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Love those you teach
Create a safe environment where all are respected and
know their contributions are valued
Illustrate
When students know they are loved and respected by their teacher and other students, they are more likely to come to class ready to learn. Teachers and students can help create a climate conducive to the Holy Ghost by expressing love and gratitude for one another and for the Lord. When teachers and students love and respect the Lord, one another, and the word of God, learning is enhanced.
The acceptance and love that students feel from others can soften their hearts, reduce fear, and engender within them the desire and confidence necessary to share their experiences and feelings with their teacher and other class members.
You should strive to create a feeling of belonging in each of your students. To help foster this feeling you can:
Genuinely recognize that each student is needed and has a contribution to make.
Value a variety of backgrounds and circumstances.
Create experiences that allow students to draw strength from one another and from their shared desire to access the Savior’s peace, healing, and grace.
Help students see that they are part of the Savior’s cause.
Chad Webb, administrator of Seminaries & Institutes of Religion said:
Having high expectations will inspire students to act in faith, allowing them to experience the Lord’s promised blessings. Elder Neil L. Andersen taught that when we lead and teach without love and have low expectations, we encourage rebellion. High expectations without love fosters deviance. High love but low expectations creates a feeling of fraternity but little progression. However, high love and high expectations creates miracles. That is the type of love the Savior has and is the type of love we must have if we are to make a difference in the lives of our students.
It could be represented as this schema:
Elder D. Todd Christofferson said: “Our Heavenly Father is a God of high expectations.” He does not give up on us. He bears with us when we falter, hopes for us as we improve, and patiently endures as we grow. A teacher who loves her students also has high expectations and will care more about their eternal progress than about how today’s class went or how well she is liked by the students.
When I ask seminary and institute students how the love of their teacher has blessed them, their answers come quickly and are filled with gratitude. Here are just a few recent examples:
One young woman said, “I love walking into seminary and seeing my teacher happy and smiling. I do not even know how to put into words how much his love has done for me. A little while ago he gave me a compliment, and I walked out of the building trying not to cry, it made me so happy. That simple compliment meant so much to me. Every day I am excited to go to seminary. It is the highlight of my day. My teacher’s love for me has taught me to love everyone else as a son or daughter of God.”
To paraphrase another, “Our class today has really changed me. I got my courage up to ask a difficult question, and my teacher really listened and tried to understand where I was coming from. Then she took the time to address my question. What she said really opened my eyes to some things I had not considered before.”
And finally, a young man wrote, “I started off this semester with a bad attitude. I did not care for the gospel or myself, and I was so far from happy. I told my parents I wanted to drop seminary. And then I went to class. And my teacher knew my name even when I had not been there before. The spirit in our class set the tone for my entire day, and life got a little better. I changed my habits, started attending church more, read my scriptures, and started thinking. Because of his love for us and for the gospel, and the light of Christ I saw in him, I strived for that light and that love. I will graduate from seminary, serve a mission, and one day marry in the temple because my teacher invited the Spirit and taught with Him as His companion every day.”
(Annual broadcast for Seminaries and Institutes of Religion - June 2019)
Invitation to act
I invite you to help your students feel needed and loved, to give them experiences that will create a sense of belonging in them, and to lovingly guide your students through the criteria that will qualify them for the certificate of completion (but more importantly to grow closer to their Savior) and not give up if some of them are struggling.
To practice your skills on this subject, you can do the following exercises:
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