A Teacher's Greatest Challenge - Irreverence

The cardinal rule for any teacher is to be able to love your students of any age through their challenging behaviors and come through on the other side with both sides feeling better about the interaction.  Additionally, another rule as passed along by my dear friend JKM - never let them see you cry when you are frustrated. 

Last week I failed on both accounts.  And my heart has ached for an entire week about it.  Why, you ask ?  Because I 100% love these kids. I remember what it was like to be the kid who couldn't stop talking, who from the age of 5 had years of " excessive talking" on my report cards. As an extrovert, I am drawn to people, and my extroverted kids are drawn to each other in the same way. They gain energy from each other, and that in and of itself isn't a bad thing at all.  However when 8 boys, or at least 5 of them choose to have that moment all at the same time, the results are less than stellar.

I want them to talk. I want them to share. I want to see them processing the information, and pondering things they may not have considered before. AND... I want the sweet feelings of the Spirit to be part of our class. Because at the end of the day, it isn't me who teaches them. When the lessons really sink in, it is because the Holy Ghost has spoken to their hearts.  I am simply the teacher who is called to share these lessons with them and encourage them to more often think of spiritual things. I am one of many reminders that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that their lives are of such incredible importance. I feel as if there is so little time to share what is important with them.

And I want reverence in my class.  And so today, I have decided to write them a letter so I can share how I feel about them, and what I want for them.  And for those of you in our class who actually read this blog, you may be hearing this again during our class. 

Dear Amazing Youth,

I love you. Regardless of how frustrated I am when you talk over each other, when you fool around, remove your ties, irritate the person next to you, or simply act silly, that will not change. 

My love for you isn't about how obedient you are. It is because you are fantastic children of a loving Heavenly Father and you deserve to be loved.  And I thank you for the reminder I am far from perfect, that patience is a virtue which I should continue to nurture. You help me to be a better member of the Church - and I'm sure you don't know that.

I see myself as a youth in your behavior, and it is like looking in a mirror. I know many of you are trying to listen, trying to participate and I know there are those who simply aren't there yet. We all have the opportunity to practice the great virtues of compassion and forgiveness, to be kind and to be generous in our understanding of those who are different. Truthfully, we are all different. And we are here on this earth for the same reason - to work out our salvation so we can return to our Heavenly Father. 

The moments the Spirit has born witness to those in our class have been sweet and memorable. And I look forward to more of those moments.  

If I could ask one thing of each of you, it would be to come prepared. Bring your scriptures, bring your spiritual experiences, bring those things that will uplift and bless the lives of your friends and strengthen us all. Bring your challenges and concerns, and allow the Atonement to work in your life, to heal those hurts and to help you walk through this time in your life with grace and confidence.

For everyone who does come prepared to listen, to participate, who brings their own scriptures,  who sets up chairs, gathers scriptures, offers prayers and helps bring a sense of reverence to our class, I thank you.  Your actions bless the lives of our entire class, including me. 

I'd like to end this both with the wise words of President Gordon B. Hinckley from April 1995 General Conference:  

"In the Young Women conference emphasis was given to the words of Alma found in the thirty-second chapter of the book of Alma. His teachings include these words: “Awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith” (Alma 32:27).

My beloved associates, far more of us need to awake and arouse our faculties to an awareness of the great everlasting truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each of us can do a little better than we have been doing. We can be a little more kind. We can be a little more merciful. We can be a little more forgiving. We can put behind us our weaknesses of the past, and go forth with new energy and increased resolution to improve the world about us, in our homes, in our places of employment, in our social activities.

We have work to do, you and I, so very much of it. Let us roll up our sleeves and get at it, with a new commitment, putting our trust in the Lord. "

Here's to another great week with my class. I can't wait to see what happens. 

Rachel xo

Keeping the Commandments - The World From Their Eyes

In case you want to read the lesson itself, you can find that

here: September - Commandments - Lesson # 3

I asked the youth to give me a few things they see at school among their peers that could be better if their peers knew and lived the commandments. 

1) Respect of parents - It seems pretty common place for the kids to hear of their peers talking poorly about their parents. It could be because they are angry about discipline handed to them, or because they esteem the parents as old fashioned or out of touch.  We agreed it is okay be unhappy with your Mom or Dad if they give you a consequence, but it isn't okay to gossip about them. (Unless of course you are going to say how AMAZING your parents are, then they felt it was absolutely okay to spread that message.)   I'll go along with that .

2) Taking the Lord's name in vain - Every person in my class has been bombarded with this kind of language, without exception.  And when I asked them if that included their teachers, several said yes, including them as well. 

I shared with them a story of a recent experience I had at a local grocery store with a group of young men who were cursing up a storm. They were absolutely clueless that anyone else was listening to them, and moreover they were unaware that their language was of any concern. They didn't even remember what they had said that could be offensive.

I'm fairly certain that the next time a 50 year old woman saunters up to them to say something, they will think twice about what comes out of their mouth. (At least that is the hopeful attitude I'm going to keep regarding that incident.)

3) Drugs - Word of Wisdom 

This is always an interesting conversation. They seem to clearly understand that marijuana, cocaine, heroin, beer, liquor,and cigarettes are things to stay away from. They know there are kids that are doing drugs in their schools, and they haven't experienced it in their circle of friends.  What's interesting to me is to have the conversation about the gray areas in people's understanding.  What is the Church counsel on the Word of Wisdom ?  Do you drink Dr. Pepper to get out of bed ?  Do you use cough medicine to go to sleep and you aren't sick ?  The buzz words are stimulate and excess. 

One of my senior students said, " Keeping the commandments could help everyone - all over the world!" 

EXACTLY! 

Our class then took a turn as we read about Abinidi and his stellar example of keeping the commandments. He died because he wouldn't deny the commandments. So what does that tell us about our efforts to keep them ?

1) You always have a choice to be an example. 

2)  Search for ways to keep the commandments even if it            seems like it may be hard to do so.

3) The Spirit can guide you if you keep the commandments       and stay worthy to receive that guidance.

My heart aches for the youth of today. The adversary wants to desensitize their souls and cause them to be beyond feeling. He wants them to be so used to pain, suffering, death and destruction that they turn a blind eye. He uses the great and spacious building to keep them from holding on to the rod, learning about the Savior and choosing the right. 

I hope that my class knows that if they arm themselves with the shields of prayer, hope, faith in Jesus Christ and keeping the commandments, they will be "the light of the world."  They have been sent here at this time to be examples to those in their circles of influence. I see their brightness, their goodness and their potential.  I can't wait to see what these young people become.