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Prideful Students Make for Horrible Teachers

Below is a post I made to my fifth online class I am currently teaching. I felt it necessary because the thoughts have been building up within me. I know what it is like to have become a learner again. I try to keep this mentality in life: with my wife, my kids, my coworkers, my students, my fellow Jesus followers, and with those in the world. Remaining a life-long learner is so important, even critical.

I would love your response. Pick a point of contention and give me some feedback or even pushback. Either way, I want to learn from you.

>>>>>>>
This could be you. One of the things I remember in going back to school for my 2nd masters and then my doctorate is the feeling of angst in that first class. It took a couple sessions for me to remember that I was not a teacher but a student. I needed to come down from my being a teacher for many years and sit again with a humble mind and heart to learn from those who have given their lives to study and know what it is they are teaching. This might not be you ... yet. 

One of the things that is easy to miss, and I say easy because most of my students are guilty of doing this. I could be wrong, but what it seems like to me is that either they are not doing the reading and think it acceptable to just ramble their own thoughts on the topic "just to get the work done and turn it in" and then fight me for a good grade; OR they do the reading but 1) do not either know how to synthesize what they have read enough to engage their minds to learn and assimilate the truth into themselves and then once it has been actualized within, restate in their own words what they now believe (from their upgraded self & mind), or 2) they don't like what they read for whatever reason and still just give me what they want to. 

This is not called learning. 

There is minimal skill applied here. 

God is worthy of much more. 

We need to be growing from who we were into who God has predestined us to be = conformed into the image of His Son. 

God loves you and accepted you where you were, but he also loves you too much to leave you there. We will not grow unless we are challenged. Even a seed must sprout and use energy to lift the ground off its head to emerge onto the scene. My fear for my students is that they will not become good students and therefore know how to lead others in being good students either. 

The reading for ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION is one instance where the above has taken place with several of you. You have given me what you think it means. It does not mean Jesus. It does not mean sinless. It does not mean that someone has arrived at a position where they cannot sin nor be tempted to sin. If these are found in your definitions or posts or papers, it can only mean that the wrong ways of learning as a student above ... is you. 

Become a good student. I beg you, we need good leaders today who have paid the price to do the hard work of sitting still, thinking, and learning from THE teacher of all teachers, and through His servants the truth that has always been and always will be. For the sake of the next generation, I beg you, be a LIFELONG learner! ALways stay humble, never become a know-it-all, Lord over others sort of person. Stay real and relational and a lover of all people because you are a continual learner of Jesus. 

If the above is you, please stop. Stop trying to teach me and the others in your class and instead be a learner with us. Share what you are learning. I challenge you to take this time you are having now in this course to invest in being a humble learner. 
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