I taught math for forty-four years, and over that time I had many students come to my office for help.  One such student visit still sticks in my mind. The student said that he was having trouble in the course and needed some help.  I tried working some problems with him, and indeed there was little he was able to do. I asked if he found the examples in the text helpful, and he responded that he found the text hard to follow.  He had been attending class regularly, so I asked if he found his notes to be of any help. He then said that when he was in high school, he also ran into some difficulties, and someone (a teacher or learning consultant?) had told him that he was primarily a verbal learner.  He then said, “You draw a lot of diagrams on the board in class, and whenever you do, I CLOSE MY EYES.” I don’t think I reacted, because I was dumbfounded. He went on to say that he also tried to ignore the graphs in the text.  

I am certain that the student had not been advised to ignore all forms of information other than verbal.  I wonder whether if he had been told he was primarily a visual learner he would have come to class wearing earplugs?  We need to utilized all the ways we can learn and strengthen the ones at which we’re weakest. For example, one semester my strongest student was blind.  Since he couldn’t see the diagrams, he had his reader describe them to him. Over the years he had learned how words like “above, below, left of, parallel, increasing, concave” conveyed information.  He had gotten to be an excellent math student by learning to better utilize one of his weaknesses.

As Christians, we face similar issues in our discipleship journey; some of them even related to learning.  I have heard people say things like, “I can’t understand the Bible;” “I have trouble getting something out of church;” “I can’t sing any of the hymns;” “I feel bad that I sometimes have doubts;” or “I wish I knew the right way to pray.”  These comments are not surprising, for we all have spiritual weaknesses. Unlike my student, however, we should not give up on those pathways in our journey that seem difficult or maybe impossible. Instead we should be like my blind student and persist, using all the tools we have – Bible study, sermons, hymns, prayer, meditation, etc.  We should also, like him, rely on others, fellow Christians who can better see the way.  Finally, we should take heart in the unconditional love that God shows YOU and me.

Jim