Breaking stuff in Primary

Today I shocked the heck out of the Junior Primary kids by taking a hammer to a dinner plate in the middle of Sharing time. It was so fun. It was an object lesson about repentance--I doubt most of them will remember the point of it, but it was still worth it.

I really love teaching in general, and teaching primary is my favorite calling. The gospel is really really fun to teach to kids partly because it is so massively complex but also so simple so it's easy to adjust the lesson to be age appropriate. But mostly it is fun to teach to kids because the gospel is crazy. It is so easy to shock kids, you don't even have to use object lessons, you just have to tell them the truth about what they believe and their mouths drop open.

As adults we are a little calloused to the irrationality of religion, but kids who haven't dealt much with it, are easily blown away. They can still see the similarities between fairy stories and a virgin conceiving. When we tell them that Lehi found a compass that only worked based on how faithful he was, their eyes are wide open waiting for the the dragon to come, or the princess or the next unbelievable fact. The scripture stories are as exciting as other stories to them, except rational, authoritative adults are insisting they are true AND the spirit is testifying of it too.

Another bonus of teaching kids is you can teach about the atonement and play charades at the same time (or break a dishware). And you have to move fast or you lose your audience. Most kids would rather be poking their eyes with sticks than sitting in primary so  they conciously or unconciously try to sabatoge you all the time. It's a constant balance between fun and entertainment and hard saving doctrine. So fascinating a game to play.

Mostly I like being a primary teacher in a class, but one of the benefits of only teaching sharing time is the adult camraderie you get. When a child makes an entirely inapproriate comment, it is quite satisfying to be able to look around the room, and meet eyes with the other surprised and shocked adults. IF you are a lone in the classroom with the kids when that happens, you don't have anyone there to help you secretly laugh at the child.

Anyway, I love primary. And breaking things.