School of The Rock

Can I be frank here? When I was a kid, I hated school and I hated Confirmation. I got good grades, but, honestly, I did not work to my fullest potential. I did just enough to "get by". I only did my homework when it was absolutely necessary to keep my grades up. If homework didn't have any effect on the grade I didn't do it. I know that I wasn't the only one. Most of my schoolmates couldn't stand school. In retrospect I think I know why-- what we were doing to get the grade didn't match our abilities and didn't seem to be a useful way to spend our time.

It was the same thing with Confirmation. I went to a Lutheran school, so my confirmation instruction was during school hours. Pastor would come into the classroom and would recite things that we had to write verbatim. He would pause briefly to explain things, but mostly the class consisted of pastor talking and students writing. We got tested on what we wrote, which means we had to study and remember what we wrote. At the end of the year we were publicly examined in front of the Board of Elders, which meant more memorization.

It's safe to assume, again in retrospect, that after all the memorization and testing was done we promptly forgot what we memorized. There's a difference between rote memorization of facts and figuring out how to put facts to good usage.

Now I'm the pastor. In 13 years of ministry I've noticed that kids still hate school and confirmation instruction. Just about every year I've tweaked and primped confirmation to make it as effective as I possibly could. But the results have been the same-- kids (and parents) who couldn't care less. I think that's why we lose teens after they've been confirmed. They see no value in the knowledge they obtained during their time in confirmation. None of the information was useful. That's not education. That's schooling, and there's a big difference. I believe it's time for a new paradigm.

Here's the big problem I see with traditional methods of confirmation instruction: the pastor is the center of attention. I've thought about what would happen if the students were the center of attention instead of the pastor. What if the students were given the opportunity to match their abilities and talents to concrete ways to grow in their faith? What if I abandoned this notion that teens get confirmed because of what they know and replace it with teens getting confirmed because of who they are? What if I let the students themselves decide what and how they will learn the Christian faith? What if I handed ownership of the class over to the students?

The best I can hope for is to somehow get into the quality worlds of these kids. To them, confirmation instruction is just another version of school, which they can't stand. They won't learn anything by me standing up in front of the room lecturing them. As the addage goes: "Tell me, and I'll forget. Show me, and I'll remember. Involve me, and I'll understand!" Understanding is what confirmation instruction should be all about, isn't it? They'll understand if they are invovled in all aspects of their learning.

So, here's what I'm proposing for Confirmation instruction: no more books, no more lectures, no more worksheets, no more tests, no more rote memorization, no more desks. In their place: total personal interaction by letting groups of kids design and implement their learning. I believe it will be amazing to watch what these kids will be capable of doing. My task would be to listen, to give feedback, to encourage, to guide, to play, to interact. Many people (read "adults") will not like this. We are so accustomed to the old coercive system of schooling that we are incapable of considering the possibility that there's another way. But I have a question for you adults reading this. Why do you think it's right to put your kids through the very thing that you hated as a kid? We hated school when we were in it, and yet as adults we are the biggest cheerleaders for it! I'm finding it harder to cheerlead for something I couldn't stand as a child.

If you want to see a great model of what I'm proposing to do, watch the movie School of Rock, staring Jack Black. Watch what Black's character does with a room full of students. He trusted their natural abilities to be the very best that they could be. He taught them how to rock and roll, not by standing around and talking about it, but by actually doing it! And the kids were completely involved in every aspect of their learning. I know it's only a movie, but it touched on something significant-- that people (including children) thrive in an atmosphere in which they are not forced to do things they have no interest in doing.