© 2006 Lee Loots
© 2006 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
The Urantia Book Fellowship operates a listserve for present and past Society administrators, as well as Fellowship officers. Recently on this listserve, an open inquiry was posed regarding what a budding teacher may want to keep in mind. The majority of the comments below were offered in response to this discussion…
Parker Palmer, an inspiring author on the art of teaching, emphasizes this. A person will be at their most effective by being their natural self, and not by attempting to be some model of what is thought to be a good teacher. In spiritual terms, don’t try to divorce the content from your divine gift of personality expression. The student will receive “you” as much as they receive content through you, and both matter. Trying to deliver content without allowing one’s self to be seen in the process is an old model in academia and still, in fact, exists in some universities. Yet this is not a spiritual approach.
Palmer says that by doing the above (publicly accepting your own unique personhood), you put yourself in a better position to see the unique personhood of every student before you. Acceptance of a student’s uniqueness will go a long way toward helping her/him grasp and integrate the material presented. All it takes is just one teacher to really “see” a student for that student’s whole life to open up. This is one of the great and humbling privileges of teaching.
Studies of teacher evaluations have shown that students can adapt to many different teaching styles capably, as long as the students know what to expect. When the student clearly understands expectations (including the consequences for lapses), then the student feels empowered to make good choices. Likewise, there is a certain relaxation engendered for learning when learning is protected by good boundaries. Even if teaching the UB, for example, let the student know how the lessons will be conducted so the student can align her/his mind with what unfolds.
Most unfortunately, the modern school is modeled after a factory (falsely giving the impression that students are uniform learning machines, and that the conveyer built of time will pull them farther along in their progress) A factory mentality aims to rubber stamp learning for each grade level, and thus does not particularly allow time for all the desirable adaptations to individual needs.
However, if the teacher wants to both support and guide (the Creator Son/Divine Minister combo), then adaptation to individual circumstances is important. This is obviously easier said than done (as any parent of more than one child knows). Moreover, in endeavoring to make such adjustments, a teacher will encounter her/his personal land mines, such as inadvertently offering the kind of sympathy which weakens, unconsciously acting out of favoritism, potentially allowing one’s self to be taken advantage of, etc.
Nevertheless, there is no other way to develop one’s discernment than to traverse this unknown, rocky territory. Consultation with knowledgable others about such judgment calls can really help, however. Healthy interdependence is, after all, the universe pattern.
In UB study groups, where we are all each others’ teachers, we might want to look at whether we unconsciously run the study group like a factory-delivering a specific number of papers per session via conveyer belt, and if this approach invites individuals to maximize their learning.
In UB study groups, where we are all each others’ teachers, we might want to look at whether we unconsciously run the study group like a factory — delivering a specific number of papers per session via conveyer belt, and if this approach invites individuals to maximize their learning. My thought is that each group has the responsibility to collaboratively decide what the best approach is for all those who belong to that group, lest no one be left out or left behind.
None of us really knows if we have learned something until we can apply it or teach it to someone else. This is reflected in our universe model wherein as soon as one individual learns something, they turn around and teach it to the person right behind them. Such a technique not only offers reaffirmation for what was just learned, but moreover, such a teacher cannot help but be freshly in touch with the memory of how they learned what they learned. (I think you will agree that it is easy to forget how we felt, and how we struggled, when we were at earlier learning stages — and this forgetfulness can impair our ability to reach a student somewhat)
If we want to apply this model to teaching the Revelation, we could ask the student to articulate what they believe they have learned. We could also invite the student to seek experiential wisdom through attempted application of ideas, and then report back to us.
In the classroom, students generally enjoy being put in pairs or small groups to teach each other current concepts in their own words (and when this happens, the students are startled at how often they have to consult their notes for the details \pm — which is a good wake-up call, of course). Likewise, students can be asked to apply the material to a current event or a small practical project, and to return with the results of their efforts. It is only in the application that the fullest grasp happens, which accounts for the existence of the Supreme.
