The Law of the Lesson

 The Sunday School Teacher 13

We turn now to the fourth law or principle of good teaching, namely, this: that the truth to be taught must be learned through truth already known.

Did you ever hear someone say, "I have no idea what that teacher was talking about"? This is because they had no handle on the truth presented, no way for them to grasp the new information with a handle made of information they already possessed. Anything new to you must have a reference point to something already familiar. Failure here means the entire class period will be wasted.

I said earlier, when we were discussing attention, to give the student problems that will stretch him but not discourage him. This implies a careful stair-stepping of information, building on new knowledge with related knowledge. But this new knowledge must first be paired with old knowledge, else the student will be left standing on the top stair of yesterday, wondering in vain how to reach the new set of stairs. In other words, you have to connect where you want his mind to go to somewhere it has already been.

This is illustrated in physical space all the time. When you want to go from one floor to the next, you do not leap the intervening dozen feet at a single bound. Humans cannot do that. But they can go up or down those same dozen feet by using one eight-inch stair step at a time – providing, of course, the stair steps are connected to the ones above and below.

Practically every bit of mathematics you ever learned illustrates this as well. Here is what a number is. This is one apple. These are two apples. Now let's count up to ten. Now to one hundred. Now, let's take away five apples. How many do we have left? Now, let's add some apples, multiply some apples, divide some apples, and section off some pieces of apple. These are fractions. And you can add, subtract, divide, and multiply pieces of an apple, too. On and on it goes.

God does this in the Bible as well. What is the Bible? It is the revelation of God, the unveiling of Who He is. Does He begin with Revelation? No. He does not start with the justice and finality of the Second Coming. He begins literally at the beginning, with Genesis, a word that means beginnings. First, we see Him. Then we see His power. Then we see sin arrive, followed immediately by provision for sin. God reveals Jesus throughout the Old Testament, particularly in the Tabernacle furniture and rites, always connecting something about their coming Saviour to something they already understood. When Jesus arrives in the New Testament, He points backward to connect Himself in the minds of His followers with all of those things they already knew. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24.27) In light of all this, the cross makes perfect sense. Next comes the history of the church's expansion in that first century, along with the instructions given by the apostles to that expanding church. Then, and only then, does God reveal to us the end, an end by now eagerly anticipated and absolutely appreciated.

Put another way round, without context, little information makes sense. With context, however, it makes perfect sense. The desired response in teaching is some form of the lightbulb moment: "Oh, I see." That lightbulb moment only comes when the student has apprehended and assimilated the information, and he cannot do that without a handle. Attaching something he already understands to something he does not understand allows him to pick it up, examine it, think through it, and take ownership of it. "Oh, yeah, that makes perfect sense now that I understand it."

Having explained my point, let me furnish you with an idea or two to help you accomplish this.

First, before you launch into a subject, try to determine how much your students already know about it. If you have taught them for a while, you will already have much of this knowledge to hand. If you do not, ask them. Better yet, ask them to write down what they know about it. Or bring it up for discussion and listen as they talk to each other. Their ignorance will help you tailor your lesson plans, but their limited grasp will show you how and where to attach your teaching to what they already know, however limited it might be.

Second, as you prepare your lesson, intentionally try to connect the information to something they already understand. If you are teaching about Jesus' growing-up years, explain it in terms of their own age and life experience. School. Siblings. Play. Church. Food. Prayer. Etc.

Third, endeavor to ensure your lesson's learning steps are in the correct order and big enough to be challenging without being intimidating. In math, the order of operations is simpler to more complex. In grammar, we do not go from explaining nouns directly to discussing split infinitives. In discipling new Christians, I do not start with systematic theology or hermeneutics; I begin with church attendance and Scripture reading. Make them think, but do not make them despair.

Fourth, it is wise to use everyday, familiar objects as illustrations. Colors. Shapes. Animals. Things in nature. Items found around the house.

