Esteem Minecraft

[Ceola Roefaro]

Minecraftis a virtual world video game where players build, explore, mine, craft, gather and grow food, and even battle. Since its release on November 18, 2011, it has truly captured the hearts and minds of millions of people worldwide.

Minecraft designers require players to use particular potions, elixirs, and other witchcraft inspired magic in order to craft tools, build portals, etc. There are also options for players to include dark creatures in the game, creatures such as zombies, giant spiders, skeletons, creepers, gollem, and tall, ghost-like figures called enderman.

Today, we wave our hands under a faucet and water comes out. We stand in front of doors and they open. We speak to a cylindrical container called Alexa and automatically receive a response. We touch a smart screen and it obeys. Combine the self-centered technological advances with the self-esteem doctrines continuing to plague many books, movies, music, and classrooms, and then pour them into an already prideful, human heart and you have a recipe for disaster.

I have heard my fair share of students over the last few years boldly proclaim that they have power simply because the world around them seemingly obeys their every command. It used to be much easier for children to draw a line between fantasy and reality. I personally believe this line, for a variety of reasons, is no longer clear.

That being said, games like Minecraft, left unchecked, may have the very real capacity to blur that line between man and God even further. After all, players are magically building world upon world based upon their own desires and imaginations, and all that you need is literally at your fingertips.

At first read, the extended story seems more than a bit confusing. Why have such a mystic sounding storyline at the end of an otherwise supposedly innocuous building game? Unless, of course, the intent of the designers is to carefully obscure the teachings within Minecraft, just waiting for players to dig them up and put them together, one piece at a time.

Below are screenshot examples of the end story highlighting the most unsettling and unbiblical doctrines blatantly proclaimed by the authors of Minecraft. Sadly, the ending is filled with nothing less than an occult/witchcraft centered concepts. The screenshots below read almost as if written by some demon possessed guru medium from India.

Dr. Dobson has unashamedly expressed innumerable times that the biggest problem in all humanity is low self-esteem. Therefore it would stand to reason that his number one solution for mankind is not the Gospel, but a good self-esteem. In his book Hide or Seek he says,

There are several excellent resources (posted below) on the subject of James Dobson and the problems with self-esteem. The purpose of this post, however, is to expose a layer beneath this, examining a repackaged version of self-esteem that may be less easily detected.

Is the commandment to love self a commandment of God or is it a commandment of men? We found no Bible commentary that said that Matthew 22:39 (or parallel verses in Mark and Luke) commands us to love ourselves. However, many people have distorted the meaning of Matthew 22:39 to give credence to their self-love teachings. For instance, humanistic psychologist Erich Fromm says:

What about people who claim to hate themselves? Do they actually hate themselves or are they trying to gain sympathy and support? If they tell someone they hate themselves, the common response is to rescue them from that idea. In the process they receive sympathy and support not normally given. It is a predictable transaction that once begun can become a habitual way of relating to others and receiving support. There are also those who are unhappy about themselves and their circumstances and generalize them into some kind of self-revulsion, all the while loving themselves.

On the other hand, there are some who do experience personal revulsion because of their sin. In fact, unconfessed known sin, such as resentment, bitterness, hatred, and self pity, may make the person feel guilty and therefore uncomfortable. The actual guilt may then be transformed into feelings of self-hatred and worthlessness. In that case, the person does not need more self-love, self-acceptance, or self-esteem.

The person needs to repent and confess and be cleansed. We are not saying that there are no individuals who genuinely think they hate themselves. But, what they generally hate is something about themselves or their circumstances. They exhibit actual love for themselves in that they continue to spend most of their time concerned about themselves, even if it is with unhappy thoughts. They generally get to the point where they are unhappy about themselves because a discrepancy exists between their aspirations or desires and their performance or condition. This intensive hatred is evidence of high self-interest.

