Teaching Perspective Through Humor:

Teaching perspective through humor:

I hope this lesson will be useful for youth ministries, family devotionals, family counselors, parents, grandparents and family home evenings.

Today’s theme is on perspective, and what better children teach perspective than following joke:

What did the cobbler say when a cat wandered into his shop?

Shoe!

The answer to this question may have been obvious to some. It was not obvious to me. Many times we may not get the obvious answer or punch line to a joke. But, when we hear it, we think Oh, that’s obvious. This is an important principle to remember when you want to teach somebody on an unfamiliar topic, for example, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I liked to share a list several things that we may want to consider when trying to teach important principals to a young audience. Teachers can make a very strong impact of making lessons for children to be a very enjoyable process.

First of all, a positive teaching environment needs to be a safe zone. Not all children have had the same experiences, so what is known or familiar to one child may not be known by another. This may influence their receptiveness to new concepts and ideas. Thus, they will need to feel secure in the environment where new concepts are taught. For example, in Sunday school. If one child came from a home with an abusive relationship, a touch on the back to offer encouragement might be interpreted as an act of discipline. And of course teachers need to be careful upon how they touch children anyway.

Second, we need to consider our word choice. Depending upon the educational level or maturity of a child may influence if they understand a certain term while another child may make an easy connection. That means expressions and topics in lessons need to be very much simplified as influenced by the age of the child. Sometimes, I have a difficult time with this. I often have a tendency to use bigger words and thus I may confuse a child. One experience was when I was trying to advise some children who had won a storytelling competition. It was my first time as a story telling judge and upon the request of the school, the judges were to give advice to children on how to be better storytellers. I realized in an instant, that all my carefully prepared advice was for a much older audience. I had to simplify my comments in an instant, to meet the wide range of first grade to sixth grade students. If I didn’t do this, then the children may become disengaged in what I had to say.

Third, is to consider is the past of the child. Various experiences to children can give them a wider perspective that enables them to encounter new experiences. They can compare the new experience to what they know and thus make conclusions. I’ve watched some wonderful adults as they teach children and they provide delightful lessons. Not only were the lessons they taught engaging, with fun pictures and fun stories, but they often included fun activities.

Lessons for young children need to begin with objects and themes with which they are already familiar. If you will be managing the children for the long-term, that may mean you need to determine what the level of the children so that you know where your starting point is. Mutual knowledge is the beginning foundation for the beginning of a year of lessons. From those first building blocks the lessons can then start branching into new concepts.

If you have some advice for visitors to this blog on how to teach children, or you have some recommended websites that might be useful to teachers, please feel free to share them in the comment section of this blog. Thank you.