How Then Shall We Teach?

"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Deuteronomy 6:6-7

I'm going through The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. What I read today paralleled the recent blog discussions regarding turning our children's hearts towards God vs. having children who can spout all of the correct Christian verbiage. Willard states that how teachers and learners operated in Jesus' day was so different from how we attempt to teach and learn today. In order to understand what Jesus is teaching in the Beatitudes, we must first understand how He taught.

"...[T]he aim of the popular teacher in Jesus' time was not to impart information, but to make a significant change in the lives of the hearers... The teacher in Jesus' time--and especially the religious teacher--taught in such a way that he would impact the life flow of the hearer, leaving a lasting impression without benefit of notes, recorders, or even memorization. Whatever did not make a difference in that way just made no difference."

Willard then recalls where he was when he learned that President Kennedy had been shot, in order to prove his point with the following. "We automatically remember what makes a real difference in our life. The secret of the great teacher is to speak words, to foster experiences, that impact the active flow of the hearer's life. That is what Jesus did by the way He taught. He tied His teachings to concrete events that make up the hearers' lives. He aimed His sayings at their hearts and habits as these were revealed in their daily lives."

The parables that we have learned from reading the Bible will "sit in our minds and go off like the 'tiny time capsules' of popular medications. The Master teacher has done His work, or rather, keeps on doing His work."

"Now, Jesus not only taught in this manner; He also taught us, His students to the kingdom, to teach in the same way. He taught about teaching in the kingdom of the heavens--using, of course, a parable. 'So every Bible scholar who is trained in the kingdom of the heavens is like someone over a household that shows from his treasures things new and things old' (Matt. 13:52 REV). By showing to others the presence of the kingdom in the concrete details of our shared existence, we impact the lives and hearts of our hearers, not just their heads."

I don't take this to mean that we don't have our children memorize or write in our home schools. But I think it reinforces the thinking that we need to focus on the hearts of our children. For example, this doesn't mean that we don't memorize scripture, but in addition to memorizing, we teach, and watch for evidence of, hearts that are turned towards God.