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mulitple choice

After Spring Break my job gets really hard. The kids are really ancy for summer. The teachers are too. The seniors pretty much checked out at Christmas. Kids are always out playing in tournaments or on field trips. And when none of us want to be here and have of us aren’t, we have all these standardized tests to prep for. Important ones. Ones that determine whether kids graduate or not.


And what I hate about these tests, is that even when the kids know the content they don’t always get the right answer. Because sometimes the answers are confusing. Sometimes there is more than one decent answer. So I have to tell them to choose the “best answer” or the one that is “most right”.

And I hate that. I wish it were clearer. That it was easy to just pick C.
But. life isn’t always that clear. And sometimes we feel like we have to pick an answer just so we can fill in our bubble. And we’d all like to think that we picked the best one. That ours is the best answer or the most right and that we are going to get a really good grade.
Or at least do better than enough other people to look good.

But, even though I give plenty of them…
Multiple choice tests suck.
They are limiting and usually biased and rarely let you know how much people really know or what they really think.
And to be honest. The only reason I give them is because they are easy for me to grade.
And the school insists that I give grades.
But I’m not so sure that there is always one “best answer” for everyone and every situation.
Sometimes it is all of the above. Or none of the above. And sometimes we aren’t even asking the right questions.
Jesus mostly answered questions with more questions.
Or sometimes he responded to similiar situations differently every time. Depending on who he was talking to.
Even the big essential stuff you think he’d want to make sure we were crystal clear on....well isn’t.

And yes. Some of you have caught on that I am in the middle of Rob Bell’s new book.
The one that people online are saying all kinds of ugly things about. The one that is on back order on Amazon forever. The one that has already gotten at least one preacher fired for talking about. And most importantly the one that isn’t afraid to ask the really hard questions. And attempt some answers.

But these kinds of questions don’t have multiple choice answers. I’m not even sure that there is always one best answer, even though I have my own personal leanings. Even though I’m not sure I agree 100% with every answer in the book, I 100% agree with the conversation.

And that makes people uncomfortable.
That maybe it can be A and C.
Or all of the above.
Or none of the above.
That we can both be right.
Or that we can all be wrong.

And it is really nice to be the one holding the key.
But what if we aren’t getting graded like that.
For being right.
The most right.

I’m thinking if it had been that easy Jesus would have told us.
Written us an answer key.
And not a love story.

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Comments

Hyacynth said…
Ok, Michelle, this was a BEAUTIFUL post.

I don't know where Rob Bell is going exactly. But I'd sure love it if you fill me in since the book is like crazy hard to get a hold of. I'm curious. And like you, I don't know if I'll agree with all the answers, but I'm for this conversation.

Man, I wish I could take you out for coffee. ;)
March 25, 2011 at 7:17 PM
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