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King James Version
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
Forgive me beforehand for speaking so much in the first person. This is about my experiences in education. The following is only my humble opinion, I am by no means an expert in education.
Remembering someone and believing in someone go hand in hand. Recently, Carson Ness from my high school put up a Berkshire H.S. page on Facebook. It was a really an interesting snap shot of public school education. It seems the most chatter was about the teachers themselves. I saw that the students only remembered the good teachers, the kind of teachers we believed in. They are theones that impacted our lives. They were the ones that are still being quoted 50 years later. What they taught stuck with us. The grumps and the teachers with bad attitudes just disappeared. We didn’t believe in them, so whatever they taught disappeared with them in our memories. Not only do we as a group of 3000 students forget their names, but we also forgot what they said. We all seemed to remember that ‘moment when they lashed out’, or when we got paddled, but that was it. Nothing worth while.
I feel that there is a major misconception in education today. I think if we analyzedwhat teachers expect over what the kids actually learned, we would all be shocked. Memorizing and remembering seem to be two completely different things. Remembering is learning, memorization is just about passing a test. Our school philosophies seem to be around the later more than the former. Although as a bunch of 60 year olds, if we had to retake our ‘high school tests’ we would all flunk them, thethings we really learned in High School we will take with us to our graves.
We want our own kids to remember God. We want the children we instruct to remember God. Yet we repeat the same mistake by confusing remembering with memorization. We seem to think that making kids memorize Bible verses will help them to remember God. We are mistaken.
While it important to learn how to memorize, especially Bible verses, memorization and remembering are mutually exclusive. Sometimes we try so hard to get the kids to ‘learn’ something, that all they can remember is our own frustration and ugly faces(my word for scowl). They might be able to regurgitate what we ‘taught’ them a week later on a test, but they remember that we weren’t nice about it. That memory goes on forever.
Memorization has proven not to be a very effective way of learning, nor teaching. Indifferent high school teachers quote memorized lesson plans, kids stare, write it down, and repeat on test. I have noticed a major flaw in Christian Counseling. Thecounselor quotes scripture memorized, and the kid stares at them. The intellectual memorization of scripture doesn’t affect the kid. A story, a real conversation, (2 way!) goes a lot farther, with a verse or two intermingled. Quoting a verse to someone is not communicating, nor even really caring if that is all you give them. People sense it.
Personally, I cannot remember anything I memorized for an exam in high school or even as later as a seminarian. Emotions help me remember, whether good or bad. I think that applies to kids as well. How many things do we insist that students memorize that they can’t remember a week later? How many things do we do that touch a child’s heart, or anger him, that they remember for the rest of their lives?
Remembering is NOT memorizing. I do remember things, but nothing I remember was memorized. I don’t remember what people said to me unless what they said made me feel something. Intellect is usually unemotional, so I don’t remember many intellectual things from my youth. I do remember how people’s words, actions, gestures, body language and faces made me feel.
I can remember things that I read by the way the writer affected me. I love so many verses from the Bible because they make me love God more. Kind words from people makes me reciprocate with love. I take heed of what is said to me, depending on the delivery. How something is said is a million times more important than what is actually said.
We are more interested in our children remembering God and His kindness than memorizing stuff that they will forget asap. A kid will remember a kind word or gesture. They will remember true and sincere love and how we said things to them. They will remember us caring for them. They will also remember uncaring things we said, or unpleasant things we did. Most of all, they feel exclusion if ignored, and love and acceptance if listened to and counted as important.
How they remember us is how they will remember God.
Unfortunately we all as human beings tend to remember the bad and painful things, and choose to hold grudges. Good thing God isn’t like that. No matter how bad we hurt Him, He chooses to not remember our sins any more once we repent.
◄ Hebrews 8:12 ►New International Version
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.
Dean
Español
◄ Eclesiastés 12: 1 ►
Acuérdate de tu Creador en los días de tu juventud, antes que los malos días por venir, ni los años acercará, cuales digas, no tengo en ellos placer;
Perdóname por hablar tanto en la primera persona, pero esto es sobre mis experiencias en la educación. El siguiente es sólo mi opinión humilde, yo soy de ninguna manera un experto en la educación.
Siento que hay un error importante en la educación actual. El memorizar y recordar parecen ser dos cosas completamente diferentes.
Queremos que nuestros propios hijos recuerdan a Dios. Queremos también que los niños bajo nuestro cuidado recuerdan a Dios. Sin embargo, repetimos el mismo error. Parece que pensamos que al hacer los niños a memorizar versos de la Biblia les ayudará a recordar a Dios. Sin embargo, mientras que es importante para memorizar versículos de la Biblia, la memorización y el recuerdo son mutuamente exclusivos.
La memorización se ha demostrado que no es una forma muy eficaz de aprendizaje.
En lo personal, no puedo recordar nada de lo que aprendí de memoria para un examen en la escuela secundaria o incluso tan tarde como seminario. No puedo recordar nada menos que las circunstancias me hicieron recordar ellos. Yo ni siquiera puedo recordar versos bíblicos memorizados menosque algo tangible sucedió para que me recordaría. ¿Cuántas cosas qué insistimos que los estudiantes aprendan de memoria que no pueden recordar ni una semana más tarde?
Recordando no es memorizar. Sí recuerdo unas cosas, pero nada que recuerdo fue memorizado. No me recuerdo lo que me decía a mí sino como lo que dijero me hizo sentir. El intelecto es por lo general carente de emociones, por lo cual no me recuerdo de muchas cosas intelectuales de mi juventud. Lo que sí recuerdo son las palabras, acciones, gestos, el lenguaje y las caras del cuerpo de la gente que me hizo sentir algo.
Puedo recordar cosas que he leído a través de cómo el escritor hizo sentir. Me encanta tantos versos de la Biblia porque me hacen amar más a Dios. Las palabras amables de personas, o incluso palabras duras de alguien que se que realmente me querían me hizo corresponder con amor. Me preste atención a lo que se dicen a mi. Cómo se dice algo es un millón de veces más importante que lo que realmente se dice.
Estamos preocupados que los niños recuerdan a Dios más que memorizan. Un niño va a recordar una palabra amable o un gesto. Ellos recordarán el amor verdadero y sincero y cómo hemos dicho cosas a ellos. Nos recordarán como nos cuidan de ellos. También recordarán las cosas indiferentes hemos dicho, o cosas desagradables que hicimos. Por encima de todo, se sienten exclusión si se ignora, y el amor y la aceptación si están escuchados y contados como importantes.
Cómo se acuerdan de nosotros es cómo van a recordar a Dios
Desgraciadamente todos como seres humanos. Tendemos a recordar las cosas malas y dolorosas más de las cosas buenas. Lo bueno es que Dios no es así. No importa lo mal que lo habíamos lastimado, EL opta por no recordar nuestros pecados una vez más que nos arrepentimos.
Hebreos 8:12
Porque perdonaré la maldad de ellos y no me acordaré más de su pecado.
Dean Peters
Fundación Corazón Puro es una organización sin ánimo de lucro, para ayudar a los niños en Nicaragua