of tutoring and teaching

A tutor who tutored the flute tried to tutor two tooters to toot. Said the two to the tutor, ‘it’s easier to toot than to tutor two tooters to toot’.

‘Aye, ‘tis indeed’, says this ‘Scottish’ tutor!

This past week marked the end of the teaching elements of this Candlemas Semester at the University of St Andrews. The students now have two weeks with no classes or tutorials or homework in which to prepare for their final exams.

I’m sure they will study hard that final weekend.

(The room at St Mary’s College in which I tutored this year.)

The end of the classroom and teaching elements also marks the end of my role as tutor for the Jesus and the Gospels class, in which I tutored two groups of thirteen students. Twenty-six students from incredibly diverse backgrounds and beliefs, most of whom do not share the Christian faith, all read and studied the four canonical Gospels over the last couple of months. A handful had read the texts at some point in their life, but the majority of them were new to the Bible. Some had a basic understanding of Christian doctrines and the person and work of Jesus, and some were under the impression that Jesus was equally as historically real as Aladdin. For some, Jesus was the Son of God, but not God himself; and for others, the Gospels have no more spiritual authority than the Harry Potter series.

There were some interesting tutorial sessions, to say the least.

I really did enjoy my students and the experience of tutoring for this class, but two important things were confirmed for me in so doing. The first is that I love to teach and want to teach, but I want to teach my students and my information on the basis of my syllabus. Trying to teach someone else’s students, students whom I only see for one hour a week, is actually very difficult. There are no opportunities to build rapport with them, to figure out what they do or don’t need to learn, to figure out their presuppositions, backgrounds, discriminations, etc. This year of tutoring here confirmed in me that I want to write my own syllabi and lesson plans, to organize the information in the way that I think is appropriate, to challenge my students to think in the ways I deem necessary. Tutoring is not teaching, and, though it is a good experience (and the only experience we can get here in British PhD programmes), I want to teach, and I want the whole package.

That package includes the second confirmation, namely that, while I care about the communication of information, my vocational goals do not align with those of the public university or non-Christian liberal arts school. My heart is in the Christian college where the focus is not on the increase of knowledge and debunking Christian ‘myths’, but the process of discipleship and character formation that comes with the increase in knowledge in a person who already has a personal faith commitment. Knowledge is good, and it is important; but ultimately it is not what the university years are all about, particularly for Christian students at Christian colleges. A student at a Christian College can graduate after four years of hard work and focus, but if that student walks across that stage having not been challenged in their person, then that college has failed them, their professors have failed them, and they have failed themselves. My heart is in discipleship and mentoring—teaching students about God in order that they might know God and love God more deeply, to the extent that their person and life are a reflection of that gained knowledge. I don’t want to teach at a public university, or even a non-Christian liberal arts university. I want to teach Christians—students who think they know the Bible, but who really only know a book of stories. I want to teach students who want to go into the pastorate, missions, youth ministry, or any other full-time ministry in which they will teach others about God. I want to teach students who want to make an impact on the world around them, whether in their vocation or in their general lives. I want to know that I’m impacting the declining and biblically illiterate Church in America via my students. That’s where my heart is at and that’s what I yearn to do… some day when I’m no longer the student.

Oh will that day ever come?