Episcopal Diocese of Albany - Christian Education

Business Office: 68 South Swan Street - Albany, NY 12210 - (518) 465-4737
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The Seven Laws of Teaching: Part Three

by Deacon Laurie Garramone-Rohr, Christian Ed Coordinator
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This is the third rule of "Seven Laws of Teaching" compiled by John Milton Gregory in a book by the same name, which was first published in 1884. John M. Gregory was raised in Sand Lake, NY, in the late 1800's.

Rule Three: "The language used as a medium between teacher and learner must be common to both."
St. Paul said of the gift of tongues: "If in a tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is being said? If then I do not know the meaning of a sound, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me." 1 Cor 14: 9

I remember signing up for a Political Science in college. Even the words "Political Science" seemed completely foreign to me: the Science of Politics? What could that possibly mean?

Arriving in class the first day, taking my front row seat, pulling out my new, clean notebook-this was all familiar stuff to me and I sat back in my chair and waited to be taught. The instructor walked in. He was a visiting professor from China, and it was supposed to be a real honor to have him as our teacher. Then he opened his mouth to begin the class, and I remember looking directly at the student sitting next to me as if to say, "Huh?" This man barely spoke English! How were we supposed to learn from someone who didn't speak our language? How was he going to understand our questions?

I was right-it was an incredibly difficult year and often, students would have to meet after class to decipher and trade notes. We had to work extra hard to extract meaning from what should have been an entry-level course. The grade curve had to be adjusted dramatically to the point that a 65 was an A. I haven't forgotten the challenge of speaking a different language.

OK, fast forward to your church on a Sunday morning: a new family arrives and they've never been to church before.

Salvation, grace, Trinity-these are the serious terms, but how about everyday words like nave, narthex, and epistle? One priest, after looking at the ambitious goals set out in the Diocesan Standards for Christian Ed said to me, "You know, this is great, but some of the people in my church don't even know who Jesus is." Start where people are--beginning with Jesus is always a good idea-- and introduce new information in a way that it is useful, relevant and easily understood.

One of the greatest challenges in teaching is knowing the audience: How old are they? Where do they come from? What do they already know? What do they need to know? What do they want to know? Answering these questions gives you an idea of the language you'll need to use to have something in common with people.

Another challenge rests in what YOU know: What do you need to know in order to teach successfully? What do you need to research? How can you put it in a context so that your class will understand?

One way to address this with all classes is to use multiple intelligences-have I lost you yet? In other words, teach the same lesson in a number of different ways. Videos, stories, drama, music and movement can all have their place in Sunday School and Christian learning; these not only offer students a chance to learn in a variety of ways, it also gives teachers a chance to teach in a variety of ways. You may have a whole bunch of potential 'experts' waiting in your congregation that can help out in some way.

Here are some quick thoughts about how to discover and build 'common language' into your Christian Ed programming:

Bring in guest speakers: ask your parish deacon, priest, lay Eucharistic minister, or altar guild member to come in and have a Q & A session. Bring in a local doctor or pediatrician for talking with youth about the concept of their bodies being temples. Ask a cancer survivor to share the stories of their battle with cancer and the effect it had on their faith life.
Use videos: Series such as "That the World May Know" or Veggie Tales. My husband and I recently watched the current films "The Pianist" and "Bruce Almighty" and we found particular places in those films that would address salvation, forgiveness and grace that would be understandable to an older audience.
Tell stories: Bring in a storyteller or a puppet show for an intergenerational Sunday School. Have older students tell the stories to younger students.
Act things out: Skits, plays, interpretive dance-even reading a script around a table without moving is a very different experience for adults. I know how hard it is for me to say the words "Crucify him!" on Palm Sunday during the reading of the Passion. Saying those words makes me really uncomfortable, and it's an important lesson.
Use objects: Illustrate parables and lessons by using objects. Grow plants on stony ground and on rich soil-which does better? What does a fig tree really look like? Get some nails from a local hardware store and distribute them during a Lenten program to help people understand how Jesus was nailed to the cross.
Schedule an Instructed Eucharist: Tabernacle, crucifer, acolyte, consecrate…need I say more?
Play music: Is your audience geared to nursery rhymes, opera, rock or praise music? Most people strongly respond to some type of music. Most teaching is 90% lecture-like my Political Science course-but that's not how people learn best. We learn best by doing, by saying and by teaching someone else. Provide these opportunities and realize that in a good classroom, the teacher often learns the most.

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