Teaching in the Savior’s Way

Some youth that are brought up in traditional households where parents are very active and involved and seems to rub off on their youth. For some of them, leading and teaching will click more easily, with little guidance. You can ask them to teach, and they’ll do it, no sweat. This may not be true for all of their children, but probably some of them.

For others though, it is more complicated–and sometimes extremely complicated. They may not have family support, or are recent converts, or have a learning disability….not to mention anxiety is a large factor to consider in helping the youth lead and teach.

So what can you do?

One thing our quorum has done is learning the hard way by just giving them an assignment and expecting it to get done. Even with the assistance of parents, this may not go well with the youth.

Another thing we have done, which has been much more successful–and all the credit here goes to one of our advisors–was to help the youth by going through an outline of how to teach in one of our quorum meetings. This involved a template of 3 sections, with a scripture, a question, and at least a one sentence (or paragraph) comment.

Then, during the week the leaders would meet or otherwise coach them to help them put together the lesson. This has gone very well for us, especially with those with learning disabilities and/or anxiety.

These little efforts have provided extraordinary results I would have never thought possible. It is truly amazing that with a bit of time investment and some careful planning can really help and produce dramatic results. This helped our youth with not only their leadership, teaching and social skills, but also their testimonies!

Part of this plan could and should involve the parents. They should join in on the planning and conversations so they know what is going on, and how to assist where needed.

If you are a parent of youth, there is a fine balance between enabling them vs. helping them rise to the challenge. You need to know where to draw the line, to help encourage them, but not overburden, or be overbearing as that could backfire. As with all things, follow the spirit.