Page 68 - Youth Discipleship Student Textbook

5. Kill the Tics!!!

Teachers may develop what educators call “tics.” Normally a tic (not tick as pictured to
the right) is something the teacher does or says that distracts from the lesson. I used to
twirl my buttons on my shirt while teaching. One day a button came loose, flew through
the air and hit a student on the top of his head. I stopped and said, “How did that
happen?” The class universally told me that throughout the lesson I twirled my buttons
every week and it was somewhat distracting. I had no idea I was doing that.

Another tic is saying “umm” between sentences or using the same word over and over again. In
California in the US, a certain type of talk was born called “valley talk.” A person that talks that way may
sound something like this:

“I, like, went to the store, like, yesterday. I was, like, looking for some hot dog buns. Can you, like,
believe it? Like, they sell 10 hot dog buns in a wrapper. Like, when you, like, buy hot dogs, they, like,
come in a package of 8. Like, what am I supposed to do with, like, two extra buns?”

Notice the use the word, “like” repeatedly. It literally drives me nuts to hear people talk that way. And
they don’t even notice it!

A pastor can do this in prayers. Our youth pastor used to say God’s name in every sentence. His prayers
went something like this….

“God, we love you, God. And Jehovah, we know you love us too, Jehovah. So, God Almighty, we, dear
God, love you because, Jesus, you first loved us, Almighty God. And Jehovah God, we also know, God,
that you take care of us, God, every day. In the name of almighty Jehovah God, we thank you for that,
God and on and on….” These are called “prayer tics!”

Pretty soon I started counting the number of times he would say God’s name in a prayer. I remember
once, in a 3-minute prayer, he said His name about 86 times. Doesn’t he think God knows who he is
praying to? Can you imagine if he were talking to you and said your name 86 times in three minutes?
You would think the guy was crazy!

We must be observant of any tics we may have in our presentation. What may we be doing or saying
that is taking away from the Holy Spirit’s presentation of His Word to the students?

Another way to get some input from your class is to make a few personal contacts throughout the week
and pointedly ask some questions about the class. Select another group of people from the class the
next week, and so on. Pretty soon, you will have lots of ideas that they will share with you that will give
you opportunity to improve your teaching.

A great teacher evaluates his presentations and looks for ways to get better and better every week.

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