One summer a few years ago, I realized our Wednesday night children's program had grown. It ran concurrent with the school year. Each May, I reminded the parents that if they continued to attend the Wednesday night service over the summer, it would be a great life lesson to their children about the importance of church. Privately, I had to reckon with more children in the main adult Bible study for the summer than we ever had before. I did not want to turn it into a children's service, but I did want to include them and to stretch myself. So every Wednesday night sermon that summer was built around a visual illustration. I used candles and mirrors and popcorn and biscuits and helmets and smoke. Not only did they help capture and maintain attention, but they also helped the children grasp the adult-sized truths being presented.

Fifth, lead them to find illustrations that fit the truth from their own experience. Encourage their thought process as you see them feeling their way through. Ask them to think of their own illustration and give them hints toward one you think they will understand. "What negative force affects every human being?" Their response might sound something like this: "So you mean the old nature is like gravity, in the sense that it is constantly pulling us down, all of us?"

By asking them to think of an illustration already well within their comprehension, you are practically handing them the secret to understanding the new information. Put another way round, you are showing them a door and asking them to make their own key from whatever already fits. This helps you confirm they get it, benefits everyone around them who is listening to the exchange between you both, and, most of all, helps the individual student crystalize their own grasp of the truth.

Sixth, do not rush up the steps. I understand what it is like, as a teacher, to peer from the landing above, eager to bring the students up to where I am. But understanding is like fruit; often, it must ripen. The larger your class is or the more distant your personal relationship with the students, the more this is true. Good teaching, like good barbecue, requires elements of time and patience.

Along the way, I would also like to share a couple of things to avoid.

First, do not assume that another teacher or class has already furnished them with the starting point where you intend to begin. It is at once both reasonable and intellectually lazy of you to do so. Now it may well be that they should have, but master teachers do deal in should-haves. They take accurate stock of where they actually are and proceed from there. Yes, the students in the teen Sunday School class should already know where Isaiah is in their Bibles. But do not assume they will. If you do, you will leave some of them floating around, lost in space, while the rest of you are climbing the stairs.

Second, do not treat each lesson as an independent collection of information. That biblical information has context. Those students have context. Truth doesn't stand in isolation; it stands in blocks, building a complete revelation of God. Your lesson may be conveying to them one block from that wall, but you and they both need to remember where it goes in that wall.

Third, do not tell them what you want them to know; lead them to discover as much of it as possible for themselves. If I read three books in preparation to teach a series of lessons, I cannot just teach them what I learned; I have to teach it to them as I learned it – one connected intellectual discovery at a time. But the best way to do that is not to usher them around like a tour guide, but rather to send them on an intellectual exploration with a map and a compass. Or perhaps some balanced expression between those two extremes. When I ask my students what they have learned, I do not want them merely to recite facts to me; I want them to re-think thoughts with me, haltingly expressed through processes yet still being formed. Put another way round, do not assume because they can regurgitate the material they have adequately digested and assimilated it. Insist they explain not just the steps but the thought that connects the steps.

When you teach this way, you will be well rewarded for your pains. Your class will pay much closer attention. The atmosphere will be fun. The students will not just be engaged but also excited. You will feel the thrill of the truth all over again when they stand beside you on the new landing and exclaim with delight about what they see.

There may be no greater reward for the teacher than the lightbulb moment, the "Aha!" that we all treasure. Poor Sunday School teachers are content with a class that does not act up. Average Sunday School teachers are content if they can get through a lesson. Good Sunday School teachers are content when they see the light come on in their students' eyes as the truth is apprehended and owned. Great Sunday School teachers watch their students' lives change as Christ is formed in them as a direct result of their ministry in that student's life. But great Sunday School teachers cannot be great without being good. Aim for the lightbulb moment, and patiently prepare its arrival. Lead on softly, but lead. Help them up the stairs you so painstakingly built. Then enjoy the view with them from the top.