The Deacon's Bench - November, 2010

I love to teach. There are several reasons for that. First, when you have to explain something, you have to come to know it well yourself. Doing the work to get a good grasp on something’s inner logic is fun. It’s also a thrill to see people make the connections that turn what you’re teaching into something that’s their own.

The third reason’s the most important to me, though. You see, I’ve always loved my students and wanted them to have life to the full. To love, to teach and to learn is to enter deeply into the meaning of life, it seems to me. Let me tell you about teaching statistics, and you can see if you agree.

At the beginning of each semester I explained that everyone was starting off with an ‘A’. If they did what was required, they’d keep that ‘A’ and if they didn’t - well, it was very simply theirs to lose. Their choice. Some believed me. Some didn’t. Like God’s promise to us of love and an eternal life of joy, it was true whether they believed it or not.

I encouraged them all to stop by, e-mail or call if they got stuck on any of the material. Some did. Most didn’t. I wondered whether my own relationship with God and my prayer life in times of difficulty were like that, too. I can’t speak for anyone else, but sadly I think at various times in my life it was.

Each student had to do a project in which they were to use any data that interested them, and apply what they learned in the course. It didn’t matter to me whether the analysis was fancy or simple. All I wanted to see was that they’d learned something about statistics.

At some level our life’s a project about learning to love and to be loved. A life doesn’t have to be fancy, long or short. I told my students that they could send me drafts of their project as they went along, and I’d help them and challenge them with different ways to look at their chosen data. Several students took me up on this. Most didn’t. I was amazed that so few took me up on the offer. Maybe God’s amazed that some of us don’t go to Him for help either.

On the take-home midterm and final, I gave them 250 questions. They could answer all 250, I told them, but I stopped counting after I’d found 100 correct ones. With 2 ½ times as many questions as they needed to keep their ‘A,’ it was beyond fair. But although some students answered more than 100 questions, most didn’t. They just did the minimum. I thought about all the times in my life that I’d done just the minimum, too.

One day I was chatting about this with my friend Joe, who also teaches statistics. He shook his head and wondered aloud: “How much easier can we make it, Tim? Don’t they see they’re only hurting themselves?” What is it about us that prevents us at times from taking God up on His offer of love and acting in our own best interests? We didn’t come up with an answer. Maybe you can.

Deacon Tim’s Emergency Recipe #37H – Brussels Sprouts
1 can mushroom soup (surprise)
Brussels sprouts (surprise)
Pinch Herbs de Provence (this stuff’s like mushroom soup – it hides your mistakes and makes things taste good no matter what. Just don’t use too much. That turns out to be a mistake nothing can hide.)
Beef broth

Braise veggie in broth. You can eat it now if you want. If not, throw in the H de P and cook some more. You can eat it now, too, if you want. If not, throw in the mushroom soup and cook some more. If you don’t want to eat it now, I’m out of ideas – go do whatever you want with it.