Sitting in the Seat of the Student

A few minutes of Sunday school small talk transported me to my friend's classroom. I've been there before, in spirit, as he conveys enthusiasm for mentoring student teachers. He even spoke graciously of the student teacher who insisted over the high school students' objections that Notre Dame in Paris was named after the football team in South Bend, Indiana. My friend continues to keep on good terms with that guy, who has found success in another line of work. This time, however, my friend was frustrated with a classroom atmosphere of coldness rather than comedy emanating from a very different student teacher.

This semester, just as the material covered germinates interest and discussions on the part of the students, the current student teacher stifles them in order to insert his own opinions and deliver history as a closed subject. Even pedagogy was of little interest to him, as my friend's suggestions on how to help the students remember material meet with an indifferent monosyllable: "Why?" Clearly, the guy playing this role for the semester was indifferent as both student and teacher. He had forgotten, if he ever knew, what it was like to sit in the seat of the student.

This empathy of equality is even more defining in androgy, or the teaching of adults. This is the frontier on which another friend engages enthusiastically, and the weapons of warfare for adult attention and retention are constructive for anyone who would exert influence over people who see themselves as mostly mature. Connections to a present and acknowledged problem are more crucial with adults than with people who see themselves primarily as students and for whom general curiosity is still a defining characteristic. Instruction which doesn't directly answer the question, "How can this help me RIGHT NOW?" likely won't be immediately applied. What isn't immediately applied, he laments, is quickly forgotten.

Creative and variable means must be engaged to motivate toward serious goals.  Even the Bible, written to believers who already tilt toward the timeless and know something of satisfaction in stillness, offers to compete for the adult attention span and offers examples as to how to do so. In Luke 7:36-48, Jesus faces a heart harder to persuade than any we are likely to encounter, and yet His technique is exemplary for lesser battles to engage attention and maximize influence.

Jesus OFFERS the Pharisees Simon instruction, thus dignifying his power to choose rather than wielding sound authority to coerce. Might not even the least mature students or most stubborn employees respond differently to an offer of instruction? When Jesus has Simon's willing attention, He maximizes that attention with a creative, if brief, narrative rather than a frontal assault on Simon's current beliefs and practices. Even the dullest screen-by-screen and click-by-click narration of my efforts as a customer waits on the phone seem to elicit more patience. I have seen a study showing that doctors who offer such explanations of upcoming processes are less likely to be sued for malpractice.

In Jesus' encounter in Luke, He finds reason to affirm Simon's current understanding where He can. Likewise, if we can shed suspicion and defensiveness and find SOMETHING legitimate to commend in the person whom we would see change, their defenses may likewise drop. Only after taking these careful steps does Jesus cast a vision of the differences between Simon's status quo and practices that could flow from a willingness to change his thinking.

Why? Confronting and persuading with grace may not always work. Simon remains unconvinced in Luke 7 despite Christ's illustrious instruction, so others will not see 100% success. However, approaching instruction with genuine empathy, asking to help, giving creative thought to the means used, commending praiseworthy qualities, and offering a compelling vision for end results make the most of the day's opportunities for influence and built the infrastructure of relationship for future conversations.