The Most Boring Teacher In The World

Mrs Rose had the amazing ability to make anything completely and utterly BORING!

Ecclesiastes 4:1-16

Reference: v.13 Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning. (TNIV Bible)

Explore: The most boring day of the week in Year 9 was Wednesdays.  Even though this was 18 years ago (wow, way to make myself feel old!) I remember it well.  On a Wednesday our class would have a double period of English then a double of Social Studies.  It wasn’t that these subjects were necessarily difficult for me, but we had the same teacher for both classes… Mrs Rose.  Mrs Rose had the amazing ability to make anything completely and utterly BORING!  No matter what topics we were discussing, they all started with a dry lecture and ended with us writing copious amounts of words in our books.  I can remember one particularly boring Wednesday when I sat at the back of Mrs Rose’s class and rewrote her lesson plan in my head.  I thought, ‘If I were teaching this class, how would I make it interesting?’ I then proceeded to write out a whole lesson structure making the class interactive and interesting… and this was coming from a 14 year old!  It was a quick lesson for me in realising that not all adults are great at what they do.

Application: The writer of Ecclesiastes was also aware that being older does not always make you wiser.  There are certainly some benefits of age that assist wisdom, but you can just as easily have a wise youth and a foolish leader.  As we get older and older we still have to work towards wisdom.  If we are open to learning, and diligent with self-reflection, then we can continue to grow in wisdom and fulfilment.

Prayer: Lord, highlight the areas of our life that may be lacking in wisdom.  While the process may be gruelling, may we see the benefits in persevering. Amen.

What area do you need to grow in?

Ecclesiastes, teacher, wisdom