Dr. David Myers, in his book The Inflated Self, discusses research having to do with how people view themselves and others. The research demonstrates that there is definitely a self-serving bias at work in individuals. Myers says: Time and again, experiments have revealed that people tend to attribute positive behaviors to themselves and negative behaviors to external factors, enabling them to take credit for their good acts and to deny responsibility for their bad acts.

Numerous research studies contradict the common notion having to do with self-image. In his book, Myers presents research to support his statement that: Preachers who deliver ego-boosting pep talks to audiences who are supposedly plagued with miserable self images are preaching to a problem that seldom exists.

However, parents should not despair, because everything is in their hands.

In many ways, it is the attitude of her family that determines whether the girl will feel confident at school, university, at work and in life in general.

The main example for girls is their mother. The image of a mother and her attitude towards herself have a huge impact on her daughter's perception. Looking at her mom, she builds an inner image of herself.

Always ask your daughter to share her opinion about various life moments. Let her make her own choices and accept them if they're reasonable. Show your daughter that she doesn't need to please anyone and that she can always act on her own.

So that the girl does not have the false impression that beauty is the main thing, do not forget to praise her for her efforts and achievements in other areas. Celebrate her intelligence, creativity, and other abilities, but don't just focus on the result. Teach your daughter to enjoy the process.

Having an exciting hobby will help unleash the girl's potential and become an unshakable support for life. Success and achievements in her favorite activity will give the girl a sense of self-worth that does not depend on appearance or clothes.

An effective way to kill your daughter's self-esteem is to constantly compare her with others. Instead, focus on her strengths, help her grow in what she loves, and remind her that each person has their own pace of development.

Don't act like your daughter is a defenseless houseplant. This will form a false image in her head of a princess who needs to be rescued. Instead, let your daughter lead a lifestyle that appeals to her: exercise and be creative, participate in school activities and Olympics, go hiking, etc. Let her try whatever she wants, even if it's considered an activity for boys. Let the girl make mistakes, fall, get up and keep going.

When the written word leaps off the page and into a digital environment, engagement soars. ?

Karen Carnes was looking for a way to help her special education students dive into their class texts, so she turned to Minecraft: Education Edition. Read her story in this guest blog!

I teach an eighth-grade language arts special education class consisting of four students in a self-contained, small group setting. All of my students have learning disabilities and working memory deficits that require them to receive instruction outside of the general education class environment. These learning difficulties most profoundly affect their reading skills.

As a reading and writing teacher, it's particularly difficult to find ways to encourage these students to stay engaged in learning. And engagement with assignments is a key component of a successful classroom environment. That's particularly important with novel studies since they require substantial time using decoding skills and comprehension strategies. Minecraft: Education Edition has provided an excellent way for my students to engage fully with their readings, especially lengthy texts.

After reading the first chapter, students create the setting of the story using the information from the reading. As the story progresses, they begin to build and incorporate its details into their Minecraft worlds, adding characters, situational elements, and personal touches related to their analysis of the author's words. The Book and Quill feature allows the students to summarize and document their work.

Throughout my career, I have never experienced students being this excited to read and engage in a story. That's been true for nonfiction as well as fictional texts. Each class, students couldn't wait to find out what happened next so they could make additions to their world. One of the most impressive results of using Minecraft with our novel studies has been its effect on the retention of new vocabulary. The students created visuals of the words in their worlds, took photos with Cameras, saved them to Portfolios, and captioned the images. The way that Minecraft has enabled the students to retain and integrate new vocabulary words has been nothing short of amazing!

This year, the students completed a novel study of Island of the Blue Dolphins, a historical fiction about an Indigenous woman stranded on an island off the coast of California. For this study, the students worked independently to create their own island worlds. They incorporated practically every detail from the story into their Minecraft builds: kelp beds surrounding the island, the wild dogs that play an extremely important role in the story, plot locations, Russian otter fur traders, ships, canoes, and island birds, to name a few.

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