Meetinghouse libraries provide 'cherry on top' to a teacher's lesson
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The way a lesson is taught has a major impact upon how it is received, according to Elder Howard W. Hunter who, at the April 1971 general conference, spoke on effective teaching in his address.
"Merchants tell us that customers are influenced to make purchases by the way products are displayed or by the way they are packaged," he said. "The visual image often makes or loses the sale. A dish of ice cream is enjoyed by nearly everyone, but it is often improved by ribbons of chocolate cascading down the sides, a fluff of whipped cream around the base, a light sprinkling of chopped nuts, and a cherry on top. . . . The same principle applies to the teaching of lessons. Good visual aids and instructional materials increase the interest and assist in the learning processes.
"Meetinghouse libraries . . . add the chocolate and the nuts, and they put the cherry on top. The teaching may be excellent, but the materials from the library make it better. Abstract ideas may be difficult to understand, but when principles can be visually demonstrated to students, they comprehend more readily.
"A discussion of the travels of Paul through the old part of the world is interesting; yet names such as Cyprus, Galatia, Macedonia, Ephesus, or Thessalonica are often unlocated places in our minds. Picture a teacher with a group of enthusiastic students around a large colored map. As the story is being told, they place pins at the points in Paul's travels, then stretch different colored yarns from pin to pin to show his different missionary travels and his last journey to Rome. Now the lesson becomes fascinating. A picture is worth a thousand words. Advertisers know this, merch-ants know this, but no one knows it better than the teacher who is anxious about his or her students."
