Grammar School Highlight | Third Grade With Mrs. Ainsworth
After weeks of journeying through Narnia with Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, the third graders celebrated completing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with a Narnian party at the end of Session II. We sipped our hot cocoa (thankfully, not bewitched by the White Witch) and constructed gingerbread wardrobes with graham crackers, Hershey’s bars, and royal icing. Mr. Tumnus and Mrs. Beaver even made special appearances!
We believe God delights in our hard work and in our celebration. And the third graders at Donum Dei love to celebrate! It is a unique kind of delight in the classroom when we can bring learning to life in special ways. Getting our hands messy, constructing something edible, enjoying yummy treats, and laughing alongside one another was the perfect way to finish our literature unit and move into the Christmas break!
Upper School Highlight | Biblical Spiritual Formation Seminar With Pastor Kurth
I had the privilege of teaching Doctrine of Creation and Doctrine of Christ to Logic 1 in Session I. We also did a couple of classes combined with Logic 2. I wanted the students to understand that these doctrines are far more than just academic subjects. I wanted to show them how these doctrines can and should shape the way they view God, themselves, and our world.
Towards the end of the session, we put all of the different themes we had been learning and discussing related to the Doctrine of Creation and the Doctrine of Christ up on a white board. These themes included...
God bringing order out of chaos;
human beings being created in God’s image who are entitled to dignity, worth, and honor;
sin and the brokenness it brings to our world;
Jesus Christ as Lord and Creator and Lord and Servant.
With these themes in mind, I asked the students to consider how our city officials deal with unhoused people in our city, a very tangible consideration for students growing up in San Francisco. We walked through each “solution” and asked whether it was humanizing or dehumanizing. We concluded together that these actions all fail because our city government does not see the unhoused as image bearers of God and does not, therefore, understand how to restore their humanity.
But there is real hope for San Francisco. A hope that is rooted in followers of Jesus living here and seeking to serve our neighbors and those in need as he did. Seeking to bring order to chaos and dignity, worth, and honor to those on the margins. All of this real hope is rooted in the Gospel and has real power.
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