13 June 2017
President Westover,
With the change happening in your branch presidency this Sunday, this may be a good time to privately or quietly visit with the senior adults attending your branch and helping them to understand their role.
In my opinion, senior adults have somewhat of a delicate balance to maintain in a YSA branch—be engaged yet not dominate, serve yet not take away service opportunities from the young branch members.
As we’ve visited your branch, we have noticed that there are some senior adults who, in their eagerness to “mentor” young people, have a tendency to dominate the discussion in gospel classes. It’s all well-intentioned, breaking the awkward silence for the teachers or wanting to share the depth of their gospel understanding, but it also denies the young people the opportunity to grow through participation in gospel discussions.
I’m taking the liberty of sharing below an email I felt I needed to send to all the senior adults attending the Mount Hood YSA Ward when I was bishop…when we struggled with the same problem of senior adults answering questions in the classroom too quickly and too often.
Please don’t forward this to others, but feel free to draw from it, if you feel of value, to help teach the senior adults in your branch to understand their proper role in a YSA unit. We leave it totally to your discretion if you choose to even address the matter quietly with the senior adults attending your branch.
I hope this is helpful,
President Lewis
19 February 2011
To: All "senior adults" who attend or visit the Mt Hood YSA Ward
Dear wonderful leaders, wives and visitors...
Thank you for being a part of our ward when you attend or visit. Your wisdom and experience are invaluable to our young members.
You may have noticed that we have some what of an "experiment" going on the Mt Hood YSA Ward. We are working hard to create an environment of love, acceptance, testimony-building, gospel-learning...an experience that will sink deep into these young members' hearts and sustain them through the coming years ultimately resulting in families of righteousness.
You've noticed in our temple experience that two of the Lord's most effective teaching tools are: (1) gospel learning under the influence of the Holy Ghost; and (2) participatory learning. Consequently, our greatest desire, as a bishopric, is to create an environment in the ward where the Spirit of the Lord is manifest in abundance and where every young person becomes involved in the gospel-learning process.
To that end...
...the bishopric (and other senior adults) seldom speak in sacrament meeting so every young member of the ward has an opportunity to speak and pray at least once a year;
...ALL ward callings, except for the bishop and his counselors, are filled by young single adults (we ask senior adults to accept shadow, advisory assignments only);
...we have at least 7 Sunday School classes, all taught by YSA who rotate in and out relatively often in hopes every member of the ward eventually has an opportunity to teach the gospel in a classroom setting;
...our Sunday School classes are purposely small so every member, arranged in a semi-circle, will be encouraged to become involved in the classroom discussion and have the opportunity to speak by the power of the Holy Ghost as they share feelings in the classroom.
Again, we are so grateful to have you wonderful senior adults attend with us. We especially appreciate it when you are slow to answer questions in the classroom. Silence in the classroom can be golden. It can help teachers learn how to ask better questions (feeling questions instead of knowledge questions) and/or learn to call on students by name to respond instead of asking for volunteers. Silence can help students begin to ponder and internalize the questions. It can help students seek for guidance on how the question applies to them and how they might respond.
So we appreciate very much when you do not dominate discussions or answer questions quickly so the teachers will not look to you for answers and the students will take "ownership" of the discussion.
As senior adults, there are a number of things we CAN DO in the classroom to help enhance the young people's participatory learning experience:
1. If the teacher does not validate each comment with a "thank you" or "that's great insight" then we encourage you to quietly, but clearly, give some type of audible or body-language appreciation or encouragement that the comment just shared was worthwhile and welcomed (nothing encourages future participation in a discussion more than validation from someone else that a comment was heard and appreciated);
2. When the teacher is struggling to engender student participation, we can ask feeling questions that will help open up a discussion in the classroom; it's appropriate to encourage the teacher NOT to answer your question but turn to the class for responses;
3. We can share our scriptures or manuals with those who may have forgotten to bring them to class;
4. If the class discussion begins to go sideways into the "mysteries," we can help bring the class discussion back to the manual by asking appropriate questions.
5. We can silently pray for a teacher who is struggling...or for a student who is not participating;
6. We can reference a scripture or two that may encourage the class to follow your lead and seek answers to the teacher's questions in the scriptures;
7. After the class we can shake everyone's hand, especially the teacher, and express our appreciation for their comments or lesson.
Thank you again for the wonderful contribution you make in our ward by accepting a shadow role, quietly blessing these marvelous young people through your examples of gospel love and example.
Gratefully,
Bishop Lewis
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