Tyler's Report #6

This was my first Sunday coming back from Spring Break. I drove all night in order to get home by Sunday. I really was excited to get back into the swing of things in the group. I showed up and there were only a few students there at the time. One of which was a student that I think works well with me. He and I have similar interests and we have similar humor. I kind of talked to him about his week and how I went to Florida. We talked about movies and different stuff related to culture. As we continued talking, I thought about the idea of me and this kid being good enough friends to hang out. But then they idea that I was supposed to be the leader came in. If I was to hang out with him, what would that say to the other students? Would the wall of “leader” be broken down and there would be no more respect? Does there have to be that wall? It just got me thinking.

Along the same lines, something happened during the lesson that got me thinking. It was a student teacher this weekend and he had some generic lesson out of some generic book. It was a good lesson, but he kind of lacked attention getting ideas. So, as a result of that, the students didn’t pay attention. I have to admit, I was guilty of the same thing. I was talking during the lesson and getting students to laugh. I was my own pet peve. But I had in the back of my mind this idea of, “If I get the students to like me, they will respect me”. But what happens when I go up to teach? Won’t they just demonstrate the same behavior I was demonstrating whenever someone else was up there? I don’t know, but we’ll see. Anyway, the teacher asked us a question, “How much do you want to learn?” He was frustrated no one was paying attention, so he asked that. And he had a good point. If we came to Sunday school, then we came to learn. But the question is, “how much?” It’s useless to show up to Sunday school and not learn anything. All you did was get up early for nothing. So, he really did convict me into asking myself that question.

Questions

1) How do we draw the line between friend and leader? Is there a line? Should there be line?

2) How do we get the students to respect us as a leader, and yet love us as a friend?