is dispensable. It is merely an appetizer or dessert in a meal, not the main course. To them, God is just a helper or butler in times of their need rather than the Almighty Creator of the whole universe who deserves our total allegiance and unreserved obedience. I wonder if some Christian parents even believe in the urgency of teaching the Biblical worldview to their children? Hence, it is out of the question that every teacher will have to task himself or herself to teaching the parents about the importance of worldviews. Why? Because most of the time, children can only be committed to learn to the extent their parents are willing to motivate them to learn.
5. Every teacher should have a basic understand of Christian apologetics.
I myself regularly immerse in this discipline by listening to relevant seminars and debates, and reading books on apologetics and worldviews. There is no easy alternative to this, but then again it is really a joy, not a chore, to be called to a ministry to further God's Kingdom. And you too will come to enjoy God's calling like I do....
