I recently read an interesting blog post about BYU football (I am kinda nuts about football, mostly college football, primarily BYU or Wyoming football [OK I confess, I also cheer for anyone playing the U of U]). But at least I immediately recognized the article as having an application for seminary teachers. The writer, Dick Harmon, sports columnist for the Deseret News, is a longtime friend of mine, from when we both lived in the same Orem, UT ward. We both had very young families, were very interested in sports (he professionally) and so we hit if off as friends. I later wrote a weekly college football prognostication column for the Provo Daily Herald where Dick was the sports editor. I used a home-written computer program to predict college football games and spent many Saturday nights in the Herald office watching the college football statistics come across the sports wire. I also did some stringing for the Herald, covering high school basketball games in Utah County. But I digress.
As I read Dick’s blog about BYU football coach Bronco Mendenhall and his use of memory techniques (found here http://deseretnews.com/blogs/monthly/1,5553,19,00.html?bD=20080809&sc=dmn),
I could not help but think how the same principles applied to teaching seminary.
Dick had noted behavioral scientist Paul Gustavson comment on Coach Mendenhall’s technique for impressing principles on the minds of his football players. He wrote;
“Dick,
Research indicates that the three strongest facilitators of long term memory are:
- Emotional experiences (e.g. running to the top of the Y and then Bronco talking about goals. Like the first year he said that the view from the top is different from the view from the bottom. Being in LaVell Edward stadium watching the last 12 home victories etc., many that you have written about)
- Music The use of music is powerful. Many of our children learn their alphabet by singing the ABC song. At Bronco’s fireside the team sings the Sons of Helaman song (I know that it goes by another name) the Haka is a war chant (type of song).
- A metaphor is the third strongest facilitator of long term memory. Christ taught in parables and all parables are metaphors. Bronco uses lots of metaphors such as being flag bearers and the flag with everyone’s signature on it.
I believe that this coin and its symbolism/metaphor is about being a flag bearers and who they represent. I believe that the coin was to be given at a significant emotional experience point (run up the mountain to begin camp. I don’t know if it was at the top of the “Y” or somewhere else that he told me that he was going to give this to the players. I think that they might be like dog tags that members of the services have signifying who they are and who they represent.
Hope this background helps. Bronco does the best job of any leader that I know leveraging these three facilitators of long term memory. “
So how can these three facilitators be applied in a seminary setting and will they be effective. Since it has been a couple of years since I taught seminary, here are my thoughts organized around what I should have done better then or what I might do better if the opportunity ever comes again.
- Spiritual experiences. Make sure students and teacher have daily spiritual experiences. Follow the spirit in preparing and leading your learning discussions. Share you r testimony frequently and personalize your students learning environment by using spiritual experiences from your own life or theirs. If you are in tune, spiritual experiences will happen; those will tend to stay with your students longer than anything else. Leverage them; get your students to record their thoughts and impressions in student journals.
- Music – use soothing prelude music to set a proper learning atmosphere. Sing hymns frequently, even if acapella, especially those that directly correlate to a scripture passage. Use music to teach and practice scripture mastery; if you get those verses into memory with music, they do not leave nearly so fast.
- Metaphors. Use object lessons to bind learning to specific memories in your students minds. As a fifty-something, I still remember object lessons learned in my first 9th grade seminary class. Yearly themes can be metaphors you reinforce with every lesson. Objects students take home become a visible library of learning and application.
So there you have it; football and seminary. I hope my observation makes some sense for you as you guide your young charges through their spiritual discovery of the New Testament.
