My urge prayer was always that God
would lead me to teach something important. I had already been away from CBC
nine years and watched the culture and youth change. Not much, but it had
changed, youth executive committees with presidents, etc. were no longer. There
was another subtle shift, but full time youth leaders were beginning to step in
and take most of the leadership. I wanted to prepare students to deal with
change, and hopefully convince them there were to rain up their replacement.
I always had three goals at the top of my agenda, 1) People
are more important than programs, and 2) Be creative with the help and guidance
of God. Teaching “how to” can be fun, but may not work as the world turns. 3) Teach
leaders to prepare future leaders
In my Intro to CE class I used the
prominent text of the day by the LeBar sisters. I agreed with their
foundational focus ”The primary focus of Christian education is people not
programs. I warned student at the first exam that I would have one question
that no one should miss. I wrote it on the board leaving blanks for the two
most important words. “The purpose of Christian education is ————— not —————. “
I then filled in the blanks: “people not programs.” I promised it would be on
the exam exactly as I wrote it. If they got nothing else right, I wanted them
to get this one right. I was always surprised how many missed it. After the
first year, I commented in future years about the number who would miss it and
amazingly the same percentage missed it every year. Oh well. It’s those kind of
things that make teachers want to bang their heads against the wall. How can that
happen?
It’s a little premature to discuss
what I learned as a Bible college teacher, but all of this was learned half way
through the first year. 1) Freshmen know more than seniors. 2) Very few knew
that there were two spellings for the word “there” and they didn’t know the there
was any difference. “Their” was rarely used. “There” was used for every
meaning. Then again, English is a strange language. 3) Far too many students
ramble in papers and say nothing and I hated rambling. 3) Far too many spent
time telling me what they wanted to do or were going to so and never got around
to doing it. Attempting to explain what you were going to do instead of doing
it automating dropped a grade. Do it twice in the same paper and you would get
dinged another grade. Never saying anything was an “F.” Students get ticked at
teachers. Well, teachers get ticked at students. 4) Students that are excited
about learning are great fun. 5) The stats about grades corresponding to the location
of seat chosen are generally correct. Student choosing to sit near the front
get better grades.
I used to see Dr. Dahms in the library
searching for plagiarism. I could never bring myself to spend that much time
looking for a cheater. Instead, if I suspected plagiarism, I wrote a comment at
the bottom and gave the student an “F.” I didn’t use it often, but no one every
came into challenge it when I did. “This section appears to be plagiarized. If
I am wrong, bring your paper in and we will discuss it.” No one ever came to
talk about it. If you are going to steal from a real writer, it had better look
and sound like your style. Duh! Honestly, I have no idea what other faculty
did. I just did it and probably was hated for it.
It doesn’t take long as a teacher
before you get over wanting everyone to like you. You even give up wanting to
be friends with them all. When that happens you have a sense of loss, but you
do what you gotta do and let the chips fall where they may,
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