Sunday School was a little rough this morning. I was trying to get the kids to start reading Romans. I read the entire first chapter because no one wanted to read. No one volunteered to read any of the 2nd chapter. I know kids are weird about that, but they've all grown up together. There are no strangers in our class. I know for a fact they can all read. I got a little frustrated because I don't really know what to do.
How can I get them to realize that reading the Bible in a group that accepts you is one of the coolest things you can be doing? There are a ton of people that would love to have that opportunity, and here these kids are not wanting to partake because they don't want to "sound stupid."
This is the word of God! It's not a 19th century novel or a beat poem. This is awesome stuff. No matter how you read it, you won't sound stupid. Know why? Because it's the inspired word of God. I tried explaining all of this and got a bunch of stares. No response.
Then I moved into the "if you don't want to read Scripture, tell me what you would like to do" speech. Still nothing. They wanted to play Apples to Apples. Apparently, none of the 7-12 graders in our church have anything to talk about. They must have pretty boring lives.
I'm kind of at a loss here. I want them to actually learn something, but they don't seem interested in much of anything. I'm confused because this is a new phenomenon. They've been pretty good about participating until lately. Must've been a case of the Mondays a day early.
It's the old "you can lead a horse to water but what if he wants a pepsi" problem. I've had this happen, too, and it can be so frustrating, especially when it's something you love, something so important to you and to them (even if they are too shy or whatever the reason to say so). The best thing I've found to do is to simply start talking about what it means to me and why I love it. I stop calling on people or waiting for them to answer my questions and I just take the whole class over. That's not to say that I don't make reference to how I would love to know what they thknk since I'm no expert but if they really want me to tell them what to think, then okay, but...
ReplyDeleteAnd usually by the end, they're talking. It takes a lot of patience to get to that point, but God gave you some of that, so you can use it in a situation like this one.
Believe me, every teacher has these days. Hang in there. Someone is listening.