大象传媒

A Teacher's Devotional

Knowing

There is a big difference between doing something and explaining something to someone. That’s especially true when the person that you are teaching asks, “Why?”

Last year, I took over an introductory statistics class for the social sciences when a colleague retired. I’ve been a working statistician for years. I know how to do statistical analysis.

But, apparently, there are a few gaps in my understanding that only become visible when I try to explain why things work. I know the questions are coming, and so I test myself frequently in preparation for class. But I had no idea the gaps existed until I had to for students encountering these ideas, one small step at a time.

In my Psychology of AI class, we’ve been talking about 1 Corinthians, and Paul’s emphasis on being known. We’re raising questions about how important it is for all entities in a close relationship to have the capacity to know and be known. This week, my experience preparing for some core lessons in statistics and reading students’ responses in Psychology of AI has made me think a lot about the limits of knowing.

Before Paul gets to his poetic discourse on love in chapter 13, he briefly foreshadows it in 1 Corinthians 8:1, when he notes that, in a contentious religious debate, “knowledge puffs up while love builds up.” He continues, “Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.”

Paul isn’t an anti-intellectual. But he is also acutely aware of the limits of his own knowledge. In 1 Cor. 13:12, he famously says, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

Some manuscripts render 1 Cor. 8:3 as “But whoever loves God is known by God.” Other early manuscripts say, “But whoever loves truly knows.” In either case, love does the work that knowledge alone cannot do.

In chapter 8, Paul is concerned that people can be factually correct in a religious debate and still harm others by exercising their knowledge without love. Likewise, it is not sufficient for a teacher to know things if they cannot engage their students in beginning to know as well. It is love that sustains teachers' commitment to continue learning, to consider how each lesson will be received, and to communicate how they are being shaped by the lessons as well.

This is a season of challenging lessons. Our students have moved past introductory material and have the vocabulary to ask “Why?” questions that challenge us. Love helps us prepare intentionally to tackle those questions with our students. It gives us the courage to be honest about the limits of our knowledge and to model how to respond when we encounter those limits. And, most importantly, love reminds us that the purpose of correcting our students' work is not simply to identify what they don't know, but to help them grow in understanding.

Read and Recall: 1 Cor. 8:1b

Sing or Listen: More Love to Thee SDA Hymnal #458

Pray: “Lord, help me use what I know to build up those I teach.”