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In all my writing (books/articles/blogs) and in most of the seminars I’ve done I in some way have mentioned the idea of behavior management. My heart and thinking is for us to critically consider the affects of this on the development of a personal faith in kids as they grow up in our churches. I think there is a fine line (that may be appropriate to walk at times) between focusing on the personal faith of an individual and their immediate behavioral response.
Some of the dangers of focusing on behavior too much is that our kids learn Christianity as Law – which Christ fulfilled for us. And once in college most will rebel against this idea of Christianity. As believers there are biblically appropriate and inappropriate roads to walk on or down. But its when we focus on these roads of behavior rather than on the belief behind the actions that people tend to detach.
To take this a step further, and in ways deeper into our educational models, what about extrinsic motivation? How might us awarding kids with prizes of sort in our churches for proper behavior (or even memorization) affect their long-term faith development? To be as practical as I can, what are the real long term affects of us throwing candy to children who know the verse we’re asking about? Or even a step further, how might this affect the kids that don’t know the verse and aren’t extrinsically awarded?
There’s an interesting article in the NY Times on this idea in education in general. It’s called, “Rewards for Students Under a Microscope” and has some interesting thoughts and debates on extrinsic motivation. I think critiquing our approach to education is crucial in any regard – and this article might get some juices flowing for you. It’s at least worth a skim read – especially if you work with kids in addition to leading a college ministry.
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