Teaching for Growth

My third grandchild grew up so fast. It seemed like over a long weekend he went from playing “Sooo Big!” with grandpa to playing computer games! My play activity was taught before he saw the buttons on his brother’s computer game. If you haven’t played “Sooo Big!” with a one-year-old, here are the simple instructions: Hold the baby’s hands in yours. Ask, “How big is (child’s name)?” While raising the baby’s hands above his or her head, laughingly say, “Sooo Big!” The game is a real success when the child answers, “Sooo Big!” while raising his or her own hands over his or her head. As the child grows, the adult can expect to ask the same question with the expectation of an answer complete with hand motions.

It’s great to watch children grow and see them become thinkers.

A recent TV game show had the host follow the contestant’s answers to each question with, “Is that your final answer?” Contestants had to know a lot of facts to get on the show, but they had to have the “right” answer to stay on and win.

There is a real “tug-of-war” being played out between teaching students to think on their own as they grow and teaching students to know the “right” answer as they age. This wouldn’t be an issue or subject for reflection if there were not strong arguments on either side. Recently I was alarmed to hear a church school teacher say, “The church shouldn’t teach them to think, but should just tell them what’s right.”

On one side there are those who want the church to teach a list of what’s right and what’s wrong. The other side of this tugging match says that it’s better to teach students how to distinguish the difference between right and wrong. This is the side I’m pulling on in this article. My reasoning is that we need to teach students how to make decisions on the basis of what they’ve learned, then they can continue to grow stronger as they apply an informed faith when making life’s decisions.

Knowing the right answer to a question like, “How big are you?” doesn’t mean it will always be the “final answer.” I had to ask my six-year-old grandchild how to play a handheld computer game so I could improve my decision-making in relation to an ever-changing screen. I discovered that early success in the game led to new challenges and called for new decisions based on those early learnings. Knowing which buttons to push was the result of being told how the game worked. Learning how to apply that knowledge resulted in a growing skill level.

The Directory for Worship (W-4.2003) states that “the church nurtures those baptized as children and calls them to make public their personal profession of faith and their acceptance of responsibility in the life of the church. When these persons are ready, they shall be examined by the session.”