Keywords

Classroom, teaching, lessons, students, religion, preach my gospel, education

Abstract

President Thomas S. Monson taught, “The goal of gospel teaching . . . is not to ‘pour information’ into the minds of class members. . . . The aim is to inspire the individual to think about, feel about, and then do something about living gospel principles.” In this same talk he emphasized the importance of taking action as it relates to learning, saying, “I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I learn.” Thus a key responsibility in the role of a religious educator is to help students do things as a result of what they learn in the classroom. President Howard W. Hunter explained one of the reasons why this is so: “Action is one of the chief foundations of personal testimony. The surest witness is that which comes firsthand out of personal experience [see John 7:16–17]. . . . This, then, is the finest source of personal testimony. One knows because he has experienced.”

Original Publication Citation

John Hilton III and Brandon Gunnell. “Helping Students Act as a Result of Classroom Lessons.” Religious Educator, 12 (1).