LEARNING

I think it was in the sixth grade when the idea of being a teacher started to bubble through my brain. By my junior year in High School I was determined to pay the price to pursue the profession of teaching. After serving a mission in Mexico and discovering that it was possible to teach the principles of my faith while supporting life I made movements to join the Church Education System. In my twenties I was an entertainer in front of students delivering fundamental concepts. In my thirties I was beginning to understand that the real power in the classroom was with the student and not the teacher.

Instructors can spend hours in preparation, honing their lesson plans toward a state of perfection, but the reception of precepts is entirely up to the readiness of the pupil. A person’s physical self can be present and seated, but their mind can be on the football field, on last Friday’s party, preparing dinner or lost in the fog of drowsiness.

Words fly from lips which haltingly express partially understood principles
Words fall on ears which seldom receive in the same way as sent
Thoughts are expressed in utterances formulated by experience
Minds interpret through the maze of the moments of past months

As the decades at the rostrum passed I came to realize to a greater degree:

That, attentiveness gained by entertainment did not necessarily make it a great conveyor of concepts.

That, laboriously construed lesson plans were valueless when delivered to reluctant listeners.

That, many times there is little correlation between what the teacher is presenting and what the student is receiving.

That, teachers may think they are in charge of the journey to be taken during a class period, but they turn out to be little more than map makers and each learner will determine the trail they are taking.

During my life I have met students from long years past and heard them repeat something they remembered me teaching. On many occasions I cannot ever remember saying such a thing.

Words fly from prophets, princes and paupers
Words are written by cleric, crown and clerk
Words are trumpeted by tutor, titan and trainer
Yet, it is the hearer alone who determines what is learned

Some years ago Elder Richard G. Scott, and apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, moved me to think about another teacher/learner relationship. He was about to deliver a lecture on ideas either never heard or long ago forgotten, but what I still retain from his counsel, was that we should let his words be a stimulus which would open the windows of heaven and allow the Holy Spirit to direct the real lessons we needed to learn that day.

Since that day in the conference room of the Gold and Green Hotel in Quito, Ecuador I have spent many hours wondering about my receptiveness as the Master Teacher has attempted to teach me Eternal Truths from the absolute perfection of His Omni Lesson Plan.

After my goal mandated morning scripture reading did I leave my cubicle before the additional clarifying promptings were received?

After pleading for guidance, was I too preoccupied with the cares of the day to hear the directions of His still small voice?

When in deep discussions with trusted colleagues did I pause to receive guidance from Him whose counsel should be trusted most?

Did I anxiously desire sleep at the end of a long day and thereby fail to hear His response to my bed side petitions?

I wonder how many messages from the Master Teacher have been misinterpreted by me because I wanted to hear what I wanted to hear and not the instruction He was trying to send.

He lovingly sends forth words in pure simplicity
Yet, I hear mixed and muffled tones
He patiently leads me on paths of shining straightness
Yet, I walk on clouded crooked paths

Whether in mortal classroom or Eternal Halls, on my shoulders alone rests the responsibility of being the attentive ardent learner!