Historical Events and Current Events as Lesson Illustrations

Historical events and current events make great illustrations for teachers to use in their lessons; the lesson is connected to existing memories

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Teaching With Historical And Current Events

(Published in Directory : Christian Ed. : Preaching)

Tying your lessons to current events and historical events allows you to take advantage of the teaching done by others; use what your students know from school, and from the news media, to link your lessons to already existing memories and ideas.

Jesus did this in Luke 13:1-5. When people came to him talking about terrible tragedies of their day, Jesus took the opportunity to teach a spiritual lesson. Now, whenever these events were spoken of, the listeners would remember Jesus' lesson.

In John 3:14-15, Jesus uses the story of Moses and the bronze serpent—a story Nicodemus would have easily recognized and remembered—to teach Nicodemus about Himself. Nicodemus would not have quickly forgotten that lesson.

In modern times, how do I communicate to my students the courage required for the early church to accept Paul, a man who had persecuted the church? "Imagine that you hear a knock on your door, and you find Osama bin Laden on your front porch. 'I have become a Christian,' he says. 'Would you introduce me to all your friends?'". Ah! What courage that would require! And it takes a modern day example to help get the point across.

In another lesson, I talked about the German "enigma" machine, a decoding device which they used to pass on secret messages. In the same way, the Bible is like a coded message, and the Holy Spirit—Who is the only one that knows the mind of God—interprets the Word of God to us.

By linking our lessons to ideas that students are already familiar with, our lessons are more likely to remain in their minds--and even when they seem to be forgotten, an article from the newspaper or a broadcast from the TV may have the unexpected effect of bringing a spiritual lesson to mind.

About the Author

Name: Douglas Twitchell

Website: http://www.jeorgethedodo.com/dougblog/

Bio: I am the designer, maintainer, and editor of this site (Articles For Educators).

I am a former educator in both elementary and secondary math and science. In addition to this site, I also built and maintain the following educational sites: The Problem Site, Tile Puzzler, and Quote Puzzler.

I'm also a ventriloquist, and you can find more about my puppets here: Jeorge The Dodo