Of Life and Times

The new semester has started and I have two classes to teach at the university. Everyone in the department says my classes are the most fun to teach. The class (two sections of the same class) is about becoming acculturated to this campus and to living in America. Most of the students are freshmen, and everyone of them from a foreign country.

As I introduced myself and the curriculum to the students, I could see them visibly relaxing in their seats. Wry smiles crossed many faces, and some beamed outright. This is the least academic class they will ever take at the university. We talk about the services at the university, the clubs, the resources for study, the American culture, Hawaiian culture, even all the other cultures on campus. With more than 65 countries represented in a student body of only 3,000, everyone has to be culturally savvy to some degree.

I went into class somewhat nervous, since I only found out I was teaching the class the day before I needed to teach it. But walking out of class, both yesterday and today has reminded me why I love teaching. I am addicted to learning. I am far less concerned about the field of study than I am about how much I can learn about it. Here is a room full of bright minds who, in the next few years, will be transformed by the power of education. They will be learning to look at life a new way. They will learn how to question assumptions of society and those they were raised with and be able to evaluate their usefulness in their lives so that when they keep a pattern of thought or behavior it is much more likely that they kept it because they could see the benefit to them and to those around them, not just because it was what they were raised with.

Teaching opens up the bottomless well of knowledge to all who would come and drink. You can go as deep as you like and there will always be more. This is the very thing I love about teaching the gospel as well. It does not matter what the subject matter, the gospel of Christ covers it in some way or another. The gospel teaches us that all things are intricately related. All subjects meet and touch other subjects, have relationships with even more subjects, and  can benefit all if used wisely. Small wonder the Lord has told us to learn all we can. When we hear the phrase, "His course is one eternal round," it is talking about more than God's behavior, it is also talking about His knowledge. All things can be related to many other things so that when seen together you see it as one great whole body of knowledge, where any change anywhere in that body affects everything else in one way or another, even if it is only distantly.

I love teaching. This is going to be a good semester. There is so much for me to teach them, and there is just as much that they can teach me.