Could Humility Be the Heart of Our Classroom Communities? JULIE E. YONKER
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f we desire humility to be an important value in our life together in community, especially in the classroom or science labs, we need to understand what we mean by humility. Within the Christian context, humility is often one of those “Christian-ese” words, like “grace” or “righteousness” or “sanctification.” We sort of know what it means, but we can be hard pressed to explain it to someone who doesn’t speak the “Christian language.” For us, for our students, and for others to deeply value the practice of humility, we need to be explicit about what humility is and is not. Let’s start at the beginning: the Bible. Humility is a frequent theme in the New Testament, second only to the number of teachings on love (Bridges 3). Although there is an entire chapter in 1 Corinthians 13 devoted to helpful examples about love, there are no such chapters devoted to humility. Humility is encouraged within relationship with God and others; therefore, humility is important within our community. We learn from the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1–12) and Paul’s description of the fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22–24) about the importance of connecting our lives of dependence on God with others through thriving relationships. In Romans 12, we are challenged to approach God with respect tinged with awe. We are also challenged to offer gratitude to God for who he is. Fulfilling these challenges results in an outcome of godly appreciation exemplified through humble relationships with others as God’s image bearers. Humility is not humiliation, shame, or embarrassment. These negative perspectives on humility are a distortion of our self-worth as God’s image bearers (Roberts 101). Given this very brief synopsis of why humility is important to God, to relationships, and to us, we understand more from a Christian perspective, yet we still require a precise definition. As a psychologist, I can definitively state that the field of psychology is a discipline that adores definitions. Within the subfield of positive psychology—the study of contributors to human thriving—research has focused on some of the key features of humility, namely, an accurate estimation of one’s abilities and appreciation of the attributes and abilities of others (Peterson and Seligman). Therefore, the definition of humility that we land on is this: an accurate intra- and interpersonal awareness and appreciation of who we are in relation to others. If you dissect this definition, you will see that there are other relational Christian practices embedded in humility’s definition, specifically, empathy and gratitude. When we practice empathy, we take the perspective of another person. When we practice gratitude, we recognize our limitations and our indebtedness to others. Therefore, humility, encompassing empathy and gratitude, has the power to enrich our relationships with others and thereby Christian Educators Journal
October 2022
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Humility is an accurate intra- and interpersonal awareness and appreciation of who we are in relation to others.
