Isaiah 41:10
King James Version (KJV)
10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee:
be not dismayed; for I am thy God:
I will strengthen thee;
yea, I will help thee;
yea, I will uphold thee
with the right hand of
my righteousness.
For my entire career I had been teaching mathematics. Many
students hated mathematics; they feared it and were dismayed that they had to
take it in order to graduate. I used everything I could think of to try and
break down that fear. Those who would actually do what I told them to do in
class and for homework usually succeeded well. They didn’t always lose their
hatred for the subject, but at least they gained an assurance that they could
do it. It gave them a feeling of empowerment that bolstered them for the rest
of their college life.
Success comes from doing, not wishing for or dreaming about
it, but from sitting down and actually sweating through the details until they
began to see why it worked for them. Naturally there were some who expected—even
demanded—that I do the work for them and give them a grade representative of
what I could do. I would hold review sessions before major tests and exams. I
would give daily quizzes that were aimed at making them acquainted with the
kinds of questions I would later put on tests. I often handed out copies of
previous exams I had given in that topic so they could work through them. I
encouraged them to use these to simulate their exam experience. This was to
help them to relieve their own stress during the in-class tests. I knew it had
worked for me and that many students told me it had worked well for them, too.
I always explained to each class that when God promised
wisdom to us—see James 1:5—there were no conditions attached to that promise.
God would always give them wisdom. We would always pray for wisdom before each
test.
Early on in teaching I discovered that each class had its
own “personality.” A few classes stonewalled themselves behind an attitude of
resisting everything I did for them. They refused to do homework or prepare for
tests. They tried to demand that I give them a passing grade simply because they
came to class regularly. One time six students, each bigger than I, marched
into my office furious that the test I gave was not an exact copy of a previous
test that I had given them for review. When I pointed out that, of course, the
answers weren’t the same because the questions were similar but not identical,
they vowed revenge. The next morning when I went out to my car to go to class,
I found that the windshield had been smashed by a violent blow with a baseball
bat. I told my class what had happened and explained that I was apparently doing
too much for them. In the future they should look at their textbook for
examples for tests and prepare for them in that way. Fortunately, I’ve had no
more bat impressions in my windshield.
Thank You, Lord,
for living up to Your promise to strengthen, help and uphold us, and for the
fact that You really do that.
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