Of Note:  This Week’s Collection of Reader Commentary
Edited and compiled by Kathy Green

Keeping the Faith

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Consecration in Marriage:  Chapter Six of the First Principles of Marriage, by H. Wallace Goddard

Could you please pass on to Brother Goddard my feelings of indebtedness?  He has repeatedly addressed my deepest concerns, and has kept me in the faith.  His insights and words have soothed my screaming, aching heart every single time I needed it, just at the time I needed it.  I will be eternally grateful for his help.

Name Withheld

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Doctrinal Dialog

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Lesson 39, “How Beautiful Upon the Mountains” Isaiah 50-53 by Breck England

I just wanted to thank you for your article on lesson 39.  I am the Gospel Doctrine teacher in our ward and I always read the article that goes with my lesson that week.  I always find them helpful with information that goes deeper into the scriptures.  This lesson was different from the others.  I found it to be beautifully written and decided to try something I had never tried before.  I presented your lesson as a readers’ theatre and we read it as you wrote it.  I divided the lesson among seven people and we sat in chairs in front of the class.  I read the main dialog with someone else reading Mosiah, Isaiah, and all the other scriptures.  I even had someone read the Talmadge part. I closed it with my own testimony.  I cut out the information by Margaret Barker because I felt I would need to explain a little about her and that would have interrupted the flow of the reading.

Everyone in the class was in tears.  The following Relief Society class kept referring back to it.  Even today I have had three phone calls telling me how much they enjoyed that lesson.  I always get a few "nice lesson" comments from people but never has any lesson had the impact that this one did.  There must have been about 30 people in the class and almost every one of them has thank me for that beautiful lesson.  The thanks, of course, goes to you.  It was your words and knowledge that made it possible. 

Alicia McBride
Fredericksburg, Virginia

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Sorry to hear that Brother Allred can’t continue his gospel doctrine lesson commentaries. Please pass on to him my personal appreciation for the contribution he has made and for his many testimonies over the past few years. I have found his writings inspirational and helpful as I have taught the adult gospel doctrine class in my ward.

Alan H Brown
Dundee Scotland

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Safety with a Smile

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Safety First by Susan Law Corpany

Thanks, Sister Corpany, I love A Beacon Light!  You really know how to drive home a point with humor.

Melissa Cox
Mesa, Arizona

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A Lesson to be Learned

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Why Do We Still Get Homework?  By Orson Scott Card

I loved the articles about homework and how useful it really is. I am in the last phase of starting my second career as an elementary school teacher — student teaching in a second grade class. I've saved the articles for future use and will be reading the two books you reference.

The kids in my class already exhibit the symptoms of too much homework — as do my own children, who come home from 4th, 6th and 12th grade with hours of homework to look forward to (and complain about). When I recently was testing some of my students in reading, one of the questions was, “When do you read?" So far, the answer has always been "At night, because I don't want to waste my daylight or play time with my friends." Or the Xbox. It made me sad to think that these kids only think of reading as “work.” Not one of them reads on their own for fun.

One thing I have noticed as to why the younger grades are given homework is that there is not time enough in the school day to cover the basic subjects any more. We have so many “specials” during the week —assemblies, different classroom programs that our principal wants us to do, or special programs for parents that we need to practice for that there is very little time during the day for the "3 R's," let alone science or social studies.

And with 4-6 kids leaving the classroom for special ed. instruction, ESL, or therapy all at different times, it's really difficult to find a regular time to teach the basics as well. Without at least a bit of homework, we'd never know how these kids are really doing in reading comprehension or math facts. I know that homework is not good, but at least we know they are getting in some practice (if their parents aren't doing it for them, as you mention in the article).

However, I totally agree with the ideas in your article. I don't know if I'll be able to “fight city hall” if I get a job in a school where homework is required, but I will do what I can. I've already thought that as a teacher, my ideas of homework would be more along the lines of “go home and help your mother make dinner” or “play a game with your siblings" and then have the kids talk about it during show and tell or write about it during Language Arts, rather than a bunch of fill-in-the-blanks worksheets.

I hope that the books you cited have suggestions for teachers as well as parents. My goal as a teacher is to teach students what they need to know to move onto the next level, but more importantly to teach them to love learning. If I can do that, I won't have to assign homework. They'll use their afternoons and evenings to learn what they want to know about. And they'll continue learning throughout their entire lives, not just during their school years.

GH
Carlstadt, New Jersey