Jesus: The Master Teacher

The Content Of Jesus' Teaching.
Below is an excerpt from Jesus The Teacher: Examining His Expertise in Education.  Jesus taught in many, many different ways.  Here is a list of observations about Jesus' teaching (I bolded and colored ones that I think particularly apply to children's ministry):

• The teaching situation is complex, though it may easily be resolved into its essential elements: teacher, student, lesson, aim of the teacher, method of teaching, and environment
• The conversation of Jesus with the women of Samaria is an object lesson in teaching in all these respects.
• Jesus began by winning attention through openers that centered students' interests; then he established some point of contact with his hearers on the physical or spiritual plane.
• As a teacher, he was not only a tactician with methods but also a strategist with objectives. His greatest objective was to share with people that sense of union with the Father that he enjoyed.
• Jesus based his teaching on the vital problems in the lives of his students.
• Though he was not a Greek, he was ready to converse in a profitable way as was Socrates, and he led a more public life, though shorter, than did Socrates.
• He asked and answered questions to stimulate self-expression, desiring conviction rather than persuasion on the part of his followers.  His questions are better than those of Socrates because they are mostly of a kind other than leading.
• He used discourse at many different times before many different groups on many different themes, but always in a more or less informal way.
• He told stories with a point, the parables, which his listeners did not always understand but which always made them think and led the spiritually minded to inquire into their meaning.
• He knew and used the Old Testament Scriptures, both for the needs of his own soul and as a common meeting ground with the religious minds of his day.
• He never let an occasion slip but utilized it as it arose to clarify thought and to guide life.
• The principle of true learning is recognized in his words: "He who has ears, let him hear," and all his parables present the less familiar in terms of the familiar. Even so, he was often misunderstood.
• He used the principle of contrast to make real the portrayal of truth, concrete examples to bring the abstract near, symbols to make, if possible, difficult meanings plain, and wonderful imagery to enhance to appeal to the imagination and so to lead people to conviction.
• He cared more for individuals than for crowds, though he would often minister to crowds, perhaps with a view to reaching individuals.
• He trained his disciples as witnesses of him, by personal association, individualizing instruction, and meeting the needs of each one.
• The work accomplished by Jesus and through others, under his tutelage, was based on high motivation because of the awakening spiritual and altruistic impulses rather than those of personal advancement.
• In a most interesting way, Jesus probed the depths of human nature and touched on most of the innate reactions of man, though some, like rivalry, he did not conspicuously appeal to, and some, like sex, he sublimated.
• All the methods of impression he used were but means to expression. Jesus was far more pragmatic than either idealistic or mystic.
• Jesus appreciated childhood and made its characteristics identical with those of membership in the kingdom.
• In a way not surprising but confirming our previous impressions, Jesus embodies those qualities of the teacher commonly set up as ideal.
• As we followed these discussions, we doubtless discovered repeatedly that the problems of teaching that we ourselves face are similar to those that Jesus faced and that the solutions he found will greatly assist us in our work.

Jesus is the master teacher. Have we made him ours?