Yesterday my daughter and three of my grandchildren saw the movie “The Croods.”
The Croods are cavemen ( and women…or maybe in today’s world they should be cave people, but let’s not get sidetracked.) Naturally, the Croods live in a cave.
The dad is the head of the household and mandates that everyone must live in fear and stay in the dark. His curious young cave daughter often disobeys him. Dad tells stories about little animals that disobey and how they always end up the same way: dead. So, most of the family, especially the son, take the stories to heart and depend on Dad always to make the right choices for them.
A cave boy whose family has died comes on the scene and talks about following the light. As you can imagine, there is conflict between Dad and Cave Boy, especially when Cave Daughter and Cave Boy become attracted to one another.
Daddy Crood believes in fear. He lives in fear, acts in fear, and teaches his family to live in fear. But Cave Boy dreams of seeing the light and influences others to do the same.
By now you may be asking, what does this have to do with the question, “Where are we now?”
Discovering the answer to this question is the first of the three foundational cornerstones of the Victus Study Skills System. In our course, we help students identify where they are in their current study skills, their learning styles, and their habits.
We also believe that it is crucial for students to go deeper and to understand their worldview—what makes them tick, and what is the source of their values and behavior.
A worldview is the lens through which we look at the world. In the Crood family, Dad was teaching a worldview of fear. This worldview affected his children’s values. Those values in turn affected their behavior.
Our young people are being torn between opposing ideals. Will they choose Daddy Crood or will they choose Cave Boy?
Every journalist, biologist, preacher, teacher, and financial expert—every person—has a worldview, a lens through which they see the world, through which they form their values and behaviors.
So what about me? Where am I now? What is my worldview? How does that show up in my values? Behaviors? What about the young people in your life?
Suggested Activities
- Talk about a current event and identify the worldview being expressed. For example, as I write this, Egyptian President Morsi has been deposed. What is the worldview of the revolutionaries, of the military, and of the Morsi regime?
- Choose an historical event. What happened in the Revolutionary War? What was the worldview of the Americans? Of the British? What were their values? How did they act?
- Bring it close to home. Can you find examples of worldviews being lived out in your own family? Do you feed the poor? Why? What worldview brings about those values behaviors?
- Help your children make the connection that “where they are now” in their worldview will affect their values and their behavior.
Summary
What is a worldview, and why is it important to identify?
A worldview is the lens through which we view the world. It affects our values and behaviors. It also explains the values and behaviors of those who differ from us.
Identifying our personal worldview is a link to understanding our values and behaviors. Students who wish to go deeper in answering the question, “Where am I now?” should identify their worldview and seek to understand how it affects their behaviors.
