Learning things

There have been a couple of times now when I’ve thought an idea of another teacher was a bad one upon first impression. Later on however, I found that the idea was a complete success. The first time was when Sterling, who is in charge of Pathfinders (kind of like an Adventist version of boy/girl scouts), wanted to have the students learn marching. They learn different commands and do things in formation together. I thought they wouldn’t like it and would have a hard time paying attention; perhaps because I myself wouldn’t like it very much. But to my surprise they loved it. They had learned a lot in years previous and picked it up again like that had being doing it everyday. They were marching around and having a great time trying to see if they could follow the commands of the one chosen to call them. I felt so bad for being skeptical and putting down his idea.

The second time this happened was last night. The teachers are responsible for planning AY (Adventist Youth), which is a program held for the youth on Saturday evenings. Anna came up with the idea of having the whole group go around and alternate as they read Psalms 119 (the longest chapter in the bible) and then compete in teams as they answered questions about the chapter. I thought it would be a complete flop because that book is so long and I thought it would be hard to follow and tedious to understand. It did take a while to read through it but the game part was so much fun. The questions were like (how many times was the word ‘teachings’ in the chapter, and ‘which verse talks about God’s law being ‘as sweet as honey’’. Everyone was frantically looking for answers and shouting them out. The teams were staff and students and the students won! I again felt bad for thinking and saying that it might be boring.

What I think is not always right. I knew that before but it’s been good to see that pointed out. I am so happy that I could see this. It is important to learn and realize that we don’t always have the whole perspective and can’t understand things exactly how they are all the time. I thought I knew what the students would think but I was wrong; very wrong, and I’m really glad they liked it because I ended up having a good time too.