19 May 2008
Forgetting the Sunday School Lesson
Posted by Michelle under: Attention; Using Questions; .
Today I asked David what he learned in children’s church. Try as I could, I could not get an answer out of him. I asked him whether he was being a wise listener. He insisted he listened, but he could not remember a single detail about what happened.
It is possible that fatigue had something to do with it. Lee and I were out on a date Saturday night, and the dear babysitter was bamboozled into letting them all stay up until nearly ten o’clock. And David was up around six, which is a bit earlier than normal.
I’m not certain that he cannot remember anything. Because of David’s personality, he doesn’t like pointed questioning. I need wisdom to know how to keep him talking. I’d like to get to a point where we actually discuss the lessons.
Any ideas?
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3 Comments so far...
Jay Younts Says:
19 May 2008 at 10:37 am.
Michelle, a few quick observations. Sometimes it helps if you know something about what was taught that you can use to prompt his memory. It is possible that the lesson was not interesting to him and he was not able to make a connection. If preachers don’t “come after’ their listeners in their sermons the listeners are likely to mentally exit the scene. You could ask him before hand to think of 1 or 2 specific things about the lesson he is going to hear and tell you afterwards. Listening is a challenging skill. I had many friends in college who responded as David did after class. I would go easy here. Find the things he does like to talk about and build Deut. 6 bridges to God’s involvement in those interests.
Michelle Says:
19 May 2008 at 9:03 pm.
Thanks for the reassurance, Jay. These are good suggestions. Regarding your suggestion in the last sentence, I’d like to do more of this.
