Up until this year, I was often embarrassed and ashamed when I felt that God was having to reteach me some important lesson we had gone over before.
I thought it meant, at best, that I was a slow learner. At worst, that I was stiff-necked and hard-hearted. (Either one COULD be the case, but there could also be a more innocent explanation.)
This year, I changed my approach to teaching 8th grade English and my eyes were opened to an important truth.
My change? Instead of devoting an entire class period to some new concept - like "irony" - and then moving on to something else the next day, hoping the kids had mastered "irony" during those 45 minutes, I started "spiraling" my lessons more intentionally.
Spiraling means that I might introduce irony briefly during Week 2, then return and build on that introduction during Week 8, before adding further nuance in Week 14. By the end of the school year, spiraling proves to be much more effective than a "one-and-done" approach.
This is the way that I should have been teaching all along. It is effective because this is the way the human brain absorbs new information best.
Since God is the one who designed our brains, it is not surprising that he would teach us about himself, his world, other people, and ourselves by spiraling those lessons over the years.
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