An application approach, however, will greatly slow down the “conveyer belt,” and that is why it is not utilized in the classroom as much as it might be. In public K-12 schools, there may not be a lot of leeway for this (not sure). In other settings, however, if there is leeway, such experiential applications are an important part of any lesson plan. As school currently functions, far too much of school involves going through the motions of covering material with subsequent testing-but sadly without offering vivification of the material in experience. All the students through the decades who complain about having to learn things that they seemingly don’t need to know are inadvertently pointing precisely to this lapse.
Anyone can lecture or otherwise rattle off information, but this is more “being the authority” than it is actual teaching. Teaching really is collaborative. In essence (though this is trite), teaching/learning is honestly a dance which is guided by the music/rhythms of unfolding awareness. That is, adjustments must be consistently made between teacher and student if the dance is to be experienced as worthwhile by both. On my public school course syllabus, I have the following motto which implies this: “I will build a bridge to reach you, but I will not cross over it to come and get you.” This motto points to the dance, but what I don’t say in that motto is that the bridge is living and adaptable.
Just as the Father continually beckons us to choose the better way, likewise, the teacher can continually invite a connection to elevate the student’s learning. Yet, just as the Father waits for us to choose Him, the student likewise has the responsibility to move towards this offered connection. The dance once begun (whether with Father/creature or teacher/student) requires the active involvement of both. The Father humbles himself to reach us where we are, and we stretch ourselves up to reach where He is beckoning.
Just as the Father continually beckons us to choose the better way, likewise, the teacher can continually invite a connection to elevate the student’s learning. Yet, just as the Father waits for us to choose Him, the student likewise has the responsibility to move towards this offered connection.
Directly connected to this dance is the value the UB puts on the pursuit of relationship for its own sake. God is most able to be an influence within the living connection of relationship, because God is living Himself. Therefore, one can never be too practiced in making adaptations to evolving relationships (because each one is different). In fact, whenever we forget to do the relational dance, we temporarily fall out of living reality.
As much as possible, deliver predictable consequences for behaviors, so that students recognize they are in charge of their own experiences. Consider this hypothetical comment: “I was sorry to see that you chose to take a zero on that assignment by not having it ready on time. You have so much to offer that I was really looking forward to what you had to say. Let me know if you need help on the next assignment.”
This is a clear statement which places the responsibility for the consequences squarely in the student’s court, but does so in a way that supports the student. Very importantly, this method does so without shaming, while also offering the hope of the future. I doubt I am alone in having had the experience of teachers who managed to deliver consequences stained by their personal disapproval (and I have fallen into this myself, I am sorry to say, both as a teacher and as a parent). Whenever this type of communication happens, it just pollutes the learning environment.
Love in regard to boundaries and expectations has been aptly discussed already here. I will add that I have often relied upon Scott Peck’s definition of love in The Road Less Traveled. As he defines love, love is not necessarily a feeling (because feelings come and go). Rather love is a commitment to fostering what is best for the people involved (and this includes the teacher, too).
We have a mission, should we choose to accept it, and that is to serve as we are guided. Thus, prayer before each teaching session helps, and helps in ways that transcend our immediate awareness.
We have a mission, should we choose to accept it, and that is to serve as we are guided. Thus, prayer before each teaching session helps, and helps in ways that transcend our immediate awareness. Preparation is essential of course. But at the same time, show up with vibrant expectation that you will be guided.
Because I earn a living teaching, I have found that praying in the car on the way to class is a good habit (and on funky days, I sing the prayers just to give me a boost). I have also found that simply telling God “I trust you” to work through me really makes a difference. On the way home from class or when retiring for the night, debriefing in prayer about the day’s experiences is not only enlightening, but is reinforcing of a heartwarming sense of partnership.
In his Compare column of 9/1/'05, Tom Allen offered this guidance from St. Augustine:
“So great is the influence of a sympathetic mind, that our students are affected by us as we teach, and we by them as they learn. Thus we come to dwell in each other; they speak in us what they hear, while we learn in them what we teach.”
— St.Augustine, Instruction of beginners XII, 17 (p. 354-430) — as written beneath a statue of St. Augustine
Ms. Lee Loots has been a reader since 1974. She has an M. A. in speech communication from NYU, a Master of Dvinity from Pacific School of Religion, and now teaches at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, CA.
She is also the mother of two sons, 26 and 24.