Teach, Teacher, Teachers, Teaching
Why God Will Never Get Tenure at Any University
1. Only published one book.
2. It was in Hebrew.
3. It had no references.
4. He did not publish it in referenced journals.
5. Some doubt He even wrote it Himself.
6. He is not known for His cooperative work.
7. Sure, He created the world, but what has He done lately?
8. He did not get permission from any review board to work with human subjects.
9. When one experiment went awry, He tried to cover it up by drowning all the subjects.
10. When sample subjects do not behave as predicted, He deletes the whole sample.
11. He rarely comes to class—just tells His students to read the Book.
12. It is rumored that He sometimes lets His Son teach the class.
13. Although He only has 10 requirements, His students often fail His tests.
14. He expelled His first two students for learning.
15. His office hours were infrequent and usually held on a mountain top.
Source unknown
Sowing the Seed
An angel paused in his onward flight With a seed of love and truth and right, And said, “Oh, where can this seed be sown That it yield more fruit when fully grown?”
“To whom can this precious seed be given That it bear more fruit for earth and heaven?” The Saviour heard and said as He smiled “Place it at once in the heart of a child.”
The angel whispered the blessed truth To a weary teacher of precious youth; Her face grew bright with heavenly light As she led their thought in the way of right.
Source unknown
How Else are You Going to Learn
A Father and his small son were out walking one day when the lad asked how electricity could go through the wires stretched between the telephone poles. “I don’t know,” said his father. “I never knew much about electricity.” A few blocks farther on, the boy asked what caused lightning and thunder. “That too has puzzled me,” came the reply. The youngster continued to inquire about many things, none of which the father could explain. Finally, as they were nearing home, the boy said, “Pop, I hope you didn’t mind all those questions.” “Not at all,” replied his father. “How else are you going to learn!”
Our Daily Bread, Friday, January 9
Someday I Would Be Good Enough to Teach
Years ago, after a celebrated international career on the stage, the world-famous violinist Jascha Heifetz became a professor of music at UCLA. When someone asked him why he had left the glamour of performing to become a teacher, Heifetz answered, “Violin-playing is a perishable art. It must be passed on; otherwise it is lost.” Then he went on to say, “I remember my old violin professor in Russia. He said that (if I worked hard enough) someday I would be good enough to teach.”
From a speech by William Graves, editor of National Geographic magazine, Speaker’s Idea File
Life Is a Mater of Building
Life is a matter of building. Each of us has the opportunity to build something—a secure family, a good reputation, a career, a relationship to God. But some of those things can disappear almost overnight due to financial losses, natural disasters and other unforeseen difficulties.
What are we to do? Daniel Webster offered excellent advice, saying, “If we work on marble it will perish. If we work on brass, time will efface it. If we rear temples, they will crumble to dust. But if we work on men’s immortal minds, if we imbue them with high principles, with just fear of God and love of their fellow-men, we engrave on those tablets something which time cannot efface, and which will brighten and brighten to all eternity.
Morning Glory, July 3, 1993
What Kind of Teacher?
• The mediocre teacher tells.
• The good teacher explains.
• The superior teacher demonstrates.
• The great teacher inspires.
Progress Magazine, December 23, 1992
Resource
• The Seven Laws of the Learner, B. Wilkinson, ch. 1
Ideal Teacher
An item in “The Report Card” told of a study done in Colorado in which 3000 high school seniors were asked about their best teachers. From their responses this composite was drawn. The ideal teacher:
1. is genuinely concerned and interested in students as individuals;
2. requires students to work;
3. is impartial in dealing with students; and
4. is obviously enthusiastic about teaching.
Today In The Word, Oct., 1989, p. 25
Quote
• Teaching is the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the minds of the ignorant by the means of the incompetent…is the transfer of material from the teacher’s notes to the student’s notebook, without it going through either’s minds.
How Adults and Youth Learn
J. Dennis Miller, president of Church Youth Development states that a problem with educating young people in the church stems from a failure to understand how young people learn. He claims that adults learn in the following pattern:
1. acceptance of absolutes;
2. subordination of attitudes and actions to absolutes;
3. application of truth received to life experience.
Knowing something as an adult is based primarily upon remembering information and intellectual learning. Youth, Miller contends, learn in a different way:
1. evaluation of life experience;
2. discovery of attitudes and actions which validate their life experiences;
3. identifying truth based on their relevance to life experience;
4. acceptance of truths that prove reliable from life experience. Life experience is the main influence on the learning young mind.
Source unknown