learning

For almost 29 years we made assumptions about the chalkboard in the Relief Society room of the Grandview Ward building. There were a couple of remodels in that time, but I can't remember being aware of any specific changes to the chalkboard. Teachers would often use it as a bulletin board, taping up posters and pictures, puzzle pieces, and word strips. I watched teachers use pre-rolled masking tape and various other techniques to simplify and speed the process. Often the items would fall down and be re-attached multiple times.

In recent years we have wished for a whiteboard. When the bulletin board detached itself from the wall during a recent Sunday School lesson, we were hoping it would happen, but the next Sunday, the old green chalkboard was back in its place.

While I was in Cranberry, Pennsylvania this summer I spent three Sundays at the Cranberry ward. Imagine my surprise when I saw a teacher using magnets on the green chalkboard in the Relief Society room. It looked just like the Grandview chalkboard that no one had ever tried using magnets on. "Was it possible that our own chalkboard was magnetic."

Three days after I arrived home, I had a Sunday School lesson on "learning". By the time I finished my preparations, I had four posters to put up on the chalkboard. I regularly use the side bulletin board to pin up the name of the lesson and the lesson topic for the following week. But I wanted these posters to be right in the middle and I wanted to put them up during the class time. I had my push pins and blue tacky putty, but just in case, I had put a half dozen magnets in my bag. As we came in, I put them to the test. It worked. And I had a new introduction to my lesson.

I told the assembled men and women, that our lesson was about learning, and that I had learned something in Pennsylvania while I was gone. "Our chalkboard is magnetic." And with that I turned around and used one magnet to place my first poster in the center of the chalkboard. The women gasped. I let them chatter for a minute. I heard a Relief Society teacher on the back row say, "That changes everything." The men weren't all that impressed. One even claimed to have known it all along.

Sometimes we think we know things. We assume that something is true without ever testing the hypothesis. We watch what others do and assume they are doing things the best and easiest way. What easy, all ready present solutions do we ignore, because we haven't tried to see if they were possible.