Pride is a Sin...
Many of you know that I am teaching Early-Morning Seminary this year. I have the Freshmen class and we are studying the Old Testament. Combine all these factors, (crack of dawn...pre-adolescent, Isaiah), and you have the workings of...well, Chaos.
Keep this in mind as I tell a tale of wonderment and pride!
So this evening we had our End of Year Scripture Mastery Night where all of the classes in the stake get together and we have a fun contest to see which of the classes best retained their knowledge and understanding of the 25 Scripture Mastery Scriptures. It is a big event hailed by all members of the Stake, most especially the parents.
We brought together the Seasoned Seniors, the Well-Versed Juniors. There are two classes of Sophomores, each preambulating around the room with boisterous confidence. As special guests, we had the combined classes of the San Juan Building, and finally, we had my riotous Freshmen.
The battle lines were drawn...the contest commenced. It was a grueling struggle. Tears were shed...confidence was shattered...entire teams opined expressions of grief and juxtapostioned joy. But in the end, the points were tallied and each of the classes was able to see how they performed.
When all the chips had fallen, the Freshmen class had turned in a respectable amount of points taking the third place position.
But wait...the points were given on the performance of individual students and then collectively gathered as a team. This meant that those classes with more students, had significantly more potential to earn points than those classes where only a few participants had arrived. So algorithms were sequestered, calculators pounded, and as our Stake Presidency representative asked for silence in the gymnasium, he read off the final stats to a hushed audience:
For the first time in recorded history, (at least as long as anyone could remember), the FRESHMEN Class gave a resounding wallop to all other challenging classes...every one of which had experienced veterans of the Scripture Mastery Night. The Freshmen Class took First Place overall.
I know it is a church event...I know pride is a sin...however, I can't help feeling just the slightest little twinge of swelling in my heart to know that my students actually pulled off the victory.
I think a tear might be shed in honor of this moment.
10 comments:
Great Job to them! I suppose a little pride in something like this won't effect their eternal progression too much.
I havemy suspicians that their fabulous teacher had something to do w/it...
LOL-I just realized that makes me sound like I think you cheated or something. I just mean that I'm sure you're a great teacher and helped fuel their excitement for seminary:) Congrats!
That is REALLY awesome!!! A great teacher definitely goes a long way in motivating their students!! Way to go! Are you teaching next year?!
Congratulations! I think that pride in some situations is ok. I would feel proud of them too. That is Awesome!!!
Well done! That is no small feat; you definitely deserve those well-earned feelings of accomplishment.
I believe we helped them achieve this goal, with our little visit that morning during our spring break. Overall I still believe you helped them more than we did. Tell them we're so proud of them!
Way to go!! I am sure this was all due to your fine teaching. I think they deserve an award, like say some apple pie ;)
What did you bribe them with? J/K I can't believe you teach seminary. You must have patience.
Anyways congrats, indulge yourself and take all the credit!
I will say it! I'm a sinner! I'm so proud of you! It takes a saint to deal with freshman. Yay!
you know, whilst reading your blog post, i thought of a scripture that i always shared in seminary, because it's the only one i knew by heart. now i know a lot, don't get me wrong, but i wasn't the best memorizer. it's 2nd nephi 26:4-6. it reminds of that simpson's episode where homer and bart are watching, "when building fall down" or something like that. and they give each other high fives.
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