Teaching in the Church

Gretch and I are Primary teachers in church. More specifically, we teach the Sunday School class for children who are ten-turning-eleven. This has been a fantastic calling for us. Our class last year apparently adored us, although they seemed reluctant to admit so in class. (The only reason I know this is because most of their parents mentioned this at one time or another, and some of them mentioned it several times. Sometimes on the same day!)

Anyway, we are looking forward to another year of teaching the precious (and precocious) children. We've talked about changes we want to make in our teaching methods this year, and, about the same time, there has been a series of posts over at By Common Consent by John Crawford on Everything That is Wrong with LDS Gospel Teaching. The series is in three parts, and includes probably close to three hundred comments, most of which are very relevant. I highly recommend the reading, but be ready for a long read!

I have been actively participating in the conversation, and I am heartened to know that, with all that is supposedly wrong with LDS gospel teaching, there is a lot right. And despite the doom and gloom that is suggested, I think that things are not as bad as they appear. One of the key points that was made, on several occasions, was that LDS gospel teachers need to pull themselves away from the lesson manuals and focus more on the primary sources (Scriptures and teachings of Latter-day prophets, especially). At some point, after someone mentioned modern pedagogical practices, someone else claimed that such practices have little to no room in LDS gospel teaching. I wholeheartedly disagreed, and shared how the suggestions being made on how to improve teaching are completely support by pedagogy.

I hope to be able to implement some of the ideas from the articles in our teaching efforts this year. I hope that we will be able to help our kids really dig in deep to the teachings of the Scriptures and come to a greater understanding of how to learn and understand the Gospel.

I also hope to remember a statement that John made in the comments in part one: "While crazy is always interesting, I don't think it makes for a good pedagogical model."

Comments

Tom/Tabitha said…
That's a good thing to remember.

I am excited for the new manual in Relief Society this year, and wonder how things will go.

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