Diaphragmatic Breathing Lesson

This will be a quick post, but I couldn't resist sharing it. Seriously, this kid threw me a total curve ball, and I had no idea how to really respond...

I was teaching about diaphragmatic breathing to my 7th graders. We talked about how babies naturally breathe with their diaphragms, but as we get older, we change our habits, usually due to poor posture and laziness. Therefore, we have to re-learn it, and I told them that we would be doing some exercises on Friday to work on that.

After the whole lesson, one boy (we'll call him Timmy) raised his hand and we had the following dialogue:

Timmy: "Mrs. Kreider, what if you, like, don't agree with this stuff? Would you still have to do the activities?"

Me: "What do you mean, 'you don't agree with it?' Do you mean that you don't agree with it morally, or do you mean that you think all of this information is untrue?"

Timmy: "Well, like, what if you don't think it's right?"

Me: "Again, I'm not sure what you mean by that."

Timmy: "Well, like, you know, if God, or the Creator, or whatever you want to call him, made us this way, wouldn't we be trying to change ourselves if we make ourselves breathe diaphragmatically?"

Me: "Well, Timmy, remember that when we're born, we breathe correctly, and it's because of our own bad habits that we end up breathing the wrong way. So I think we're supposed to breathe with our diaphragm."

Timmy: "Yea, but, if we start breathing without our diaphragm, don't you think that's because God made us that way, to stop using our diaphragms?"

Me: "No, I don't believe that's the case."

Timmy: "So would you still have to do the activities?"

Me: "Yes, Timmy, I still want you to do the activities on Friday."


SERIOUSLY? I applaud the kid for trying to earnestly think things through about God, but REALLY? I still can't figure out if he was being serious or if he was just trying to come up with an excuse for getting out of an activity!

Retrospectivally, I wish I had asked him, "Well, Timmy, do you think we are supposed to lie? Well, obviously we've started lying throughout our lives, so if we start doing things wrong, don't you think that means God meant for us to do those bad things? So wouldn't it be wrong to try to change ourselves to do the good things the way God originally created us?" I don't mean that in a sarcastic way... just seriously think that would've been a good answer to get him thinking about how we warp the way God originally made us to be.

Interesting child and conversation...