"Teachable TV?"

            Children are always asking questions. Sometimes they do it because they want their way. They ask, “Can I…?” and when we say, “No,” they ask, “Why not?” Sometimes we actually have an answer: “Because that much candy will make you sick and throw up” or “Because worms make lousy pets.” Sometimes we don’t have an answer and so we settle for “Because I said so” or the traditional appeal to parental authority (which makes perfect sense to parents but doesn’t work very well with kids).

            But children also ask questions because they want to learn. If you’ve ever tried to teach your kids anything, you know that doing so can be hit or miss. Sometimes they’ll be totally fascinated, and sometimes they’ll hardly pay attention. But when a child asks a question, he/she is in a teachable moment and really wants to know something new.

            So how do you get them to ask questions? How do you create those teachable moments? Of course part of the answer is to say that you can’t. The whole point is that the child must be the one who is interested. The other part of the answer is to expose children to activities and experiences that will make them ask questions. Play games, go on hikes, take vacations—things you’ve heard about before. There is, however, one teaching tool you may have missed.

Joshua's Teaching Moment

            Take a look at this passage from Joshua:

And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’” (Josh 4:20-22)

After the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry ground, Joshua set up an altar which had one purpose: to create a visual opportunity for the teaching of children. When dads came walking by that place with their sons they probably wouldn’t even have to point and start explaining. Instead the boys would enter the teachable moment with a question: “Father, what are those rocks piled there for?” And then Dad could teach his boy about the time in years past, before either of them was born, when the entire nation of Israel entered the Promised Land on dry ground.

            Teachable moments occur with visual stimulation. Joshua knew this, and he knew that future generations would only remember what had happened to the people of God at the Jordan by being told about it. You have moments like this all the time with your children every time you sit in front of the television.

When Questions Drive You Crazy

            It really takes off around age 10, and from about 10 to 14 your kids drive you crazy with it. I’m talking about that time in their lives when they start constantly asking questions as you’re watching television or a DVD together. They can’t shut up and you can’t watch the show. It’s a constant bombardment of questions: “Why did he do that?” “What does that word mean?” “I don’t understand what’s happening.” And you want to just scream at your kids to shut up and let you watch the show! But you know you can’t do that.

            I’m speaking from personal experience, of course. I can still remember the day when it hit me over the head like a brick that my son’s questions were exactly like the question Jewish children would ask upon seeing the altar by the Jordan River. He was in a teachable moment. He had just raised a question about something he’s never been taught in school—something that may never even appear in the curriculum—and suddenly I had a chance to stop what I was doing and teach him something he both really wanted to know and might never learn in any other context. Once I realized that truth, I started treating my children very differently.

            In the case of a movie on DVD I made use of the pause button. I stopped thinking about my own enjoyment only and started teaching my kids all kinds of wonderful things. In the case of a television show I would either answer if I could do so briefly or tell my kids to wait till the commercial for the answer (and I’d be sure to write down the question right then so I’d remember to answer). My children have learned things about politics, medicine, history, geography, and the Bible from asking questions in front of the television—things they may have never wanted to learn in any other context. But it has only worked because I have made the decision to stop being annoyed, stop what I’m doing, and start answering their questions.

            I have discovered a major teaching tool, one that hearkens back to a model laid in stone in the days of Joshua. And all I have to do to make this tool work is take the time to answer questions from little ones who, in that moment, really want to know.