MR. D'S NOTES ON TEACHING
Rev. Stanley L. Derickson Ph.D.
COPYRIGHT 2001
Chapter 4
Although this section is primarily aimed at children, there is a lot of truth relating to adults as well - remember all adults were kids once and many of them have areas of their lives where they forgot to grow up.
CHILDREN AND LEARNING:
We need to understand that children aren't just popped out of molds. They are each a unique individual. In towns like small town USA you may not run into a large number of varieties, but in larger towns and cities you can find yourself trying to minister to a wide variety of children with a variety of backgrounds.
We used to wait for the boys to come out of their high school. We were impressed with the variety in a school of several hundred. Short, tall, fat, skinny, hoods, high society, smokers, eaters, everything.
I would like to touch on a little bit of what make up the child's background.
The child has four basic worlds that put pressure upon him/her. We tend to think of peer pressure as the only pressure, yet there is much more.
THE WORLDS OF THE CHILD:
PHYSIOECONOMIC: The physioeconomic is that part of their world that makes up their standard of living. This may be determined by a number of things in the family.
income
number of children
is it a two parent family
is there alimony/child support
is there an alcoholic or gambler in the family
personal debt
owning or renting of the home
age of children
etc.
How does this affect learning? We will see more on this as we go along.
CULTURAL: This is the culture or environment that the child comes from. This also can vary greatly and the variance may or may not affect the learning ability.
Within this world there may be language barriers, both of the speaking and of the understanding variety.
There may well be some cultural variances that the teacher does not understand. The teacher may be right on track for White anglo-Saxons, but be totally losing the Spanish American or converted Muslim.
PERSONAL: The personal world is the world of the immediate family and surrounding people. In some cultures the friends of the family may well be an integrated part of this world.
In the ranch family of the west there may not be any family friends.
What might really affect the child in the personal world?
if the father is the house person
if the mother dominates
if the father dominates
if the parents share in leadership with man as head
if a parent is abusive/sexually/physically/verbally
if a relative is one of the above
if a parent works hours when child is home or awake
if one parent is missing from the family
PRIVATE: This world is the world within the child themselves.
What makes up this world?
thoughts
dreams
desires
drives
hopes
feelings of greatness/worthlessness/smallness
dislike for themselves
searching for meaning
searching for God
misconceptions
PHYSICAL: This would include the physical environment around the child. This may include slums or mansions for housing.
We can't necessarily know all of the ramifications of all these things, but we can tune in on the conversation and quite often the child will be talking about the problems that they are having in these areas.
Realize that all of these worlds can be affecting the child either positively or negatively and thus be affecting the learning, attendance habits etc.
Realize that there will be interrelationships between the children's worlds and this also will affect the VBS and camp situations.
If you have some children of another nationality there may well be a little bit of built in problem in what, the parents have communicated to the children from the parents biases.
Realize that there are some definite differences between the sexes that may well dictate how much learning is going on in the sessions.
What are some general differences between boys and girls?
BOYS GIRLS
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wear blue when small wear pink when small
mechanical non-mechanical
active passive
detailed generalized
doers talkers
fun oriented people and social oriented
never cry cry easily
wrongs are outward wrongs are sneaky
misbehavior usually minor misbehavior more serious
looking for approval from guys looking for approval from guys
LATER ON DIFFERENCES:
decisive in thinking prone to deception
think of sex think of love
showing off watching
touch oriented emotional and verbally oriented
as education goes up/masculinity as education goes up/feminity
stable but accepting of female goes down
What are some needs that most children have when they come to your class, camp or VBS?
1. Success
2. Recognition
3. Sympathetic understanding
4. Acceptance as he is with respect
5. Status with his peers
6. Increasing self-direction
7. Contact and harmony with reality
I would like to look at these for a few moments.
1. Success: It is only normal for all human beings to desire success. Even within the confines of Christianity we desire to succeed. Not necessarily that we become a Swindol or McArther, but we want to know that other believers feel we have something that is good and that we can contribute to the overall work of God.
Success is built into most programs.
Students will see success in the following areas:
VBS:
memory work
learning stories
crafts
games - if they win
getting to help in the opening - flags etc.
getting mom and dad to the program will help
Camp:
the first four above
succeeding at some of the sports activities/archery etc.
possibly by allowing them to assist dorm leader
being allowed to take the offering/etc.
How can we build in more of this success? Structure in some possibilities. Allowing them to help others will do wonders. Allow those capable of doing some of the work in the classes rather than just sitting there. Use some as helpers in the crafts. Help them with their memory work and learning activities so that you assure that they are succeeding.
2. Recognition: This is accomplished through praise in the classroom, craft time, game time and any other time that they are doing a good job.
The final program is a help because the crafts are usually out for all of the people to see.
If you have children helping then recognize them in the next Sunday service. You could do it as a group - you don't need to take half the service to introduce each one necessarily.
3. Sympathetic understanding: They need to have sympathy, but don't feed their inferiority complex either.
Times when they need a little sympathy:
when something has gone wrong at home
when they are having trouble memorizing
when they are having trouble with a craft
when they are having trouble getting to know "that" boy/girl.
when they are homesick/don't overdo it or they will go home.
when they have difficult times.
4. Acceptance as he is, with respect: They may have red hair and freckles - don't laugh - accept them. They may talk funny - don't laugh - accept them. They may think you are funny and laugh. TOLERATE THEM. They may have handicaps - don't baby - accept and help them.
