Teaching Youth

I LOVE my current calling. Having now taught Young Women, Gospel Doctrine, and Sunday School, I would choose Sunday School hands down! I get to teach every week, where in YW it was less frequent; and there is something energizing in teaching youth that I didn't find in teaching adults. Yes, it is so much harder, and there are times that it gets frustrating. My Relief Society President asked me a few weeks ago if everything was going okay with me, because she'd been watching me in Relief Society and I seemed to not be myself. It really bugged me for a bit, just wondering what she had seen and if everything was okay with me... until I realized that she was seeing me just after I got out of spending 45 minutes trying to get 13 year old kids to stop talking and listen. I stopped worrying then.

One thing that I had to realize is that if I just taught out of the lesson manual, everyone suffered. I had to find the points that I was passionate about, and teach those points. If I was bored by the subject, the kids would be as well, and we would fight each other the whole time. Those times that I was able to teach the whole lesson without even looking at the manual because I knew what I was saying... those have been my best lessons. I also realized those were the lessons that I had invited the Spirit to guide the class, instead of the manual. The manual is very good - but it was written for a wide range of people, and the Spirit is the one who knows what my kids need to hear, and can personalize each lesson to their needs.

So now, I read the lesson and ponder about what is trying to be taught. Then, I try to find my angle that I will teach it from. Find what I can do to hook them, draw them in to being interested. As I have worked more with the Spirit, I have felt less run down by the challenges of 13 year old angst. Though, if anyone has a suggestion for how to get boys to keep all four chair legs on the floor... it is a constant battle, no matter how many times I tell them the Bishop has asked them to.

The week before General Conference this last March, the point came up that they can sin and just repent after and it is no big deal. At this age, I knew that it was just speculation, that they weren't actually acting on that impulse, but as I left class that day I HAD to find a way to demonstrate the error of that way of thinking. I obsessed over it for two weeks, had it strongly in mind as I watched General Conference, and my prayers were answered.

This is how I taught them why sinning while planning to "just repent later" is so wrong.

I am a visual person, so I often use the chalk board to teach. That may be why I am also a bit OCD about the chalk I use... I don't want the waxy stuff that doesn't erase, I want the GOOD stuff! And I can tell the difference - and showed my class the difference this last week as I was going through the chalk bits throwing away the pieces too small to use, and all the waxy ones. But I digress...

I wrote on the board an S, while saying you told a lie, but then repented for it, and wrote an R over the S. I did this many times, naming different nominal sins. I left one S unrepented of, which one student did see, but I ignored for the moment.

After I had covered the board with a bunch of "sins" I asked the class to imagine the end result of a life lived in such a way. I said, now, you go to the final judgement, and you stand up with God and you review your life. He smiles and says, "Hey, you got very, very skilled at sinning!" Then he nudges you and says, "Hey, look over there at that sucker. They actually spent their whole life trying NOT to sin! Can you believe all the FUN they missed out on!"

I tell you, that shocked them ALL. They were looking at me like I was uttering blasphemy, which I was. I told them that if all they practiced was the sin, then all they would learn was how to sin.

Then, I said, "But, oh no, look at this! You told a lie when you were 9 years old, and you forgot to repent for it!" I circled the lone S that was not covered with an R. "Gee, I'm sorry, you didn't repent for all of your sins, you can't be saved!" The kids were shocked all over again, protesting about the unfairness of one tiny sin keeping you from being saved.

We went on to have a discussion about what repentance truly is, and what sin is. At the end of class, I told them that my demonstration was incorrect. I erased one of the S/R combinations, and wrote the S again. I said, "Because you have sinned, you have a punishment to bear. If you repent of that sin, Christ bears the punishment for us, and we are cleansed from the sin and he suffers the punishment for us." I then wrote an A over the S. One of the girls in the class exclaimed how unfair that was. I agreed with her - but said that is how much He loves us, that He is willing to bear the punishment for us.

I don't know how much of this will stick in their heads - but I hope that the image of that board covered with S/R will be a lasting impression on them.

A few weeks later, we talked about the purpose for this life, and I taught them from Elder Oaks' talk, "The Challenge to Become" from October 2000 General Conference. I had wanted to teach them to focus not on the "Thou Shalt Nots" of the Gospel, but what the Gospel is designed to do for us. I was pondering the best way to teach it, when the whole lesson was laid out in my mind. I was driving at the time, so I had to scramble to find a pen and piece of paper, and get it all down before the light turned green. Thankfully, it wasn't too detailed. I taught the lesson as it was revealed to me, and I felt it was successful.

What I wanted to mention here is the timeline I did for the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, found in Matthew 20. We read the parable, and I drew the timeline for them on the board so they would better understand. I explained that the kingdom of heaven is like this vineyard, and asked them WHY those that joined the church in the first hour receive the same reward (exaltation) as those that join in the eleventh hour.

I made the point to them that we are all becoming like our Heavenly Father, and that effort to learn to be like Him does not end with death. Those things we learn to do here on earth come with us, and we are closer to our goal than those who join in the eleventh hour. They still need to learn the same things we need to learn, whether they learn it here on earth or after this earth. THAT is why the same wage is fair for both laborers. I also pointed out that those who join in the eleventh hour may have learned things while laboring in other areas, that they aren't totally unprepared to labor when they join.

I love this principle, and how it explains the WHY of this life. Elder Oaks' talk about the Challenge to Become teaches the same thing, and I felt it was a successful discussion. As a teacher, if I can bring the scriptures to life for my students, and leave them feeling empowered to learn for themselves from the scriptures, I feel my role has been successful.

I put up a quote on the board today, and one of my students said, "That is an If, then statement!" I hadn't even noticed it myself when I was typing it up, but it was a sublime moment for me as I have been drilling that into them since I first started to teach. Happy dance!!!