Interviewing, Esther, Moses, and Argument

One of our goals this year for our dialectic grades (7th-9th) is to incorporate the "art of argument" into the classroom. While the students take a logic class during this time, we want them to articulate, defend, and persuade outside of that course as well.

So what does this look like outside of a formal logic course? 

 In personal finance this week, the class is learning about interviewing and resume writing. The essential question for the day is: "What is the purpose of an interview?" As I initially thought about how to biblically integrate this lesson, I did a google search of "interviews and the Bible". As you can imagine, I didn't' come up with much. Mostly, there were links to Bible verses that might encourage you before heading into an interview...not exactly what I was going for. 

 But then I thought about how often God "hired" a particular individual for an important job. What is that, if not an interview? That got me thinking and led to an activity that I'm pretty excited about. I will break the class into four groups and each group with be given an individual (Moses, Noah, Esther and Jesus). As a group, they will need to create a job description for the position that each of these individuals "interviewed for". Their job descriptions will need to include the job title, the responsibilities, and the qualifications. Additionally, if they would like to include the salary they can (although that one will take some deeper thinking). 

My goal is that they look at the role that each of these people played in a new light. Specifically, I hope this exercise shows them what kind of qualifications God requires from His people. I'm guessing that many of the qualifications will overlap when the groups come to the front to discuss their results (humility, self-sacrificing...). 

  So how does this all connect with argument? I'm so glad you asked. 

Once every group has presented, we will then have a brief debate. "Based on the examples from these Biblical Heroes, which character trait (or qualification) do you think is the most important to God and why?" They will need to defend their answers with evidence from either the life of Moses, Noah, Esther or Jesus. Another thing I love about these particular individuals is that for the most part, all of their job descriptions are the same: Save my people (We'll see if the students make that connection...).