Q. How do we help them find respect?
normal activities will help
normal treatment of others will help
normal hygiene will help
5. Status with his peers: This relates with success.
How do they gain status with their peers?
by doing their work
by joining in on activities
by being part of the group in down and fun times
by helping others
by not being a pain in the neck
by not pulling pranks
You might consider - Do we really want them to gain a lot of status with their peers? Status could be a bit dangerous in a way. They might find themselves too high on their own priority list. They may become a leader in a wrong direction. If they are leaders in good directions then great!
6. Increasing self-direction: This should be encouraged but with the understanding that they are to do so within their parents direction and permissions.
You probably shouldn't outwardly encourage this with the students or campers.
You can encourage them to take some of these steps in the spiritual realm.
Setting their own course for devotional life.
Setting their own course for prayer life.
Setting their own course for dedication and commitment.
7. Contact and harmony with reality: This is where the application of your lessons and sermons will need to be down in the nitty gritty of life. If you don't relate the Word of God to where they live then it will not be real to them. They must see that the Word is good for today, good for the teacher or counselor, and most of all GOOD FOR THEM!
They may need to have a shot of reality. In many cities the youth and children are surrounded with the drug culture and that is all they know. If you find that you have one of these in your class or camp you will have to help them just find reality in the world, before you can get the Word to be a reality to them.
They may not even understand someone being concerned for them, or loving them for who they are.
We need to understand that children learn quite often by association.
Pavlov the Russian that was studying responses to stimuli made some very interesting discoveries.
What is a response to a stimuli? If I were to start describing a fine T-bone dinner with all the trimmings would it start your mind and possibly your stomach?
Pavlov found that if he rang a bell and gave a dog a bit of food that they dog would salivate. He found over time that if he withheld the food that the bell became the response that caused salivation rather than the food.
If a child is asked what he wants for lunch, and he receives a sandwich, he will ultimately relate lunch to sandwich and exclude all other foods from his thought of lunch.
This is why we need to help all children, especially the smaller ones to understand that the lesson that you are giving is coming from the Word of God and not just some book. Use your Bible! Let them see that you use it. You may even teach them to respect the Bible just by treating yours with care.
There are some miscellaneous problems that may come up.
ONLY CHILD PROBLEMS: Why is an only child a pain in the neck? I trust that none of you is an only child! Why are only children oft times a problem in the classroom? They usually have no other children to relate themselves to. They have no one else to judge their activities by so assume that they must judge their own activities to the activities of the parents.
We need to help these children to learn to relate to how other children their age act. If we don't then they will not really mature mentally and emotionally as a child should.
This may well be the problem that many home school graduates face. All of the children in the family relate only to mom and dad so their actions are judged according to adult standards.
HAVE LOTS OF OTHER CHILDREN AROUND IF YOU ONLY HAVE ONE CHILD OR IF YOU HOME SCHOOL!
UNDERPRIVILAGED CHILDREN PROBLEMS:
What kind of problems might come up from a child that comes from a poor area?
lack of manners
lack of cleanliness
lack of emotional stability
lack of value
lack of knowledge of reality
lack of knowledge of God
overt hostility
trouble
inattention
You may also find underprivileged children that are well adjusted and stable.
Why do these things relate to the underprivileged child? They come from poor background and homes where they have not had the possibility of learning as they should.
These are generalities and not true in all cases.
Due to lack of money the following may be true:
no books to read
no things to feel and touch and discover
no play area thus poor physical development and coordination
no travel to help them understand the outside world
used to anti-establishment teaching and influence of parents
little encouragement to learn
little example of good quality to learn from
You need to realize if you have children from these backgrounds that you may have some built in problems that come with them other than what we have discussed.
What might be some of these problems?
Resentment of your education.
Resentment of your finances.
Resentment of your church or campgrounds.
Resentment of your knowledge.
Resentment of your clothes, car etc.
How do we compensate for some of these items?
Don't push your education and knowledge.
Don't take all your material toys with you to camp. Ruff it.
Don't charge for everything that comes along.
Help them to understand that God brings different people up spiritually in different ways. Moses was raised in the courts of Pharoah while David was a shepherd, but God was able to use both in special ways.
Help them to follow the Lord and allow Him to do the work that He wants to do in his/her life.
PROBLEM OF ABSENTEEISM:
You need to try to find out why the person is tardy. If it is laziness then a swift kick verbally might help.
If the teachers are doing a good job and they are encouraging the students to come tomorrow there will be a lot of reason for the student to return. Possibly a hint of the next lesson to draw interest would be good.
Getting to know the pupil on the first day will help as well. They will feel welcome and wanted, plus they have someone that is friendly that is encouraging him/her to return.
Why might people be absent?
boredom in the program
boredom with the entire thought of the class
sickness
feeling outside the group
vacation
transportation
lack of permission from a parent
a hundred other things
So what can you do? Call and find out why they weren't there and see if there is anything that you can do to draw them back.
Talk to the student and see what can be done. If it is goofing off then some discipline would be in order. We will look at discipline in the future.
Getting the students involved may well create within them a desire to come back to be involved. Helping set up the room, helping set up crafts, visuals, etc.
Attendance charts, prizes, contests, etc. may well be useful as well.
The program itself if attractive and interesting will have a lot of draw.
PROBLEM OF TARDINESS:
Tardiness is quite often training on the part of the church staff. If the staff is late there will be a day in the future when the students will be late. I have observed this in many churches over the years.
There is only one cure if this is the cause and that is for the staff to get on the ball and be on time. If there is going to be a big turnaround in things it would be good to announce for a couple of days that things will change and that things will start on time.
If the people aren't there then start without them and the embarrassment will assist in bringing them in on time in the future.
Proper planning will do wonders for problems.