How many of you really read the lesson before each Sunday comes along?   Come on, let’s be honest here.  How many of you bring your manuals?  Participate, offer to read something, interrupt with a thought that strikes you, share something personal, fall asleep?

Lessons are lessons and they only tend to be as good as the teacher teaches them.  Some teachers have a natural gift for teaching, other teachers have a natural gift to bring the Spirit into everything they teach, and there are those who don’t, but do the best they can.  As a student, it is our job to overcome all of those possibilities and get something out of the lesson that is meant just for us.

Now, what would the class be like if every single person read the lesson beforehand and were prepared with some thoughts?  Would that blow the teacher away?  Would that bring about an interesting discussion?  Would everyone walk out of the room stimulated and inspired?  I would hope the teacher wouldn’t feel threatened or that she lost control of the class. 

I was reading through a RS magazine from 1918 and ran across an article on how to teach.  This is the first sentence, “The ‘lecture system,’ handed down to us from the darkness of the middle ages, is a method of teaching, which, in this age of pedagogical knowledge, teachers are ashamed of; yet, at the same time, most of us, if we but make confession, are only too guilty of falling into this ancient practice because it runs along a line of least resistance.” 

Besides, being an incredibly long run-on sentence with old-fashioned language, they speak truth.  I’ve heard teachers in Relief Society refer to their teaching as giving a talk.  That’s not a good sign.  Lessons are so much better when the teacher provides open discussion on just a few ideas and the students are prepared with thoughts and experiences to share.