Small Group Bible Study
THE TEACHER’S CRAFT
Small Group Bible Study
THE TEACHER’S CRAFT
Every secular teacher should be proud of his/her calling; eager to attain technical teaching skills. For example, no teacher of mathematics is content merely to master the subject. One is a teacher only by teaching; by leading students to master the subject, to be fond of it, perhaps becoming teachers of it themselves.
A dedicated teacher, whether secular or religious, will be in love with the teaching process; seeking to know what it is that enables one to instantly have the absorbed attention of a class, and holding on to it right up to the end of the lesson period. This love for teaching causes one to study how to open a recitation in the best way, and how to close it in the most effective manner. A dedicated teacher recognizes the fact that questioning is one of the fine arts, and will study the work of masters in this art, such as Socrates or a shrewd modern lawyer cross-examining a witness. Such a teacher knows that story-telling, even the telling of a brief illustrative anecdote, is another great and beautiful art; and here, where there are so many notable examples, the truly dedicated teacher will study the best models, trying hard to attain mastery of this indispensable teaching tool.
There is an enormous difference between a lesson taught in a clumsy way and the same lesson taught by one who has become a master of the teacher’s craft. To some extent, of course, the wonderful sentences of Holy Scripture will drive themselves into the memory and affections of your students; but how much more effective they are when a well-equipped, well-trained, dedicated teacher presents them to the class with proper skill and winsomeness. A bullet may be shot from a child’s popgun or from a high-powered rifle. It is a bullet in each case, but how different the result.
