Lesson learned: Put on your good listening ears

As it has been for every teacher since the beginning of time, I have some students who listen and some who don't. I try my hardest to train everyone so they know that when I am talking, their voices need to be off and they need to have on their good listening ears. But still, there are always those who choose not to listen... they continue to talk to their friends, they get distracted by stuff in their desks, they just want to hurry and put the last finishing touches on their picture, or some are actually just completely oblivious to the fact that I am talking and so they don't even feel the need to listen.

We've been having a bit of a listening problem in our class the past couple of days. I got to the point where I really wanted to duct tape their mouths shut help them remember the reasons why it's important to listen. We had a little chat and came up with these reasons:

As I was looking at this web after school, I had the thought, "Am I a good listener?" And then I thought about the upcoming General Conference where we will have an opportunity to listen to the prophet of God, President Monson, and the other leaders of the Church. The first grade reasons for listening apply to listening to General Conference: we need to listen so we can know where to go, so we can hear divine instructions, so we know what to do, so we can learn new things, so we can be safe, so others can hear (feel the Spirit) around us, so we can know what the Teacher knows, so we can share with others what we have heard, so we don't get into trouble, so we don't miss an opportunity to do something good, and because we want to do things the right way.

So. Are we going to be good listeners? Are we going to give them our full attention? Or are we going to tune them out like Charlie Brown's teacher? Are we going to show up to learn? Or are we going to show up only to turn and talk to our neighbors, look at the carpet, play with stuff in our desks, and fail to really listen to the Teacher? Are we surprised when we don't listen and then are still confused in life and don't know what to do?

As a teacher, I know that my students are SO MUCH MORE SUCCESSFUL when they are completely listening to me. Yes, we can make it through life without really listening to Heavenly Father, just like my students can make it through a day without listening to me. But I know that life goes SO MUCH BETTER if we listen to the instructions Heavenly Father gives to us.

Heavenly Father is up in front of the classroom. He is teaching us what we need to know. He is telling us the questions that will be on the test and what the answers are. Are we listening?