Sometimes you just don't recognize a blessing. My inability to understand math has always felt like a ball-and-chain of monumental proportion that I have drug around all my life. But at 56 years old, I was finally tested for a learning disability. Diagnosed as such, gave me the tremendous opportunity to take Learning Disabled Math 42 class and what a joy it has been to finally see my mind slowly unlock the concepts that have seemingly ever eluded me. That in and of itself is a great blessing but the classroom has also brought spiritual insights that I would like to share here.
To me the class feels like a microcosm of earthlife for a number of reasons. To begin with, each person in there has a common condition; we all struggle with math. However, the reasons for the disabilities are as varied as you could imagine--blindness, damage from a brain tumor, memory problems, ADHD, austism, processing disorders and the list goes on.
Each person who comes to earth also has a common condition...our" human-ness" and each of us has our own set of "disabilities." We might struggle with physical things like overeating, a word of wisdom problem, an addiction, etc. We might struggle to have faith in Christ, or pray, or believe in the words of the prophet.
But our teachers know from their years of teaching experience that we can overcome our math problems even though its seems next to impossible to us. They are always positive and encouraging. When you make an error, they never belittle you or make you feel stupid in front of your peers. They say "You've made an error in your calculation. Let's see where you made that mistake." They watch you till you find it on your own and then praise your effort. They encourage us constantly to come to them for outside help.They accommodate certain needs such as magnifying machine for the blind lady.
Spiritually speaking, the God knows that we can overcome the world thru Christ even though it seems so impossible to us. God loves us and the scriptures attest to the fact that he has his arm extended to us which shows his ongoing love and encouragement. When we make a mistake, he does not belittle us or make us feel stupid in front of our peers. He corrects us privately as needed and watches over us. God constantly pleads for us "to come unto to Him" for extra help.Though we are all human and need to learn, God teaches us on a very personal level accommodating life's lessons in a way that we can understand.
The feeling in the class is one of unusual unity because truly, no one is any better than another. There isn't a feeling of competiveness in there and we are all genuinely happy when someone is successful at mastering a new concept. We all work hard to learn and we all have opportunities to help someone else who hasn't yet mastered a concept we understand. Ideally, families and ward families do the same as they are hopefully unified by love and seek to help and support each other.
I wish that every class could be run like this. It makes for such a pleasant learning environment to work at your own pace, to be required to learn a concept before moving on and to help one another. It really does help you learn the concept better if you have to explain it to someone. Not everyone will make it to pre-algebra next semester, but everyone will see improvement. And isn't that what earthlife is all about? Improving and coming to know Christ?
Some students require a notetaker because they aren't able to take their own lecture notes for one reason or another. The notetaker is by their side in every class. Put simply, they would not be successful in school without a notetaker.
In a spiritual realm, we all require a "notetaker." We aren't able to be successful in earthlife without Jesus Christ at our side at all times. We might think we can do it without him but we are mistaken if we think that we can redeem ourselves. We need his grace.
This is why I feel so blessed by taking this class. It helps me to see others more as Christ does; imperfect individuals trying to do their best with their particular set of challenges. It helps me see "a better, more gentle way" to parent. It helps me to better understand how the Lord corrects my path and teaches me. It helps me better recognize why I can't do math or anything without my Savior. And, oh, yeah, along with all of that, I'm actually learning math!
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