I read this blog post from the Washington Post this morning entitled Smart design + school = health. It described beautifully why atmosphere is important in the classroom. The final quote stood out to me:
“We really focused on what kids need. What I see in that space are kids gravitating to that atmosphere because they know it’s for them, about them. Everything is tailored to their needs.”
Dina Sorensen, project designer, VMDO Architects
Over the years, I’ve searched for all kinds of advice on how to teach effectively. But the worst advice I’ve ever heard about teaching in church has actually been the most helpful for me.
Have you ever found it hard to get the attention of a room full of kids? It can be a loud place. However, if you have the class on a Sunday morning, it can also be a quiet place that would make a crypt sound like an ideal place for a party.
How do you keep the kids engaged, whether the kids are rowdy, or just waking up after a rowdy weekend night? One piece of advice I have heard over the years was actually the worst thing I could have tried. What is it?
Be formal, show little emotion and take yourself very seriously. Don’t be a clown! This is church, after all!
Did I hear those exact words? Not exactly. But it was something I believed. for some time. When I first got into children’s ministry. I tried it for a while with disastrous results!
This just doesn’t work for me. And I would dare say it won’t work for anyone who is teaching elementary-age kids.
Do you learn anything from a goofy teacher? When I first drew this cartoon, I thought about how goofiness and whimsy made teaching fun.
The best days I had when teaching were when I was having fun with the class and so were they. In the process, I was teaching them something without the students realizing it.
The worst days I had as a large group teacher were when I took myself too seriously. Maybe I was having a bad day or week. Instead of laughing at myself, I thought too much about myself.
I let pride get in the way. I cared too much about how I looked. As a result, I didn’t have a good time… and neither did the students.
Legend has it that Michelangelo’s last words were “Ancora Imparo,” or “I am still learning.” He uttered them at the age of eighty-seven. Here was a guy that considered himself a sculpture, but painted the Sistine Chapel. He had an amazing amount of talent. Yet he knew in order to stay vital we need to realize that we are still learning.
Whether we like it or not, at every stage of our lives, we are still learning. Our education may be passive or active. We may learn bad habits, what we can get away with and how people disappoint us. Or we may learn new possibilities, solutions to challenges, and a new skill we didn’t know we were capable of.
Active learning involves seeking knowledge. Passive learning is merely observing and reacting to life’s challenges. It is no different than a simple organism reacting to a stimuli. While it is good we learn not to touch a hot stove, if that is all we learn, it leaves a big gap in our education.
Passive learning can make us cynical, bitter, and fearful. When things just happen to us, without active learning, we can be convinced to give up. We just react. And we don’t take any steps to fix the problem or find a new, better way.
But when we take an active interest in our studies, it opens up many possibilities. Disappointments and disasters may come, but we know there is a solution if we keep looking. It reminds me of a proverb.
“Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.”
Proverbs 10:14 (KJV)
Active learning helps us find knowledge. And even better, it leads to positive change. We may think our education is over after we graduate from school. But in reality, we continually learn new things. The question is, do we let life and the school of hard knocks educate us, or do we take an active interest in our lifelong education? After all, we are still learning!
“Any time you stop you stop striving to get better, you’re bound to get worse.”
Pat Riley quoted in:
Jerome, Jerry. Instant Inspiration: Using Quotes to Guide You to Your Goals. 1st ed.
Instant Wisdom Publishing, 2003.
There is no middle ground when it comes to growth. Either we are getting better or worse each day. Either we are contributing to the solution or part of the problem.
The temptation in life is just cruise through. We tend to gravitate towards comfort and inactivity. As we get older, we tend to think growth is behind us. But nothing can be further from the truth!
Our growth is not limited by our age. Physically, we may have stopped growing years ago. (Or at least, we stopped growing vertically and began growing horizontally!) But there is always something to learn. There is always a new challenge to confront and solve. Life is much more than just cruising into obscurity.
When I began my graphic design career, many of the older designers were resistant to computers. They had been creating layouts with materials such as rubylith and huge, bellows cameras. They knew how to create layouts quickly and efficiently. The new way of doing things felt uncomfortable. Many of them stubbornly held onto the old ways until they were forced to change, or they left their jobs and careers.
At the time, I thought surely the designers of my generation would have learned a lesson. Some have. Others are just as resistant to change. A graphic design career changed from a primarily paper and printing process to online graphics. Some have stubbornly held on. Others have faded into obscurity as new ways of doing things took hold.
Each day, we have a choice between getting better or worse. There is always a new way of doing things. Don’t get so comfortable that you resist growing and changing. Always be looking for new techniques and new technologies. Otherwise, we risk becoming irrelevant.