Teaching the gospel is a gift of the Spirit
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To be a good teacher, one must also be a willing learner, President Boyd K. Packer said in the Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting broadcast on Feb. 10.
President Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve, made the comment during remarks introducing a conversation with Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve. In that conversation, with Elder Perry posing questions to him, President Packer shared personal experiences that have taught him about teaching and learning.
"Elder (Harold B.) Lee and Elder (Marion G.) Romney were always teaching," he recalled, "and they would, in a sense, go out of their way to tell me something or teach me something. I think the reason they did it — I'm not sure they ever saw me in this position or calling — but I had one virtue: I wanted to learn, and I didn't resent it. And if you don't resent it, and if you want to learn, the Lord will keep teaching you, sometimes things you really didn't think you wanted to know."
President Packer said he learned early on that there is great value in listening to older people, recalling that in his earlier days in the Quorum of the Twelve, when walking with the Brethren, he would hang back to assist Elder LeGrand Richards, who did not walk as fast as the others. He said there was some self-interest in his action, because as they would walk, he would listen to Elder Richards teach him.
"One-on-one teaching is very powerful," President Packer remarked. "Generally, one-on-one teaching is what happens when you are corrected."
Drawing from Doctrine and Covenants 88:124, he mentioned another principle of teaching: retiring to one's bed early "and then reflecting in the morning, when your mind is clear. That's when the ideas come to teach."
Asked by Elder Perry about the importance of scriptures in teaching, President Packer responded that he has always relied on the scriptures as providing the best model of how to teach as well as the subject matter they contain, "which is the gospel, is the Lord and His teaching. That's why I don't like to go to the pulpit or stand in front of a class without my scriptures in hand."
"How do you make them come alive in your teaching?" Elder Perry asked.
"Stay at it," President Packer replied, recalling his own attempts to read the Book of Mormon in his youth but getting hung up on the Isaiah chapters, then resolving to read even them.
"So you have to be determined to read (the scriptures) and not just glean from them, but read them from beginning to end," he said.
President Packer affirmed that everyone can teach, pointing out that teaching the gospel is one of several gifts of the Spirit spoken of in the Book of Mormon. "I found out from the scriptures that you have to ask for it," he said.
"You have to live worthily, and you have to ask for help.... And then you have to keep the commandments and pray constantly, unceasingly for the ability and the inspiration to know what to do and when to do it. And the Lord won't fail you....
"You may be an older person who thinks that your ministry is finished, or a young person who is frightened about everything, or a mother who is so busy with the children, or a father who is preoccupied, but you can teach, and you can pray, and you can be guided. And you will do it. You'll be blessed of the Lord, I can promise you that."
Noting that Jesus, in His teaching, dealt with things that the people knew about and were familiar to His listeners, President Packer said, "If you use parables and stories and illustrations, it lives after they're out of class."
In the Church, everybody is a teacher — leaders, counselors, parents — President Packer declared, "Therefore, teaching is the center of all that we do."
Asked by Elder Perry how a teacher can get the Spirit into the classroom so that it will be a meaningful experience for learners, President Packer said, "First, they have to know that you love them, that you want to teach them, and then you have to communicate on their level."
He said preparation includes having the presentation loose enough to involve students, adding that the teacher should leave room for inspiration.
"Quite a bit of teaching that is done in the Church is done so rigidly, it's lecture. We don't respond to lectures too well in classrooms."
But teaching can be a two-way process, he explained, with the teacher posing questions designed to prompt comment from class members. "The minute you say, 'What do you think?' they have something to say. They can contribute; even the students that are the most backward will have something to say."
