Who are the Kids You Teach?
By C.S. Bezas

Who are the kids you teach?

To teach well you need to understand well who it is that you teach. Otherwise, your lessons may not meet your students' true needs.

Remember those writing classes in college, when the professor would harp over and over again, "Who is your target audience?" For a writer, it is essential to keep the targeted audience in mind; otherwise the pertinent message might miss its mark. It is equally as important that we as seminary teachers keep our targeted "audience" in mind. This better ensures success as we deliver spiritual messages and lessons to our youth.

Really, how well do we understand our seminary kids in class, our "targeted audience"? When all is said and done, just who are these teens we teach?

Understand the General Makeup of Teenagers

Talk to any physician or researcher about the general makeup of teenagers. That specialist will quickly elaborate on the changes teens pass through — physical, emotional, hormonal.

Adolescence can be a confusing and eventful time for teens. Not only are they dealing with new and sudden eruptions of acne, but their raging hormones are beginning to influence emotional swings — of which the highs and lows may surprise even them!

Teens are discovering the world expects them to have opinions and strengths and abilities, but in their self-expression sometimes their own parents resist their attempts at new opinions. (Perhaps there are reasons for this, but that is a topic for another day).

Teens are learning that friends can be fickle in order to climb the "socially-approved-ladder-to-nowhere." Yet painfully they themselves are surprised how much they might want that same ladder.

No wonder Elder M. Russell Ballard said the following:

It is easy to assume we understand what it is like to be a teenager, having been one ourselves. But in truth, how long ago was that? How easy it can be to forget the specifics.

TIP: Let us read a book or two on the subject of the adolescent, so that we can re-immerse ourselves in that rocky time period of life. To know our audience can help us more effectively share the gospel with the teens we desire to serve. The more we understand the general makeup of teenagers, the better able we are to share the gospel in ways they can grasp.

Understand the Makeup of Today's Teenagers

It is not enough, though, to have a general sense of teenagers; we also need to understand and recognize what it is that teens face today, as opposed to yesterday's generations. Today's teenagers face temptations, trials, and challenges that in some respects may be more intense than any other generation has faced.

Indeed, the pressures that today's teens face are many and mighty. For example, when I was a teenager, I'm not sure I'd heard much of pornography. It definitely wasn't something available on TV. And there was no internet to worry about. Sure, I knew there were such things as Rated-X movies, but I wouldn't have known where to go see such a thing. There were magazines that had unseemly pictures in them, but again, access to those pictures was far more difficult to obtain than in today's world.

In today's world, one need only turn on television and flip through a few channels to land on programs with nudity. One need only surf the internet a bit to encounter salacious and harmful materials. And even cell phones and iPods today can carry filthy pictures sent between kids at school. Our teens are surrounded by this stuff!

To be surrounded by filthy materials and not participate in them requires strength of the utmost kind. As gospel teachers, whether inside or outside the home, not only do we need to understand the general makeup of what it means to be a teen, it is urgent we understand the daily battles and choices today's teens face — both inside and outside of their home.

TIP: Let us keep our hearts and minds open and alert to the conditions surrounding our teens. Visit websites such as http://www.cp80.com and http://www.amoreexcellenthope.org/ to keep abreast of conditions that potentially influence youth today. Be aware that the teens sitting in your class need more than just your simple lesson prep. They need a "bath" in the Spirit each time they come to seminary so that they have renewed strength to walk in faith the rest of the day.

Understand the Specific Makeup of Teenagers

It is one thing to understand generally what teenagers are all about — even for today's teens. But there are variations to every grouping in life. No two roses are alike, even if of the same kind. No two teenagers are alike. Put all of that uniqueness together in one room and you have one exciting adventure ahead of you as a teacher!

Thus, it is paramount that you take time each school year to get to know your students individually. If possible, attend periodic outside activities of your students, whether that be a football game, a choir performance, or a theatrical endeavor. Make sure to let the student(s) know you were there. Sometimes, you might be the only adult who showed at the event to care about and support that youth.

In building these kinds of relationships, you will begin to learn more about the specific makeup of your particular teens in your class. My husband's MTC president used to tell his missionaries, "Information makes for better inspiration." As information grows within your heart and mind about your particular grouping of students, your ability to be well-inspired on their behalf will equally grow.

TIP: The Lord works through us to bless the lives of those around us. Let us make sure we are taking just a few extra minutes each week to get to know one more youth in our class. We may be the only adult who is doing this. And the impact can be eternal.

Understand the Spiritual Makeup of Teenagers

Not only do we need to understand the spiritual makeup of teens, but our youth desperately need this knowledge. Our church leaders are working diligently to help our teens understand who they are — especially from a spiritual perspective. We can join in by following our leaders' examples — not just in what they say, but how they share it to today's teenagers in the church.

Elder Faust shared the following in the March 2001 edition of the New Era magazine. Notice how he begins with common ground, easily understood by a youth:

Notice that Elder Faust begins with topics teens can understand. This becomes a common point of reference upon which he soon builds.

Then Elder Faust continues, weaving in the deeper topic of spirituality.

After sharing several specific points, Elder Faust then closes his spiritual message for the teens with:

TIP: It oftentimes requires inspiration to understand teens' spiritual sides, because most teens are still unsure about things of the spirit and rarely show it. But Elder Faust's address did a beautiful job in building towards that topic by beginning with a subject teens understand and then weaving in the spiritual significance of that topic.

To do this well ourselves, we need to understand the teens we work with today, both generally and specifically. As we do this, we too will be able to weave the gospel we love into their lives. We will be able to do so in such finely crafted ways that our students will increasingly choose to become the welcome beneficiaries of such attention and treatment.

Summary

So who are the kids you teach? Whether in the home or in the classroom, to teach well you need to understand who it is that you teach. Much as a writer must consider his targeted audience, we as gospel teachers must take the time to get to know the individuals in our class. When we do this, we will better meet our youths' spiritual needs.

Therefore, as seminary teachers, not only do we need to understand the general makeup of teenagers (with all their emotional turmoil yet excitement for life), but we also need to understand the impact of today's society on our teens. When we do this, we can receive the inspiration we need to craft the spiritual messages they need to receive. Finally, it is imperative that we seek to recognize and understand their newly budding sense of spirituality.

All of this information will lead to greater inspiration. The result will be finely crafted gospel messages and lessons to meet the needs of our beloved teens throughout the year. And they will go through this life strengthened because of it.

To this day, I still remember certain lessons my seminary teacher taught me more than twenty years ago. The reason I remember them is because they applied so well to my specific life at that time. That was a seminary teacher who took the time to understand just who it was that he taught.

When we take the time to understand just who it is that we teach — both generally and specifically — we will better meet the needs of our dear students. And the impact may very well be an eternal one.