Teaching
is a very simple thing to do, when it appears in the hands of an accomplished
teacher
Teaching
is more complex along the path to becoming an accomplished
teacher. Part of the complexity is who are the students in the class and what baggage have they brought with them.
I’ve
been teaching a seminary class 1-2 days a week in our ward here in Brockton. There
are 7-8 students. For convenience and proximity we meet in the basement of the
home of a member of the ward. The class meets from 5:45-6:30am, and then the
students catch a bus one block away to get to the high school. These are good
and bright kids whose faithfulness is witnessed by their willingness to be in
this class at such an early hour.
However,
my first 4-5 times teaching I could not engage them. They were distant and
nothing I did could bring them closer. We are studying the Old Testament, the
second half, and it is a real challenge. I would go home each morning thinking
I had failed them because I hadn’t reached them. They had just endured the
class. I was reminded of a scene from the 1995 movie, “Mr. Holland’s Opus”
where the coach is begging Mr. Holland, the music teacher, to find a way to
teach Lou Russ, his star wrestler, to play the drums so he could pass his band
class and stay eligible to wrestle. Mr. Holland is explaining that Lou simply
can’t find the beat. The coach then says, “You’re a teacher and you have a
willing student and you can’t find a way to teach him? Then you’re a lousy
teacher.” (If you want to see that scene, go on Youtube and search Mr. Holland’s
Opus and find the scene Lou Finds the Beat.)
Those
words kept ringing in my ears - "You're a lousy teacher" - so I spent one morning just thinking of ways to
teach them. It came after some time pondering. The challenge was the physical
Bible. It is big and I think to them impenetrable. I don’t blame them because
among many adults in the church the last half of the Old Testament is difficult
to grasp. Add to that challenge is this fact: English is a second language for
all of these kids. They grew up speaking Portuguese Creole as their first
language. They are fluent in spoken English but the written word is tough.
So I did
a few things different the next class. I removed all of the copies of the scriptures from the
tables. In their place I had prepared a one page sheet with 6 verses we were
going to focus on. I modified the words slightly so as to make them more easily understood. I rearranged the tables in a new configuration to signal
to them as they walked in that something was different about this class. And then instead of standing to teach I
just sat at the tables with them. When the class began I told them that our
goal was to simply understand what was written here and learn one gospel principle
from this page. It took some gentle leaning on them but at the end of class
they got it. I was elated.
The next
class I did essentially the same thing and the results were even better. It was
a real class with talking and exchanges and challenges and laughter. It was a
great seminary class even though it lacked a class presidency, a devotional,
scripture mastery, and 50 minutes of instruction. It was just a class stripped
down to its essence – students, scriptures, teacher, and especially the Spirit.
Two of the chronically tardy students even came on time.
This
whole experience reinforced the idea that some students and classes are easier
to reach and others take more time and effort, but all can be reached, and all
are worth reaching.
