So what does that mean that “we are responsible for our own learning”? Does it suddenly help us realize we can no longer claim, “church is boring.” That we can’t depend on people to just give us great talks in Sacrament meeting or provide stimulating lessons. That we are no longer just an audience waiting to be wowed.
I realize we now have the renewed responsibility to learn from our own efforts. To learn how to gain not just knowledge but understanding. To make the understanding a part of us in a way that it changes behavior. And then to come to church reading and willing to share our insight and experience. To be an example of how gospel study can change our minds and hearts and lead us to Christ.
I often think about what one of our sons experienced when he was on his mission in the MTC. He said they were all required to prepare a lesson as if they were going to be the teacher. Then they all showed up for class prepared and at that time they selected who would teach. Wouldn’t that then lend itself to a powerful discussion in which everyone was so well versed in the subject material?
I had an amazing teacher and class in college—Dr. Herrin, Ecology of Family Belief Systems. If you have spent anytime with me and heard me reminisce about how that class impacted me for a life time, you aren’t hearing about this for the first time.
Dr. Herrin (who incidentally was a member of The Church) would give us reading assignments before our class discussion. He would say that he really should require those who didn’t read the material to wait outside because they wouldn’t really have much to offer in the class discussion. (What if we did that at Sunday School?) No tests were given because it is evident that just memorizing facts and regurgitating those facts only to eventually forget isn’t the way to true learning and understanding.
We were just required to do a whole lot of reading, discussions, and a lot of writing about what we felt about what we read. And to add to this learning process, we were required to do a service learning project and then tie it into what we were learning. What I experienced and learned was incredible! And to this day, I remember so much of what I learned because it was a life-changing experience. It was true learning.
One of the most impactful learning I came away with from this class was about the process of true learning. It is more than listening and taking notes about what the teacher said and then being tested on his/her knowledge and how well I can recite back. It was a process is which I had to be an active participate. I learned how important it is for me to do my own processing by really coming to my own personal understanding and articulating it in writing. I experienced the profound lessons that are taught in service learning. That I can’t just learn something but I have to do something about what I have learned. Yes, I learned that I am responsible for my own learning and how that learning should be used to bless others. And I learned that I want to keep learning for a liftetime because of how intrinsically rewarding it is.
